Sermon

A Gracious Reminder to Faithful Servants | April 22, 2026

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Luke chapter 10 we're going to our message tonight is going to

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  8. come from 5 verses coming from Luke chapter 10.

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  9. The text tonight will be verses 38 through 42 and as you're

  10. finding that I just want to commend you for gathering

  11. together of course in the middle of your busy week, you've put

  12. other things intentionally aside to be here tonight.

  13. I know it's it's a good habit of the majority of us, but don't

  14. take it for granted that you certainly are busy, busy

  15. schedules. Maybe you've come right from

  16. work, but you've you've chosen to be here tonight and it says a

  17. lot about how you feel about the Lord and how you feel about his

  18. church. And I just I'm thankful that

  19. you're here and I know the Lord wants to bless as we continue

  20. tonight in looking at the word of God.

  21. So Luke chapter 10, our text 30, verses 38 through 42, it's a

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  22. familiar passage of Scripture. And maybe you're gazing down at

  23. the verses right now and you're looking at these verses and

  24. they're already very familiar to you.

  25. And as I've said before, when we consider a familiar passage of

  26. Scripture, we want to not have in the forefront of our minds.

  27. So I know what this this passage is talking about.

  28. I know what it says. And so unfortunately I came

  29. tonight, but I got to hear something I already know.

  30. And so I'm going to tune out. I want to encourage you to be

  31. continue to be open to what the Lord would have to say to you

  32. through our passage tonight. And so in our passage we are

  33. presented with the two, with two sisters that who are known for

  34. their love and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, that being

  35. Mary and Martha. I think when you hear those

  36. names, if you're familiar with the word of God, you when you

  37. hear the names Mary and Martha, you probably think of 2 ladies

  38. who were part really of that early church and they were known

  39. for their love and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the

  40. cause of Christ. And of course, there are some of

  41. us here tonight who are not as familiar with Mary and Martha.

  42. Some of these things tonight will be new to you, and they

  43. will be profitable for you in your your Christian life as we

  44. hear God's Word and take in these truths tonight.

  45. But though these two ladies, Mary and Martha, undoubtingly

  46. love the Lord, we will see that even faithful servants need

  47. gracious reminders about the most important areas of the

  48. Christian life. And that in fact, that's the

  49. reason why we do come to God's Word and why we do gather as a

  50. church. One reason is because we need

  51. reminding of the truths of God's Word and how they apply to our

  52. lives. And so if we were to consider

  53. the the whole of Luke chapter 10, we'd see a lot of

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  54. information, we'd see a, we'd see a few things that need to be

  55. important to us in the Christian life.

  56. And so we'd see a couple other areas that are essential to the

  57. Christian life. And so earlier in Luke chapter

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  58. 10, we would see that Jesus was commissioning the 70 to go

  59. deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ around Israel and around

  60. Jerusalem. And so we would see from that

  61. passage of Scripture, we'd be reminded that we are ambassadors

  62. for Christ. We are representatives of Jesus

  63. and then as we would further read into Luke 10, we would see

  64. in read of Jesus telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

  65. So these are all in the same passage of Scripture where Jesus

  66. is commissioning the 70, where there is a man who's been robbed

  67. and beaten on the road and the one person who walked by him and

  68. took care of him and loved on him was the man from Samaria.

  69. And we would see from that account that we are to be loving

  70. neighbors. We are to be caring neighbors

  71. out there in the community. But in our chunk of verses

  72. tonight, verses 38 through 42 will discover that Christ places

  73. more significance on an area of the Christian life.

  74. So we see that we are ambassadors for Christ, but then

  75. we also see that we are to be caring and loving neighbors.

  76. But in just these these 5 or 6 short verses tonight, we'll see

  77. that this is actually one of the most important aspects of the

  78. Christian life. And that is the matter of our

  79. personal relationship with Christ, our personal worship of

  80. the Lord Jesus. In fact, without our own

  81. personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the rest of the

  82. Christian life is going to be difficult to live out unless our

  83. heart is in tune and in love with and in submission to the

  84. Lord Jesus. So we have a lot of

  85. responsibilities in the Christian life, do we not?

