Near: Mary’s Longing | Ps Jonathan Clark

Thank you, team. Can we give it up for

the team? Thanks, team.

For serving us.

Um I guess I'm just going to I just want

to start with an example, right? Imagine

if you have the perfect spouse, right?

Even if you're not married, just

imagine. Pi- picture it for a moment.

You have the perfect spouse. They do

everything that you could ever dream and

hope for. You know, they they mow the

lawn. Did I say that right? They mow the

lawn. They they they wash the dishes

every day. You know, they they they cook

every time for you. They bring breakfast

in bed for you every morning. You know,

they work 80 hours a week, make sure

you're well provided. You can buy

whatever you want. You know, they're

they're just the best. They hit every

single box. They tick everything except

for one thing.

That you don't really get to spend time

with them.

How would you feel?

What's the point? Right? I'd be like,

"Wow, that

Thank you. Thank you so much for all

that you do for me. But

but what about me?

Right? And and and and and you missed

the point because you missed quality

time.

And and and I think the greatest gift

that we can pour into a relationship is

not our money, it's not serving, but

it's quality time. Quality time is what

keeps our relationships going. And you

can't really build a relationship with

someone if you're not near and close to

them.

And this is entire series is about um

strengthening our relationship with

Jesus and really making room for his

presence in our lives. And um last week

Pastor Ben preached an amazing message

on on David, uh David's longing. And uh

this week I'm going to be continuing our

series talking about Mary. So, the title

of my message today is Mary's longing.

Say, Mary's longing.

And we're going to look at the story of

Mary and Martha today. And if you're a

Christian, if you've been a Christian

for some time, you may be already

familiar with the story. But, um, for

many years, you know, I I I just thought

that this story was just an example of

what we should do and what we shouldn't

do. You know, Mary versus Martha, be

like Mary, don't be like Martha.

That's pretty much it, right? But, I

really believe that God wants to reveal

something deeper for us this morning.

So, let's jump right in.

We're going to open our Bibles in Luke

Luke 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10.

And we're going to read verse 38 to 42.

And it says this,

As Jesus and his disciples were on their

way, he came to a village where a woman

named Martha opened her home to him. She

had a sister called Mary

who Wait, sorry. She had a sister called

Mary who sat at the Lord's feet

listening to what he said.

But, Martha was distracted by all the

preparations that had to be made. She

came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you

care that my sister has left me to do

the work by myself?

Tell her to help me."

"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered.

"You are worried and upset about many

things, but few things are needed or

indeed only one.

Mary has chosen what is better

and it will not be taken away from her."

Let's close eyes in prayer.

Dear God, we just pray would you speak

to us this morning?

Lord, we're here for you.

Would you be the center?

Would you encourage us, Lord, to to draw

near to your presence in a fresh way if

in a new way this morning, Lord.

Help us to long for you and to abide for

you.

Would you speak, we pray, in Jesus'

name? We all said

Amen. All right. So, here's this story

that you may already heard

that you might already have heard of.

Lord, my pray for my English this

morning.

Hey, Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem,

right? And he stops by this town called

Bethany, right? And if you look

throughout scripture,

Jesus has stopped in this town actually

multiple times. And the reason why is he

has a special relationship with three

people who live in this town, right?

They are siblings. There is Martha,

there's Mary, and there is also Lazarus.

And they live just 3 km out of

Jerusalem, so right in the entrance of

Jerusalem. And Jesus would often go

there to hang out with them a little

bit. And um what happens is that we see

these two very um strong personalities.

First, we see um Martha, and we can

already tell she's like task-driven, you

know, fast-paced,

fast

paced?

She want to get She wants to get things

done, right? She's hospitable.

And then in the other side, we have this

other personality that is just more

chill, right? That's Mary. She's like

just vibing.

She's chilling at the feet of Jesus.

She's a bit more emotional, you know,

there's other places in scripture that

she just cries a lot. I don't know what

what's up with Mary, but amen. We want

to crying is good sometimes, eh? But we

just see these two types of

personalities

and I think we can understand why they

clash sometimes, especially as sisters,

right? Like I'm more of a chill guy,

but if there's someone who's like very

very fast-paced, it is just a bit too

much for me. I'm just like calm down,

it's okay. You know, and it's vice

versa. Maybe you're a very fast-paced

person and you're close to someone who's

very chill and you're just frustrated,

right? Like, what? Come on, let's get

going. Let's do stuff. And and I think

that's what was happening here in this

story and I just wanted to talk about

each of these sisters first. First,

let's talk about Martha. She was the

oldest sister.

