Father, we thank You for that wonderful truth that every day we have a reason to thank You for Your goodness. There’s no day that can pass as bad as it may be that we still put at a great distance from Your goodness. Father, You are eternally good to us and You are with us. You are our strong tower, our mighty fortress, our shield, our strength.

Your Son is the keeper of our souls, Lord. Lord, we only want to live by faith in the reality of that. And if we don’t, we have hearts and minds that believe that and live as those who believe it when we respond to all the adversity and difficulty of Christian life. So we thank You, Father, for Your keeping power and grace. We pray You would bless our tither offering.

Lord, we trust You to be our caretaker. So Lord, let us freely give, knowing that the local church is Your Son’s body and it is the means through which Your gospel is going forth, Lord. And we pray that You would speak to us in Your word. We pray that in Christ’s name. Amen.

Well, good evening.

It’s good to be here with you. Thank you. I feel like we’re with one another, at least for the men, quite a bit more regularly, which I think has been good. Even doing hard things together is good. Good to build fellowship and learn how to do manly things. Maybe you didn’t know how to do before. Or just do them poorly like I do. So I had mostly written, a sermon for Revelation. But then I decided that I didn’t want to preach it. So I’ll preach it next week and finish it out. So I wrote a different sermon because I just felt led to. So if you would turn with me to Luke chapter 10. When I say I didn’t want to, I only mean I didn’t feel led. Like that’s maybe a good word for us today.

I think in light of this transition season we’re in and all the work that’s being done, I want us to not I want us to not miss what matters most for us. I want us to not miss I want us to not emphasize the parts that beg for our attention and are loud in our ear and drowned out other things that deserve our utmost devotion. And that’s easy to do when you get in different seasons of life. Luke chapter 10, verse 38.

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’re anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen a good portion which will not be taken away from her.

