and we're gonna go over to Luke chapter 10. that Lego piece that you might have been looking for to complete the set. I've talked on Wednesday night about the word of the year, which we said is diligence. And I told you how this is not a prophetic word of the year. I'm not saying it has to be your word of the year, but that's something that I did in 2021 and in 2022. And then Remy was born at the end of 22, and that just really changed our whole perspective on things. And we forgot to set one for 2023 and didn't set one last year. So here we are, 2025, getting back on it. But I like to set a word of the year, not to kind of confine myself to it, but look for an opportunity to work on that word. And we talked about the word being diligence and how important that word is in the scripture. And I gave you 10 different thoughts to think about going into the new year about that word diligence. And I wanted to address this part, this message we're going to talk about, serving versus seeking, because I think this is really an important lesson for us to learn. A lot of times when you study your Bible or you hear a popular preacher teach from the Scriptures, they kind of set up a villain in each one of their sermons. Whether that villain is our flesh, or that villain is someone in the Scripture who is sinful and then gets addressed by Jesus or by doctrine, or someone in the Old Testament who was sinful, there's always this setup of a villain. And I think that that might be a good analysis. You can look for some type of villain in a passage, so to speak. Like, what is the example of what I'm not supposed to do here, and how does that contrast with what I am supposed to do? I don't think that's a good thing to do all the time. If the passage shows you something to avoid, then you need to ascribe that trait to it, because that's what the passage says. But in what we're going to look at here, we're going to start in verse 38 of Luke chapter 10. And this is the Martha and Mary contrast. We are not looking at a villain and a hero here. We're looking at two people that have two different focuses, all on the same person, but we're seeing how one made a good choice, the other one made a better choice. How many of you have taken college-level courses before? Raise your hand. Okay, I'll speak from my own experience. You may be able to back me up on this. There's a huge difference with college level examinations and high school examinations, right? High school is basically, you got four answers. Three are wrong, one is right. when you get to the college level, if you even get multiple choice tests, which is almost like, that's nice. Most of the time in college, it's explain, right? The professor will be like, blah, blah, blah, this principle is set, explain. And you have this many lines to fill, which really demonstrates if you know what the passage is communicating. But if you're blessed to get a multiple choice opportunity in a collegiate environment, you really have four answers. You've got two that are, One is clearly wrong. The other one is not completely right. There's enough in there to say it's wrong. Then you have those last two. One could be right. And if there was no other options, that one would be fine. But then, there's that one answer that is the best. And a good professor will be able to teach their students how to discern good from best. And I think as Jesus demonstrates here with these two women, we see that teaching, good versus best. Serving is a great thing. As a matter of fact, I full-heartedly believe you will not grow in your Christian life without serving others. And I take that hard line stance because Jesus told the disciples to do it, to serve one another, to serve those in their community. And the apostles did that as soon as the Holy Spirit came down and there was this really this upside-down event where the world is going, these guys are fishermen, they're from an uneducated region, this is a trade region that they're from, how in the world are they speaking in these languages that are so clearly not theirs? Which also tells you a little bit about what tongues actually is as a gift. And not only did they use that to preach and teach the good news of Jesus Christ, they also used their spiritual gifts to minister Peter was ministering at the gate which is called beautiful. And when that lame man was healed, and the lame man went to give worship and praise to Peter and the other apostles, what did Peter say? You stand up, we're the same. There's another place in scripture, as a side note, where that happens. And every time I think of it, I'm amazed by it. It's in the book of Revelation. If you remember in chapter 19 of Revelation, when John is getting the vision of the marriage supper of the Lamb. He goes to give praise and worship to the angel that is communicating these things. And just like Peter told those men that were worshiping him to stand up, that angel told John, the spirit of prophecy is Jesus Christ, not me, I'm simply a messenger. Isn't it so amazing to see that an angel said that? I mean, what happens when an angel appears in Scripture? Hardly ever does this happen. You have to come right now? I'm in the middle of something. Or, hey man, I was expecting you. It's good to see you. What usually happens? Nothing, because there's a lot of, and what does the angel have to say? Fear not. I wonder if they ever get tired of that. All right, I'm gonna appear here, and I don't want to scare him, and it's like, oh, there, scared again. Fear not, it's okay, you know. And if you look at a biblical description of angels, this is actually something that I think you could look up on YouTube and it'd be quite interesting. These animators, these artists have taken descriptions of what angels look like in the scriptures. And it is quite terrifying. Some of these, you know, cherubim and all that kind of stuff. Not the very standard churchy thing of like little babies with their rear ends exposed, I don't know why. With little angels on clouds, you know, like everything's good. But it's interesting to see that John was told by that angel, we serve Jesus Christ. The apostles were ministering to others at that event