Compulsive Efficiency | Luke 10:38-42

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Well, good morning.

Great to see you today, whether you're here in the room, out on the deck in the concourse or joining us online.

Isn't that great to see those folks get baptized today.

That was wonderful.

Yeah, that pool is heated Just because I know you're wondering.

It's not bad until you get out.

It's actually lovely when you're in.

But anyway, let me begin by asking you a question Are you a worrier, Are you a worrier or are you seated next to a worrier?

Some of us have a PhD in worrying and I admit I worry about things that I shouldn't worry about, and I heard it multiple times growing up from my mother Don't be such a worry wart.

You ever heard of that term, a worry wart?

When I was a boy, I thought a worry wart was something that grew on you, you know, and then it wasn't.

Until I was older I realized it's something that actually grows inside of you, like worrying about things that I had no control over, and I got to thinking about that term, worry wart and I'm like wondering what that really really means, and I looked it up this week, and no less than the Cambridge Dictionary defines a worry wart like this A person who often worries, especially about things that are not important.

How many of you are seated next to a worry wart Right now?

Raise your hands everybody.

Okay, yeah, there's a lot of you in the room.

And then when I had the dictionary there seated definition then I saw some synonyms, very interesting synonyms Agitated, fretful, anxious, preoccupied, uptight and perturbed.

Now, if a person seated beside you just raised their hand, you can have a real bone to pick with them right now.

Just get after it after the service is over and you're welcome.

But should we be worrying kind of people?

Does all of our worrying help us in the end?

I think we know the answer to that.

Right, I ran across a poem I think says it so well.

He worried about the weather.

He worried about his health.

He worried about his business.

He worried about his wealth.

She worried about the children.

She worried about her clothes.

She worried about the neighbors.

She worried about her woes.

They worried about their taxes.

They worried about their pets.

They worried about their future.

They worried about their debts.

They worried still, they worried, they worried, but alas, they worried about a lot of things that never came to pass.

In a magazine article entitled 85% of what we worry about never happens, author, don Goe, shares with us some important findings about worry and stress in our lives, and in that article he quoted the French philosopher from about 500 years ago named Michel de Montagnier, and he said this my life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened.

Let that sink in my life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened.

That quote has made people chuckle for five centuries, and worry is no joke because of what comes with it.

It can generate serious problems.

And in that same article, dr Goe says the stress hormones that worry dumps in your brain have been linked to shrinking brain mass, lowering your IQ, being prone to heart disease, cancer and premature aging, predicting marital problems, family dysfunction and clinical depression, and making seniors more likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's.

If we could get a handle on the worry that habitually, incessantly and often unconsciously sees as hold of our mind, we would greatly increase the odds of living a longer, happier and more successful life.

Well, as we continue our walk through the Gospels and these encounters with Jesus that people had, we're going to meet today two sisters in a fairly well-known story, and the sisters are Martha and Mary.

And dear Martha, at least according to Luke's account, martha comes across as a worry wart.

She's agitated, she's a little fretful, she's anxious, she's very preoccupied, she's uptight, she's perturbed and, in true sister fashion, mary seems oblivious to all of it.

So, before we dive in, we'll be in Luke, chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Today.

Let's pray together and as we pray, I want to invite you to join me in prayer and let's pray for Friday night.

As Luke said, we have over 80 honored guests here for night to shine and it's an incredible night and we want that to not only to go well that's secondary but we want God to be honored right and we want these dear people to feel so loved and honored.

Many caregivers and parents will be here as well as our honored guests, and we're looking forward to just serving them.

So let's just, as a church, together today, let's bring all of this before the Lord.

Will you pray with me, please?

Our Father and our God, it's our privilege to serve and underserved community of people that are often looked down on by others in society, and we lift them up, and we lift them up before you in prayer.

Today we lift up the families and every honored guest who will be here.

Lord, through our actions, through our words.

May they know that they are deeply loved and cared for Through our serving.

May they know that there are people who care For the caregiver families.

This is difficult and it's taxing, and we pray for a special boost of encouragement and strength because of Friday night.

We pray that you would get all the glory and that, ultimately, people would come closer to you as a result of it.

And now, lord, as we come to your word, we pray that you would set your word firmly in our hearts so that we might live lives of obedience out of the abundant gratitude of our hearts.

And so we thank you for hearing our prayers.

We prayed in Jesus' name and God's people said amen.

Well, luke, chapter 10, verses 38 to 42, and I'll read those few verses in their entirety and then we'll dissect them a little bit.

Luke 10:38–42

So, luke 10, beginning in verse 38.

Now, as they were traveling along this is Jesus and the disciples he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at Lord's feet listening to his word.

But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations and she came up to him and said Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone.

Then tell her to help me.

