A Loss Of Focus

How would you feel if your car only started once out of every two or three tries, would you consider it to be a good car? What if the mailman only came to your house a couple times a week, would you consider him to be reliable? What if the electricity only worked occasionally when you flipped the light switch; would you call the electric company to complain?

We tend to set a high standard of expectation in the things we want, don’t we? What if we applied the same standards to church as we do other areas of our lives? If you fail to worship God one or two Sundays a month, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian? We expect loyalty and reliability from things and other people - isn’t it reasonable then that God just might expect that same level of reliability and loyalty from us when it comes to worshiping His Son?

What brought you here this morning? Was it your desire to fill your heart with more of Jesus? Was it an eagerness to be in the house of the Lord, giving Him all of you – all over again? Or was it a sense of obligation since you are involved in a ministry? Was it habit? Is coming to church something you do, or something you need?

One Sunday morning, a mother yelled upstairs to her son who just wouldn’t get out of bed. She said, ‘This is your last chance! You get up so you can get ready to go to church!’ The son yelled back down, ‘I don’t want to go to church today!’ The mother said he had to because he was the Pastor!

There are times when all of us might want to just stay home for one reason or another, but there should also be one underlying reason that keeps us coming back, and that one reason should be our desire to worship our Savior; having a feeling of closeness with Him that is so personal we could no longer stay away from church than we could keep from eating.

Turn with me to our main text today. It is found in LUKE 10:38-42.

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 sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 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 only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’

Jesus had just given the parable of the Good Samaritan to show how we are supposed to love our neighbor, and now he is using this situation with the two sisters to show how we are supposed to love our God.

Martha’s home was located in the small village of Bethany, which was just outside Jerusalem. By the way Scripture says it was her home, it appears that Martha was a widow and, therefore, was the head of the household.

In verse 38, it says,

‘... Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to Him.’

Martha was Mary and Lazarus’ sister and they lived with her. These were friends of Jesus, and He had been here many times before. He found love here, but we are going to see that the sisters expressed their love for Him in very different ways.

People have different temperaments. Some are active and these people always need to be busy, never able to sit still. Others are thoughtful, willing to sit back and think things through. Martha is a very activity-oriented person; her sister Mary, however, appeared to have a more thoughtful nature.

I have heard some preachers say we should always be like Mary and less busy than Martha. And I have heard other preachers say we should be more like Martha; always being productive with no idleness in our lives. I believe the Lord wants us to be like Mary in our worship, and like Martha in our work. If we were, we would receive a balance of both.

Mary is content to sit at Jesus’ feet soaking up the Word, while not doing anything else. But her big sister, Martha, looked around at all the guests and saw the need to prepare food so they could have something to eat. Martha was the type of worker who would see the situation and say, ‘What a privilege it is for me to prepare a meal for the Master!’ Mary on the other hand would have said, ‘What a privilege it is for me to sit at the feet of the Master.’