  86. That is why we therefore need a gracious reminder quite often

  87. from the Lord. So let me ask you this just a

  88. question to get you thinking along these lines tonight as we

  89. jump into our passage. Why did Christ come into your

  90. life to save you? Why did Christ save your soul?

  91. You say, Well, it was to forgive me of my sin, and to make me

  92. free from sin, and to Take Me Home to heaven when I die.

  93. Well, I ask you this is that the only reason for which Christ has

  94. saved you, saved you? Why has he forgiven you?

  95. Why has he cleansed you from your sin?

  96. Why has he removed the consequences of sin from your

  97. soul? Why did Christ enter into your

  98. life and save your soul? You might be thinking, Dan,

  99. you're talking to the choir tonight.

  100. I, I think we know why Christ save us, saved our souls.

  101. Well, if Mary and Martha are also in the choir, they're

  102. singing soprano. There's some things that they

  103. know as well, but some things that Christ observes that they

  104. needed to be graciously reminded of.

  105. And so the title of our message tonight is a gracious reminder

  106. to faithful servants, A gracious reminder to faithful servants.

  107. So let's look here tonight at verse 38 through verse 32 of

  108. Luke chapter 10. God's Word says in verse 38 Now

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  109. it came to pass as they went, this is Jesus and his disciples

  110. as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a

  111. certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

  112. And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and

  113. heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about

  114. much serving. She was busy, very occupied with

  115. much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not

  116. care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?

  117. Bid her therefore that she helped me.

  118. Martha a little fired up here, a little aggravated.

  119. Verse 41 and Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,

  120. thou art careful and troubled about many things.

  121. There's a lot on your heart. There's a lot on your mind

  122. there. There's a lot causing you to be

  123. overwhelmed with anxiety. But verse 42, he continues to

  124. say to her, one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen

  125. that good part which shall not be taken away from her.

  126. So if you're taking notes tonight, I want us to see, to

  127. begin, that Jesus entered the home of a family who were known

  128. for their love for him. If you were to walk around this

  129. area of Bethany, which is the small town in which Mary and

  130. Martha lived, and you heard the name Mary and Martha and you

  131. heard the name Lazarus, you would probably automatically

  132. associate them with Christ and his disciples, with the Kingdom

  133. of God and the work of God in the earth.

  134. And so this is the home of which Jesus enters, that he enters,

  135. the home of a family that were known, had a reputation and had

  136. a testimony of their love for Christ.

  137. So this was the home of Martha, whose sister and brother were

  138. Mary and Lazarus. And so I want us to consider

  139. these two ladies tonight in their response to Christ

  140. entering into their home. And so let's consider Martha for

  141. a moment. So Martha.

  142. Martha has been known for being a worker for Jesus.

  143. As we consider her throughout the Gospels, we typically see

  144. her as being occupied. We see her being busy with much

  145. serving. She it was no problem for her to

  146. get hard work done. It was Martha's love for Jesus

  147. that perhaps drove her to so much serving.

  148. She was perhaps very hospitable. She really had no problem

  149. hosting people in her home. Probably she was considered an

  150. exceptional cook of her day. She gave attention to some of

  151. these details when it come came to hospitality.

  152. No doubt she knew how to make her house a home in that it was

  153. presentable and it was welcoming, especially when Jesus

  154. Christ was going to stop in. Imagine that.

  155. Imagine getting word that the Messiah was going to come visit

  156. you in your home. Martha likely was the type of

  157. person who didn't feel satisfied with herself unless she was

  158. convinced that she worked really hard at whatever she set her

  159. hands to do. It seems as if though that she

  160. was certainly the person to go to.

  161. If you needed to be assured that something was going to get done,

  162. you could put your trust in Martha that she was going to not

  163. displease you with her effort. It would then be safe to assume

  164. that Martha found it very easy to say yes to other people when

  165. they needed someone to make sure something in her skill set got

  166. done. They could count on on Martha.

  167. People probably knew that if they left the task up to her, it

  168. would certainly get done. She was committed.

  169. Martha was dependable. She had a good testimony for the

  170. Lord in this regard. She was committed, she was

  171. dependable, and she was no doubt hard working.

