Worship | Luke 10:38-42

Amen. You may be seated and find a spot.

We're actually going to do service a little bit different. Today we're going to be primarily doing most of our singing at the end of the service here this morning. But hey happy 4th of July to you guys. It's so awesome. Whenever as a church we just get another all in one service. And on a normal holiday weekend, I don't know if we'd not, we'd all fit if if we did this on any other weekend.

So it's a it's a blessing that we get to do it here today. But I hope that you had a good 4th of July. And listen, I've realized something when it comes to fireworks is that there's really kind of two types of people. There's some people that enjoy watching fireworks from a distance, right? They enjoy watching, you know, the professionals put on the firework display.

And then there's others of us that live on the adrenaline that I might lose a finger tonight, but it's worth it, right? And like for some of us, like I'm telling you about, there's tons of my life where it's like, I don't even get to watch most of the fireworks because I'm over here. Like, I'm going to do it.

Like, do you remember back when, like, we actually use matches? I think most of us don't do that anymore, but like, you'd like, I'd be doing it 15 straight times. There's like a 14 year old kid is going to work and I got like 8000 blackjacks right there, you know, and and then I finally get it set off, and I'm just running for dear life.

In my mind, this is what happens when you're 15, like, I am on Normandy Beach and there's some black cats going off behind me, and I'm like, this is for George Washington. And there's like, now I realize when I say that there's really two types of people that some of us enjoy watching fireworks from a distance, and the other ones enjoy trying to blow things up.

This is men like I realize I'm not yet men a woman yet that really enjoys that part of the of the show. I remember one time whenever I was pastoring down in Florida at really a small country church. At that point, 4th of July fell on July, fell on a Sunday, and some of the ladies decided like, let's have an event.

So we had some ice cream social. And and then we did a talent show and, and so, you know, little kids were up there singing songs and all that. And then they were like, hey, it's July 4th though. We got to set off some fireworks. So I just naively said to a bunch of country people like, hey, guys, just, just bring some fireworks and we'll light it off after the talent show.

Little did I know, like, if you give like 12 rednecks that instructions, you're going to end off with $7,000 worth of fireworks. And we like it was. So I was like, I don't know what's going to happen. Thankfully, we had an off duty cop that went to the church and I was like, can you help us? He's like, I'm not a fireman.

I'm a I'm like, you're the closest we have. And thankfully, thankfully, most of us survived that night. And but, you know, and most of our lives and most of the situations, there's always going to be that divide, whether it's for fireworks or all sorts of other things. And it's going to divide in different ways for different people and different events.

But there's going to be some people that are going to jump in and do things. There's doers and then there's there's watchers, there's sitters. And and what we're going to talk about here today is actually a story where we see one person doing a lot and one person sitting a lot. But what we're going to find out here today is that the person that was sitting was actually doing even more than the person that was doing, you know, in this summer series, we've been talking about spiritual disciplines.

What does it mean to be a Christian and what should a Christian do? And how do we live like Jesus? And so already we talked about fasting and silence and solitude and Sabbath. And today we get to talk about worship. And what does that mean for every single one of us? And how can that be the part of our life that is preeminent over everything else, more important than anything else that we have?

And so the main point of today is this is that there's many things matter, but only one thing is necessary, and that's Jesus. There's going to be all sorts of things in our life that is going to try to pull us away and draw us away and make us infatuated with this thing. But there's only one thing. There's only one person that matters in his name is Jesus.

And so we're going to look at a story from Luke chapter ten. If you have your Bibles, I'm going to invite you to stand. And let's go ahead and read this passage here this morning together in Luke chapter ten, starting in verse 38.

Says, now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcome him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who said at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me? But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated, and we are going to see that very phrase that Jesus said.

There's many things, but there's only one thing that's necessary. And that is true for us as well. All the more in the year 2026, there is many things that matter. There's many things that you could get infatuated with. There's many Facebook arguments that you could have, but there's only one thing that truly matters in this life and that is Jesus.

