Now tonight, we're going to just read a verse or two in the Gospel of Luke chapter 10. A very familiar passage at the end of Luke 10. It caught my eye just before I left tonight to come to prayer meeting, and I thought, well, we'll take that before the Lord and trust the Lord will use it to encourage us to pray. Reading from verse 38 of Luke chapter 10, Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving. and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her, therefore, that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. Amen. The Lord will add his blessing to the reading of his word for his own name's sake. You have heard me say many times that the outstanding fact about Mary is in the New Testament is that every time you find her, she is at the feet of Christ. That is a great testament. And Jesus calls her being there that good part. A good part. Now, we tend, I think we're very foolish here, but we tend to come over sort of superciliously snotty about Martha. You know, as if Martha were some inferior being. was the epitome of a good hostess. She was a great lover of the Lord. And when the Lord came, and obviously others with Him in the house, Martha set about serving. And Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. Now, I have to be honest. If I'd been in Martha's position, I'd have probably not said a word to the Lord. I'd have given Mary a kick in a certain part of her anatomy as I would have advised her to get up and come on here. And I think you would have done the same. You may not have kicked because you're maybe not Irish. But you know what I mean. That's what you would do. It appears here that Mary's probably the younger sister. It's Martha received him into her house, not Mary into hers. So it appears she's the older sister. She's carrying the burden. And it's a necessary burden. It's a good thing she's doing. And she comes to the Lord. And He gently rebukes her. The problem with Martha's service was that service became a burden to her. It wasn't just that she was burdened spiritually and heart to serve the Lord. This is a text that's usually misquoted. I've heard it quoted so often that she was cumbered about with much serving. But it's not. She was cumbered. And what was cumbering her? What was she worried about? It was having so much to do. And When your service for the Lord becomes cumbersome to you, becomes an overwhelming burden to you, you begin to get things all out of perspective. And she came to the Lord, and I think this is probably why the Lord rebuked her very gently, but it was a rebuke nonetheless, as he did. She didn't say, Lord, Could we spare Mary for 10 minutes to get this done and then we can all sit down? She didn't say, do you want me to postpone this so that we can all have this colloquy now and then Mary and I can look after these things that I'm doing? She came and obviously she's frustrated and she's more than a little petulant here. Lord, do you not care? In other words, She was not directly turning her criticism on Mary. Well, it was there, but that was only indirect. First line of criticism was the Lord. You can see what she's doing. Nobody can see it better. And you can see what I'm doing. Now, she's not pulling her weight. And yet, somehow, it doesn't seem to matter to you. Now, when you put it in that stark language, you realize just how far off base Martha had become. Because there's no way this woman actually felt that way. As I say, Martha is a good woman. in the Gospel of John when she's criticized for unbelief. I'm always amazed at the preachers who preach about Martha in John 11 and they find fault with her lack of faith, her unbelief. I have to say that when I read that, I am amazed at the extent of her knowledge and at the depth of her faith. And I would have to say that the people who criticize her wouldn't have measured up to her ankle bone in spiritual stature. So I'm not a Martha basher. Actually, I'm a great admirer of this lady in Scripture. And I'm saying that what came tumbling out of her mouth here really wasn't a reflection of the real heart of Martha. Martha loved the Lord. Martha believed in the Lord. Martha could confess Him as Christ, her Lord, her Master. She knew that he had power, that with one word, if he just spoke the word, the dead would be raised. That's big faith, you know. It's easy to say that when you're feeling super spiritual in some religious convention, when there's not a dead body within a man of you. But when your brother's lying in the grave, and you say, I know that even now, If you pray, if you say, he'd be raised. That's big time faith. That's a great woman. But she's cumbered. She's burdened. She's worn down. And the actual burden of the work of God got too much for her. Now, we've got to stand back. And by the way, I hadn't intended saying anything about this tonight. This is not really where I wanted to go. This is why prayer meetings are an adventure for me. Because when I stand up, I have no idea, usually, very often what I'm going to read. I like to ask the Lord, direct my attention, and then I take it. I wish I could do it on