And the story starts by saying that

Martha opened up her home to Jesus. So,

this already tells us a little bit more

about Martha, right? She was hospitable,

she was generous, she welcomed Jesus,

and she wasn't really doing something

sinful. You know,

culturally, if you look at this example,

Martha was actually doing everything

that you would expect someone to do when

you're hosting, right? Especially if who

you're hosting is literally God in human

form, right? If I was hosting Jesus, I

don't know what I would do. You know,

I'd be

I'm my wife would be even crazier than

me. But anyway, I I I I know that's not

pressure, right? And I really think that

Martha gets

a bad reputation sometimes because of

this story because actually Martha had

had an amazing faith, right? John

John 11:27

chapter 11 verse 27.

This is another time when Jesus went to

Bethany to to Lazarus. Uh what happens

is Martha actually runs out to meet

Jesus on the street and she makes this

bold, strong, faith-filled declaration.

"Yes, Lord." She replied. "I believe

that you are the Messiah, the son of God

who is to come into the world."

So, Martha was actually a woman of

faith.

Right?

And before we get into this,

I just want to make something clear.

Jesus calls her out, but

he doesn't condemn serving.

Right? And we often just say, "Oh, it's

this versus that." It it it

In fact, scripture consistently talks

about the benefits and the blessing and

the privilege that it is to serve. God

calls us to be servants of the kingdom

of God. Right? Jesus said he he did not

come to be served, but to serve. And

this

this very chapter that we're reading

this passage from Luke 10, there's this

passage that talks about the harvest

being plentiful and the workers are few.

The Lord needs workers.

So, serving is not what is wrong here.

And the biggest mistake in interpreting

this passage is creating this rivalry.

How do you say this? Rivalry?

Rivalry between Mary and Martha.

But this story

is actually a matter

of priority. Say priority.

And Jesus puts it, as Jesus puts it,

Mary has chosen

what is better.

She didn't choose the right option.

She chose the better option. And I love

how that the ESV translation says it,

she She what is necessary.

So, it wasn't that Martha's activity was

not important. It was just that Mary's

activity at that moment was more

important. Does that make sense? So,

today I just want to

shift this mindset that we have of of

thinking I want to be like Mary, not

like Martha to instead thinking I want

what is necessary

before what is good. Right?

The necessary

before the good.

Now, let's talk about Mary a little bit.

Mary is awesome, you know, she's just

chilling

at the feet of Jesus. And when the Bible

says that someone is sitting at someone

else's feet, it it's actually a language

about discipleship, right? Paul says in

Acts 22 that he was educated at the feet

of Gamaliel. So, it just describes

someone learning from a rabbi. Right?

This is who discipled you. This is the

thoughts the thoughts that you have you

can relate to your discipler, to your

rabbi. Right? So, Mary wasn't just

simply relaxing. Right? She has taken a

position of being a disciple.

Mary chose to listen,

to linger, and to learn from Jesus.

[snorts]

She wanted to abide

in his presence. And why does this

matter?

I think this matters because it shows us

that being with Jesus is ultimately a

choice.

Our spirit is our responsibility. Right?

We're not supposed to just wait on

someone else to feed us.

You know? We we're supposed to get our

own oil.

Okay? Your spirit is your

responsibility. And you don't get close

to Jesus accidentally.

It is a choice that you make.

It has to be chosen. So today, we're

going to learn three simple steps to

draw us near to God from this story. Are

you with me?

All right. Number one is this, focus on

Jesus. Say focus.

Focus.

Pretty simple.

You know, I think we can all relate to

Martha but because

she's busy and worried and stressed and

frustrated and how many times haven't we

been in that same position?

You know, every minute, every day of our

lives, there are things that are

literally fighting for our attention.

And I think there's two sides for this.

First, there's busyness, right? We're

all busy, you know, we've got to work,

we've got to provide, we've got to

study, we've got to, you know, take care

of a family member that we love. So that

there's always stuff to do.

You know, I started using a to-do list

uh 2 years ago. Pastor Ben influenced me

to use a to-do list when I um got the

the job as an operations manager here at

church. I really needed that to-do list

and to-do lists are amazing, okay? But

the thing about my to-do list is like

I've always got 20 things there

and every day I get like the top five

done.

But then then I add six more.

So it's like it's it's a never-ending

thing, right? So we always have stuff to

do.

We're always busy. And the the second

thing

that influences our focus is actually

distraction, right? We've got our

phones, we've got social media. There

there's this thing called an algorithm

that is literally trying to read you so

that it can get you addicted to

technology. All right? So, there's

always going to be distractions.

Um

before I well, as I was preparing this

message, I actually looked into my

average screen time.