And so let's go ahead and start to break down this passage. So in Luke chapter ten, Luke chapter ten, starting in verse 38, it says, now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. Now that village was likely called Bethany. It was a small town outside of Jerusalem. It's where Mary, Martha and Lazarus ended up living.

And so Jesus is now entering into the small village. And notice there's a woman, not women, but but there's a woman. So he's highlighting somebody and it's Martha. Everybody say Martha. All right. So Martha welcomed him into her house. Now there's going to be a few sisters here. And by the way, I've just realized, like, I'm a little bit off today because some of you are not sitting in the normal spots that you're normally sitting at because you just found out that there's a second service and somebody had the audacity to take your seat in the other service.

So I don't know where to look. You know, normally I really want to hone in on somebody for a sinner, you know? But I don't know, I just had an ad moment, but but back back to this here it says Martha welcomed her. Welcome. Welcome him into her house. Now, now, there was a few siblings here. We often assumed that Martha is going to be the oldest because there's a few reasons.

Actually. Number one, it says he welcomed her into her house. Normally that was actually an usual. Normally it would be his house in that time period. But. So Martha likely was a single woman, but yet she was the matriarch of the family. It was her house. And so we think that she was the oldest. Based on that, we also think just simply her name, literally her name.

And Aramaic means the woman of the house. And so you would only give that name if it was the oldest lady in the house, the oldest daughter. Or it might have even been more like a nickname or a title that's been given that she has just taken on. So and then the last reason why we think she's the oldest sibling in the family is she's a little bit bossy, like and so and so all the older siblings listen, I got my oldest son, like he tries to boss me around and oftentimes I'm like, that's a really good point.

But I'm the parent, you know. And and so like he sees a little bit bossy. She's a little bit in control. The type A personality wants to put everything in. But but to her credit, whenever Jesus comes, she's the one that says, I will welcome Jesus into the house. That's a good thing, by the way. But then in verse 39 it says, and she had a sister called Mary.

Everybody say, Mary, Mary. So yeah, Martha and Mary. Now Mary is often assumed to be the youngest because unlike Martha, who is doing all the stuff and and working real hard, we assume that Mary is the baby of the family because it seems like from this verse, she's a little bit lazy and and I'm the youngest of four.

And so I can say that it's true. And and so now, by the way, they also had a brother does any I'm trying to ask questions. We got a lot of kids in here. Is anybody remember what their brother's name was or adults. Lazarus. Lazarus. Oh good job good job Lazarus. Now Lazarus we often assume, was actually the middle child.

You know why? Because he's not mentioned and they kind of forgot about him. And and so. Sorry, kids.

And Martha and Mary Lazarus is not going to come up in this story, though. But now we have Mary, who's sitting at the feet of Jesus, who's sitting and listening at the feet of Jesus. Now, this this posture was not a normal posture, right? For all the kids in here, you probably don't go just and sit at your dad's feet.

If you do, let me know. That's weird. But like, you don't normally sit at somebody's feet. This was actually a posture in that day, 2000 years ago, that a student, you would sit at the teacher's feet so that you could learn. So they weren't just talking about what TV show they like. They were instead talking about life and what it meant to worship God and how to be a better disciple.

And and she was learning, grasping. What a joy, what an opportunity, once in a lifetime opportunity for most people to literally sit at the feet of Jesus and listen and to learn. You wouldn't want to miss this. You wouldn't want to. But in verse 40 it says the start of it at least. But Martha was distracted with much serving Martha, who's it was her house, and she had people coming over and and just like many of the moms in here, I remember whenever I was a kid, whenever we invited somebody over for dinner, we had to clean up the entire house.

We still do that as adults. But like as a kid, it was it was torture, right? You know, it's like it's like I got to clean up so much. Just so like. And Peggy can come over like, this is why am I. Why? Why do we have to do that? I don't know about your mom, but my mom was the type of mom.

Like, I'd sweep under the rug, and then she would check under the rug, and I'm like, mom, the guests aren't going to look there. And. And Martha really was that type of personality that she was going to have everything perfect. She needed the food to be done. She she needed like and think about it like Jesus, whenever he showed up, there was 12 other grown men that showed up with him.