The Lord answered and said to her Martha Martha, you're worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good parts, which shall not be taken away from her.

How did Jesus know these people, mary and Martha, and they had a brother named Lazarus.

Well, he knew them because they were some of Jesus' closest friends.

The apostle John tells us that Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, and this little vignette gives us amazing insight into who they were and into their personalities.

This is a family who believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

This is a family who saw them, saw him bring Lazarus back to life.

This is a family in whose home Jesus sped some of the final days of his life on earth.

Where was he?

He was at the home of Mary, martha and Lazarus.

Bethany is where they lived, a little village only about two miles east of Jerusalem, and we get some amazing insight into who these people are.

What jumps out at you in this encounter with Jesus?

As we just read that, did anything jump out at you?

I know.

For me I noticed real quickly.

It takes a lot of nerve to get chippy with the Messiah when you're a bit ticked off at your sister.

But you know, hey, martha, we get it.

All of us have we not been on the receiving end of doing the lion's share of the work while others sit around?

It doesn't seem fair and frankly, I think Martha's got a pretty legitimate complaint and there's much to be said for Martha.

And if this is all that we know of Martha, then she really gets a bum rap.

But we meet her elsewhere in the New Testament.

Soon after Lazarus died, jesus and the disciples got word, and then Jesus, because he's Jesus, the Gospel writers tell us he waited a couple of days before he went to Bethany, and so they eventually make their way to Bethany, where the sisters are left now.

And do you recall that Martha, john tells us, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet him, but Mary still sat in the house.

Martha therefore said to Jesus Lord, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died Even now.

I know that whatever you ask of God, god will give it you.

I don't know about you, but it sounds to me like Mary possessed great faith, and great faith in Jesus.

If you had been here, he wouldn't have died.

But I know that whatever you ask the father for, he grants it.

So don't get in your mind that Mary was super spiritual and Martha wasn't.

Martha even knew her theology well.

She'd been listening to Kitchen Table Theology on the podcast and Jesus said to her and John 11, your brother shall rise again.

Mary said to him I know that he will rise again in the resurrection.

On the last day Great theology.

Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me shall live even if he dies.

Did you realize one of the greatest statements Jesus ever made while he was on earth?

He made it to Martha I'm the resurrection and the life, was said to Martha.

Here's something else you gotta love about Martha.

Back in Luke 10, verse 38, at the end, martha welcomed him into her home.

Luke 10:38

Jesus was graciously invited in by a dear friend and she not only invited him, she invited 12 other men into her home and there were probably others.

And you see this gift of hospitality from Martha and welcomed him into her home and the way that that's written has many Bible scholars believe in that Martha was the eldest sibling and most likely the head of the household and perhaps she was used to being in charge as the older sister.

If you're an older sister, you understand this, don't you?

If you're a younger sister or brother, you also understand this, do you not?

And two, let's not forget Martha has a courageous side to her because she's inviting Jesus into her home.

Jesus already, well, well past, already this time.

The Jewish authorities are laying out plans to kill him.

They were after him to kill him and they were taking close note of whoever was hanging around with him.

And Martha courageous Martha didn't care.

Oh, you need a place to stay.

Come, stay at our house.

Night after night, jesus stayed there and she was willing to face the consequences, whatever they were, of following Christ and being identified with Christ.

And on this particular day and this particular hour, we find Martha very busy serving.

Now, this apparently was part of who Martha was, because we read elsewhere over in John 12, jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was whom Jesus had raised from the dead, so they made him a supper there.

And what Martha was serving.

Kind of who she was.

Look at verse 39 in chapter 10 of Luke.

She had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet listening to his word.

There's so much here in that verse.

Martha and Mary were raised in a society, lived in a society that didn't value teaching women, that didn't value providing women an education.

Education for women.

Whatever they got would often have happened within the family.

Brothers would come home from their schooling and teach their sisters, or perhaps a father would impart knowledge and some education to his daughters, but it was sort of haphazard.

But what I don't want any of us to miss here is that we find a woman, mary, sitting at Jesus, rabbi, jesus at his feet, he's teaching, and there sits Mary, likely the only female present.

Why?

Because this was culturally just not done.

It would have for everybody there.

It would have felt weird, it would have felt uncomfortable, it would have felt bizarre.

See, this didn't happen.

But please don't miss this.

Jesus not only allowed it, he commended her for it.

So listen, whoever you are, wherever you come from, nothing should ever hinder you from drawing close and sitting at the feet of Jesus.

And the fact that Mary dared to do that shows she hungered for godly teaching and she wasn't afraid of who knew.

This is the same Mary who, in John 12, anointed Jesus against all the cultural mores with an expensive perfume.

She didn't care who knew it, it looked excessive.

Perhaps the summit even looked scandalous.