If Jesus came to town, that would be, I think, a really big deal, you would think. Certainly, if you were Martha and Mary and you believed Jesus was the Messiah and you wanted to know who he was more and you really leaned into his teaching and his working miracles, this isn’t like your aunt. From, you know, the other side of the country, you have to figure out a way how to entertain her for a week. And, you know, it’s not bad, but you’re not excited about it either. You know, we’ve all had those kind of family visits or, you know, this is different. This is different. And so it’s not surprising that we read that Martha welcomes him into her house and that Martha… Martha is serving. Of course she’s serving. Why wouldn’t you serve? You’re being hospitable, you’re having people in your house, you’re having God in your house that would be a cause to want to serve and be hospitable and make everything go well. And serving is a spiritual gift. Serving is an office in the church. So we have deacons for serving is what the Son of God came to do and he taught us to do, right? To serve one another. And that scripture calls us to sacrificial serving. Matthew 20, what does it say? For the Son of God did not come to what? Be served, but to serve. Give his life as a ransom for many. So I think each of us is followers of this ultimate servant. If we follow in his way, we have to take inventory. And I think often of the way we use our time, the way we use our energy, the number of commitments we make and put ourselves on the hook for and ask the question, am I serving God as I ought to be? Is God getting my best service? And it’s not a small point speaking in terms of the whole of scripture. Scripture is no friend to the lazy man. Proverbs have much to say about the lazy man and the poverty he ought to come to. The New Testament tells us, us to keep away from the one who is idle. You don’t work, you don’t eat. So laziness, biblically speaking, is to be reprimanded. It’s to be avoided. The lazy man has an empty plate every night. Certainly then, when we talk about the things of God, when we talk about ministry, and again, I’m not talking about strictly vocational ministry, but the ministries each of us have in our lives to serve God in different capacities, that has to be a hallmark and a cornerstone of a vibrant Christian life and a vibrant Christian church culture. Never have I met or heard about a great man of God who was lazy. Never. From Charles Spurgeon to D.L. Moody, you always read that they were tireless men who did, you know, more than someone could do in their lifetime. Same with Luther and Calvin, and you probably know godly men who shaped you or the godly men in your church growing up, and they were the folks who were there, weren’t they? Always serving, always giving, always reliable, always doing whatever it was that needed to be done. Women who give their all on the mission field, women who give their all in the local church. Probably you have a special person in your heart, like that person shows me what it looks like to give 150 percent in service to the local church, to God’s kingdom, you know. I’m always grateful for my dad. My dad, he’s like that 24-7. It’s commendable, but then when I was a kid, I didn’t like it because I was expected to be like that, you know. It’s like, so all those men who come in drywalling, they don’t, they have lives to live. What are they doing? They’re serving the local church. So I want to say that truly Christian people are truly tireless people who keep going. And it’s a theme throughout the New Testament. Keep going. Don’t stop. You’re laboring the Lord’s not in vain. And it certainly does come back. I want to make the point that it comes back in every way to love, and we’ve talked about it in a few sermons recently, as it regards suffering and laboring well in the Lord. Just as you can’t truly go on in the Christian life and suffering if you don’t really believe God. God loves you. Like, if I’m going to get to the end of this thing, and it’s a coin toss, that’s hard to suffer well for God when you’re not really sure if God loves you. Does God really forgive me for my sin? It’s the same thing when we talk about service. Am I going to give my life, my all to someone, you know, that I’m not really sure how they feel about me? No. So I think at the basis for people who give that kind of radical service to God, it’s a deep-held belief that God deserves my all, and it’s not forced, and it doesn’t hurt in the way that it hurts to do something I don’t want to do. It is a service that comes forth from love. Charles Spurgeon has said, the Holy Ghost is vexed by laziness. I cannot imagine the Spirit waiting at the door of a sluggard and supplying the deficiencies created by indolence. So friends, when you’ve not been captured by the all-consuming love of God, it’s not a we will not, it’s a we cannot live life in a sort of dragging, slothful idleness for His name. Because you have, if you’re a real Christian, don’t you have the Holy Spirit that is a fire? This is a mighty wind. You have the presence of God in you. And I’m not discounting the fact that each of us go through seasons when we’re off track, right, and we’re not pushing, and we’re not serving perhaps the way that we should, but the Spirit always brings me back to a place of passionate devotion to the name of Jesus. We have Paul for an example, don’t we? We have Peter. We have the early church. We have John the Baptist. We have Apollos. We have Priscilla. We have Aquila. We have, in the Old Testament, Moses. You have prophets who suffered on serving, though their work was hard. And it was, in every case, a labor of love. And it was, in every case, a labor of love. And it was, in every case, a labor of love. I think that that phrase is most true in the context of the Christian life. Serving God, serving the church, serving the cause of His kingdom is only possible if it’s a labor of love. Would we give back so little to Him who gave His all for us?

So, we want to be the kind of Christians, when a need is present, you’re just, you’re waiting for someone to ask you to help. You’re looking for the opportunity. You don’t want to be the guy, the girl, who there’s a need, and you’re just dodging when somebody’s going to get you in a corner and bend your arm until you find it. only say, all right, fine, I’ll show up and serve in that way. You want to be that person. That’s not the spirit of Christ. That’s not how local churches thrive. Be the kind of person who signs up for the bad job, the unwanted job, you know, drywalling. I can’t imagine someone thinking someday I’m going to make it to this. Not that it isn’t a fine profession and not that if someone enjoys it, they shouldn’t keep doing it. But if you’re not into drywalling and someone says, we have a need for this. That’s too hard for me. I don’t want to show up and shake hands or I don’t want to change diapers or I don’t want to this or I don’t want to that. How can I just give where there is great? Need. So eager to serve the church. Are you eager to hang around after? Eager to look for need no one knows is there maybe. That little book that I’ve had you read, had you read and, you know, it’s got a lot of practical things in it. Right. And it’s kind of it’s amazing. The main thrust is you ought to change the way you think about showing up to church. It’s not about you get what I get today, but rather, hold on. How am I going to give today? How am I going to serve? How am I going to love where I sit? All that stuff. It’s a paradigm shift. When you stop thinking about receiving, receiving, receiving and you’re giving, giving, giving.