  172. So that's Martha. But her sister Mary on the other

  173. hand, is known throughout the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and

  174. John for worshipping, being found worshipping at the feet of

  175. Jesus. If we were to consider Mary in

  176. John Chapter 11 and verse 32, the Bible says there that she's

    John 11 chapter mention

  177. found with a broken heart over the death of their brother

  178. Lazarus crying at Jesus feet. In the next chapter, John 12

  179. verse three, if we were to take a look at that, just after the

  180. resurrection of her brother Lazarus, she is found anointing

  181. the feet of Jesus with her precious ointment and with her

  182. hair. And so in one chapter she's

  183. broken hearted and she's cast it.

  184. She's cast herself at the feet of Jesus and just a couple days

  185. later she is worshipping and thanking Jesus for his

  186. faithfulness. And then of course, tonight in

  187. Luke chapter 10 in our text, she's found sitting in her

    Luke 10 chapter mention

  188. sister's home with Jesus and his disciples at his feet, sitting

  189. at the feet of Jesus. So nonetheless, both Martha and

  190. Mary were unashamed, unashamedly associated with Jesus Christ.

  191. And no one who reads the Gospels can doubt their mutual love for

  192. Christ. Nobody who knew Martha and Mary

  193. doubted that they loved God, that they loved Jesus, that they

  194. loved what He was doing and what He came to do, and that they

  195. were unashamed of associating themselves with Him.

  196. So consider some of these sisters similarities.

  197. So we saw some of their their contrast.

  198. One found it very easy to get to work and get busy and be

  199. consumed with that. And the other it was very easy

  200. for her to maybe put time aside and to spend time with the Lord

  201. and meditating on the things of God.

  202. But both sisters loved Jesus, and they believed Him to be the

  203. Son of God, and they also both did what they could to lift Him

  204. up in their generation. They followed him, they exalted

  205. him, they spoke about Him, they committed their lives to Him and

  206. His 'cause they are set before us in Scripture as wonderful

  207. examples of servants who were committed to the Lord.

  208. But the passage before us gives a contrast in the response of

  209. both ladies while Jesus was present in their home, present

  210. in their their their current situation, present in their

  211. life, if you will. We see here, as we have just

  212. read, that Mary joined the disciples and sat down to listen

  213. to Jesus. We saw that while Martha

  214. continued working around her home in order to accommodate

  215. Jesus and the disciples, and as we hear this tonight, Mary sat

  216. at Jesus feet. Martha accommodated Jesus and

  217. the disciples. We would say from the from off

  218. the cuff that both sound pretty good.

  219. There's in and out themselves. There's nothing wrong with

  220. either of those two things being busy.

  221. Being at work and sitting with the Lord and his disciples both

  222. sound good. One was sitting and listening to

  223. Jesus, the other was busy. But considering why Jesus was at

  224. their home in the 1st place will help us decide if it was if what

  225. these ladies were both up to was good in their context.

  226. And so at the beginning of the message tonight, I asked the

  227. question, why did Christ die for your sin and forgive you of your

  228. sin when you called on him in faith and, and bring you back

  229. into a relationship with the Lord?

  230. And so we have to ask the same question about why Jesus came

  231. into their home and literally stepped in their their life that

  232. day. And we could really come to find

  233. the same answer to both of these questions.

  234. So considering why Jesus was at their home in the 1st place is

  235. going to help us here tonight. There are a lot of things in

  236. life that are good in and of themselves, right?

  237. There are a lot of things that can be deemed good or bad

  238. depending on their current context.

  239. Like some of you, some of you might think that you know it's

  240. OK to eat ice cream three times a day, right?

  241. There's nothing wrong with ice cream, but there might be

  242. something wrong with that diet. We would all agree, and we're

  243. looking forward to forward to this in a couple of hours, that

  244. there's nothing wrong with sleeping.

  245. But there's something wrong with sleeping on the job, right?

  246. So in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with Martha's hard

  247. work. And certainly there's nothing

  248. wrong with Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him speak

  249. and give his words. So in order to help us

  250. understand if both ladies were doing what was right in the

  251. moment, let me ask you a question again.