at the gate called Beautiful. When they were jailed for speaking about Christ, when they were clearly told to not speak about him, they respected the authority of the council, but then went out and did what the Lord said they were ought to do. And right before they were actually beaten for what they did, Gamaliel said, we better make sure that this is not from God, because you got this example here, and you got this example here. If this is from God, you're not going to be able to stop it. And here we are 2,000 years later, haven't stopped it. The Lord Jesus Christ is still being talked about, and people are still trusting in Christ as their Savior. The apostles served. They were people of service. They did not just kind of wait for things to happen. They were able to take what they had learned and then apply it. They also sought after the truth. And I think you see this the best with John. I think some could say, yeah, Paul, right? Because Paul wrote the most. But I think Paul had a lot of things revealed to him. And he went out and he was basically like, he was the foghorn on the ship. Listen, watch out, you need to do this, you need to avoid that, all that kind of stuff, all in love. But I think really, when you read 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, You see the heart, I think, of somebody who is dealing with people day in and day out. I love how John calls other believers, my little children. It's a very affectionate thing. Now, we don't do that today. I don't call you that because it's not culturally acceptable. We don't necessarily use that terminology anymore. But in John's time, it was a term of endearment. And certainly, he looked at himself as kind of like the elder statesman. He was the one who was with Jesus. That's the first thing he says in 1 John. I saw him, we laid hands on him, we heard him, we saw him with our own eyes. And I think the reason why he focused on own eyes, these eyes in his head, because there was a lot of Gnostic stuff going around, these visions and all this kind of stuff. He was saying no, we actually saw him. He wasn't a phantom, he didn't disappear, reappear, all that kind of stuff. He was there. When you read John's letters, he is someone who sought after the truth. He was the only apostle who survived his martyrdom and died of old age. I don't know if it was, I don't think you could say it was a comfortable death. They tried to burn him alive in a vat of oil according to the historical record that we have. But I see both aspects of Martha and Mary in the Apostles. And the point of the message tonight is not serving versus seeking, what's better? What do you focus on this year? I think the, no, I know the focus of tonight is we need to have a complete understanding of both of these things as they're used in Scripture. I just want to talk to you personally now. One of the things that has amazed me, as I've continually learned from the Word of God, is how hard things are when I am not content. When I am constantly thinking, there's one more thing, there's three more things that need to happen in my Christian life, and then I'll be able to kind of just be good with everything. I've learned the significance of Philippians chapter four, that whether we are a base, which means you don't have much, or whether you abound, which means you got a lot, we need to be content. Paul understood, the writer there, understood both these things. So did Jesus. Think about where he came from. Philippians, that same book in chapter 2 says that Jesus did not think it robbery to be called equal with God. We don't use that word robbery as it's used in the Scripture there, but it means to grasp. Think of somebody grasping something from your possession, so you can see how robbery would be an acceptable term. We just don't use it in that way. But Jesus was not thinking, I'm going to grab after God's glory as if He's trying to pull a fast one. He is God. Yet he humbled himself. I can't imagine, and I'll never understand it, even in my completed form when I'm with the Lord, absent from this wretched body, this sinful nature, I'll never be able to understand what it was like for Christ to do what he did. Laying that aside, and he did it all as an example. He did it all as an example. And it's a lesson that I've learned. You can't just kind of pull your spiritual life into this one mode and think it's gonna be good there. You gotta be willing to do anything. You've gotta be willing to do anything for the Lord. And I'm not talking about this desperate, like, I'll do anything, please. I'm talking about completely at peace. Lord, whether you use me here or you use me there, it's all good. It's fine. I just wanna do what you want. Here's what that does. That takes all the requirements out. I don't know how many of you have looked for jobs that are not entry-level, but most of the time you go into these jobs, there's all types of requirements. Can I tell you a funny story? There's a place over here off of Sly. It used to be called One Touch Direct, and I had just got laid off from my job as a after-school teacher at the Jewish Community Center. That was a wild part of my life. Be more than happy to share that with you, how that all happened. Maybe we'll go out to eat and talk about that story, because it was crazy. Crazy, but I got laid off and I found myself applying for what I thought was a T-Mobile customer service representative job. I am so sure now I walked into the wrong interview. And I got the job for the wrong job. But I walked into that interview and they're like, do you have this? Do you have that? I'm thinking, I got me. And whatever experience that I thought I needed to have this job. And then the dreaded, I still don't know how I got this job, and this is why I was fired three months later. The guy looked at me, and I had only seen the question he's about to ask me, I had only seen it in movies. He literally pulled a pen out of his shirt pocket and said, sell me this pen. And I said, I can't do that. You already own it. You gave it to me. You sell me the pen, and then I'll try to sell it back to you. That's yours. I remember looking at him and just being like, I think I'm in