Sunday morning. It would be nice to be able to go through the week without all hours of preparation, but somehow it doesn't work there. But here, this is something I hadn't intended going into. But we need to stand back here and just look at this. If you're in God's work, it imposes heavy burdens. Whatever you're trying to do for God imposes heavy, heavy burdens. Now that's true of me as a preacher. But I'm not here to cry, poor me, because it's not particularly true of me because I'm a preacher. It may not even be as true of me as it is of some of you. As you're serving the Lord, whether it's in the pulpit, or in the pew, whether it's in church, or whether it's a mother with her children, or a father with his children, or a worker out there seeking to be a witness for Christ. When you're seeking to do anything for God, it can be a burden. You know that every time you go into the prayer closet. I'm sure you've heard the news item that the lunatics in Washington State have an atheist sign up beside the Christmas display saying there's no God, there's no devil, there's no angels, there's no heaven, there's no hell. All this sort of stuff. I shouldn't have mentioned that because that'll Get us way off base now, because they are lunatics. Absolute and terrible lunatics. Tells you where the country's going. But as I say, I better not go down that road. Why did I even mention that? Do you know Mark? Shows you. That's a preacher too. Doesn't know why I mentioned it. Well, that makes two of us. I don't know where I was going to go with that. But my point is this. Let me get back to the point and leave the atheists to themselves. The burden of God's work comes down upon you and suddenly, like this woman, it's just too much. You get into the prayer closet. That's when you know there's a devil. Doesn't matter what they say in that placard out there. When you get down to pray, you're going to know there's a devil. When you get alone with God and you seek to do real business for God, you know you're in a spiritual battleground. When you are on your knees and you are intent on doing business with God, you are going to know that there are forces that are arrayed against you. I always tell people, when they come with long-term problems with insomnia, pray. Because the devil will make sure you fall asleep. Forget about counting sheep when you're in bed. Pray. And if you don't sleep well, you'll pray. But the devil will certainly want to put you to sleep rather than have you pray. When you come to the prayer meeting, what's the hardest thing for many people to do? Stay awake. That's the hardest thing. And it's not because they've all suddenly become carnal. It is because that's where the devil attacks. What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? Peter? who a little while later had the energy to take out a sword and was ready to go to war, had not the energy to pray for a single hour. And there's a truth that hits us. It doesn't matter what you're trying to do for the Lord, whether it's in the lonely place of prayer, whether it's in the public place of service, whether it's in the pulpit or whether it's in the home, whatever you're trying to do for the Lord, you will find it imposes Huge burdens. Huge burdens. And if you don't treat those burdens right, they can become overwhelming and crushing. We had a minister many years ago in Northern Ireland. He was just a student minister. By just, I don't mean that he was an inferior species or anything like that. I mean that he was still inexperienced. He was an older man coming in as a student. He was in his thirties when he came in the hall, for he was in years more mature, but in experience he wasn't. Very intense man, very godly, very upright, very, very committed to what he was doing, so that he would give every moment that he could. Being a mature student, but having been out of school for a long time, and all that, he found that the course was demanding. It took him longer to do things than it would a 20 or 21-year-old. It took him longer to do things. In those days, we put student ministers in charge of churches, smaller churches. It had the effect of giving the church a continuing ministry. At the same time, it had the effect of giving the student hands-on experience. He didn't leave seminary with his head stuffed full of wee white mice. and other stuff, and not an ounce of genuine experience. He went out better equipped all around. Don't do that anymore, that way anymore because of a whole lot of things, but it was a good system. But it put immense burdens. And this poor fellow, he was so burdened. He was working around the clock seven days a week. All the Sabbath day was given to the church services. All of Saturday was from morning to the wee hours of the next morning an intensive study for the Sabbath day. All of the week was in study for his seminary classes, or in study for his prayer meeting, or visiting, or hospital visiting, or whatever. The burden just became too great. It almost ruined his ministry. We had a wise presbytery, thankfully. And the presbytery called him in and they said to