  252. Why did Jesus come to visit these two ladies?

  253. What was his agenda? What was on his radar?

  254. What was his point in entering into their home?

  255. And so we see, first of all, that Jesus entered the home of a

  256. family that was known for their love for him.

  257. But we see secondly tonight that Jesus visited these ladies so

  258. that he can minister to their spiritual needs, so that he can

  259. minister to their spiritual needs.

  260. And so we see here in verses 30 and 39 again it says now it came

  261. to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village

  262. and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house and

  263. she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and

  264. she heard His word. And so Jesus intended purpose in

  265. coming to the home of Martha and Mary was to be with those He

  266. loved. He simply wanted to be with

  267. them. And so this passage does not

  268. give us any evidence that Jesus came into their home expressing

  269. any personal need for food, or for drink, or even for leisure.

  270. Certainly it seems that Martha more than likely had that

  271. prepared for him and the disciples, and probably offered

  272. it to him. But her passage does not show us

  273. that he was. He was needy and He was looking

  274. for her to do anything extra for Him.

  275. In fact, and it seems to be the character of the Lord Jesus.

  276. This seems to be the character of the Lord Jesus as He walked

  277. this earth. For example, He says in Matthew

    Matthew 20:28

  278. 20, verse 28, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered

  279. unto, to be served, but for He himself to minister, to do the

  280. ministering, to do the blessing, to do the serving.

  281. So this can all work together. Tonight Church to indicate to us

  282. that Jesus came to their home that day, not to 'cause these

  283. ladies to run around the house for Him, but instead so that He

  284. could relieve them for a little while from all of their labor

  285. and all of their cares. So I want us to consider now

  286. Mary's response to Jesus presence in their home.

  287. So we understand from the offset here that Mary's tendency and

  288. what was easy for her was to cast herself at the feet of the

  289. Lord Jesus Christ. So let's consider her response

  290. to him being in her home. The Bible tells us right here

  291. that Mary responded to Jesus presence by sitting down at his

  292. feet with the other disciples. Notice the words in verse 39.

  293. She sat at Jesus feet. They these words here in the

  294. description of her action, they indicate to us a couple things.

  295. She sat at Jesus feet. In those other two verses from

  296. the Gospels, it says there something regarding the feet of

  297. Jesus in relation to Mary. And so we see here in verse 39

  298. of this passage tonight. That Mary consciously dismissed

  299. herself from whatever she was doing prior to Jesus coming to

  300. place herself in a position which signified that she was at

  301. rest. She wasn't going to do anything.

  302. She was going to sit there. She was going to take her time.

  303. She was going to focus. She was going to be at ease.

  304. She was going to rest in the presence of Jesus.

  305. Mary was not only resting physically and maybe mentally,

  306. but she was focused in on something else.

  307. He's her seated position signified something about her

  308. mindset. Let me say that again.

  309. Her seated position said something about her mindset.

  310. For example, in Acts chapter 22 in verse 3 the Bible says this

    Acts 22 chapter mention

  311. regarding Saul who would become the apostle Paul.

  312. Acts 22 and verse 3 it says. It says that we are told that

  313. before he became the apostle Paul, that he, Saul, sat at the

  314. feet of of Gamaliel. And so Acts 22, verse 3 says

    Acts 22:3

  315. Paul says this of himself. I am verily a man which am a

  316. Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Silesia, yet brought up in the

  317. city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the

  318. perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward

  319. God, as you all are this day. What was Paul doing at the feet

  320. of Gamaliel? Well, as we look at this man

  321. Gamaliel, we understand that Gamaliel was highly educated.

  322. In fact, Gamaliel was an educator.

  323. Paul learned so much about the law in the Old Testament from

  324. this man Gamaliel. And Paul says to us in Acts 22

  325. three that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel.

  326. And So what Paul was doing at his feet was he was learning, he

  327. was being taught, he was being educated by this man.

  328. Gamaliel. Sitting at one's feet is

  329. historically known as the ancient posture, which signified

  330. that a person was learning or being educated by the other.

  331. It was a place of submission. It was a place of humility.

  332. It was a place in which where you would sit perhaps on the

  333. floor, and perhaps your teacher was sitting in a chair.