the wrong place, and we talked and stuff, and I don't know, guys, I got the job, don't know how. It was for Columbia House DVD. Does anybody remember Columbia House DVD? They probably called you at dinner time, that was me. You wanna know how I got fired from that job? I'll tell you how I got fired from that job. Called a family that's in the middle of dinner, and they said, why would I buy this movie from you for $29.99? when I can go down to Walmart in the bargain bin and get it for a dollar. And I said, I don't know why you would. In fact, that's probably better. Well, the call was being monitored, and my manager, as soon as I hung up, we're all in cubicles, I see him like, Martinez. And I go, this timing's great. I'm not paying attention. He's like, hey, you're not meeting your numbers. I gotta send you home early every day. I'm like, yeah, coach, you're telling me all the things that I know. What's new? Tell me what's up. And he basically says, we're going to have to let you go. We'll let you go, and we'll give you two weeks. And I said, coach. I didn't say coach. Whatever his name was. I said, you can let me go now. I'm out. The only job that I ever quit, but no one was going, oh no, don't quit. I think it was like, oh, okay, see ya. It was probably best for me and my family, and best for them for sure. But there are all sorts of requirements that I was supposed to have in that job that I just didn't meet, and it wasn't a good fit. And I was there for three months, and folks, I worked, I tried my hardest, I wasn't good at it. It was just not something that I was cut out to do. And I think a lot of times, in the Christian life, we can kind of go into it like it's a job interview. I'm always concerned when people come to me and say, here's my gifts, this is how you can use me. That's a red flag to me. I'll tell you why that's a red flag, because that's probably how they view God. God, I'll be used in this way, this way, this way, but I'm not qualified for this, and this is not my field, so I'm not going to do that. I can't tell you how many times I've heard pastors and teachers talk about how the very thing they're called to do now was something they never wanted to do. As a matter of fact, when somebody tells me I'll do anything but this, I almost just want to be like, don't say it, because you'll end up doing it. That'll be what'll happen. But we bring these checks into the spiritual life, you're only hurting yourself. You're only hurting yourself. Think about it like a governor. on a car, right? The car can go to 130, 140 miles an hour, but there's something on it that'll keep it at 70. It's doing half of what it could do. Don't be that governor in your life. Don't look at the Christian life and say, listen, I'll do everything, Lord, except this, because it'll lead to problems. So the point there is to be content. Not a big fan of Bruce Lee's religious approaches, but there's a lot of things that he said as a martial artist that would apply to the Christian life. You've gotta be fluid. You've gotta be willing to do whatever it is. And I've seen people like this, who will do whatever is necessary for God's will to be done, and they are not remarkable people. What do I mean by that? They're not remarkable by what the world would say is remarkable. I have not met this man, but there's a missionary who regularly visits a church of ours, the church that Trent's from, and he's just a painter, just paints. But he also does missions trips in extremely dangerous parts of Africa, where a man like him does not belong, according to the world. What's a painter doing over there? But when you hear him speak from the pulpit, you know who I'm talking about? Sam, I'm glad you said his name, because I was going to say a different name. But when you hear him talk from the pulpit, the man is simple. He knows the Word. He teaches it clearly. He understands the two natures. He understands works versus grace. He understands the doctrine of rewards, the doctrine of chasing, all of it. And he's an unremarkable man on the outside. We would maybe say this guy has to be decorated. He has to be well-known, well-honored. He's just a simple Yielded man when you see the strength of Sam Felton you really see the strength of God That's the kind of man. I want to be Unremarkable to the world because you know what the scripture says we're dead to the world Sometimes you hear that phrase Dead to like in the phrase of you're dead to me And that's such a hard thing if you ever say that someone or someone ever says that to you It's a it's a hard thing, but when we look at the world folks The world is against anything that God says Contentment is the key. And we're rolling into 2025. We're already five days in. And now more than ever, especially when there's this, isn't it interesting after this election, everybody was like, we can rest now. And then all the weird things started happening. Oh, there's small Honda Civic-sized drones in New Jersey. That's not weird. It's happening. People are being shot in broad daylight. They're being celebrated like vigilantes, like this guy's Batman. That's not weird. It is a reminder that our form of government does not bring us to peace. These are not political statements. As Christians, we need to be about our Father's business. You've got two ladies here in this passage who are about Jesus. There's no question about it. But one chose the best option. They chose the better option. The other one was doing something good that was necessary, but she was obsessing over that. The other one took advantage of what she had for the time that she had it. Let's look in the Word together, shall we? The Gospel of Luke, here in chapter 10. We're looking at verse number 38. 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. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. Now, for those of you who may have a commentary Bible or a study Bible, you may see a small italicized letter next to that word sat. And if you look to your center column, you may see a cross-reference there. I use the Scofield Bible, and there are three cross-references there. One from Luke 8, and another from Acts 22, where it gives examples of people sitting at Jesus' feet. The one from Luke 8 is the one that is powerful to me, right? These cross-references are not inspired. Some of you may not know that, but when you get a study Bible, only the Word of God is inspired. All the notes and references and stuff is a man's guess, right? I mean, men make mistakes 100% all the time. But there's a cross-reference here, and we're not gonna go to it, because it's not significant for us to look at, but it compares the same event that is recorded in Mark, and that is the demonic man of Gadareh. What do we know about him? An absolute crazy proof text for what demonic possession really looks like. This man was bound with chains and fetters, fetters commonly being around the bottom part of the body, around the shins or the ankles maybe. He would break them. The man was not clothed. He was not eating. He would run around in the cemeteries, screaming, cutting himself with rocks. Then Jesus and the disciples get off of the boat at the dock there, and that man runs right to Jesus. This demonic presence, which was named itself Legion, for we are many, Jesus casts him out. And then the man is sitting there after those demons go into hundreds of swine. the swine jump off of the cliff into the water, drowning themselves. How graphic. I always think it's weird when Hollywood wants to get into that genre. That's just a weird thing. I don't think that stuff kind of comes naturally. When I read that stuff in Mark 5 and in Luke 8, I go, I don't want to go to Hallowscream. None of that. That sounds bad. I don't want to do any of that. But anyway, that was a real event that happened. Then what happened with that Gadarean man was, the scripture puts it this way, he was clothed and in his right mind sitting at the feet of Jesus. Now that's why these commentaries and scriptures want to call you back to that. Because there's a comparison. What's being said is, the only other time we've seen this in this book, or maybe even in scripture, was this event. And I think there's a highlight there. I think there's some significance there. We'll talk about that in a moment. So you've got Martha, probably she was the older one because the scripture says they were received into her house, Mary probably a little sister. There's not a lot of support for that, but it's likely. Martha, or look at what it said at the end of verse 39, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. So this is the only thing that we know about the two ladies right now. Martha's the one who's given the credit for the house, And Mary is the one who's sitting at Jesus' feet. Now we're gonna find out Martha was doing something as well, look at verse 40. But Martha was cumbered about. Stop for a moment and notice the significance of that word cumbered, okay? When you are cumbered with something, it's usually heavy. it's probably causing you strain, right? I'm not gonna sit here and go, I'm trying on some new clothes, right? I got a new belt. And if I can't get that thing around my waist, and I can barely do it, my wife's like, how do they fit? And I say, I'm cumbered about by these. we're probably not gonna buy that belt. You don't want clothing like that. You want something that fits good. This is a description of whatever she was doing, whatever we're about to find out that she was doing, it was weighing her down. It was not helping her. She was doing busy body work. Just to highlight, we're gonna talk about this in a minute, but she was cumbered about much serving. came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care? Now, stop for a minute. If you ever find yourself in a position where you question God in the manner that you just saw Martha, on a serious note, something's not right. The Lord does care. And sometimes, you may remember this in high school, or maybe you even have this in your own life. You know, in high school you got friends, and what's the best way you find out if someone's really your friend? They do things for you. You know, you do stuff together. One of the hardest things is when you get to high school and your friend group starts to diversify, and then you find out you're getting diversified out. you're not being included to things, you're not getting attention, there's inside jokes that you're not a part of, all that kind of stuff can be a hard thing. When you don't see people care about you, you think they just don't care about you, it's a logical conclusion. The weight in which Martha was serving was leading her to a false conclusion that God doesn't care, that he doesn't see all the work that she's doing. If you are serving God that way, you are not serving God. Can we just park the car for a moment? That is not serving God. That's serving yourself. And there's a lot of Christians, and can I be the first one to raise my hand tonight to say I have served God like this in my Christian life? It's usually when I was young and prideful, and you say, Pastor, you're 34, you're still young. I used to be younger, right? There used to be a lot of things that I did in my own strength. Now some people hear that and they go, that means I made my own decisions. No, up here, I thought, this is my domain. I'm talented to do this. I have the skillset to do this, so I will do it. Can I give you an example of that? There was an opportunity for me to fill in as the choir director from now and then. You see me up here doing this stuff, counting out time signatures and all that. Well, I used to be a drum major in high school. So I used to do all the, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I thought, oh, I can be the choir director, because I used to be a drum major. I have these skills. And I would go up there and lead the choir. And it'd be in the back of my mind, you know, I've got skills for this. I'm demonstrating my skills. That's a Martha attitude. The right attitude, which no man can see. I can't look into your mind and see why you do what you do. But the right attitude is, Lord, I'm doing this for you. Thank you for the opportunity. I want to do this better for you. I'm just, I'm the little screwdriver that got picked up, right? We were putting in some toilets the other day, well just