Luke 10:38–42

[Music] [Music] for my hear hold check one two check check check check one two check check check check one two testing testing testing that sounds good to me check check check check check cool e good morning everybody excited to worship with you guys this morning uh if we could just stand and I'll uh open us some prayer Lord we thank you for this morning God God we thank you that you're here Among Us Lord we thank you for um this church Lord we thank you for your word God we pray that you would feed us this morning Lord that you would feed your sheep God

and that we would leave here Lord reminded of just a great God and a great gospel and um Lord we be reminded of a church of Believers God spread throughout this city that have the same heart and the same focus and uh we thank you for that so this is all for you Lord be glorified be adored Lord be pleased with us this morning in Jesus where creation suddenly articul with a thousand Tong tot one C then from north to south and east to west we'd hear Christ be [Music] magnifi where the whole earth his Eminence his name would burst from sea and sky from

Rivers through the mountain we'd hear Christ be [Music] magnified and oh Christ be magnified let his praise arise Christ be magnified in in me and so Christ be magnified from the altar of my life Christ be magnified in [Music] me when Every Creature finds in most Melody and every human heart it's native C oh then in one in raptured himy of Praise will'll sing Christ be magnified Christ be magnified and all Christ be magnified let his praise arise Christ be magnified in me oh Christ be magnified from the altar of my life Christ be magnified in [Music] me and I won't bow to Idol I'll

stand strong and worship you and if it puts me in the fire I'll Rejoice CU you're there too and I won't be formed by feelings I'll hold fast to what is true if the cross brings trans transformation then I'll be crucified with youz death is just a doorway into Resurrection Life and if I join you in your suffering then I'll join you when you rise and when you return in glory with all the angels and the Saints my heart will still be singing and my song will be the same oh Christ be magnified let his praise arise Christ be magnified in oh Christ be magnified

from the altar of my life Christ be magnified in me and so Christ be magnified let his praise arise Christ be magnified in me andore Christ be magnified the altar of my life Christ be magnified in [Music] me [Music] jus [Music] anchor holds on Christ the [Music] my the [Music] ground [Music] stand Ro s this on Christ the I [Music] ground [Music] h [Music] it it all let go my soul let go and the waves and wind [Music] [Music] his [Music] with My Soul it is where my soul It is Well it Is Well with My Soul It Is Well with My Soul it is

well with My Soul with My Soul It is Well it Is Well with My Soul [Music] It is Well it Is Well with My [Music] Soul let go my soul and trust in him the W so know his name let go my soul is TR in the baves and [Music] wind [Music] soul [Music] I I need I every hour I [Music] need my [Music] God your great is more gra is found is where you are where you are Lord I am free in Lord I need you oh I need you every hour I need you my one defense my rightousness oh God how I need

[Music] [Music] stand [Music] [Music] oh I need you every every hour I need you my one defense my right Lord I need you oh I need you every every hour I need you my one defense my rightousness oh God God how I need I need I for amen well good morning church you can go ahead and have a seat at this time we're going to go and dismiss anyone that's seven and under uh to their classroom and I see that my three-year-old um already dashed out so yes all right good you got them uh for everyone else if you have your Bibles go ahead and

open them up Luke chapter 10 is where we're going to be luke 1038 through 42 is our text for this morning um but before we get to that I do have again a prayer from scripture um this one comes from Jesus and so if you posture yourselves and just receive this prayer from Jesus before we get started he says I'm praying for them I'm not praying for the world but For Those whom you have given me for they are yours all mine are yours and yours are mine and I am glorified in them and I am no longer in the world but they are in

the world and I am coming to you Holy Father keep them in your name which you have given me that they may be one even as we are one while I was with them I kept them in your name which you have given me I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of Destruction that the scripture May might be fulfilled but now I am coming to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my Joy fulfilled in themselves I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not

of the world just as I am not of the world I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one they are not of the world just as I am not of the world sanctify them in the truth your word is truth as you sent me into the world so so I have sent them into the world and for their sake I consecrate myself that they also may be Sanctified in truth we ask this in Jesus name amen at the same time as we dive into the word this morning I want to read it

uh the passage for you and just out of a a show of reverence for the word of God we want to also stand um as we read this and so Luke 10384 42 and again my prayer is that as we read this what God is doing in the proclamation of the word is he is doing what Jesus Just prayed he is sanctifying us and if you're like that's a church word that's that sounds like christianese I don't know what that means it means to set apart from the world in order to make holy to make righteous and that's what the word of God is doing

in our lives when we read it when we study it when we preach and Proclaim it it is setting us apart from the world and it's making us holy it's making us more into the image of Jesus and that's why we gather together under the word of God that's why we sing the word of God that's why we pray the word of God is because that's what it's doing for our lives and so this is the text that we're going to be covering today now as they went on their way Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house and

she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching but Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone tell her then to help me but the Lord answered her Martha Martha you are anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her you may be seated I want to break down just a few details uh before we kind of unpack this passage for us this

morning they've just entered into a village and one of the things we know about the village is is from John 11 is actually the village of Bethany that they enter into we also know that there are at least four different accounts where we gauge a little bit more about Martha and Mary and so we have Luke 10 here that we're going to be looking at today we also see Martha and Mary again in John 11 we see them again in John 12 and John 12 is also a cross reference passage to Mark six or Mark 14 those are both the same account that are happening

we hear about Martha and Mary um as we walk through this one of the things that we found out about Martha and Mary in John 11 is that their brother is Lazarus and so that's a story that many people know very well that Lazarus dies and Jesus eventually goes and resurrects him and brings him back to life well he is the brother of Mary and Martha who we are looking at and talking about today one of the things that I always found interesting in looking at each of the passages that talk about Martha and Mary is they seem to be doing the exact same thing

in each of the different accounts and the one we're looking at today is the introduction that they have to Jesus it's the first time that they're meeting him when we actually see Martha and Mary and John 11 at The Story of Lazarus it refers to them as being someone whom Jesus loved uh and so we know that there's been some type of quantity or quality of relationship between this account of Luke 10 all the way to the accounts of John 11 and John 12 so they know Jesus they love Jesus um they're they're in relationship with Jesus at that point but even then they're still

doing the same things that we see happening in this initial account which kind of gives us a bit of the personality types of Martha and Mary and so when you see Martha in Luke 10 she's serving and she's busy serving and we see that there's a bit of anxiety that she's experiencing a bit of a troubled spirit that she's experiencing when we get to John 11 11 we also see that Martha is continuing to serve she's the one that's arranging all of the funeral arrangements for Lazarus she's the one organizing the people that are coming and going she's the one meeting with people she's she's

doing all of the logistics she's serving when we get into uh John 12 and Mark 14 and you see those passage it's actually the Passover time and um they enter they end up going into a leper's house named Simon and when they go into his house they then put a meal on for Jesus and Martha again is serving all right so that's that's Martha's thing all right she wants to be busy serving she wants to be busy doing uh logistical things she's more of the kind of organization behind the scenes maybe a bit of a type A type personality like she wants to get things

done and make sure things go off really well Mary is a different sister all right she she she has a bit of a different personality than Martha she doesn't busy herself with the serving and she's not anxious and she's not organizational and those things she's more relational all right she's more relational it says in Luke 10 as we'll see here in a minute that uh she's at the feet of Jesus when you get to John 11 and and Jesus is invited to the funeral and uh Jesus shows up and Martha comes out to meet him Martha then sends for Mary and as soon as Mary

comes and sees Jesus it says she again Falls at his feet and then when you get to John 12 and Mark 14 and it's the passage of them throwing a meal for Jesus in Simon the leper's house once again Mary pulls out a really expensive ointment that's about a Year's wage and she just douses Jesus's feet with it and then wipes his feet with her hair again we know that Judas gets really upset about that because he's like we could have sold that and given it to the poor when at the end of the day we know that his real motive was he was dipping

in the handbag all the time it was for his own personal gain but you have Martha and Mary two different people one always serving the other always just sitting at the feet of Jesus and now those fundamentally are not necessarily bad things there needs to be people who are more organizationally minded and gifted in administration and gifted in in serving and at the same time there are going to be other people who are more relational maybe a little bit more contemplative a little bit more like can't we just love Jesus instead of like do all of the organization things like it just be all about

Jesus and I think there's a way in which you need both in order to have healthy movement working forward but it's all got to start with how Mary began it's got to start there and you'll actually see that here in a minute as I unpack it for you um of how you can get Martha to be more like Mary but if we were to to be honest maybe in this room and with ourselves I think a lot of us tend to be a little bit more like Martha we're a little bit more on the anxious side we're a little bit more on the troubled Spirit

side we're a little bit more on when things aren't going well we just busy ourselves we just turn to getting things done we turn to whatever would distract us from dealing with the problem at hand and Mary handles it a little bit differently than what Martha does and so maybe we can learn something from that verse 38 as they went on their way Jesus entered a village as I already mentioned this Village is called Bethany and we know that because of John 11 when it says that they are from the village of Bethany Bethany is an interesting Village all right it's a village that's about

two miles outside of Jerusalem it's actually on the road to Jericho and so if you were here for the last week's message um that's not necessarily a great uh uh uh plac to head down because of the robbers and the different things that happened on that road but Bethany if you look it up in its original language the Greek language means House of depression or House of Misery all right so if you're if if if you're looking up best places to live around Israel I don't think Bethany is going to pop up as one of those suburbs that everyone's flocking to right now it's not

the place where everyone is looking if you're finding a house and I know we've got a lot of young couples a lot of people that are searching for first homes as well um you're not going to see the listing say location location location when it comes to Bethany if anything it would probably rather read like upand cominging neighborhood um or Investor's dream uh or Investor's opportunity it's going to be more like that it's going to be a sketch part of town um that that is not great to live in one of the reasons why we know it's not great to live in is it's where

it's where essentially all of the um the sketchy people go to live the ones who are considered uh with diseases again Simon the leper lived there had a home there that's where they threw the meal for Jesus in in John 12 it's where they go not only that when you look at the names Martha and Mary and both of their names actually have the same types of meanings to them means either rebellious or mistress so this might be the people who are who who have been marginalized by Society are going to Bethany to live it's kind of like you're allowed to have that area of

town and go live there now if you think about that in terms of House of misery House of depression and at the same time you then start looking at Martha being a woman who welcomed Jesus into her home what do we know about Martha in verse 41 it says that she was anxious and troubled about many things anxious and troubled about many things not only that she was also a frustrated woman Martha was distracted with much serving she went to the Lord Jesus and started complaining about her sister why is she not helping me serve so she's maybe a little bit bitter towards her sister

as well complaining I mean she lives in a house of misery but herself also sounds like a miserable person but she's distracted but then we have Mary Mary's a little bit different she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching verse 39 now again both names Martha and Mary mean the same thing rebellious or mistress why the difference in behavior and I think some of it is one was able to look at Jesus for who he was and the other was probably looking at herself and her situation we don't know for sure if she was a rebellious

person or if she was a mistress I think often times in in the scriptures it's not coinci incidence the naming of people and who they become and their Lifestyles that they have I mean if you walk through the majority of the scriptures the majority of names represent whatever their lifestyle is so maybe they were rebellious in a mistress well when you enter the perfect and holy person of Jesus Christ into a room and the light of him Shines on your lifestyle it might cause a bit of anxiety right it might cause a bit of troubled spirit that Martha is experiencing where she's seeing Jesus she's

seeing herself and she's thinking what's he going to do with us what's he going to do to us I mean we're we're being exposed essentially and what she chooses to do in the moment is busy herself with serving let me try to make everything else look like it's clean enough for him to be present let me try to clean myself up let me try to clean up the house let me try to do all the serving let me try to satisfy him and make him pleased so that maybe he'll be satisfied and pleased with me but again we know from history and scripture that that

never works that never works but we have Mary who just simply sees Jesus walk in again possibly also rebellious and mistress but she sees Jesus and she sees him for who he is and she sits at his feet to listen to his teaching to listen to his teaching we then find out what Jesus thinks about these two scen scenarios these two situations it would be custom and normal for when someone enters a home and the guest enters a home for the women to get up and do what Martha is doing doing Mary is kind of going countercultural to that a bit and choosing to do

something different sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his teaching she's enamored with Jesus can't get enough of him so much so that she foros what her normal job would be when hosting someone for a meal a meal which is why Martha was so upset Martha believes the best way to love Jesus is to serve him Mary sees that the best way to love Jesus is to savor him in the moment to savor him and to just sit at his feet and listen to what he has to say and Jesus goes on to tell us what he thinks about it Martha was distracted

with much serving she went up to him and said Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone tell her then to help me but the Lord answered her Martha Martha you were anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary one thing is necessary Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her I love the way the N NLT actually reads this it says my dear Martha you're worried and upset over all these details tells but there's only one thing worth being concerned about Mary has discovered it and it will not be

taken away from her it will not be taken away from her here's what I want us to do I want us to not only discover this but to practice this to practice this this morning I want us to to have some freedom to not do as Martha did but to be a little bit more more like Mary in this space to have some moment and to have some space to be a bit more contemplative with one another and I want to ask a couple of questions before we do that are we in our lives postured similar to Martha or Mary and so you can just

think about your weak you can think about how when anxiety's come when troubles come when details come when what you need to get done is is at your Forefront of your mind and maybe that's just in the logistics of your life or maybe that's even in your walk with Jesus some of us have a bent towards an anxious Spirit do we run to executing and getting things done or do we run to the feet of Jesus do we run to the feet of Jesus I think that's why Matthew 6:21 says where your treasure is what you Savor there your heart will be also we want

to be able to put our heart at the feet of Jesus so that we don't have the anxious Spirit like Martha but we have the calm Spirit of Mary and I think that's why in that where your treasure is there your heart will be also Matthew 6 goes on to say in verse 25 therefore I tell you do not be anxious about your life what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body what you will put on is life not more than food and the body more than clothing look at the birds of the air they neither sew nor reap nor

gather into Barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are you not more valuable than they and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of Life why are you anxious about clothing consider the lies of the field how they grow they they neither toil nor spin yet I tell you even Solomon and all of his glory was not array like one of these but if God God so closed the grass of the field which in all his glory was not AR or I'm sorry but if God so closed the grass of the field which today is alive and

tomorrow is thrown into the oven will he not much more clothe you oh you of little faith therefore do not be anxious saying what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for the Gentiles seek after these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them all but seek first the kingdom of God in his right and all these things will be added to you all these things will be added to you therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient for the day is its own trouble well Matthew's getting at there is

sufficient for the day is its own trouble it's not saying that uh sitting at the feet of Jesus is going to eliminate the trouble or it's going to eliminate the things that need to get done but what it does do in seeking first the kingdom of God is it helps helps remedy the anxiety by being able to see the sovereignty of the Lord and what he's provided for you and what he's doing for you in your in your own soul and heart that when you treasure him above all things everything else seems a little bit easier to manage a little bit easier to to serve

and a little bit easier to actually give your life to and so one of the one what I want to do in this time now and for those who are introverts in the room um you're probably not going to like it which is okay but we're going to break up into some groups and I'm going to give guided time for us to sit at the feet of Jesus and have some just guided prayers I'm going to give you some things to pray about but sit at the feet of Jesus listen to the teaching of what he's already told us to pray but be in it

be in it so not just wait for it eventually or say we'll get to it on Tuesday but do it now so we're going to to to help with a bit of the awkwardness I'm going to have John throw up just some of the um uh background pads for the room to fill the space a bit but I'm going to have you go ahead and just look around you and get in groups of five six people um and do that and once you're there I'll then help guide you in this next time that we will enter into it's going to it's going to cause you

to move you can move chairs around too you can move chairs around too so um find find the group all right we've got our groups if you don't know who is in it it's okay you can introduce yourself when we're done in that same Passage of Matthew 6 before he gets to talking about the anxiety and and working through that we also have the Lord's Prayer we have the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6 and this is also a kind of a a snapshot of what we're going to be looking at next week as we dive into the Lord's Prayer in the Book of Luke next

week but he says this pray then like this Our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name what I want you to do right now is is have one or two people pray that just that focus and then I'll bring you back in for the next part here in a minute but I have a couple of people pray just the goodness and sovereignty of the God in heaven that we serve our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name so take some time as a group and pray that have a couple of people do it your kingdom come your will be done on Earth as it is

in heaven God has a will that he is executing on this Earth plans to glorify himself and to sanctify us and to bring us in relationship with him to make earth look more like heaven pray that now where probably a lot of our anxious and troubled Spirits lie give us this day our daily bread pray that for e the beauty of the Gospel that washes away our shame and guilt forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors pray that e for as we have been forgiven and the shame and the guilt wash away he also encourages us to walk in step with

his spirit and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil pray that for e e e father we we thank you so much for your goodness to us and your grace that you have poured out we thank you for your character and your nature that is good we thank you for your kingdom that has come to this Earth for your will to be done for you to come and provide for us exactly what we need every single day not only for life but also for eternal life as you forgive us our debts and not only that but you lead us then into a

life that is reflective of you and your spirit and your character and that is truly the life abundantly we thank you for all that you do and the grace that you so graciously lavish us with I pray that we continue to fall at the feet of Jesus and to treasure him above all things in our lives when we sit at his feet and we gaze upon his face the worry of Life Fades away because we see in him all that we need our greatest treasure everything else begins to seem less so we thank you for sending Jesus to us it's in his name we pray

amen thank you for participating in that as you go ahead and stand and kind of make your way back to your seats I just want to not kind of take the um not take the heat from next Sunday um but when you look at The Sermon on the Mount not only is it just a really good prayer that Jesus gives us for our daily lives but it is in fact the entire Narrative of the Redemptive story and history that first begins with God as Father in heaven Hallowed be his name in the beginning God it all begins with him and then moves into his kingdom

coming to Earth in the form of his son Jesus Christ and Jesus coming not only to provide just the common Grace of what we need and giving that to us but in more than that providing for us what we eternally need in the forgiving of our sins and then it culminates in the not leading Us in temp temptation but leading us in a life that is Walking In Step persevering in the spirit of Christ so that one day when we are glorified we are actually ultimately delivered from all evil When you pray that prayer you're praying the history of God's will over your life and

it allows you in that moment to kind of step outside of your immediate anxieties and troubles because you're seeing the greater picture of God working out all things for the good of those who are called according to his purpose you're seeing him work out all things for the sake of his son to accomplish his will and what we know is nothing can thwart that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus nothing can mess that up and so that's where we come and that's where we rest on a daily basis especially just let those anxieties let those troubles that

Martha was dealing with let those things be triggers that bring you to the feet of Jesus like Mary don't don't don't let them be things that swallow you but let them be triggers in those moments where you feel your heart starting to pound a little bit more okay where's the feet of Jesus I need to get there in those moments where you see things kind of starting to swamp you and and and details and and organizing things or just the life and kids and children and and and school and all of it's just kind of taking over I'm always reminded by the prayer of Martin

Luther who says I have so many things to do today I shall spend the first three hours in prayer just feet of Jesus it actually actually allows you to then have more clarity to then attack all of the chores that we have for the day don't ignore the fact that you're like Martha let it be something that triggers you to head to be more like Mary and then you're actually able to be like Martha from a healthy standpoint from a healthy place as it brings us to our time of communion I wanted to read from John 6: 32-35 and it says this Jesus then said

to them truly truly I say to you it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven but my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to this world we think about that as we just prayed give us this bread Our Daily Bread your kingdom come your will be done like your king Kingdom coming is Jesus as bread coming to actually satisfy our souls our lives for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world they said to him sir give

us this bread always Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst hunger and thirst are similar experiences to anxiety or troubled Spirit or soul and the desire that I'm lacking and I need something more Jesus is always going to be the answer he's the bread that we need that satisfies our hunger and our thirst that subsides our anxieties and our troubles and that allows us to be able to savor and treasure him in the moment alone so let's stand together if you believe Jesus and that he lived the

perfect life that you could not live and that he died the death that you deserved because you could not live the perfect life and that God's Wrath being poured out on him at the cross was satisfied so that your sin can be forgiven as the prayer says that receipt on the third day him resurrect ing from the grave from the dead is God guaranteeing for us that his wrath towards you is gone it's satisfied I mean talk about what ultimately LED Martha to no longer have anxiety and troubles as we see in John 11 in John 12 in Mark 14 Guess Who's no longer anxious

and troubled anymore Martha she's still doing the same things and serving but she's loving and treasuring Jesus as well because I believe she experienced this he came and forgave her and he washed away all of her shame and all of her guilt and she's just savoring him now she's still serving but she's also savoring and I think that's a beautiful place for us to kind of land at is we see what Jesus has done to serve us that also then fuels us to serve him back this is the fuel that does that we remember what he did for us in breaking his body and shedding

his blood if you believe that I invite you to come down grab the elements come back to your seat and we will remember this together and worship him so come on for for I received from the Lord what I also deliver to you at the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said this is my body which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way also he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Covenant in my blood do this as often as

you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and you drink the cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes father we thank you for again your goodness to us and your grace and your love we thank you for your will to not leave us in our sin and in our condemnation but to pursue us to initiate love towards us even while we were still Sinners and enemies of you you came to us in our anxious and troubled spirits and you gave up your son Jesus to take every pain that we've ever experienced every sin that we've ever

committed and he took it to the cross and he paid the penalty for it he died the death that we deserved so that that shame and that guilt could be washed away and we worship him because he triumphed over it and in three days he resurrected he came back to life guaranteeing for us life and life abundant for that reason alone it is cause to worship and treasure him and to savor him all the days of our life give us that space now to continue on in worship of him in Jesus name we pray [Music] amen [Music] oh [Music] h [Music] all are your his

belong there [Music] h [Music] the love your mercy [Music] you beond understanding you you my heart there I heart [Music] your [Music] there amen you guys can have a seat I just want to say I'm feeding back let me come up here um thank you for worshiping with us at the district again my name is Dwayne if I haven't had chance chance to meet you would love to afterwards uh one of the things that we always do is we give a good word for the road and today it's going to be from 1 Timothy 4:12 and Ezra is actually G to come provide it for

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