  334. And it just showed that they were a little bit more elevated

  335. than you were and that they were going to teach you, that they

  336. were going to educate you, and they were going to influence

  337. your thinking, influence your heart, and influence your life.

  338. So again, sitting at one's feet or sitting on the floor by

  339. somebody, it was a sign of 1's humility before the one they

  340. were sitting. So here we find in the same time

  341. period, Mary sitting at the feet of someone, but not just

  342. anybody, not a man like Gamaliel, not a man like

  343. Nicodemus, but the word of God himself, the Messiah, the

  344. Christ, her Savior, her Lord Jesus the Christ.

  345. Therefore, she intentionally forsook whatever it was that she

  346. was doing, and she humbled herself in such a way that

  347. expressed that she was a disciple learning from the words

  348. of Jesus. I believe there is some liberty

  349. we can take to speculate what it was Mary was hearing and

  350. receiving from Jesus. What do you think maybe Christ

  351. was saying in her home at this time?

  352. Perhaps Jesus was teaching Mary what what it is that disciples

  353. are supposed to do to live a maybe he was teaching her how to

  354. live a life that points people to salvation, to live a life of

  355. faith in God, to live a life of loving other people.

  356. Perhaps he was teaching her the importance and the the power of

  357. of prayer of our communication with the Lord.

  358. Perhaps. Maybe he was taught he was

  359. talking about how he had just commissioned the 70 to go preach

  360. the gospel in different cities. I think it's safe to say that

  361. Jesus told Mary that he loved her, that he would provide for

  362. her so long as she followed him and she was faithful to seek

  363. first the will of God. Maybe Jesus was teaching her the

  364. importance of being a godly lady in their society, teaching her

  365. that she has value, teaching her that she was important to God.

  366. Who knows? The point is, Mary responded to

  367. Jesus being in her home by spending time in His presence.

  368. That's really all that matters tonight is that she forsook

  369. everything that was happening right there in her life to show

  370. that she loved the Lord and wanted Him to influence her

  371. life. There's also no doubt in my mind

  372. that her spirit was refreshed as she sat with the Word of God

  373. Himself. But where was her sister Martha?

  374. Where was Martha? Notice the beginning of verse

  375. 40. But Martha was cumbered about

  376. much serving. She was cumbered about much

  377. serving. The Bible uses the word cumbered

  378. here at the beginning of verse 40, which carries the idea that

  379. she was obstructed or or busy or disrupted with with something.

  380. She was, she was held back. She was, she was distracted from

  381. perhaps where her focus really was supposed to be.

  382. So in this context, Martha was busy with serving, a lot of

  383. serving. Perhaps she was just finding

  384. things to do. Perhaps once somebody finished

  385. a, a, a plate of food, she would take that and get rid of it.

  386. Once a crumb was dropped, she would sweep that or she would

  387. find something to straighten out.

  388. She was, the Bible teaches us that she was cumber.

  389. She was busy about much serving. She was obstructed.

  390. So in this context, she was serving a lot.

  391. She had kept herself so entirely busy around her home that she

  392. didn't think to say no to those things so she could say yes to

  393. spending time with Jesus. I mean, we're talking about

  394. Jesus here. This isn't just Joe Schmo,

  395. forgive me Joe, but Joe Schmo, that was his, his Jewish last

  396. name, Joe Schmo. This wasn't just Joe Schmo

  397. walking through the door, this was Jesus.

  398. And she continued to busy herself, what with what she was

  399. doing before they arrived. The Bible tells us essentially

  400. with the word cumbered that she was consumed.

  401. She was consumed with whatever she was busy with.

  402. But no, no one doubts still, even tonight that Martha, she

  403. loved Jesus too. She loved Christ too.

  404. In fact, she was probably doing what she was doing because she

  405. thought that that was was best in the moment, because she

  406. thought perhaps that would please Jesus.

  407. She wasn't doing anything that was sinful in and of itself.

  408. There's nothing sinful about working when it's done in its

  409. proper place and time. And so verse 40 tells us that

  410. she was cumbered about much serving.

  411. And so she in verse 40, she now walks into the area of her home

  412. where Jesus is sitting and his disciples are sitting and Mary

  413. her sister is sitting. So verse 40 again it says, but

  414. Martha was cumbered about much serving and, and came to him and

  415. said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to

  416. serve alone, to serve the 13 of you alone?

