One Thing (Part 1): I Need

Good morning.

Welcome to Orchard Hill.

It's great to be together here in the chapel, Strip District, Butler County.

I want to thank you and all three locations just for your investment in Christmas this last year.

So many of you served, so many of you invited people, so many of you prayed.

And it was a great run.

We've heard so many good stories about how God has worked already in and through just the services on Christmas Eve and around that whole season.

And if uh you're here after experiencing Orchard Hill for one of the first times over the Christmas season, uh we're just so glad that you're here.

Welcome, and uh we hope that you, as you did over the Christmas season, will find just a value and an opportunity to connect with uh the creator of the universe uh by being a part of the gathering here this morning.

Uh I also just wanted to let you know if you were here at Christmas Eve, I talked a little bit about some of the gifts that my wife had gotten me.

I talked about how she had gotten me a book that was eat this, not that, uh, one year for Christmas, and then she'd gotten me hair thickening shampoo, and I was a little concerned about what the gift might be uh this last year.

She didn't disappoint.

Uh when I opened up my my stocking on Christmas morning, in my stocking there was a nose-ear hair trimmer.

She claims that she forgot she had bought it after I had publicly uh you know made this statement, and she said it was a very high-quality one.

Um and uh and by the way, some of you who are younger are like, really?

Somebody needs that thing?

Um when you hit a certain age, hair starts to boldly go where no hair has gone before.

And so all of a sudden you will need such things.

Um let's pray and then we'll jump into uh what we're doing here this morning.

Father, thank you just uh for bringing each person to be a part of Orchard Hill this morning.

Lord, I ask that you would speak to all of us.

Lord, I pray that you would let my words reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're beginning a new series that we're calling one thing.

And the idea is that we're going to utilize this phrase that appears several times in our Bible, one thing.

And as we walk through this, what I'm hoping is that as we begin a new year, that these phrases will help you, help me to understand what is really most important, what's most essential.

Now, my uh first kind of passage that we're going to look at is this passage you heard read uh from Luke chapter 10, where Martha and Mary are entertaining Jesus in their home, in Martha's home, and what happens is Martha's busy and she gets annoyed because Mary's sitting and listening to Jesus, and Martha says, Could you tell my sister to help?

Luke 10 · chapter mention

And Jesus does this thing where he says, Martha, Martha, you're worried, you're upset about all kinds of things, but there's only one thing.

And the New International Version says you're worried about many things, but there's only one thing that you really need to think about or necessary in your life.

And what has happened over the years, if you've been around church, you've maybe heard this passage taught, and if not this passage, you've certainly heard this idea.

And that is for many people, what they'll do is they'll say, okay, it's a new year, it's a time to have a new you.

And many of us will do this on our own.

We don't need church or anybody else.

We'll start to say, okay, a new year means this is a good time to get in shape.

I don't know if any of you have that resolution, like this time I mean it, kind of a thing.

Uh we'll have resolutions around our jobs, around our careers, around our spending.

We'll say, this is a time to get out of debt.

This is a time to be more generous, this is a time for this.

We'll have resolutions sometimes around our families.

We'll say, this year I'm going to invest more in my kids, in my grandkids, or in my relationships.

I'm not going to work as much.

I'm going to date.

I'm going to do something that will help me live the kind of life I want to live.

And what happens is we make all these resolutions and we say, okay, I'm going to have a better life.

And then some of us will add to this a spiritual resolution.

And we'll say, and I need to this year be serious about my relationship with God, more serious than I've been.

I'm going to stop some of the sinful patterns I've been involved in.

I'm going to be serious about participating in groups or serious about spending time with God on a regular basis.

And sometimes when people come to this passage, what happens is they read this passage and they say, This passage is really showing us that we need to slow down.

What we need to do is we need to create more space in our life for God.

We need to reorient our priorities.

We need to make sure that our priorities are right.

We need to make sure that we're managing our time well so that we have time for everything and for Jesus.

And what happens for some of us is we come into a new year feeling a little bit of pressure because we have all kinds of things that are spinning.

We have work things, maybe we have four, five, six things in that arena.

We have demands like trying to get into the right school, trying to plan a wedding, trying to deal with our spouse, trying to deal with our kids, trying to keep up our health.

And we just say, okay, and now I need to add one more plate, which is the plate of God.

And what a lot of messages on this passage will do is they'll say, so what you need to do is you need to be meticulous about how you manage everything.

Let me give you some time management tips so that you have time for God, because that's the ultimate most important priority and the one that you need.

Now, having said that, that that's not awful in the sense of we all do make priority decisions.

And learning to manage our time and giving ourselves to goals is good.

It's natural, it's human.

But I don't believe that this is exactly what Jesus is saying.