And you know, here at Elevation we

believe that we need to confess our sins

in order to be healed.

And my screen my average daily screen

time is 4 hours and a half.

Oh, thank you. That's actually I like to

think that it's just in the Bible app,

you know.

And in my defense, sometimes I use

Google Maps and it just stays on. It

doesn't close, so it's just counting.

So, I think I'm pretty good. Okay? Sure.

And

look, and the average screen time of an

adult Australian is actually 5 hours and

a half.

So, I'm technically, you know, I'm good.

I'm under the average.

But I guess what I mean is I just I just

want us to understand that the enemy is

using these two tools tools, busyness

and distraction

to blur our focus, to steal our

attention

from Jesus.

Martha was around Jesus,

yet she wasn't actually paying attention

to Jesus.

You know, I'm sure the meal she was

preparing was great,

but at the same time,

even though she might not be

like realizing, she was ignoring Jesus.

So, I have a question for you today, and

this question has actually has

challenged me a lot.

And the question is this, how many times

have you ignored Jesus this week?

I want to actually think about it. How

many times have you ignored Jesus

this week?

Yeah.

Cuz we all know this stuff, right?

We know that it's important to to talk

to Jesus, to pray, to read our Bibles,

but yet somehow, for some reason,

every time our life gets busy, the first

thing that we put aside is what? Is our

time with God.

Is our relationship with him. And God

has just been challenging me a lot on

this.

What Where are

my priorities? You know,

serving the Lord is great,

but not at the cost of missing his

presence. So, both sisters, they had

this desire to honor Jesus. They had

proximity to Jesus,

but only one

gives Jesus

her focus.

Only one gives him attention. So, what

do we do?

Hebrews 12:2, we fix our eyes on Jesus.

Hebrews 12:2

He is the author and finisher of our

faith. We need to put our priorities in

place. Are you with me?

So, number one, just focus on Jesus.

Number two is this,

don't compare. Say, don't compare.

Martha gets frustrated, and from the

moment she gets frustrated, everything

just snowballs from there, right?

And what I love about this story is that

the real problem is actually revealed in

Martha's response.

Or or or in the way that Martha

approaches Jesus, right? That is what

reveals where her heart was truly at.

Notice that Martha didn't come to Jesus,

and

and she didn't really speak kindly to

him. She wasn't like, "Oh, hey Jesus,

it's great to have you in my house.

Could I just borrow my my sister real

quick? I just have to finish one thing."

Right? Or she wasn't honest. She wasn't

like, "Oh, Jesus, I'm just so frustrated

right now.

What do you want me to do?" Right? No.

What did she do?

She started by questioning him. Right?

She said, "Don't you care, Jesus?

Don't you care

about me anymore?"

And she started to comparing in her

mind, "Look at me. I've been doing all

this stuff for you.

And my younger sister's just there

sitting like a

a statue."

Like a statue.

And I'm here.

>> [laughter]

>> So so

you know what I mean? She starts

comparing and comparing, "Oh, look at

her with her little smile, while I'm

here cooking."

And that just

That just

it [snorts]

builds something in her. Right? And she

she goes from

com-

comparing to then complaining.

And she complains to Jesus.

And what it does it actually made her

doubt if Jesus really cared for her. You

know, like,

"Jesus, do you care?"

And from that she even went one step

further, she ended up demanding

something. She said, "Jesus, tell her to

help me."

Now look at this process. It's pretty

crazy. It escalates pretty quickly,

right? But notice how

um this escalates. First, she got

distracted

with what she had to do. She was

worried. Then she got frustrated.

Then she started comparing.

Then she went into complaining.

And she ended up demanding something

from Jesus.

And hey, I don't have many decades of

life experience, but I've seen this

again and again when someone starts by

getting frustrated, and I include myself

in this.

And and and I just

bottle it up. I keep it in. I keep it

in. And then from nowhere, I'm just

complaining. I let it all out. I'm

demanding things

that I shouldn't.

So, don't bottle up. Tell the person

next to you, "Don't bottle up."

And I just sense that God wants some

people here to let go of some things,

you know?

If you're frustrated or or if you're

holding on to any bitterness today, I

want to encourage you just talk to

Jesus.

He's right there.

You know? I know some some you can talk

to a friend or a family if you trust

them, but the best person to talk to is

Jesus.

He's there. He's going to calm your

heart. Just draw near to Jesus.

And your life will change.

So, don't compare.

Don't compare. Tell the person next to

you, "Don't compare."

Don't compare, man. Don't compare, mate.

You know, Martha's intention was great.