And so I was like, I gotta cook Thanksgiving dinner for these people. And so she is probably just freaking out, feeling like she has so much to do. Now, notice whenever, whenever you say that somebody got distracted from something, as it says here, Martha was distracted. Normally you only get distracted from something that is more important by something that is less important.

Like at least that's how we use it in language, right? Nobody goes out and says like, well, I was relaxing at the pool, but I got distracted by work and so I'm going to go back inside. Some of us might actually do that, but but that's not how we use that term. At least that we were distracted. Normally it would be I was trying to work and I got distracted by something fun.

I got distracted by something that that was a little bit more enjoyable. So notice here, it doesn't say that Mary was distracted from Jesus, like she was distracted, but she was distracted with much serving. Meaning this that Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus was doing the more important thing in Martha got distracted by something that was less important.

And this is probably going to be the very first time that you're ever going to hear a pastor say something like this. But listen, some of you, I want you to serve less. I do because and I realize in the year 2026 and sometimes how we do churches, like we kind of just if I'm being honest, sometimes churches, we'll just manipulate church members to serve so we can make the organization go.

If if that's what you feel like, then stop serving. Because instead, here's what I want you to do. I want you to learn how to sit at the feet of Jesus. Because whenever we start to learn how to sit at the feet of Jesus and then we go and serve, it's now we are serving out of the overflow of our time with Jesus.

We're going to be so much more effective. And so for all of us now, the invitation. I hope you never feel this way about Grace. It's like you come in here and we're going to twist your arm to serve. And no, I want every single person to serve. Martha was not a bad person because she was working hard, but rather it was just that Mary chose the better thing because in this moment, she had Jesus.

And it's better to spend time with Jesus. And then the moment that Jesus leaves, imagine everything that Mary was able to do, how many people she was able to better love because she just heard what it meant to love from love himself, Jesus Christ. So Martha, though, was distracted. Distracted with serving. That's a good thing, right? And he is the truth of the matter that some of us have never realized is that sin isn't the only distraction from Jesus.

Sometimes it's just our schedule. Like Martha was not distracted by having an affair, or doing drugs or doing all sorts of bad things. Right? And sometimes we feel that way. But instead Martha was distracted, probably by good things, trying to make food, be hospitable, be kind, be welcome. She was being distracted not by bad things, but by good things.

And how many of us as well? It's not that we are being lured away by some awful sin that we're going to get arrested for, but yet instead, we're being lured away by a busy schedule. We're being lured away by our travel baseball schedule. We're being lured away by the work. We're being lured away by all these sort of things.

And at the end of the day, I don't think Satan really cares what it was that distracted you from sitting at the feet of Jesus. What distracted you from worshiping God? As long as you got distracted and some of you are like, I'm not that bad, I just I don't go to church. I don't read my Bible. Things like, oh, that's good enough for me.

And we got distracted from the one thing that matters Jesus. And so in verse 40, as we read the rest of that verse, now, it says, But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? This is probably very similar to many conversations that moms had this week.

I was like, John's not helping me. Like I'm the only one that's cleaning up. Like, this is almost what it feels like is happening. But but notice Martha, after she got distracted from serving Jesus, instead she was serving all the other people. Instead of just sitting at the feet of Jesus, she goes up and she calls him Lord.

And that's a good thing. She understands who he was. But then immediately she starts to question his character, right? She's like, hey, don't you care about me? God, that's a pretty audacious thing, because if somebody else's action, how many times do we do that as well? That somebody does something awful to us and we're like, God, don't you care?

Was like, I didn't do that. You know, that was that was on them. But now she's accusing God of not caring. And then she's now telling, ordering God around to help. Tell her to help me. That's a lot like some of our prayer lives, I think as well, where we now are hurt. We're now saying, God, why aren't you sending somebody to help me?

And I feel like Jesus is like, I never asked you to do that. You're doing your own thing. There's a reason why nobody's out there. I'm not sending anybody out there to help you because you decided to do that on your own. I didn't send you out there to do it. But now she's accusing Jesus and not caring about her.