him, here's what we're commanding. This is not advice. This is a requirement. And we mandated significant blocks of time off. Every week. And at times when he thought, no, impossible, I could not take that, you're taking that time off. And if we hear that you're disobeying, then you will be under burden and you will be in trouble. This is an order. And when it comes to summer, this is a block of time, a prolonged block of time. You're going to be away from the church. You're going to be away from the ministry and you will not be preaching for anybody else during that time. Saved the man's ministry. Got him out from under the burden. And he became, he's now retired, he became one of the best soul winning preachers we had in the Presbyterian Church. The work of God can impose great burdens. So what do you do about it? What do you do about it? Well, let me suggest to you that Mary wasn't as bad or as careless as Martha thought. I don't think that Mary was really insensitive to the needs that Martha felt. I think she felt, however, that they weren't top priority, that they could wait for a while, and there was something that had to take precedence. In other words, if I could somehow mesh these two women together, I think you would see that here's a way for us to deal with the burdens of the work of God that otherwise would crush us. Here's a way to deal with it. Mary first sat at the feet of Jesus. And the Lord Jesus said it was needful. Now that tells you everything. It's needful. It's needful for Mary. It's needful for Martha. You see, this is the gentleness of the rebuke of the Savior. The Savior did not answer Martha in kind. He didn't talk to her the way she had talked to him. He recognized that. I think this is a beautiful touch of the Lord Jesus here. He did not upbraid her for her petulance or for her tone or for her words. He knew her better than she knew herself. He knew the heart behind the words. He knew. He understood. And I think that's a beautiful thing in Psalm 103. When the psalmist says, He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. Many a time I take comfort in that. The Lord knows. The Lord knows my weakness. The Lord knows my folly. The Lord knows all these things. When my words are wrong, He knows the heart. He understands. I've quoted to you before the beautiful little saying of E. W. Bollinger on that 103rd Psalm when he's comparing the verse that I've just quoted with the Lord forgetting our trespasses, forgetting our sins, putting them away as far as the east is from the west. He says, so then, God forgets what we remember, namely our sins. How the devil loves to come reminding us of our failures, our faults, and our sins. He forgets what we remember. And he remembers what we forget. We're only dust. He remembers that we are dust. He gave Martha a pass, as it were. He looked beyond her words. He saw her heart. He understood her. But yet he did rebuke her. He said, Martha, there's one thing needful. It's not the coffee. It's not for us all to sit down and have a meal. However pleasant and useful that may be, it's not It's necessary at this time. There's one thing needful. You're missing it. That's something I have to live with every day. I remember I've said this to you before. It sounded so crazy to me as a young Christian. Because the easiest place in the world to backslide is the mission field. Because you can get so burdened with the ministry and with the work, that you forget the one thing that's needful. I think churches should learn that. Are programs essential? Yes, we need youth programs, children's programs, all those things, they have their place. But when you get a church that's run ragged with everybody running in every direction and everybody overburdened with everything under the sun, I'll tell you, every single time, the very first thing to go by the board is a genuine church prayer meeting. That's always the first thing to go by the board. I have heard preachers who are too busy To study. Think of that. Too busy to study. Too busy to get alone with God. Too busy to open the Bible. Too busy to get on their knees. Too busy to spend time. Too busy to sit at Jesus' feet. Now let's understand this. If I'm too busy to meet with God day by day, I am too busy. That's it. This is needful. And it's a good thing. It's a good thing. It will do you good to sit at Jesus' feet. Now, I have to quit pretty soon. Because this is now only when I'm getting to the thing that I really had thought of when I thought of this passage. How to cope sitting at the feet of Christ is a place of fellowship, a place of devotion, a place of submission. That's sitting at Jesus' feet. There are three parts to that. And you find them in the three great references to Mary. First here, she's sitting at Jesus' feet for instruction. She heard his word. She was there sitting at his feet for instruction. She was waiting on the Lord. To enlighten her mind, she was listening to the words that came from His lips. She was applying them to her own heart. She was sitting at Jesus' feet to take the time to learn of Him, from Him. Now, there's a place