She wanted to honor Jesus, but when she

saw Mary,

there was also a part of her

that wanted attention, right?

It's like, "Oh, maybe there was

something there." That maybe there was

some jealousy, or maybe she just wanted

to be recognized by by what she was

doing, right? But whatever it was,

she took her eyes out of Jesus, and she

started focusing on her sister.

And I think that happens a lot with us

in comparison. Instead of looking at

Jesus, we start looking sideways, right?

Start looking at the person next to us.

Oh, look at them.

They've got opportunities. How come I

don't? You know, they've got gifts.

They've got money. Why can't I have all

of this? And what happens is that it

shifts

our focus from Jesus into other people

and bitterness grows. We start

complaining. We start demanding.

And it's like a snowball, right?

Just grows and grows. And Jesus'

response

is this, Martha,

Martha. Verse 42.

Mary chose what is better and I won't

take it away from her.

You know, when Jesus repeats her name

twice,

it actually communicates tenderness.

He's not having a go at her. He's not

angry at her.

He's just lovingly

exposing

what she is doing.

Jesus wasn't saying, "Mary, stop

serving."

What Jesus was saying is don't let all

this stuff

replace you knowing me.

So, I just want to pray right now. Can

we bow our heads?

Lord, I pray against any insecurity and

bitterness.

Lord, we pray would you replace, Lord,

every insecurity, every spirit of

comparison. Lord, would you take it away

and replace in us with a hunger for your

presence, with a hunger of abiding in

you in Jesus' name.

And my third and final point is this,

stay at his feet.

As Christians, we just

I think we need to just love staying at

the feet of Jesus.

Love spending time at the feet of Jesus.

In John chapter 12, and this is the last

John 12 · chapter mention

verse we'll read.

Um

we actually have uh uh a reflection of

that same story. John 12:2-3

John 12:2–3

is another [music] account where Jesus

goes to Martha's house again.

But this was 6 days before he was going

to get crucified, right? So it's his

final moments in ministry.

And it says this, here a dinner was

given in Jesus' honor.

Martha served, of course she did. While

Lazarus was among those reclining at the

table with him.

Then, guess what Mary did.

Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an

expensive perfume, she poured it on

Jesus' feet.

And she wiped his feet with her hair.

And the house was filled with the

fragrance of the perfume.

Wow.

You see, this time Mary just went to a

whole 'nother level, right? She just

went straight to the feet of Jesus.

And she physically she brings this

expensive expensive [music] perfume out.

And that was worth around a year's

wages. It's not like a thousand dollar

perfume or three thousand dollar

perfume. Like, what's the average income

of a of an Australian per year? Let's

say it's ninety thousand dollars. She

breaks open a perfume that is worth

ninety thousand dollars, and she pours

[music] it all at the feet of Jesus.

Why Why she do that?

I think it's because she realized

that Jesus is worthy.

That he

is worthy. Mary recognized

that the presence of the Messiah was of

greater value than anything else in this

world.

And I want to encourage you to maybe go

home and read continue reading this

passage. It's really awesome. Jesus

Actually after this happens, Jesus

>> [music]

>> actually says that what she was doing

was a prophetic act.

That she was anointing his body

as a preparation for his death

and his burial, right?

And I I I love looking at things like

that um in the Bible. Like what are some

patterns that I can recognize? Like oh,

the Bible talks a lot about trees. Let's

look at trees. Talks a lot about

people's feet. Let let's look at that.

So I um I realized that there's actually

>> [music]

>> this interesting trend in the Bible of

people honoring each others through

blessing or the washing of each others

feet. So

we'll put [music] this in the screen

right now.

Abigail offers to wash David's feet

[music] as an act of honor.

The sinful woman wipes Jesus's feet with

her tears as an act of repentance.

Widows known for washing the feet of

God's people in 1 Timothy.

And finally, Jesus washes the disciples'

feet to model humil- humility. And this

last one for me is is the most crazy

one, right? Because

here's Jesus, the alpha and omega,

the creator of the universe and of time

in human form,

and he's washing the dirty feet of his

disciples.

And there's there's something special

about that. And and I I just wanted to

share a testimony. I

I was compelled to share this.

>> [music]

>> Um

Anyway,

this was one of the experience

experiences in my life that really

touched me.

And [music] um

when I was 19, we were in a worship

night. We were preparing for a worship

night in Brazil. The Engados [music]

were expectant, you know, we did that

whole circle vibe. It was going to be

amazing.

>> [music]

>> And uh the team arrived 2 hours before

to start praying for the event.

And I'll tell you

the Holy Spirit just dropped like

[music] a bomb. You know, that that

prayer meeting was better than the

worship night. People were prophesying.