Real service, real ministry starts with a heart to serve, to give. And as that as that little book points out, we ought to give our best and our all to attendance. Be the kind of person that if you’re not there, people go, they must be at the ER because I can’t imagine where they would be. They love the gathering of the saints. Be the kind of person that someone’s going to say, you can’t do that. You’re doing too much. You’re serving all over the place. Someone who outwardly has a mission to just give. And I suppose you could take all of it and apply it to what we said last week as it regards worshiping God with service, as we talked about with money. I want to radically serve the God who made me in the same way that I’m giving all I have to the God who made me, because the God who made me deserves my money if he wants it. And he deserves what I can do with my body and service if he wants it. God didn’t give us our time and our energy for us. And if I’ve got a little reserve here, you know, I’m going to do God this really big favor and I’m going to. I’m going to give him something. I’ve got a couple of coins. I’ve got, you know, an hour, maybe an hour, 45 minutes. I can give God. Be stingy with your money and be stingy with your time. You’ll be stingy with your resources. So in every way, that’s that’s biblical, because what does Paul say? Now, this is a very popular verse, but it’s important to kind of read down. To get the sense of it and what he what he’s talking about in Romans chapter 12, verse one, and we’ve all heard heard this verse appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, which is. Your spiritual worship. So what are you doing to worship God sacrificially with your life? But he goes on down further. And verse nine, after having talked about the different gifts we have to use in the church, all the ways that we serve. He goes even further past generosity, service, all those different things, zeal, cheerfulness that he says in their teaching. Love, be genuine, abhor what’s evil, hold fast to what’s good, love one another with a brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, spiritual worship given sacrificially to God. It is an outward activity of giving, not something, but the best thing. It’s a it’s a fervence. It’s a radical service to God.