She didn't care about everybody's opinion, she wanted to worship Jesus.

Mary seems to have had a very deep spiritual side to her.

She felt that Jesus' feet for comfort when her brother Lazarus died.

She showed her deep reverence and love and worship for him and of him by honoring him with that expensive gift of perfume.

That's Mary.

And then we get to verse 40.

But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations and she came up to him and said Lord, I'm gonna try to read into this what I think's in the text.

Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?

Then tell her to help me.

I'm sorry if I woke you up.

I apologize, but I think Martha was up here.

Now she's up here.

What Martha was doing there's a lot of work involved here.

Lord, she's leaving me here to do all of the work.

You know what I think Martha was really doing.

I think she was looking for Jesus to say oh, my goodness, martha, bless your heart.

I had no idea.

Everyone, stop what you're doing.

Peter stopped talking for just a minute, everybody.

Look at Martha.

Let's just give her a round of applause right now for doing all of this work alone.

What a great example we should all strive to be, just like Martha.

Martha, you're the greatest.

I think that's the kind of Jesus Martha wanted in her home that day, and apparently she was so comfortable with Jesus that she had no problem venting her spleen in his direction.

She didn't ask Jesus what his opinion was.

She told him what he should do.

Have you ever caught yourself telling God what he should do?

Yeah, don't do that.

And we're being kind and calling Martha here.

Outspoken and straightforward.

This is brazen.

I mean goodness, and Jesus allowed it.

She could have been turned into a pillar of salt like Lot's wife.

Right there on the spot, she's talking to God, which reminds us that, as long as we understand who we are and we understand who God is, when we vent our frustrations to him from time to time, it's okay, martha sure did, but Martha was distracted.

She catch that word distracted.

This is the only time that word's used in the entire New Testament and it means that she was drawn or pulled by many tasks.

Now, in the next verse, jesus said Martha, you're worried and you're bothered and she certainly was, because there was so much work to do.

You know there was grain to grind, bread to bake.

Let me show you a picture Grinding grain.

This is literally a picture of Martha and Mary.

I didn't know you knew that I had that or not, but that picture's actually about a hundred years old.

But when these people showed up, there was a lot of work to do Grain grinding and bread baking and welcoming guests as they arrived and making sure there's enough water so they could wash their feet, and providing the wine and refilling the wine and giving them food to eat.

And it's a lot of work.

And many of you you've had a number of people in your home as guests and you know the work that's involved in that.

And Mary was in there sitting and doing nothing to help Martha.

There's another part of that definition of the word distraction, which means out of control.

Not that she had lost, you know, or she was just out of control, crazy emotionally, but she's being dragged and pulled there and she's feeling social pressure and she's feeling external pressure and she's feeling internal pressure and she's maybe even trying to live up to her enneagram number.

I wonder what number Martha was.

Some of you have already got her figured out.

But she said, lord, tell her, you know, tell her to help me.

And I'm floored by Jesus's response because he sees this compulsive efficiency in Martha, which is often a good thing.

Where would we be without people like Martha in this world?

But in this instance it wasn't all being driven by love.

And so he says to her Martha, martha, you're worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part.

Mary's chosen the good part which shall not be taken away from her.

Martha's coming at Jesus and she's coming at him up here and the words are spilling out and she's talking really fast.

And I think Jesus because Martha was just kind of getting a little wild, wild eyed have you ever been in a conversation with somebody like that?

And they're just going and going and you call their name Martha and they don't stop and you have Martha, oh, and they sort of snap around.

I'm not saying Jesus did that, but he had to say her name twice.

Whenever somebody says your name twice, when you were a kid or you are a younger person, mom and dad said your name twice.

That wasn't good.

And if they said your first name and your middle name, that really wasn't good, and if they used all three names, you were really getting it.

Martha's up here and Jesus just comes in.

Martha, martha, you're worried and bothered about so many things and you just see Jesus pull the pin, sort of let the air out of the tire, just let's bring it back down, martha.

It's a beautiful response and I think Jesus is just reminding her look, you must first be served by me before you can serve me.

Mary's chosen the good part, martha.

Relax Right now.

Martha, in this hour it's devotion more than duty.

We'll eat.

You remember the loaves and fish thing, martha?

We'll be just fine, we'll eat.

And Martha here here is choosing doing over being.

You ever do that.

She just came at Jesus pretty hard, but his response, while it was a rebuke of sorts, was gentle and calming and tender and patient and loving, and I love it that Jesus is in these moments ignoring the traditional role and the cultural role of women and he's commending Mary and her desire to seek and to sit and to listen and learn.

He never told Martha what you're doing is not important.

Not important.

He never said that, but he made it clear.

You know all through all of his teaching, and it's sort of it goes right in line with what we're doing Friday night with night to shine.