one actually, Jan and I were putting a toilet in. And we had a little screwdriver and it was, you look at that screwdriver and it's been used. It's got a wooden handle, gross, right? It's chipped, it's completely rusted and dirty. I give it to Jan. What an offense, right? To my own brother-in-law. Use this. And we're using it. And then he says, can you go get a longer one? And I was like, OK. So I go in there. I couldn't find it. I brought him back the same one. I was like, this is all you got. Well, he came back in there, and he got one that was three shelves down. And it's like this long. Compared to this, it was like this long. Much better for trying to screw that bolt down. Both of those are used for different things. One is used less, but they both get the job done. Can you imagine if that long screwdriver had a little personality? You go to pick it up, and they're like, no, you didn't pick me first, I'm not, no. No, I'm not gonna turn. No, I'm, you know what, I'm only gonna turn if I'm told this. Well, I'm only gonna do it in this set of circumstances. If you apologize, then I'll do it. You'd look at that thing and go, Next one, give me the short one. I'll get a little bruise on my knuckle, that's fine. You know, this one actually works. A lot of people wanna, I'm ready Lord, I'm willing and able, but they go, you don't care about me, look what I'm doing. Why are you doing it? Who are you doing it for? Remember when I said in the beginning of the message, we're not trying to find Martha's the villain. She's the bad one. We should look at Martha and go, you silly, silly Christian. No, that's not the point. The point is we can make the same mistake. She was covered about with doing things. 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. Now look, here's the other focus. We're supposed to be what? Looking to the heavens, right? Set thy affection on things above, not on things of the earth. When I hear what Martha said, I see a lot of this. Looking around at you. Look, look, look what she's doing. How many of y'all have siblings? Y'all know exactly what I just did. Dad, Casey threw a sock at me. Look what he did. That never worked for me, because I'm the oldest. I'm always in trouble. How many of y'all are older siblings, anybody? We bear the marks, right? We know. We're always getting in trouble. How many are younger? Boo. No, I'm just kidding. But kids do that, right? Both of them are wrong, but if you can get the ear of mom and dad to be against that one first, oh, you're Scott Clear, at least for now. Things are good right now. She's pointing at Mary and saying, you don't care that she's doing that? What is that actually saying? Look what I'm doing. I'm doing things more important Now, like I said, we're not gonna choose tonight. The point of the message is not to choose be a server or be a seeker, but I want you to see why Mary was the best option here. Martha, good, but it led to a bad result, and why it would be the incorrect answer for this certain situation. Look what it said here. Jesus answered and said unto her, I love that he just says her name twice, Martha, Martha. Now you know, famous TV show, right? Right? But look at the love here. There are a lot of churches today with angry men as pastors that think it's love to ridicule people from the pulpit, that think it's, you know, tough love is the only kind of love. Oh man, the scripture is against you. He simply addresses her concern with truth and then demonstrates why what Mary is doing is better at that time. Look at what it said. Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Now this is where we could get into a little thing where we look at that word careful and say, oh, he's complimenting her. But actually the use of that word means worrisome. You know how we would describe it today? Anxiety. Listen to this, I heard this, I think it was last year when I was doing a study on worry versus anxiety, because clinically they're two different things. Worry is all the internal stuff. Worry is when a bill hits the account and you didn't have enough money in there so you gotta dip in the savings and it's that initial tightening right here of whatever muscle that is where you're like, uh-oh, that's not good. Or maybe your car makes a noise that is louder than what you can turn up the radio to make it seem like it's not there. You're like, I gotta address that now with Benjamins, right? And that's worry that can turn into it. Anxiety is when you stop eating, You're irritable. You get into a depressive state. Martha showed both. We saw from verse 40 that she was cumbered about by much serving. I think that shows you the internal aspect there, worried. And then the anxiety, the physical manifestation of that worry, was with her accusation of her sister to the Lord. Lord, you don't care, accused the Lord. Mary's doing this, accused Mary. Everybody in Martha's case is wrong except for her. That's not a good sign. Careful and troubled. You're worried, you're anxious about these things. About many things. Notice, he doesn't say that many things are bad. That's why this title is a little misleading. I did that intentionally, because someone would think, oh, which one is he going to pick, right? I'm on team serving. I'm on team seeking. No, no. Jesus says you're worried about many things. The things are not evil. How she was using them is where the problems came in. Then he says in verse 42, but one thing is needful. That's why I led with the multiple choice example. One thing's good, many things, yes. But you're worried about something that's not this thing which is needful. One thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Now, we got a lot to unpack here, and we have time to do it. This is one of those times in scripture where it's like, we've got this really pretty rock, it's like a geode, and we're just slowly hitting a water saw to it. We're about to crack it open and see this just good stuff. One thing is needful. What was the thing that Mary was doing? Well, Jesus didn't say it, but the scripture did tell us, drawback 39. Sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. And Mary hath chosen that good part. So we actually have