And she's now commanding, telling God what to do. But Jesus answered her, say, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

If if Jesus was here right now and you gotta have and he is but in Bali form, and you could have a conversation with him, I wonder how many of us would hear that exact phrase from Jesus right now. John, like you're anxious and your word you're anxious and your worried and you're troubled about so many things. Why you anxious about your job?

Why you anxious about the why are you anxious? And you're worried about so many things right now? Just stop. Notice. She starts by questioning God and that leads her to being anxious, anxious, and at the end of the day, any time that we get distracted will lead us to that point, because a lack of focus on God will lead to anxiety.

A lack of focus on God will lead us to anxiety, and this is such a good reminder for us, because if statistics hold true and this church is just average, then it means then out of one out of every five of us have experienced severe anxiety in the last two weeks here in America. And I'm not saying like I believe is real.

Like I think that there's medical reasons for some of that, but I so I'm not saying like if you have anxiety, it means that you weren't focused on God. But here's what I am saying. If you don't focus on God, it will lead to anxiety. It will lead to worry. It will lead to you to say, man, I got so many things to do.

How can I hold this all together? Instead of saying, God, I bet you can hold it all together for me, because anxiety makes us start to question God, because it feels like we now are in control, and it feels like we are the ones that have to do all of it ourselves. And instead we need to learn how to trust him.

Do you trust him? If Jesus was here, would he say, you're anxious and you're worried about so much? I mean, put yourself in Martha shoes. Like she's probably worried about getting the appetizers out. When Jesus is the bread of life, sitting in the living room when Jesus could feed 5000 people with one word, he could feed the whole town if he wanted to.

So why are you worried, Martha? Why are you worried when Jesus can do everything that we are so anxious and worried about? And so after he says you're anxious and worried about so much in verse 42. But one thing is necessary, one thing matters. Only one thing. Mary has chosen the good portion.

I know kids, if your mom or dad have ever done this, but whenever I was a kid, if there was one cookie left and my brother and I both wanted it, you know what they would make me do? They would have one of us cut the cookie, and the other one got to choose which one, which side they got.

Anybody else have to do that as a kid? Right. You got to choose. And you. There's been so many times with my kids like I'll give them options. They all can choose different options. And by the time the first one chooses the first option, then both of the other boys are like, I wanted that one, right? Here's this ability here.

Here's this moment that that Martha and Mary are seemingly given an option. It wasn't a zero sum game. They both could have chose whichever way they wanted to chose here. But Mary says, you know what? I'm just going to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him. This would erase all sorts of eyebrows, because this was where all the men were.

But yet seesaw somehow worked her way in there and said, I just want to be with Jesus wherever Jesus is. That's where I want to be. And Jesus says, that's the good portion, that's what's necessary. That's the one thing that matters. And that won't be taken away from her. See, because many things matter, but only one thing is necessary, and that's Jesus, you know.

And just a minute, we're going to invite you to also just come and worship and sit at the feet of Jesus. We're going to do most of our songs at the end of the service here today. And so the band is going to come out here in just a minute. But, you know, as I started to just study a little bit more, these people, Mary and Martha and Lazarus and I just love their stories.

I talked a little bit about their story even on Easter this last year. I just love. But as I started to study more and more about Mary, I started to notice a few things. She comes up a lot in the Gospels. Jesus loved her very much. Now, full disclosure there's there's more than one Mary. Obviously, his mother was named Mary.

There's there's other Mary's as well. And there's actually another woman, another name called Mary Magdalene. And the scholars debate on if this Mary, Mary from Bethany and Mary Magdalene are the same person or not. Some scholars today often say they're two different people. Historically, though, the church has always thought of them as the same woman and never really in this room at the same time.

And so, so we we kind of think that that's the way that I lean towards as well, kind of with early church history that says, no, they're probably the same woman. And these people, this woman, she comes up frequently like here. She might have been mentioned before, but not by name. But like here, it says that they invite Jesus into their house.