So I think it’s a good question to ask. Look at yourself in the mirror and say, am I lazy for the Lord? Am I a lazy person? And then am I lazy in the things of God? Am I holding back? Paul says I ought to be fervent. So that means men that we have to be serving our families well and with fervency. That means I can’t get done with the day and come up in my house and disappear for a while and come out and do the bare minimum at dinner, do the bare minimum, even with family worship and leave my wife to deal with all the problems. And again, I’m preaching to myself here. I think that there’s a reprimand for men to just live in their house and not fervently leave their homes for the Lord. Same can be applied to wives and mothers. Am I giving my best to my husband, to my children? Am I serving the saints? Am I serving the local church? Am I loving the saints as best as I can love the saints? Am I serving the saints with my whole heart? Am I serving God outwardly where he’s calling me to serve? Am I passionate about personal holiness? The only way to do holiness is passionately. It’s kind of the nature of holiness is a zealous holiness. If you’re not really zealous for holiness, you’re not going to grow. And the reason that you’re not being holy and growing is growing’s hard and you have to be okay with calling yourself out on sin or more so letting other people call you out on sin and that hurts you’re touching my pride I don’t want somebody telling me I’m running at half when I’m you know think I’m running at full I don’t want somebody to tell me I need to improve but we just have to remember that that all life is just like a short day it’s a short little day and have I given this little in between when I was born and when I’ll die have I given that short time to the Lord undistracted focused zealous so when we come back to Martha then in this passage her problem is not that she is serving that’s not at all what what the text is condemning about Martha so what it says it says that Martha was distracted with much serving that’s the issue Martha was distracted with much serving distractions are deadly to a mission distractions are deadly distraction means something whether it’s a bad or a good thing has taken up my attention and time and energy to the point that my main focus is not being tended to that my main focus is not being tended to that the main goal is not being met I might do a million other things but am I doing the thing I set out to do the thing that matters most Martha is distracted and it’s not even something unworthy like social media or too many rounds of Sudoku or crossword puzzles or whatever people find themselves to get overly distracted with she’s serving no one’s condemning the serving it’s the much many many meaningless things foul things steal away our service to God and I know it’s an easy easy target but then again it’s just true in the year 2024 in America that the internet and social media does steal away a lot of good time we are really bad about importing useless media right again I get sucked down the trail of real sometimes too and I go what am I doing with my life here interest things I want to look at or is it hobbies things that aren’t bad things but they’re taking up more of my time than they should be is it overworking a day job which is a good thing a day job so it isn’t a kind of monkish lifestyle that’s called for here a much better a spirit filled life I think the monk life the aesthetic life is easy it’s easy in that it’s just no to everything just no that’s bad that’s bad it’s all bad now I can say I never touched anything bad or did anything wrong so I’ve got these rules in there kind of keep me in this box and if I can do that then that must mean I’m not distracted and I’m living for the right thing well certainly there is merit in living simply and there’s biblical merit in it right to be satisfied with the basics of life but much harder and it’s what we’re called to it’s harder but it’s better is we’re called to live by the spirit the spirit filled life Paul says but I say walk in the spirit in the spirit I discern what’s good and what’s bad what’s taking my time up and shouldn’t be taking my time up in the spirit I see how I am or am not serving too much or I’m giving away too much I’m involved in something too little we’re not mindless marionettes and it’s like alright spirit do it do your thing I’m here make sure I do the right things that’s not there’s personal responsibility in being spirit filled and I think that’s something to take very serious if we’re in the spirit we won’t abuse the good things from some pleasure or hobby to a nine to five job that I’m overworking at putting too much of myself in and I know this is where we just have to have a perennial reminder to refocus because we’re so good unless you’re way better than me we’re so good at overstretching ourselves marginalizing our relationship with the Lord marginalizing church life right we’re a people of commitments we commit commit commit commit commit I don’t know I gotta be there I don’t know I gotta be there I got this going on here I got this going on there and we fill it up with all the quote unquote important stuff there’s a danger of the on the go life there’s a danger of busying yourself into oblivion and it’s really I think it’s a tricky strategy of the enemy because you’re not per se doing something bad you’re just not doing what you should be doing when your life is owned by a number of tasks and obligations and at the same time I’ll say that there’s a great danger in living in the digital age on this point because it’s easy to even more so obsess over what I’m doing focus on what I’m doing and I’m pushing out real church right digital church is false church I’ll say that and put my name on it digital church is false church I watched an advertisement of a church recently and if you’re at home with us today it’s like just as good and you’re here thank you for being with us at church today no friends if we can’t get in the car and turn the ignition and drive to church we’re distracted like we’re so distracted but that’s not exactly here what I think even Jesus is getting at Jesus is getting more at here you can get involved in ministry and I’m not just talking about vocational ministry like being a pastor you can be a stay at home mom discipling your kids and that’s great or you can be you know in the workforce and God’s open certain doors for you or you can get involved deeply even at your local church or get involved in a Christian parachurch organization and what you can find is you give yourself so much to the service of God you stop actually knowing the God you serve and that is very dangerous and it’s very possible it’s very possible and it happens to pastors all the time and it leads to failures all the time so I guess that point feels particular to me and that’s probably why I wanted I don’t know to preach this you know I’ve talked to y’all before about being at the pregnancy center and all that and you know being tough on time and creating issues and I remember I guess it was the end of 2022 when I started being at that pregnancy center and I thought oh this is great I’m giving so much to the Lord I’m pastoring here and then I’m at this pregnancy center man talking people out and doing all this bad stuff and all this stuff and doing ministry here I am and we had another baby in the midst of all that and you realize oh I am not anyone’s hero and I do not have limitless spiritual energy and strength and I don’t care who you are or where you’re from you cannot serve Christ if you are not resting in Christ you can learn the hard way how frail you are if Christ is not your daily feast there is a way that you can serve God to the point where it will cost you knowing God being refilled by God growing in God and that is what our passage is talking about it’s talking about a kind of service to God that ruins our relationship with God so let me say this God has not saved you and me so that we can serve him he has saved us so we may know him here’s the counterintuitive trick when we know him we are fully prepared and inflamed to serve him well that’s the counterintuitive trick and this is the point Martha hasn’t learned yet because she’s driven her to the point of missing Christ for the sake of serving him you’re like what is that what is that what is that thing that I’m going to keep serving Christ because I mean gee if I love Jesus I’m just going to serve myself to his displeasure is that my fault I just gosh I just love God so much that I serve him to the point where I ran empty I mean is he going to hold that against me friends if we’re in the spirit then we have the humility to see I can only serve God knowing my service to him first comes from him so a person who I’m going to serve serve serve serve serve and I’m never going back and sitting at Christ’s feet and I’m not learning from him and I’m not in his presence enjoying him meditating on who he is that’s someone who lacks what we need and that’s the humility to see how much we need to know Christ you can never give up you’re knowing Christ to serve Christ so it’s not commendable it’s not commendable I’ve really burned out I’ve really ran myself in the ground for the Lord I’ve just been given so much oh wow you really love the Lord that you’re just so tired and burned out that’s not commendable that’s not awe for you it’s pride shame on you for thinking you can do so much learn to say I need to sit down with Jesus I’m not God’s hero I’m responsible for stewarding things that God puts in my hands I’m not responsible for bringing spiritual success God brings spiritual success everything that I do everything is not on your shoulders your worth is not found in your success for the Lord your worth is found in being called a child of God okay I’m saying things to you that I’m saying to myself no one is replaceable God doesn’t need us He loves us