I don't think that what he's doing in this little story with Martha and Mary is he's saying, all of my followers for all time, learn how to manage your time and make me a priority.

And the reason I say this, when we look at this, you'll see it, but but the reason I say this is all that would be is another plate for you and me to spin all the time.

All that would be was another thing for us to say, now, in order to live a life that's pleasing to God, I need another thing that I have to do at a high level.

And the truth is, for most people that I meet, even if they don't feel particularly busy or under the crushing demands of a schedule, most people I meet feel exhausted.

And they feel exhausted because they, whether they have time or not, feel the pressure of so many demands in their life where they say, I have to perform and I have to perform well.

And then when they come to church, they go, and now I just get another demand.

It's the God demand, it's the ultimate demand, it's the biggest demand.

And the reason I say that I'm not sure that this is what this passage teaches, is I think it runs counter to the whole New Testament.

And I think when we look a little more closely at this passage, what we will see is that Jesus has something else for us.

He has a freedom for us in the midst of this.

And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to walk through uh several of the characters here, or the characters that are in this story.

So Martha, Mary, Jesus, see things as as we look at their character and then talk about you and me and what it means for us.

Because if you and I simply say, I'm going to use God to help me manage all of my spinning plates better in this year, you know, this is gonna be my year of breakthrough or something like that.

And if I just get God in the right space, what we're really doing is we're creating for ourselves a bigger burden.

And Jesus said something in Matthew 11 that was pretty significant.

He said, I want you, said anyone, come unto me, all you who are heavy laden or heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.

See, Jesus didn't come to give us more burdens, he came to give us rest.

But so often what happens is we come and we say, Well, if I'm going to please God, then I need to do and perform for God just like I do for everything else in my life.

In fact, a lot of times people's whole focus of Christianity becomes about what we do, how well we're doing, how much we're performing for God rather than what Jesus Christ has done for us.

And that's why I say I think this gets turned around.

So let's look at first Martha in this account.

So Martha is the one who was hosting Jesus.

And I believe that sometimes Martha gets a bad rap in this because people will say things like, you should have a merry heart in a Martha world, and you need to figure out how to set aside all of these responsibilities so that you can focus on Jesus.

And again, it's the it's the Jesus is another plate analogy when we think about this.

But the reason I say Martha gets a bad rap is what Martha was doing was entertaining.

And in that culture, to be hospitable was something that was seen as a duty.

In fact, it wasn't just a duty, it was a biblical responsibility to be hospitable, to welcome people, strangers, into your home.

Romans chapter 12, verse 13 is just one instance, but there are dozens of scriptures that talk about the priority of hospitality.

Romans 12:13

Now, in our day and age, we we practice hospitality sometimes by having people in our home, sometimes by going out to eat.

But what hospitality is, is it's saying I am going to sometimes set aside my own agenda, my own desires to provide a nice experience for somebody else.

Some of you say, yes, I spent the last two weeks of my life practicing hospitality.

I know exactly what it is.

But the reason I say that that Martha sometimes gets a bad rap is sometimes what we want to do is we want to say, Well, what you should do is just forget all your responsibilities and sit at the feet of Jesus.

But Martha was doing something that is biblical and right.

Not only that, the Bible commends industry.

Proverbs chapter 6, verse 6, among dozens of other places.

Proverbs 6:6

So Martha being the hardworking one, the responsible one, is not something that we can just go, stop your responsibility, stop your industry, and sit at the feet of Jesus.

She did not do the wrong thing and she didn't do the right thing the wrong way.

She was somebody who was trying to fulfill an obligation in a respectable way.

And here's the truth.

You and I want Martha's around us.

We want people who will do what is needed and expected when it doesn't feel good.

That's not to be looked at as something that somehow is negative.

But here's the problem with Martha.

And it's this there's three words that are used to describe her here.

Here's what we see.

Verse 40, but Martha was distracted, and then Jesus' own comments on her, he says, You, verse 41, are worried and upset about many things.

So Jesus' assessment of Martha is this.

She's distracted, she's upset, she's worried.

Now here's my question.

Do you enjoy life when you're distracted, upset, and worried?

Probably not.

In fact, most of us would much rather be focused, would much rather be present, would most rather be peaceful than distracted, upset, and worried.

So why was Martha distracted, upset, and worried?

Well, I would suggest that part of the reason wasn't that she was trying to do what is right or good, but that she was putting so much weight on herself to do everything just right.

It was the performance trap that says, the reason I have value is because I perform.

The reason she was upset at her sister was because her sister wasn't helping her perform, wasn't helping her do what she wanted.

And so she tries to enlist Jesus to say, tell my sister to help me.