They were crying. They were kneeling.

There was this whole thing going on.

And [music] and

the Lord is moving and I'm just here and

then I look up and I see my mom. And

she's actually walking towards me,

praying and sobbing.

I'm like, oh, what is she going to do?

She's going to pray for me or

I I and when she

arrives next to me, what she does is she

gets on her knees.

And she starts blessing my feet.

Right?

And

bear with me. I'm a 19-year-old. First

first thing I'm like, this is awkward.

You know,

I'm a bit uncomfortable here.

>> [music]

>> And and she just starts praying and

speaking over me. She's saying, you

know, where these feet go, the Lord will

bless.

The Lord will be with you wherever you

go, wherever you stay. And she's just

sobbing and prophesying and praying over

me.

>> [music]

>> And then and I'm like,

trying to get her up. Yeah, no, it's

okay, Mom.

You don't need to do that. You don't

need to kneel. And and she just totally

ignores me.

And

>> [music]

>> I just caught me off guard. It's it's

even

hard to explain what I was going through

what I was feeling in that moment

because

you know, like even if you're a selfish

person, if you get another human being

coming to you and kneeling before you

and blessing your feet, it just gets you

off guard. It's like, "No, all right,

get up." And

>> [clears throat]

>> in that moment, all I could think was,

"You know,

I don't deserve this.

You know, I don't deserve this. I'm not

worthy. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy."

And this is the the thought in my mind

that would come up again and again. "I'm

not worthy.

I'm not worthy of this prayer. I'm not

worthy of this this blessing, this

anointing."

And

and then I just felt the Holy Spirit

come upon me and there was this shift.

And I went from

"I'm not worthy" to

"He is worthy."

"I'm not worthy, but but he is worthy."

"He is worthy. He deserves everything.

All the honor, all the praise, all the

glory."

"He is worthy."

And that was

kind of [music] the special moment that

we have. And I guess

looking back,

what I get from that moment is that

whenever

some radical surrender

thing happens like that, the result is

that God's name is glorified.

Not just in my story, not just

in the story of Mary. Whenever there's

radical surrender [music]

to the feet of Jesus, God's name

is glorified.

And I just really believe today that God

is challenging us to just be obsessed

with the [music] feet of Jesus. Lord,

you're all I want. You're all I need. I

just want to be here at your feet and

soak in your presence. It's going back

to the simple. It's restoring our first

love for him. Come on.

And my final question for us today is

this.

What if we all valued the presence of

Jesus

as Mary did?

What if

we all just valued being at the presence

of Jesus like Mary did?

And hey, I just think God is challenging

all of us right now. I just want to

challenge you this week. Like, you know,

before you open your phone, like

open your Bible.

You know?

Prepare your spirit.

Cuz I believe God wants to meet you

[music] in the secret place. Let's get

our priorities in order and say, "Jesus,

I'm here."

So, can we bow our heads?

And I'm just going to pray. Dear God, we

just thank you, Lord.

Lord, we thank you for your presence.

Lord, we thank you that you don't look

down on us.

That you're not just

annoyed with us. No, that you forgive us

and and you want to draw near to us.

You're a God that is close. And even

though we don't deserve it, Father,

that you forgive us.

You forgive us of our sins.

And you just want a relationship [music]

with us.

And I feel like there's people here

today that you know, maybe you've gone

through some hurt

uh in the [music] past and and that

resulted in you like drifting further

away from God or or maybe you've just

been busy, you know?

Maybe you've just been busy.

And you're not as near to Jesus as you

once were. So, I believe Jesus is

calling us back to his feet

this morning.

And if you're here today and and and you

haven't said yes to Jesus yet, I just

want to give you an opportunity now

to do that because he's truly everything

we need.

That with him we have everything.

He died for us.

He suffered

all the pain he did for us so that he

would have a relationship with you and

I.

And

I just want to give an opportunity for

you if you haven't said yes to Jesus.

In a count of three, I just want to ask

you to boldly pop your hand up and this

is not to like expose you or anything.

It's just an act of [music] faith of

saying yes, I want Jesus today.

If that is you in a count of three,

one,

two,

three. Come on, why don't you pop up

your hand? I see that hand. Come on.

I see that hand at the back.

God bless you. Is there anyone else that

wants to say yes to Jesus this morning?

Thank you, Jesus.

Prodigal's coming [music] back.

Thank you, Lord.

Just repeat after me, dear Jesus.

I give you my life.

Help me surrender.

Forgive me of my sins.

Be my Lord.

Be my savior.

I give you everything

in Jesus' name.

Amen.