Jesus said to the weary the heavy laden come to me and why did Jesus say come to me well He said my yoke is easy my burden is light and that doesn’t mean that the Christian life isn’t challenging it doesn’t mean the Christian life doesn’t ask us to push really hard and give our best sometimes and we’re in maybe hard seasons of service it doesn’t mean we’re not going to get in you know valleys it doesn’t mean that it means at the end of it we can always know you know what it doesn’t fall on my shoulders all I can do is depend on Jesus serve Him love Him share Christ do the ministry that God’s put in my hands and then I can go to bed at night head on the pillow in peace there’s a lightness to knowing Christ and I’m not going to fall so have humility have humility to give God your best in the spirit let’s say God all the results all the success that comes from you have the humility to trust the spirit don’t think so highly of your abilities don’t see yourself as this ever needed person and how are you going to do that how are you going to pull that off through the Lord how are we going to get this thing done I’m going to come to this pregnancy center and we’re going to build this awesome ministry and it’s going to be so great and it’s going to take my all and it’s up to me and if it doesn’t work out it’s my fault

you know the thing about giving your self to the service of God without God is there’s actually no joy or satisfaction in the work in the end of it because when you build things even if it’s for the Lord there’s no heavenly joy to be found in that it was built by your hands and fall apart tomorrow if God so decides so life is best lived as a dependent life is best lived trusting the goodness and kindness of your Father and your Shepherd Jesus there is no happy meal Jesus there is no happy meal Jesus you cannot quickly linger it defies the word linger you cannot spend quality time with Jesus in a insta kind of way slow is slow practicing quietness practicing pushing the world out even ministry sometimes is the spiritual impulse that I believe Christ is advocating for here as he says Mary has chosen the good portion Mary has chosen the good portion and as she reprimanded she’s chosen the good portion and she’s going to have to do all the dishes at the end of the night because she sat there at my feet Jesus commends her not because she’s lazy not because she did something wrong he commends her because she valued the things she should have valued above everything else