for learning from preachers and teachers. God has appointed preachers and teachers in the church. That's a divine office. I didn't create it. No church created it. It's a divine office. And God has appointed preachers and teachers in the church for the very reason that He equips men to instruct and guide and help His people. As shepherds feed a flock, that's what the preacher is supposed to do. But you know, have you ever looked at a healthy flock of sheep? The shepherd isn't always bringing a bucket up to them and holding it under their nose He said, eat. He will bring them to a pasture and you know what the sheep are going to do? They're going to start walking about and they're going to start eating for themselves. And that's the way it ought to be with the sheep of God's pasture. There is a place for the shepherd to teach and to supply food. And a whole lot of other things. But the sheep And let's bring it down now back to the human element, the human picture rather than the four-legged one. They come for themselves. In other words, I hope and trust and pray that when we meet on the Sabbath and I preach God's Word that God brings you to the feet of Christ. That's certainly my aim. My prayer, my desire. But if that's all that happens, you're missing a whole lot. Because there comes the time when you've got, like Mary, to choose that better part and sit for instruction and learn of Him. Now, I could talk a whole lot more on that that I'm not going to do tonight. Simply say it takes time. It takes time. It takes a hearing ear. It takes an open heart. It takes a submitted will. Lord, speak to me. Now, be careful. When I say speak to me, we're not talking about audible voices. We're not talking about private revelations. But ask the Lord that he will make you understand his word. Use the means that he's made available to you to understand his word. But most of all, when you're in the Bible, when you're in the Bible, seek to learn about Christ himself. That's the big thing. Seek to learn of him, and not just to learn about him, but to be filled in your heart with him and himself, his work, his person. Learn of him. So you sit at his feet for instruction. Now, in John 11, you find Mary again at the feet of Jesus. This time it's for consolation. Her brother has died. She's broken hearted. She has friends there. They either do their best to understand, but, you know, with the best will in the world, they can't really understand. They're there to say all the right things, and I'm sure they meant them. But at the end of the day, Lazarus is still in his grave, and her heart's still like lead. So, when Jesus comes, she falls at His feet. That's the place of consolation. You know, the Lord has a word for your heart. The whole 66 books of this Bible form the Word of God. All God's Word. And it's all true. And I firmly believe that when we're going through dark passages or even bright passages of life, there are particular times for particular words. When the Lord will come and take a word and apply it to your heart, and you speak to your soul, and it will be a word in season. This is what makes the Bible unique. It's a living book. It's a living word from the living God. You come and you sit at Jesus' feet. Or you fall at Jesus' feet. Now, when Mary was at Jesus' feet in John 11, her heart was heavy. Her words, again, were not a good reflection of her heart. They were false finding words. They amounted to what Martha's words amounted to. Lord, why were you not there when I needed you? I'm not sure they would have come down to it. Why were you not there when I needed you? It doesn't make any sense to me. You could have been here. We sent word to you asking you to come here and you didn't come. And he's dead. She didn't know what Jesus knew. The Lord knew all about it. The Lord didn't come when she said to come. And He didn't come for very good reason. He said to His disciples, I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there. In other words, I have bigger purposes here. And that's always hard for us to understand. I've been saved for many years. Oh, I hate to think of it in 2010, this time two years from now. Well, September 2010 will mark my 50th anniversary. in full-time service. And here I am only 45. Einstein's theory of relativity can't be made to prove anything. Times come backwards for me. But I still find this hard to learn. The Lord has bigger things in mind than I can see at any particular time. And I need to come as Mary and get my consolation. Not that I understand him. The Lord didn't explain to her. Didn't explain at all. Hopefully it became clear in the aftermath of all that happened. But the reality was Mary just fell at his feet. Her heart got healed. Her heart got healed. You find her at his feet again in John 12. And in John 12, that's where, again, verse 2, Martha served. And Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. So that's how you know again, you have Mary at the feet of Jesus and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. And here she is now at the feet of Jesus in total consecration. There's my