  417. Did her therefore that she helped me?

  418. And here we find a gracious reminder from Jesus to a

  419. faithful servant. And he says to us tonight, verse

  420. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her graciously, Martha,

  421. Martha, he's he's getting her attention because we know she's

  422. like this, right hair pulled out.

  423. You know, I guess I'll stop there.

  424. So he says, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about

  425. many things. You're anxious, but one thing is

  426. needful and and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not

  427. be taken away from her. He says Martha's busyness was

  428. wrong for two primary reasons. Work in and of itself.

  429. Busyness in and of itself is not wrong.

  430. We've all come from a busy day and it was appropriate and right

  431. for us to be busy about our lives and we could preach a

  432. message on that. But but her busyness on this

  433. day, at this hour and this moment was wrong for two primary

  434. reasons. First of all, her busyness was

  435. wrong at the time because Jesus came into her home not to be

  436. ministered unto, but that He would minister to her and to

  437. Mary. It was time for Martha to put

  438. things aside for a couple of hours and to come and and seat

  439. herself next to her sister Mary and the rest of the church that

  440. was there in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  441. When Jesus entered into the home, it was time for both

  442. Martha and Mary to say no to everything else, and to say yes

  443. to the very Word of God himself. Martha's responsibility was to

  444. say yes to sitting at Jesus feet.

  445. And so it was. Her busyness was wrong at this

  446. hour, on this day, because it was it was out of place for her.

  447. But secondly, her busyness, her neglect to sit with Jesus LED

  448. her to a reaction of the flesh, to a reaction of the flesh flesh

  449. when she saw Mary, as we saw at the in the middle of verse 40,

  450. when she saw Mary sitting with Jesus, she technically reacted

  451. selfishly. She was frustrated that Mary

  452. wasn't helping her. She wanted Jesus, who had all

  453. authority, to tell Mary to leave his feet and go get busy

  454. serving. But how did Jesus actually

  455. respond to Martha and all of her attitude?

  456. Right graciously, He responded graciously.

  457. Here's the message tonight. Jesus graciously reminded a

  458. faithful yet burdened an anxious woman of God, an anxious

  459. servant, that time spent at his feet was the most important

  460. thing she could do at that moment.

  461. And he teaches us tonight that the most important aspect of the

  462. Christian life is your relationship with the Lord.

  463. Jesus came to relieve her of the burden.

  464. That's why he came into your life to relieve you of the

  465. burden of sin. But then, even on a daily basis,

  466. He wants to relieve you for a moment of some of the realities

  467. of life and get you saturated in His loving, gracious, and

  468. merciful presence and His fondness of you.

  469. Mary recognized her own need, and she made the best choice at

  470. this hour. Christ stepped into our lives to

  471. relieve us of our burdens, that we might have fellowship with

  472. Him and thus serve Him as a result.

  473. And that's the gospel. Why did Christ come into your

  474. life? Why did you call on Christ to

  475. save you on the day in which you were saved?

  476. Because remember this tonight, there was a time in your life

  477. where you were convinced and convicted that your sins

  478. separated you from God, that your sin was between you and

  479. having a relationship with God. And finally, by the grace of

  480. God, by the teaching and the preaching of the gospel, the

  481. Holy Spirit drew you in, helped you to realize what was

  482. separating you from a relationship with God.

  483. And upon your conviction and upon your faith in the Lord

  484. Jesus Christ, he removed sin out from between you and him, and he

  485. brought you back into a relationship with him.

  486. This is the essence of the gospel.

  487. And so Jesus did not forgive you of your sin.

  488. Listen tonight, just to take you to heaven.

  489. And that's often what we preach is get saved to go to heaven.

  490. Get saved to go to heaven. No, no, no, no, we get saved to

  491. be restored into a relationship with God, and heaven will be

  492. indeed in our future. But He stepped into your life to

  493. restore a relationship with Him. He wants to fellowship with you.

  494. When God created man, He created us primarily that we might know

  495. Him and joy Him and love Him and glorify Him forever.

  496. And in our sin, our sin hindered that from taking place.

  497. And so Christ did not step into your life to make you a busy

  498. person. He stepped into your life so

  499. that you could be saturated with Him.