Jesus kind of making a statement here. What Mary's doing is the better thing than what you're doing. Notice he didn't condemn what Martha was doing. He just said what Mary was doing is more important, why? which shall not be taken away from her. Jesus was going to be taken away. That is just a few chapters away. The radical 180 of the apostles when Christ died needs to be observed. Peter was so convinced when the Roman centurions came, or when the soldiers came to get Jesus, that he cut a man's ear off. He was told by Jesus earlier in Caesarea, get behind me, Satan. And then here come these men. Peter's thinking, well, here we go. I'm gonna do what I need to do. Conceal weapon permit, whatever it is. Cut that guy's ear off. Just as a side note, amazing. What did Jesus do? He put the ear back on. Can you just imagine being that soldier? Somebody shot your ear off tonight. You're going, that's it. That's not coming back. And then somebody puts it on. I just think that is. Those same men then led him away. But then Jesus was falsely accused, not once, but twice. And you could even, was he falsely, was he even accused at all with Pilate's trial? You go back to the nitty gritty of it, no. It was a prisoner exchange that Israel decided. Or Abbas is let go, a condemned man, found guilty. Jesus dies and then the disciples pretty much go back to business as usual. Fishing, doing whatever they're doing. That shows you, I think, the strength of what Jesus is saying here. I think essentially what is being communicated is this, Mary is sitting at my feet and hearing my word. They can't take that from her. They can't go into her brain and scoop that out as fake news or whatever they want to call it. but they're gonna take me. They took my life. Whether she knew it or not, I don't think that can be discerned from the scripture, but what Jesus is saying is, I'm gonna go, but the things I'm gonna teach you, they last forever. I think that lines up exactly with the word of God will never pass away. She was choosing the thing that is right for that time. You've only got a little bit of time with me, Martha. Mary, whether she understands that or not, she wants to understand what I'm teaching. Look at verse 39 again. Heard his word. I think that means Jesus came into the house, he sat himself, and Mary sat next to him and listened as he spoke. I don't think Jesus was in a waiting room posture. Pots and pans going on in the kitchen. Mary's looking at him, he's like, not saying anything, the man was ministering. She was hearing that. And Martha was thinking, I gotta have the house ready, I gotta get stuff ready, we gotta get food on the table, I didn't even know he was coming, all these different things. And that turns into worry, the physical manifestation of that being anxiety. But Mary chose the right thing according to Jesus here because even though he'll be taken away, what she's learning cannot be taken away from her. This is another important lesson for us tonight. Perspective. If this is our life, let's just say this clicker here is our life, and this I'm representing like holding onto a sphere here, right? We've got all these different perspectives that we can look at our life, right? We can go like this, we can look at it from this direction, look at it from this direction. I think it's smart for us to look at it as far out as we can. Not to where we don't get detail, but if you're too much like this, and you're micromanaging every little area, I don't think that's good. Zoom out and get a perspective from up here, a heavenly perspective. This is how I look at my life in Christ. Here's how I'm looking at it as a father, right? There's a certain amount of things that I can do. I'm a father to a two-year-old. There's a little I can do right now. Most important thing is being present, all of that. Good words, good discipline, all that kind of stuff right there. And as she gets older and I get older, my scope will intensify. But I'm choosing to look at my role as a father from this perspective too. How does God want me to do based on who I am in Christ? Do you know what he says about my daughter and my wife and the money that I have and don't have, the property that I do and don't have, the vehicles that I have? Guys, sometimes I get in that truck and I'm going, I'm going to get in an accident one day and they're going to have to uncrumple me. It's small. I look at all those things from this perspective. God gave me those things. He's asking me to steward it well. I'll have a bad attitude if I look at my wife and kids and think they're a burden. Or I'm like, I just can't wait to get out to the golf course so I can just get away from these. You will not do well. You will fail with that attitude. And if you bring that attitude into your Christian life, I'm only gonna pray when it feels like it. Here's those requirements. I'm only gonna go to church if there's an opportunity. There's a requirement. You need to be like Mary. Do the things that are needful. We've learned a lesson in these past five years. This can be gone. I can't tell you how, you can talk to the board about this, how hard it is for me to cancel services. I don't like it. I just don't. It's like, not because I'm like trying to do like this big streak, like, oh, look at me, church is open all the time. That's not the goal. But I know how important this is. And trust me, when Hurricane Milton came by, I'm in a house 40 miles away. I'm not in the best mental condition to prepare for sermons and stuff, but I still know there's an opportunity. And it's hard to cancel those services because I think that meeting together is needful. You being here tonight is needful. The things you're learning tonight and the way that we encourage each other, that can't be taken away. It's the application of that doctrine that's never gonna disappear. Be like Mary. Now some people will hear me say that and go, serving is bad. I'm not gonna do anything until God makes me do it. You won't do anything. You're not giving your body up as a puppet so that God can just, you are saying, the choices that I make, Lord, the things that I think and allow to come in here, the things that come out of this