And where do we find Mary? Mary's at the feet of Jesus. Just learning. But this isn't the last time that we hear about Mary. Not not by a long shot, because in a short time after that, in John chapter 11, there's a story of Lazarus. You probably remember that story. Lazarus ends up getting sick and he dies, and they send word over to Jesus, says the disciple, the man whom you love.

Jesus is sick, like Jesus genuinely loved them. And so Jesus in comes down. But by the time that he comes down, he's intentionally late. And Lazarus has already been dead for a few days. And in John chapter 11, if you remember that story, Jesus comes into the town. Martha being the more put together, one hears a Jesus is going to come into town.

She gets up, she goes out, she meets with Jesus and says, Jesus, if you had been here, my brother would still be alive.

And Jesus talks with Martha. And then at some point in there, he's like, hey, where's Mary, by the way? Where's Mary? And this is what it says. And John chapter 11, it says, now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him when the Jews who were with her in her house consoling her.

Saul, Mary, rise quickly and go out. They followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Next verse it says, now when Mary, Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Mary was used to being at the feet of Jesus, because she had already set there and already learned from him, and already gotten so much from him that now, in the worst day of her life, when she had lost a brother, what else was she going to do when she saw Jesus but fall down at the feet of Jesus again?

And I don't know if you're having a good day or a bad day, a good year or a bad year, but in reality it doesn't matter. Because what's our response, no matter what goes on, is we go to Jesus and we fall down at his feet. But this wasn't the only time that we see Mary in this action.

Actually, if you go over one more chapter in John chapter 12, a few days later, it says in John 12 verse one, Mary therefore took a pound of extensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of that perfume.

Once again anointed the feet of Jesus.

Once again we find Jesus being attended to Mary at his feet with tears and the most expensive gift that she has. Wiping his dirty feet.

Six days later, there was going to be a crucifixion, and it was going to be Jesus's turn to die this time. And if you know that story, well, then you know that all the disciples, whenever that happened, Peter starts to deny him. They all start to scatter. They all want to leave him. But in John 19 it says, so the soldiers did these things.

But standing by the cross of Jesus, where his mother, his mother, sister Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

As everybody else left them. Here's Mary at the feet of Jesus.

But what I love about this story is that even through all of this, she keeps going back to the feet of Jesus. And three days later, in Matthew 28, it says, now, after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake.

And for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone and set on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow, and for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. And the angel said to the woman, do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen. And he said, come, see the place where he lay. They then go quickly and tell the disciples, he is risen from the dead. And behold, he is going before you to Galilee. And there you will see him. See, I have told you so. They departed quickly from the tomb with fear, with great joy, and ran to tell the disciples.

And behold, Jesus met them and said, greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him.

Mary had a habit of every time that she saw Jesus to fall down and worship at his feet, and the hardest day of her life. The thing that you wanted to do was to go down and fall down at the feet of Jesus. In the good days, the days of celebration, the days of rejoicing when her brother was raised back from the dead.

She gives everything she has to wipe the feet of Jesus whenever he is crucified, whenever he's dying. She still is staying at the feet of Jesus so that one day, when he rises again, when we all rise again, we get to worship at the feet of Jesus. I hope that's our testimony. I hope that there's nothing more important than just coming and sitting and worshiping at the feet of Jesus.

Because when we do that, it gives life to every other part of our life. When we learn how to worship him. So here's what we're going to do. We got a few songs here. Don't leave yet. We're going to sit here and we're going to worship. For some of us, we're going to want to stand and worship and and praise them.

That's great. Some of us even might want to just sit here. I'm going to open up this this altar, I encourage you. Take take a moment. Come down here. Sit. Sit down here with me. And let's just take some time to worship. Has his feet today. Father, we love you, Lord.

I pray that we would learn how to worship you, to take time, to spend time at your feet so that whenever it is our time to serve, we're not serving it in competition to worship. We're serving out of the overflow of worship.

Lord, we want to. We want to serve like Martha. But first we want to sit like Mary.

Help us be like Mary today.

Jesus name.

The altar is open.