  500. And the fact is tonight that as we walk with God, we will want

  501. to get up and serve Him at some point.

  502. But the cart doesn't come before the horse.

  503. We are to fall in love with Him primarily, and then we will want

  504. to serve Him. If we are just serving and

  505. serving and we are busy and busy, we're going to get burned

  506. out and we might not be very interested in having a daily

  507. walk with the Lord. In fact, that can cause us to

  508. forget why Jesus stepped into our house, why Jesus stepped

  509. into our home to have a relationship with you and with

  510. me. This is the gospel.

  511. Christ wanted them to live in light of the gospel.

  512. And what was the gospel at this moment?

  513. Him. It's always him.

  514. It's always the Lord Jesus. When we allow ourselves to to

  515. minister more for Christ than we allow Christ to minister to us,

  516. our ministering can become empty, vain, heartless.

  517. We can become and act in ways that are off balance and out of

  518. place. Allow me to phrase it.

  519. To phrase it this way, when we allow ourselves to become too

  520. busy with daily life to spend quiet time alone with God in His

  521. word and prayer, we are missing out on the primary reason Christ

  522. came into our lives in the 1st place.

  523. And that reason was so we could have a relationship with Him.

  524. I asked this question a few moments ago.

  525. Why did Christ forgive your sin and remove the consequences of

  526. sin so that you can have a relationship with your Creator

  527. through Jesus Christ? Isn't that an amazing truth?

  528. God, the high and holy God wants to be with us, the likes of us.

  529. It really is and truly is Amazing Grace.

  530. Remember now, Martha loved Jesus.

  531. She wasn't rejecting him. She she wasn't bitter toward

  532. Jesus. She wasn't trying to ignore

  533. Jesus. She simply allowed herself to

  534. become too busy. I would say that's the case with

  535. all of us at times. The Bible says that once Christ

  536. stepped into your life at the moment of salvation, the love of

  537. God was shed abroad in your heart.

  538. You had a love for God that you never had prior to salvation.

  539. And when he stepped into your life, you loved him.

  540. And when he stepped into your life, you loved His church, you

  541. loved Christians, you loved the word of God, you loved the

  542. presence of God. And so that was who Martha was.

  543. She certainly loved God. I wonder though, can we be

  544. guilty of telling ourselves when we're busy and busy and busy?

  545. Well, God knows my heart. He knows to justify not taking

  546. personal time at His feet. Yes, there are times where where

  547. where God, God always knows. And there are times where God

  548. does understand certain circumstances, but as a regular

  549. habit to not take time at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  550. So know this. Thirdly, tonight that there is

  551. nothing more important in your day than personal time with

  552. Jesus. But what distracts us from

  553. spending time with the Lord on a daily basis?

  554. What are the ways? Maybe we might act like Martha?

  555. I want to say this tonight, that business busyness in the work of

  556. the Lord does not equal godliness.

  557. Busyness being overwhelmed in the work of the Lord does not

  558. equal godliness. We could have our ministry, we

  559. could have our vocation, we could have our career.

  560. These are all good things and we might come to the place where we

  561. are content with serving work must be must get done and and

  562. God and God knows this, but these things are not to replace

  563. our time in his presence in the word and in prayer.

  564. Perhaps it's it's family, it's different priorities in your

  565. life, it's different habits, it's it's different routines.

  566. And as we look at these verses tonight, we consider this

  567. passage. We can very easily apply this to

  568. church life. You've chosen to be here tonight

  569. when you're here. I mean, you've made a decision

  570. to be here every time you're here.

  571. Obviously, I don't think anybody is here against their will, but

  572. this even comes into play with church life.

  573. What you have done tonight, even right here in the middle of your

  574. busy week, is you have put certain things aside.

  575. You have put your life on pause, the rest of your life on pause.

  576. Although you might have things to do even as soon as you get

  577. home tonight and you've come and you have sat at the feet of the

  578. Word of God, and I commend you for that.

  579. Every time you're here, you're choosing that you want to be

  580. influenced by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  581. This has to do with your personal walk with God, and also

  582. has to do with your corporate walk with God.