And what happens for many of us, whatever our plates are that are spinning, is we say, the reason that I have value, the reason that I have worth is because I'm able to keep all the things going in my life.

I'm able to look good because I work out, I'm able to keep my career moving and earn enough money to do the things I want.

I can keep up the house and the stuff the way that I need to.

I can keep, you know, my spouse, my kids, my parents, my friends all happy with how I live.

And we go through our lives just simply worried and upset because one of those things will come crashing down.

Here's how one author wrote about it.

He said, if I can do enough of the right things, I will have established my value.

Identity is the sum of my achievements.

Hence, if I satisfy the boss, meet the agenda of my spouse and children, and still pursue my dreams, then I will be somebody.

And I listen to this, because this isn't how we normally tie this together.

He says, in Christian theology, such a position is called justification by works.

It assumes my worth is measured by my performance.

Conversely, it conceals a dark and ghastly fear.

If I don't perform, I will be judged unworthy.

See, the reason that we're distracted, worried, and upset.

More often than we're peaceful, focused, and in a sense, energized around the things that matter in our lives, is because what we're doing is we're saying, the reason I have worth is because I can do all these things to a good level.

And what we do is we presume that our achievement precedes our acceptance.

And so, whatever your things are in this world, and they're different for all of us, but whatever they are, when we start to say, this is how I have my sense of worth, what we're doing is we're building an identity that says my value is in how well I do all these things.

And this is exactly why Martha found herself in this place.

So let's look secondly at Mary.

So Mary is the one who usually gets the good publicity, and that's not inaccurate.

Because what Mary does is she sits, we're told, at the feet of Jesus, the Lord's feet.

Verse 39.

She had a sister, Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said.

And to sit at somebody's feet in that culture was to sit and to take in what they were teaching.

It would be a receptive stance, saying, I'm listening to and I'm buying what it is that you're talking about.

And so that is what she is doing in this moment.

And what happens sometimes when when we hear this is we say, okay, so to sit at Jesus' feet means to take in his teaching.

Therefore, I need to take in his teaching and I and I need to make that my my thing.

But notice the posture here.

She's sitting, she's not doing.

She's receiving, she's not performing.

She's being, she's not doing.

So often what we do when we think about sitting at Jesus' feet, even, is we say, Well, I need to take in because what I need to do is I need to learn how to do all the things that God wants me to do.

But sitting at Jesus' feet meant receiving from him, but but the very posture was her way of being able to, in essence, say, I'm receiving, I'm not producing.

And so sitting at Jesus' feet has some element here of us being able to say, what I'm doing is I'm receiving, I'm not producing, I'm trusting, I'm not trying to prove myself.

So let's see what Jesus does with this.

So when Jesus interacts with this, we hear these words.

He says, Martha, Martha.

So he starts off by simply saying her name.

Now, we don't know the tone, but what we can gather from this is that he was saying something that was important.

When you repeat somebody's name, what you're doing is you're saying, saying, I want you to get this.

I want you to understand this.

And so what Jesus does is he says, I want you to come and listen to me.

I want you to understand what I'm about to say.

And what does he say?

He says this, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one.

Again, some of the older translations say there's only one thing that's needed.

Here's what it is that you need.

And what is Jesus doing here?

He's saying, you can be busy about all kinds of duties, all kinds of obligations, all kinds of things that are important, but there's one thing you need, and that is you need to come and you need to sit at my feet, you need to rest, you need to understand that I am the one who gives relief from the heavy burdens of life.

Now, this is, in my estimation, a picture of the gospel message itself.

Because what Jesus is doing is he's saying, saying, Listen, I know you know who I am and you have a relationship with me, but he's saying, I want you to sit, I want you to be able to say, This isn't about what I do, but it's about what Jesus has done.

You see, so often, what we want to do is we want to say, okay, Jesus saved me in the past by me coming to understand who Jesus is and that I'm a sinner and need a savior, but now I will work to prove my worth.

But Jesus last statement was it is finished before his death.

The Buddhas, by the way, was what?

Never cease striving.

Do you hear the difference?

One says, work, do, perform.

Jesus says, I have done it on your behalf.

I've done it.

And the reason this is so important is what will happen for some of us is we'll say, okay, I get that that I need a savior.

That's good, but now what I need to do is I need to prove my worth.

And what Jesus does here is he says, Mary has chosen what's better.

You've chosen something good to perform, but I'm going to tell you something better.

And it's not that Mary gets off the hook of ever having to entertain or be hospitable or be industrious.

It's that he's saying, what she's come to see is that she's not defined by this.

She's defined by what I've done for her.

And she's sitting at my feet.

And this is, in a sense, the message of all of Christianity that Jesus has done for you and me, what we cannot do.