ointment. There it is. There's my beauty. There's my dignity. Wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair. I don't think that mere man really understand the depth of the commitment and the confession of total love for Christ that that action expressed. Paul said that the woman's hair is her glory, which by the way is why she covers it in worship of God. No flesh should glory in His presence. Men remove their head covering in places or in the presence of authority. They remove it as a sign of their submission to that authority. God says you do it, as ladies, the other way around. But men and women, men without head covering, women with it, are saying the same thing. In this place, He has all the glory. In this place, He has all the authority. Here Mary takes her glory. She uses it. to wipe the feet of the Savior. Total commitment to Christ. Now I would suggest to you that sitting at the feet of Jesus, it's not an either or situation. Do I sit at the feet of Jesus like Mary or do I serve like Martha? I don't think it's either or. For Martha it was and she didn't seem to learn too quickly. because she's still serving. This time we're not told she's cumbered, but she's still serving. She can't get the balance right. Let's put them together. Let's sit and then serve. And sit and then serve. And you'll find then as you're serving, in a certain sense, you'll still be sitting, you'll still be in communion. sit at the feet of Jesus. We come tonight for instruction, we come for consolation, and we come in consecration. That's why we're here. So let us come tonight. This is a place of prayer. Prayer is preeminently a place and an exercise of supplicating, but prayer is more than supplication. Prayer is worship. Prayer is waiting. Prayer is sitting. at Jesus' feet. So however you've come to the meeting tonight, if you're Martha and you're cumbered and burdened and broken with the weight of serving God because you're doing your best to serve the Lord and it's just crushing you, well then come. Jesus said to his disciples when they were feeling that, come ye apart. Rest away. Come to the feet of Jesus. Let him instruct And as He instructs, let us indeed find our consolation, our hope, recharge our batteries, as it were, and then let us truly give ourselves entirely to Him. And of course, you do not need me to emphasize the beauty of the statement that when Mary broke the spikenard over the feet of the Savior, and she used her hair to spread it, The house was filled with its odor. The sweetness and the beauty of Mary's devotion touched everybody. All you ladies, well not all of you, but I'm sure most of you, maybe nowadays even some of you men. Abominable thought, but it's true. You like a little bit of perfume. I know exactly which perfume to buy my wife. Do you know what one to buy your wife, Brad? You do? Man, you're hand-packed. I know which one not to buy her. She knows not to buy me any. I am not fond of perfume men. Oh dear, we better not go there. We better not go there. But anyway, I have nothing against you wearing a dab of perfume. Let me appeal to you though, especially if it's these floral perfumes, don't wash your face in this stuff because it gives me a headache and makes me sick. But don't bath in it, you know. It's just a dub. It's a scent. That's a it's a suggestion. It's uh, you know, oh Krista you give him a lecture in this Sometime nope. She's not an expert. She says yes But let me tell you something here's the best perfume You can't buy it in a bottle You can't pay for it your devotion at the feet of Jesus. There's an influence there. It's going to permeate. And even people who will say, I don't want that, I don't like that, they will not be able to get away from it. You know, that's what we're needing in our homes. The sweet perfume of genuine devotion to Christ. Husbands, that your wives and children can get the smell of your devotion to Christ. Wives, that your husbands and your children can smell it. My mom or my wife has been with Christ. Oh, that's what we need. That's what we need. And that's what we need in the church. churches and so easily become battlefields. You look at us. What a bunch we are. I mean, I'm the only perfect one among you. And I can't even stick myself. You know, by the way, in case anybody's a super literalist, that was a joke. You look at us. I mean, you can't even get on with yourself. How can I get on with you? That's just the way we are. We have so many things that would pull us apart. And if you want to find fault with me, go ahead. I can find more fault than you'll ever know. But what good does it do you? Wouldn't it be better that we were all concentrating on just being at the Savior's feet and letting the sweet aroma of our total dedication to him Fill the house. Fill the house. That every man and woman that comes into this place will know there's a people here who are in dead earnest about the things of God. This is not religious playtime. This is where they are genuinely And the Lord do it for us. We urgently need it. Oh, that the house may be filled with the aroma of our fellowship with Christ.