Being a follower of Jesus means serving other people, right?

I mean, jesus always taught us that by saying don't allow serving others to get in the way of sitting at my feet, don't worry about work right now, when you have an opportunity to worship.

And I think two important truths are known, or made known to Martha, and let me share them with you real quickly, and we'll close with these, but I think they're applicable to you and to me as well.

The first one's this being Christ's disciple and learning from him are the most important things.

All other things are secondary.

Being his disciple and learning from him are the most important things.

Everything else is secondary.

You can't allow the good to crowd out the best.

There's a time to work, but there's also a time to sit at Jesus's feet.

There's a statue in a town in Scandinavia and a Scandinavia nation, and it's a unique statue because when you stand in front of the statue it's in the town square.

You can't see the face of Christ.

He's looking down like this and a visitor to the town said what's with the statue?

I can't see the face of Jesus.

And a local person said if you want to see his face, you have to kneel at his feet.

And when you kneel at the feet at the statue and look up, you see the face.

And when you stand at the statue and look up, you see the face of Christ.

And so it is for us that the importance of spending time with Christ can't be replaced by any amount of service to Christ.

Serving him is right, serving others is right, but we have to pay attention to our relationship with him first, because our world screams at us don't just sit there, do something.

Don't just sit there, do something.

And Jesus quite often says don't just do something, sit here.

Being a disciple, learning from him, are the most important things.

And then, lastly, choose the good part.

Choose the good part.

Mary has chosen the good part.

What was that?

Spending time with the Savior.

Other translations call it the better part or the right choice.

But how did it happen that Mary was in the better place?

How did that happen?

Do you see Jesus' words?

Mary has chosen the good part.

How did it happen?

Mary made a.

What Choice?

She made a choice to go sit at the feet of Jesus in the living room.

She wasn't being lazy, she wasn't shirking work, but it wasn't an accident that she was in there.

You will not by happenstance find yourself at the feet of Jesus.

If you don't decide to go there, it won't happen.

You've got to make that choice.

And Mary had no idea when Jesus would ever be in her home again.

And she said you know what?

I'm not missing this.

I've seen him and I've been among the masses when I've heard him preach.

Now he's in my house.

I got a chance to sit at his feet.

Nothing's going to stop me.

She chose the important over the urgent.

She chose the better over the good and that's why the Lord commended her.

See this story.

This passage is not about cooking versus praying, or climbing a career ladder, monastery or anything like that.

It's really not about being anxiety ridden or being a worry ward, which Martha certainly was in this instance but what this is.

This is about the divided life versus the focused life, the life of frenetic activity versus a life calmly centered on knowing Christ.

And I think Jesus calls us to a balance that we're to balance in our lives the worship of Mary and the work of Martha, and it comes down to a choice that I can get out of balance, and that's my choice, or I can keep them balanced.

That's my choice.

And some of us live, and you live in that tension, and others of us, our lives are kind of like this, or maybe they're like that.

But Jesus wants that balance between worship and service, worship and work, and we'll wrap up in just a moment and then you'll have a little bit of opportunity to some space and some time to think about how that can be fleshed out in your life.

But, mom and dad, your home many days is a three ring circus.

I was in a three ring circus home just yesterday with my three grandchildren and I love it, but it's crazy.

I mean, there is movement, there is noise, somebody's gotta go somewhere, somebody's gotta be picked up, somebody's having a meltdown, somebody's having a great day.

It's crazy and many of you live that life.

How and where, mom, dad, will you find time to sit at the Lord's feet?

It only happens if you make that choice.

Retired friend, for some of you, life is busier now than it has ever been.

Are you sitting at the Lord's feet?

Maybe you've started your own business recently or you've been in business for a while and it's going really well, and the days have suddenly become very crowded.

Are you sitting at His feet?

Students?

We're quickly heading into spring, sports are ramping up again, exams are always coming up, you're trying to keep up with everybody on social media and you're pushed to make the team make the grade.

Remember to not allow anything to crowd out your time with Jesus.

Make it a choice, see being a worry ward or being a worshiper.

That choice is up to us.

I pray that all of us will always choose the latter.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, in this life, man, we're so many of us.

We're running hard In our prayer times.

When we pray tend to sound a little bit more like Martha and we're venting to you.

Sometimes we don't even know how to slow down.

So, lord, would you forgive us and help us and have mercy on our frazzled souls?

Have mercy on our frazzled souls.

Help us, each one, to find our places quietly, consistently, at your feet.

That that will always be a choice that we make choosing to be a worshiper over a worry ward.

And when we sit at your feet, you're always there waiting to commune with us.

Thank you.

We pray this in your precious name and God's people said amen, amen, amen, Amen.

Thank you.