mouth, they're gonna honor you first. That's what God wants. Otherwise, you go into a Calvinist doctrine. God'll just make you do everything. Don't worry, it'll happen. How's that work out? It doesn't work out. We would just be laying at home waiting for something to happen. We'd be paralyzed by indecision. What's the whole point of the judgment seat of Christ? To reward you for the things that you do. And some people, I get it. I'm not gonna do it for a reward. Why? That's what the Lord wants to do. Who are we to look at Jesus and say, thanks, but no thanks? Really? I used to have that attitude. I'm gonna serve him just because and all that. And I realized that's right, but it's not the best answer. I'm looking forward to the opportunity for the Lord to do whatever he wants. If the Lord wants to reward me, so be it. I know I'm not worthy of anything. If that's what the Lord wants to do, who am I to tell him, no Lord, I'm going to take the higher road. Sit down. That's not good. You need to take that. And that's the guy that said, I wrote a book on meekness and how I attained it. It's like, that doesn't work. And you see that here. A lot of people want to pick the villain here and make it Martha. And then of course the hero is Mary. I think the focus is on Christ. And the focus is on these two ladies, one choosing something that was necessary, but not needful. Something that was good, but not the best. Because Mary was soon going to see Jesus on that cross. She was going to hear about it, she was going to be devastated by that news, but the things, whatever she heard, sitting at the feet of Jesus, that did not leave her. And I think that's important for you and I to observe. What strength are you serving in? Are you doing it because, well, you know, I need to? Are you kind of like on a streak? I've been coming to church for three months, I just can't lose my streak. What's it matter? What's it matter if you're here every day of the week but nothing's happening in your life? And listen, can I tell you this is the definition of easy preaching, incredibly hard living. You ask my wife. And she's, my wife's a sniper, okay? Sometimes she just, she'll tell you like it is. She knows the struggles that I go through. I know the struggles that she goes through. But we routinely point one another to Jesus. When I'm at home and I'm just sour patch kid, you know, I'm sitting on the couch just, meh, meh, meh, about whatever. I love my wife. I have a good, I have found a good thing. I just really have, I get choked up, because I see, I've just, I've been blessed by my wife. She will not look at me and be like, tell me what's wrong. She'll sit next to me, and she'll just tell me what I don't want to hear, but what I need to hear, and then she models that in her life. My wife has a lot of things that the Lord has allowed to happen to her and just her body in general, things that have happened that I don't know if I could do it the way that she's doing it. But the Lord's using her, walking her through it. That's encouraging to me. And it comes down to it at the end of the day, we check one another. Yeah, that's, I know, how do you feel, right? Well, yeah, I said what I wanted to say, but I don't feel any better. Well, maybe that's because you probably shouldn't have said it. What you were feeling was actually not the right thing, you know? Martha, Martha 41 there, thou art careful and troubled about many things. One thing is needful. Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. There's a lot that we can learn from that. I think the primary lesson there is choose the better thing. And if you feel like you're cumbered being at church tonight, if you feel like it's a cumbersome thing to share the gospel, you feel like it's a cumbersome thing to pray, if you have your finger out like this just waiting to find someone and go, that, look, right there, if that's the attitude, you really need to just take a break. You need to sit at the feet of Jesus. And can I tell you there's sometimes, folks, this will happen to you. You can close your Bible. There's sometimes you'll pray and it'll feel so routine, you're just going through it. And then all of a sudden you are hit by the weight of the things that are going on in your life, the attitudes that you've possessed. For me, that would always happen during communion. I used to sit right where you're sitting. And Dr. Lindstrom would give communion, and when I understood what communion really is, I understood that what I'm confessing to the Lord, it's not a chastening time, it's a healing time, it's a recentering. I've been walking like this, you know? I need to get back in line with what God says is right. That changed my entire perspective. Now as I'm going through life as a father and all this, I just am so thankful that my eternal life is secured. The gospel is more important to me than it ever was. So important is that gospel message that it, I can't wait to be able to explain that to my daughter where she understands it. If that's the only opportunity, the only reason why she's in our life, I believe, is to hear that. Believe that 100%. And she's, for those of you that don't know, my daughter's adopted. She's got biological parents that are steeped in a world of addiction. I want them to hear the gospel and get saved. But I can't make that happen. But I know the importance of loving the Lord now and doing it step by step is gonna come to be important one day. I just wanna be used. And I think the needful thing is to be at peace, be content. But this, but that. Man, if the credits rolled tonight, and how do the credits roll in the Christian life? The rapture, right? The credits rolled tonight, right, and we're up there, you know. You're not gonna be wishing about that one thing you didn't get accomplished. You're gonna see him as he is, and you're gonna be like him. You can take a hold of that truth now. You don't have to wait. That's true now. Sure, we've got our sin nature and things get in, and I'm not denying that. See who you are in Christ right now. Serve that way. Serve that way. Be the person that seeks after truth. Because there's coming a time, folks, where you won't have