  583. Is it too much to make the Lord's Day entirely devoted to

  584. Him? On Sundays, where we take one

  585. day a week and we put the rest of our life on pause, and when

  586. the church gathers in the morning, we gather.

  587. When the church gathers in the evening, we gather.

  588. Why? Because Jesus is here because

  589. it's time to sit at his feet. When we put other things on

  590. pause, we are showing that the presence of Christ is important.

  591. One of the greatest things my parents ever did for me, and

  592. I'll never forget it. When I was probably 14 years

  593. old, 1314 years old, I wanted to join the Police Explorers.

  594. OK, as I was pulled between preaching and policing.

  595. Sometimes they're the same preaching and policing.

  596. I I thought that's probably the direction I would have gone if

  597. the Lord didn't call me to preach was law enforcement.

  598. And so I, I wanted to get involved in the club, right?

  599. I want to get my feet wet and stand there at at fall festivals

  600. and paint people's faces and tell people where to park with

  601. combat boots on with my oversized polo shirt tucked in,

  602. right, Yes, Sir, right. But the thing was, and we were,

  603. we were my grew up in a Christian home.

  604. The thing was about the police explorers was that they had

  605. their primary meeting on Wednesday evenings, Wednesday

  606. nights. And before I committed myself to

  607. that, my, I had a father and I still do who evaluated the

  608. situation. And he said, Dan, that's going

  609. to take the place of your time in the church.

  610. I believe you can do this. And it was hard.

  611. It was just like, man, you sure? You sure we can't squeeze it in

  612. somehow and maybe show up to church a little late.

  613. And we said no. And so he helped me recognize

  614. that I needed to prioritize the feet of Jesus being where God is

  615. at work, being where God wants me to be.

  616. And here's the thing, we, we, we just take maybe 20% of our week

  617. and we congregate as a church and we assemble as a church to

  618. be in the fellowship, to be in the word and to be equipped to

  619. fulfill the Great Commission or even to actually fulfill the

  620. Great Commission. But this is true even in our

  621. personal lives. We get into a routine, maybe in

  622. our in the home and before we know it it's been a couple weeks

  623. since we have gone and spent time with the Lord in the Bible

  624. and in the place of worship and prayer.

  625. Perhaps you're over committing to favors and responsibilities.

  626. You're serving and helping other other people and that is good.

  627. But some people become so busy serving others that they have no

  628. time to sit with Jesus. Maybe it's entertainment, and

  629. entertainment can be a blessing at times, but we are all guilty

  630. of prioritizing entertainment over time at the feet of the

  631. only one who can satisfy our most deepest desires.

  632. And I'll say this too, maybe about your routine, that it is

  633. true that health can become a factor that makes you to have to

  634. rework what time with Jesus looks like for you.

  635. No one's saying tonight that you need to meet with the Lord first

  636. thing in the morning and you need to spend an hour of God

  637. with God. And you have to keep a journal

  638. and you need to report it to the pastor, and you need to prove

  639. that you're spending time with the Lord Jesus Christ.

  640. And it needs to be this time, this room at this hour.

  641. That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is though,

  642. there comes a time every day where you need to put your life

  643. on pause and say it's God and I time.

  644. That's why he saved you first and foremost, to have a

  645. relationship with you. Think of the gospel.

  646. Christ stepped into our lives so we could be together.

  647. We need to be deliberate and intentional about our daily walk

  648. with God, or else other things are going to get in the way.

  649. You say, Brother Dan, I'm not really sure what to do.

  650. I'm not 100% sure what you're talking about.

  651. A personal daily relationship with God like in the Bible.

  652. And where do I start? Well, that's what we're here

  653. for. You come and you ask, and we'll

  654. disciple you and teach you how to get involved in God's Word,

  655. teach you how to pray, teach you to get how to get deeply rooted

  656. in your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

  657. Having a time and place where we daily come into His presence is

  658. helpful. Worshipping Him, reading His

  659. Word, listening to His Spirit is why He saved us.

  660. Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

  661. Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

  662. to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

  663. know by contacting us at [email protected].

  664. Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

  665. MA. May the Lord bless you as you

  666. grow in His Word.