This is why he says, Come unto me and I will give you rest, because we don't have to keep striving.

Jesus says, It is finished, and I've done it for you.

And this is exactly why he can say, She's chosen what's better, and then he says, She's chosen what is lasting.

She's chosen something that will endure.

See, when when you and I live for saying, I'm going to take care of all of the spinning stuff of my life, what happens is someday we walk away and somebody else picks up those same plates.

But when we are in a place where we say, I'm defined by something more, then what happens is we're able to say I'm living for something that's that's bigger than just the thumbs up or the thumbs down of the current situation.

Now I understand this because I like getting the little positive check mark on something.

I have a little app that uh that has some workouts on it, and it has a little place that if I do a workout every day, I get a nice check mark.

I'm amazed at how much I like getting a check mark.

It's ridiculous, actually.

It's like I'm gonna do this because I want to get my check mark, my positive check mark.

And what happens when we when we come and understand who Jesus is, is he's saying, I've already done for you, if you are in Christ, what has given you the standing.

And that is what will give you the freedom to say, I can have all the demands, I can make all the goods.

Goals that I need because there's one place where I can sit at the feet of Jesus.

And here's the real problem.

The real problem is down deep, even though I know this and I proclaim it, sometimes I don't believe it.

And what I mean by that is sometimes what I really think is that God will like me better if I perform better for Him in some way, and God will like me less if I fail in some way.

But what have I done when I say that?

What I've done is I've made it all about me and I've made it back into a works righteousness kind of thing where I'm saying the reason that I'm okay is because I perform.

When the whole gospel message says the reason you're okay is not because you perform, because your performance will never measure up.

You're okay because Jesus has performed on your behalf.

Which means God will not love you anymore this year if you perform well or if you and he won't love you any less if you perform poorly.

To sit at Jesus' feet means you get that.

So what do you and I do with this?

Well, uh the easy answer would be to say, okay, so what does it mean for you and me to sit at Jesus' feet?

How do I orient my life so that I can sit at Jesus' feet enough?

Well, uh in some senses, I'm going to say something that's going to sound counterintuitive to what I've just said.

Um, so so I'm going to say two things.

Uh the first is, I think we need to discipline ourselves to be at Jesus' feet.

Now you say discipline yourself, that sounds like something I must do.

That sounds like a plate I have to spin.

Well, here's the reality of anything in your life or my life, and that is if we simply say, I'm just going to kind of uh let this happen, it doesn't happen.

So when I talk about disciplining ourselves, what I mean is putting yourself in a place over and over and over again where you and I are reminded of the truthfulness of what we've just said.

Because everything else in our lives pulls us into the performance cycle that says, now I perform, now I'm worthwhile, now I've I've worked out enough, now I've I've earned enough, now I've spent enough time with, I've cared enough, I've done enough.

And the only way that we'll sit at Jesus' feet is if we pull ourselves out of the vortex of all of that and say, I'm going to put myself in a place where I can be reminded of this truth in a powerful way on a consistent basis.

But the second part of this is we really need to delight ourselves in this.

And here's what I mean.

You've heard people talk about the importance of like a couple having a date night, and couples will sometimes put a date night on their calendar.

But you know what's really important if you have a date night is that you actually have fun when you do it.

Like you have to delight yourself.

Like having a date night isn't all that awesome if all it is is like, check, we we we had a date night.

Like the date night is there to remind yourself that you like each other in the middle of life.

And sometimes what we need to do is we need to say, okay, I'm disciplining myself in order to delight myself in who God is and what God has done.

And the way that this happens is when we put ourselves in that place until we're reminded of what God has done through Jesus Christ on our behalf, and that is where we will find the freedom and the courage and the strength to keep going in all of the stuff that's in front of us.

But without this, what happens is what I called earlier justification by works, in a very practical way, what you and I will do is we'll say, I know I'm saved maybe by this grace, but the way that God really likes me, the way that my life really matters is if I can, and then we fill in our blanks with all the things that we must get done.

And the truth is the more stuff, the more successful you are, the better you are at something, the more stuff you'll have to be responsible for.

And what happens is it just grows and grows and grows until you say, I'm exhausted.

Unless you say, I can come and sit at Jesus' feet and know that He is enough and I am seen as loved regardless in this place.

And that'll provide freedom in this year and in your life and in mine.

Let's pray together.

Father, we ask very simply today that you would help each one of us to not just simply uh add you or stuff to all of the demands of our lives, but we would see and savor what it is to be people who are redeemed by your son.

Who have come to understand that that living in the light of the gospel isn't just an entrance into the into the kingdom, but it's a it's a way of savoring and living and enjoying everything that you've done.

And so, God, I pray that that would be true for me, and I pray it would be true for each person here.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.