this. You just won't. You won't have it. Can't tell you how many churches closed last year looking for pastors. Can't tell you how many churches were looking for pastors and then they got some Calvinist reformed pastor. And you give it three years and that place will be John MacArthur light. It will happen Very slowly, but when it does, the change is radical. Mark Barnes that was here today, our missionary, had many conversations with him about churches he's been to where young preachers come in there preaching free grace and in three years they're reading out of John MacArthur study Bibles. It's crazy and it happens. You can fall into that same kind of pattern. What happens if this church burns down tomorrow? Is it all over? Is our Christian life now just, we gotta go find another church to go serve the Lord? You can serve the Lord without ever being here. But if you have an opportunity to be here, why wouldn't you be? And choose the needful thing. Was that beneficial to you? I hope it was. Because I was chomping at the bit. I was telling Trent, it's been like 10 days I've wanted to preach this message. I read it in a devotional and I was like, This is good. We need to be thinking this way. I can't wait to continue to go through the Gospels like that. There's these little nuggets. Look at that. Nice gold bar. Let me trade it in. No, no. Hang on to that. I want to apply that. But maybe you're here tonight, you don't know that you're going to heaven when you die. You don't know that when you die, you'll be with the Lord. You can know that. Let me share it with you. This hand representing you and me and everyone on this planet Earth, and this represents sin. I put this on top of my hand because the Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. What is that thing that we fall short of? His glory. What is that? Perfection, sinlessness. We're all sinners. To sin means to miss the mark. To be a sinner is one who misses the mark. Now, God loves us. Intensely, He loves us. He hates sin because it separates us from Him. The wages for sin is not good works. It's not turning from something. It's not verbal promises or physical commitments. It's death, separation from God. And without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. So any kind of world religion that says you can get to God, you can be with God when you die in heaven or whatever they wanna call it, but you gotta do these good works here to earn it, that's a lie. That's a false prophet. That is a wolf disguised as a sheep. And they might not even know they're in that outfit. You're not saved by good works, turning from something, promising something. Somebody has to die and they gotta shed their blood and they have to have no sin to pay for of their own. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man, and he did just that. He went to the cross, he took that sin, laid it on himself, he offered his body, he shed his blood, and he said on the cross, not sometime in the future, he said on the cross, it, the payment for sin, is finished. A couple years before that, in the cover of darkness, Jesus said to Nicodemus, I wonder if it was at a low tone. As you know, Nicodemus wasn't keen to be there. He went at the cover of night. But Jesus said to Nicodemus, for God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Notice that Jesus didn't look at Nicodemus and say, for God so loved a few, nor did he look at Nicodemus and say, for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever turns, whosoever gives, whosoever stops, whosoever starts, he said, whosoever pistuo, believeth. in him should not perish, but have a certain kind of life, not temporary, not life until you sin again, everlasting life. That's the good news. It's exactly what the word gospel means, good news. Is that good news? If it ain't good news, it's really quite special news, right? We can at least say that. Now, how are you gonna live this Christian life? Are you going to be cumbered about with the finger out looking to get somebody? Lord, this, look, that, hey, this. Or are you going to be Mary, who does the needful thing? I believe both women in Scripture are used by God tremendously. We learn a valuable lesson from the Lord here. One was taken after something that could never be taken away from her. I hope you make the same choices in your life. And as your pastor, I want to help you make those choices. Let's go to the Lord together in prayer, shall we? Heads are bowed, eyes are closed. If you're here tonight and you say, Pastor, I walked in tonight not sure that I was gonna be in the Lord's presence when I died. I'm not even sure I was gonna go to heaven. I thought maybe at the end I'd be worthy enough because I didn't do as many bad things as other people. But Pastor, tonight I've changed my mind. I see what Jesus did was for me. And I've put my trust in him. I know I'll be with the Lord when I die. I know I'm going to heaven because Jesus paid for all my sins. And he told Nicodemus that the person who believes would have everlasting life. Pastor, I know I'm going to heaven now. If that's you tonight, I'd like to pray for you. Would you just slip your hand up and let me know? Pastor, I just trusted in Jesus Christ. Would you pray for me? Raising your hand doesn't save you, it just communicates to me. You got saved tonight, I'd like to pray for you. Anyone before we close? Heads are bound, knives are still closed. Don't be cumbered about by serving. Serving should be a joyful thing. The Lord served sinlessly. And he was perfect. Don't be pointing your fingers at other people. Don't do it because, well, I'm so talented I might as well. I don't have anything else to do. Set your eyes on Jesus. Don't just make a good choice, make the better choice. Encourage one another. Love one another. Best way to love a lost person is to share the gospel. Father, I thank you for our study tonight. I pray that it's beneficial. I know it's benefited me greatly. And Lord, may I just say tonight, thank you for your patience. Thank you for still giving us opportunities. You're greater than any earthly father we could ever experience. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen.