Well, good evening, afternoon. You can be seated.

We do have quite a few families traveling and sick, but I’m glad you’re here. That means you’re not traveling or sick. So it’s good to be with you. It’s good to be with you. I want to do something different tonight. We’ve been Corinthians for quite a while, but I want to preach to you from Luke’s gospel. Luke chapter 10, verse 38 to 42. Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42.

Luke writes, 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. There’s an old song. You’ve probably heard of Shane and Shane. They do worship music, Christian music. It used to be just Shane. So before it was Shane and Shane that He picked up, it was just Shane. And He had this old song that I love. It’s called Received. And some lyrics in that song He writes, You whispered to your child today, but I haven’t got a minute to listen. Your child is busy with the work of God and taking Him for granted. Got a lot to do today. Kingdom work is the game I play. Lord, my serving You has replaced me knowing You. My serving You has replaced me knowing You.

Jesus, more than anything, more than anything, has called us, to know Him. To know Him. And that’s an amazing thing if we can slow down in the busyness of life and know that. That Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, the Creator of the universe, He wants to know us. So, I’m preaching to myself tonight. And maybe you can hear some good things for you too. Okay?

Earlier in this chapter, Jesus had sent out His disciples in twos. And He told them, wherever you go, when you go to a new village, try to find a house of peace. So, you go in that village and you try to find someone who believes in Me, believes in what you’re doing, and you welcome that person into your… that person will welcome you into their home and my peace will rest on that house. And that will be a place for you to have respite and to do ministry from. And so, that’s kind of a model for ministry. And so, further down in this chapter, we see Martha offering up her house as a house of peace to Jesus. It’s a very gracious thing that Martha sees Jesus for who Jesus is. She doesn’t disbelieve. She believes that this Jesus really is from God. And she has a house and she brings… Him and, you know, probably His disciples into their house. Now, who is Mary? Oh, Mary’s her sister. Is this her, like, you know, annoying, snotty-nosed sister that’s hanging around? Does she just have a life? Like, she’s here too. Does she live with her? We don’t know. We know it’s Martha’s house. And Mary’s there too. And Martha’s right to bring Jesus into her house. But the question is, what am I supposed to do with Jesus when He’s in my house? And Mary and Martha have two very different understandings of what it means to be with Jesus now that He’s in Martha’s house. What does Mary do? Well, she’s not doing anything at all. She seems to be, you know, we say to our kids, you know, sit crisscross applesauce. I’m not going to do it. But, you know, you sit with your legs crossed on the floor. That’s all she’s doing. She’s sitting at Jesus’ feet. And she’s receiving from Jesus. She’s just being in His presence. She’s just taking in what Christ has to offer. And Martha is the opposite. Martha isn’t doing nothing. Martha is doing a lot. And I think, unfortunately, we could probably really identify with Martha, can’t we? Because if somebody, like a lot, less important than Jesus is coming over, like, we freak out. Like, you want to clean more than you would normally clean for yourself. Like, you’re cooking, like, nice food that maybe you don’t normally cook. You know, when people come, you want to make sure, like, everybody’s attended to. Does everybody get enough food? Like, do you have enough drink? Like, is anything going wrong? You want everybody to be happy. So you can start to identify with Mary that Jesus is in her house. But the Scriptures don’t commend how busy she is. The Scriptures don’t commend it at all. In verse 40, it says, But Martha was distracted with much serving. She’s distracted with much serving. And she’s really aggravated because Mary, her sister, is not caught up in being distracted as she’s distracted with it. And it’s amazing. Martha is so aggravated, she fusses at Jesus and even tells, she tells Jesus what to do.

She says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? And she gives God a command. Tell her to help me. Tell her to help me. I want her to be bogged down like I’m bogged down. And Jesus responds to Martha. And He doesn’t just say, He doesn’t just say, Hey, Martha, here’s the deal. He says her name twice. And that’s important, isn’t it? Because you and I have a way when we get so caught up in something, like it takes a foghorn to get our attention. And Jesus really wants to get her attention.

He says, Martha, Martha. You know, like I need Jesus to do that to me. I need Him to say, Chad, Chad, what are you doing? He says, Martha, Martha, you are anxious. You’re troubled.

You’re unjustifiably disquieted about a bunch of different stuff, about many things He says. But He says there’s only one thing that’s necessary. He said there’s only one thing that really matters. And that’s hard to hear for us, isn’t it? That’s hard. Because we like to do this thing called multitasking, don’t we? We like to feel real important by getting a bunch of stuff done, by doing.

But here’s the amazing thing that Jesus has shown us here in this passage. The most important thing is not serving Jesus. The most important thing is being served by Jesus. And that’s an amazing thing. That’s an amazing thing. Jesus says more explicitly, in Mark 10, for the Son of Man has not come to what? Be served, but to serve. And that’s an incredible thought because who’s the one with the spiritual debts they cannot pay? Me. And you? Who are the ones that threw out everything good that God gave us in the garden? That’s us. Who’s the sinner? Me. Who’s holy? Jesus. Who’s creator of the universe? Jesus. Who’s fallen creature? Me.

Yet what Jesus does is He comes in humility and what Jesus does is He meets you right where you are. He went in Martha’s house. He comes right to you wherever you are and Jesus wants to serve you where you are. Jesus wants to love you where you are. Jesus wants to teach you where you are. Jesus wants to fill you up with His presence right where you are. He comes to your neighborhood. He comes to your house. And He brings His presence into your home.

What’s the psalmist say? That in the presence of God there’s joy and there’s pleasures forevermore.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus gives us the riches, the treasures of the heavenly places. Jesus gives us all wisdom and knowledge. Jesus gives us all wisdom and knowledge. The Word tells us that when Christ comes, Jesus gives us not just life, Jesus gives us eternal life. That’s what Jesus does. That’s what the King and Creator of the universe does that’s existed before time. He comes and He finds you and I right where we are and He serves us and loves us and takes us back to God and washes us clean of all of our sin. Charles Spurgeon says, Oh, the love of fathomless abyss. Could you find the bottom of how great God is? Could you find the bottom of how great God’s love is for you? Could you find the bottom of how great God’s desire is to love and to serve you? You couldn’t. Paul says, How deep, how wide is the love of Christ? So know that God deeply desires to love you by serving you and meeting your spiritual needs. But I want you to know also at the same time, Jesus loves you longingly. You know, there’s a difference when you do something because you have to. You know? You know? You meet those kind of people that work at stores, restaurants, and like, they’re doing it, but their teeth are gritted. They don’t want to do it. But Jesus says in Luke chapter 13 to Jerusalem, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it, how often would I have gathered your children together as hen gathers her brood under her wings? You weren’t willing. Jesus looks out over Israel and He says, Oh, I want you to know that I love you. I would have loved you and brought you in. It was Jesus’ desire.

He’s not aloof. He’s not careless. He’s not doing something He must. He’s doing what’s in His heart. What’s the Old Testament tell us? God is a jealous God. He’s jealous to have you. He’s jealous to know you. He’s jealous to be with you. Because when we know God really, God is glorified, and we sang about that in a song earlier, God is glorified when we treasure Him in our hearts above everything else. God doesn’t desire the wicked to perish, the Bible tells us. So Jesus loves to serve you and meet you where you are. Jesus longs to do it.

And yet it’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? You and I so often can find ourselves satisfied with a great other number of things. Be it a person that cannot be to you what only Jesus can be to you. We find satisfaction in a great number of possessions that cannot satisfy. You can find your satisfaction in some identity you’re chasing after, some sort of life pursuit that will fade away. Yet Jesus would come in your house, the very person for whom you exist. Why do you exist? To know God. That’s why you exist. The very person for whom you exist. That’s the pinnacle of existence. Knowing Jesus. He stands ready and willing to know and satisfy and teach and draw you in. Because you know you’re being changed by something and somebody. Don’t think that if you stay away from Jesus you can remain in a neutral party. Everybody, everybody’s being shaped by something. You’re being shaped by somebody. Whether that was mostly your parents or whether that’s people in your life or that’s just popular culture at large. Like, you’re being shaped by somebody. You’re sitting at the feet of somebody. Don’t think you’re not. Whose feet are you sitting at? Who’s pouring into you? I wonder if you would only let it be Jesus.

Jesus says there’s just one thing necessary, Martha. There’s just one thing necessary. And you know what that one necessary thing is for you and me? It’s encountering Jesus.

It seems so. It’s so simple, doesn’t it? But we let it live so far away from us. He comes in. And you know what’s amazing about this as well? Jesus doesn’t just come in the house. Jesus wants to stay in the house. One of the most misused Scriptures, not terribly misused, but still largely misused, is Revelation 3, verse 15. Okay? I’m going to read this to you. And this is going to sound familiar. Revelation 3. I know your works. You’re neither hot nor cold. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you’re lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say I’m rich. I’ve prospered. I need nothing. Not realizing that you’re wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you. Buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich. And white garments so you can clothe yourself. And the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes. So that you may see those whom I love are a proven discipline. So be zealous and repent. And here’s the misused verse. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with me. That’s not an evangelistic verse for first-time Christians. That’s not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is riding to a lukewarm church saying, Hey, we used to dine together. I used to live in your presence. You used to love me. You used to love me and serve me. But somewhere along the way, you stopped sitting at my feet. You stopped asking me to your dinner table. And I’m out here on the porch. And I’m knocking. Let me back in.

Jesus is so good. He doesn’t airdrop. You know, like a president running for office or some elected official. And they do these pictures with a baby. Or they’re doing pictures with somebody at a hospital or with somebody in a neighborhood to look like they care. And it’s like you don’t care. You’re taking a picture. You’re taking a picture. It’s a photo op. But Jesus says, I come into the house and I stay. I come into the house and abide as long as you would abide with me. That is an amazing thought.

So I just want to ask you tonight, are you rushing around the house of life? Are you too busy? Too enamored with other things? Jesus is sitting in the other room or outside on the porch swing wishing you’d invite Him. Invite Him in so that you could sit at His feet. How often we play that role of Martha, don’t we?

Church, nothing and no one can replace Jesus. Jesus says, just invite me back in. No, He doesn’t do that thing that we do. Like, no, you treated me bad. I’m treating you bad. You ignored me. I’m ignoring you. He doesn’t play that game. When we turn to Him, oh, He turns right back to us.

Longingly, lowly, lovingly. He says, come now and sit at my feet.

He says your name twice because He wants to get through to you. Chad. Chad. Richard. Richard. Alicia. Alicia. He’s trying to get through to us.

And I say it often because I have to say it because unless, you know, you live like a super long life, you’re not going to live in the 22nd century. You’re going to live in the 22nd century. You’re going to live in the 22nd century. You’re going to be 21st century people. And 22 years into this century, we all think we’re real important. We’re so busy. And we’re going and we’re doing. And if we really want to obey this text, it’s going to be hard because we’re going to have to turn off the iPhone and turn off the TV and just let certain tasks go unfinished. And we’re going to have to just say, Jesus, You’re more important. I’ve got to sit at Your feet. I’ve got to sit at Your feet. It’s the necessary thing, friends.

But going onward here in this passage, it’s not that if you really want to know Christ, you must be served by Him. You must. But secondly, you must serve Him. You must serve Him. Now, I’m not arguing with myself. I’m not jackaling and hiding this like I’m disagreeing with what I just said. But it seems like if we were just glancing at this text, we’re told to do nothing. It’s the necessary thing to sit at Jesus’ feet.

Still just thinking, if I could just sit with my legs crossed. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of some kind of guru in the Middle East and they’re sitting in a tree and their whole life is just pain and aesthetics and they just don’t move. Movement’s bad. So they’re just thinking. They’re meditating. And I think that’s dead wrong and it’s grossly unbiblical. Because if we look at Jesus’ life on the whole, what’s Jesus doing? A lot of times, He’s moving. He’s going. He’s intensely serving people. He’s intensely preaching and teaching the Gospel. And if I’m going to be His disciple and not be a hypocrite, I must intensely labor for Him and do the works of the Kingdom. And then even more than that, I mean, you know, there’s just practical side of life. Like I’ve got a family and I’ve got a job and I’ve got, you know, I’ve got to cut the grass. You know, like I’ve got stuff I’ve got to do. Like I can’t just sit crisscross forever. Like that can’t be right and it’s not right. Jesus is in no way condemning labor and service for Him. What He’s doing in this passage is showing us the vanity and foolishness of living for Him without having first. been with Him.

The foolishness and vanity of trying to live for God without having first been with God. In other words, you can’t live for the Kingdom of God without the power of the Kingdom of God. What is Christian service without Christ? What we see quite plainly in this passage, what it is. Martha shows us. What did Jesus say she’s doing? She’s anxious and she’s troubled. That’s what it’s like trying to live for the Kingdom of God in your own power without having been in Christ’s presence. It’s misery. It’s ineffective. It doesn’t work. You need to be with Jesus. So yes, give your whole life to Jesus. Serving Him. Knowing Him. But oh, must we see that Christ is our source for it. And I think it’s so telling. Who is it? I think Mary gets it, I guess, before Martha gets it. Because who is willing to break the really expensive jar of perfume that’s worth a ton of money and pour it all over Jesus’ feet? It was Mary. So you see, Mary, she was with Christ. So she also gives her all to Christ. And it’s not novel, because Jesus said this very thing in John 15.5. What did John say? What did Jesus say in John 15.5? He says, Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless what? You abide in Me. I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Apart from Me, you can do nothing.

Serving Jesus can’t replace knowing Jesus. Serving Jesus cannot replace knowing Jesus. You must serve Him. But knowing Him, that’s the only way service matters. When I know and serve God, I’m constantly amazed every day that God would use a vessel like me to do His work. Every day when I know and serve God, every day when I know and serve God, I’m brought back to that place of humble dependence. Like God, if You don’t show up, I don’t think that this can happen. I don’t imagine how I could share the gospel. I don’t imagine how I could hold my tongue. I can’t imagine how You would have used me for that. I can’t imagine how I would be a decent father, a decent husband, a decent anything, God, if You hadn’t showed up. And it all ends up in God being glorified in what God did through me when I know and serve. When I just serve, it’s all about what I can pull off. It’s all about how strong I am, how wise I am, how smart I am, how witty I am. And it always ends up in me trying to get glory for myself and me discovering really just how small and hollow I am. And it’s fruitless.

God doesn’t need us. Do you need that humility pill? God doesn’t need you. God, by His grace, would use you if you would say, Lord, here I am, but I need You for the whole thing. For all of it. For all of it. For evangelism, for work, for whatever it is in life. Like, God, I need You. If You would fill all, then You would be in all, which means everything would happen Your way, which means You would get all glory.

In Matthew 14, this is a super famous passage. And, you know, people that aren’t even Christians are kind of familiar with that kind of verse. But, you know, the story of

when Jesus is preached a long time and the disciples said, hey, they’re hungry, you know, send them away. You know, Jesus, send them away. They’re hungry so they can go eat. And Jesus says this amazing thing. He says, you feed them.

You feed them. Now, of course, they didn’t get it.

But the point, the point is made, God expects you and I to go out and to feed other people spiritual food and to be lights for Him. If we have been with Him, Christ says to you and I, you go out and do it. I have served you so that you can go and serve. In other words, my pastor going up would say this all the time, you cannot give away what you don’t have. You cannot give away what you don’t have. So I want to say to you again this evening, and I hope this is just a really simple word to you tonight about being with Christ. Be filled up with Jesus so Jesus can pour you out. Be filled up with Jesus so Jesus can pour you out for His glory. I was reminded preparing the sermon at fifth grade Sunday school. And I found my fifth grade Sunday school teacher on Facebook and I messaged him to let him know, hey, this thing came to mind. You said in the fifth grade and thanks for making an impact and blah, blah, blah and all that. And he said to us in fifth grade, make sure you spend time in God’s Word every morning because you need to take a piece of God with you through the day. You need to take a piece of God with you through the day. And I can’t tell you how many times in life since the fifth grade I’ve woken up or whatever, I’m like, I’d rather watch TV or I’m just going to not. And Phil Piercy pops up in my head. You need a piece of God. You need a piece of God. So I want to say to you the same thing tonight, friends. You and I need daily to have a piece of God with us so that we can live for God. So you, me, labor hard for Jesus. He deserves it. Labor hard till He calls you home. As a church, let’s labor. Labor. Labor. Labor to build a godly home. Let’s labor to reach out to, you know, local missions, places, events, things that God calls us to do where we can shine lights in our city. Let’s labor. Labor for God around the world when we go on mission trips. Let’s labor for Him, but let’s be filled up with Him so that we can say, I could do what I could do. We did what we did because Jesus Christ was our hope. We did what we did

In the early part of Matthew’s Gospel, which we looked at this verse a few years ago,

Jesus says in Matthew 7, verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name? And do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. And that’s so point blank for Jesus to say, hey, stop thinking you could do something for me to make me happy. Stop thinking you can earn your way to heaven. Stop thinking that our relationship is you do and I’m happy or I’m not happy based off of how well you do it. Jesus tells us what the will of the Father is. Jesus tells us this is literally what is the work, Jesus says in John’s Gospel. What’s the work you and I must do? He says the work is to believe on His name. Man, it’s to believe in Jesus. Because when we believe in Jesus, that He really is who He said He is, you know what we do? We sit at His feet. And in His presence, in the fullness of God, we have joy and pleasure and we’re taught and we’re shaped into His image. And then we’re shaped in His image. We’re set free to go do effective ministry for Him. And that’s what it is. That’s what it’s all about.

At the end of this, in that last sentence in verse 42 in Luke chapter 10,

Jesus says to Martha, He says, Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Mary has chosen the good portion and it’s not going to be taken away. Alright, my modern Chad translation the good stuff.

Mary has chosen the good stuff. And you know who the good stuff is? What the good stuff is? It’s just knowing Jesus. Man, that’s the good stuff. You get to choose your portion in life. You really do. Jesus invites you to choose the good stuff. Him. Life in Him. Knowing Him. Because when Jesus is your portion, everything else in life finds its place as Jesus leads and guides us through all of it and satisfies us and gives us joy and leads us home to His eternal glory. So I just want to invite you for the first time if you don’t really know Christ, but then I want to invite you if you know Christ back to the feet of the Savior. And it’s an amazing thing. Jesus says, man, if you turn, you come and sit at my feet, it’s not going to be taken away. It’s not going to be taken away. All the other portions you could have, they’re going to be taken away. Whatever else you think will make you happy, it won’t. But Jesus says, man, if you come and you make me your portion, it’s real and it’s eternal and it’ll never be taken away. Is Jesus your portion tonight? Is Jesus your good stuff?

Let’s pray.

Let’s pray. Father, how kind You are. Your Word tells us that if we were to sin against You,

endless times, endless times, You would forgive.

Your Word lets us know that You love us with a love everlasting.

You love us with a steadfastness. You love us, Lord, perfectly.

And I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t, I don’t always wake up with just the knowledge and awareness of that. I’m thinking about what I’ve got to get done. I’m thinking about what I want to do. I’m thinking about anything

than the most important stuff, God. But my prayer is that my heart, our hearts in this room tonight, would just, Lord Jesus, be at Your feet.

You would fill us. You would teach us. And then, God, that You would use us, Lord. I pray for people in this room tonight who are just busy. Who are just worn down with just task chores.

Some of them meaningless. Some of them just necessary, God. Just help us in the midst of busyness. Lord, just stop. Just help us find our refreshment from You and in You.

That’s my prayer over us, Lord. And if anyone doesn’t know You, Lord, I pray that they would know You. Choose a good portion. So that’s my prayer. Father, we pray it all in Jesus’ name.