Mary’s not lazy she’s just not living beyond her capacity either and that’s spiritual maturity so church I want to say to us without resting well in Christ without learning from Christ there is no laboring well for Christ and it’s a daily fight because every morning when you wake up you are still sinful you and boy that flesh is strong sometimes and I gotta send that email I just gotta send that email right you’re in prayer and it’s oh I forgot to get back to that guy or I gotta put this thing together or they’re counting on me I gotta be working Jesus has chosen the better portion and the better portion is him it’s like it’s like a car and somebody’s like I don’t have time to stop for gas and they’re just in the middle of the road with their foot on the pedal with no gas and their tank’s sitting there I don’t have time I can’t do that friends we need humility you’re not some tool in God’s hand you’re a dearly loved child for whom Jesus did the work and spilled his blood and there’s no work you or I can do to add to what Christ already did so let’s practice patience let’s practice quiet let’s practice detachment learning how to just be with Jesus he says it’s the one thing necessary and a lot of it comes to as well I think the lack of concern we have today for Sabbath and I’ve been talking to Jessica about this Sunday is not a day we go to church and then well it’s whatever day it needs to be again there’s something to letting the Sabbath be the Sabbath and it’s not and I know Paul says one day is sacred to one and not to another and I understand that that Jesus is our ultimate Sabbath at the same time Sabbath does precede even the law of Moses when you see God resting so there’s a sense in which I think it’s good even for the Lord’s day to be a day where I am in more constant reflection upon Christ I am meditating on his word I’m not going to let myself get busier on that day because I’m not going to be I’m not so important in my schedules it’s so important that I can’t give one day to the Lord and trust he’ll make up all the other means so I’m not laying a law down I’m saying there is there is something I think deeply spiritual about Sabbath Sabbathing when we choose to let the Lord’s day be more than a service the service I show up to I go into church right I think I think that’s not coming up to the level where Jesus is wanting us to rest in him now on the flip side of that we can take it too far I’ve been reading this book on Puritans and what were they really like in day to day life and there’s a chapter on things the Puritans got wrong and so the Puritans on Sabbath day for example found they caught a woman hanging out her wet laundry to dry and so took her to court and a man’s foot was hurting because there was a hole in his shoe so he tried to put something in the hole so his foot was hurt wouldn’t hurt when he walked took him to court so you can you can you can get really law of Moses if you’re not careful so I’m not I’m not suggesting these laws that I’m imposing I’m talking about the same thing I’m talking about last week in terms of culture so last week we said ten percent do I have to give the ten here’s the ten that’s not that’s not the culture of Abel that’s not the culture of Barnabas who gave their all right it’s a culture of generosity not a do don’t thing and it’s the same thing when we come to service or to knowing God like I did my 15 minute Bible study God are you happy with that I don’t want to feel guilty today that’s a very you know transactional way to think about what it means to be at Christ’s feet it’s not transactional like I read these verses I said a prayer for these things and now I can go and not feel like God’s frowning on me I don’t want I don’t want that I want a culture a culture of knowing God I don’t want to approach the text I don’t want to approach prayer I don’t want to approach even my service as what I must do it’s much more it’s what I get to do so we’re talking about life orientation that’s what we’re talking about we’re not talking about what you should be doing we’re talking about who you should be being here

Mary chose the good portion and it will not be taken away from her I want to give us that precious piece of scripture always but certainly as we do come into a new season of ministry in a new place and so many things to get done and figuring out how to reorganize and drywalling and what order of drywalling and this and doing this stuff and it’s so easy to get focused on here’s what I got to get done here’s what I I should wear myself out on and I just want to give us all a check in our spirit to say I think actually what we need to do first in quality is set it to be to Jesus that’s what that’s what we need and this won’t be the first or the last time that we need that check in our spirits right be with Christ that’s what he’s calling us to to know him

Father we thank you that your son did not just send a message from heaven your son came your son came flesh and blood and and and I thank you and he showed us what it means to love God what it means to serve what it means to be in the kingdom to live in the culture of the kingdom to be filled with your spirit so what I do pray for conviction where we need it where we are perhaps either in our spirit under serving you or Lord wearing ourselves out in life so that we aren’t serving you or overdoing it Lord I just pray that Christ would be center he would be like the sun right in the middle of the solar system and he is he is deciding that we how everything works how everything moves he is he is dictating what life should look like for each of us and we know that in that life is goodness and hope and joy and peace and passion and the good kind of hard work that you use to bear fruit it’s all right there in Jesus and we know that Jesus is Simon you can

Preacher: Chad Cronin