How To Deal Part 1: How To Deal With Worry Series

How to Deal

Part 1: How to Deal with Worry

Intro: How many of you worry? We all have stress. In fact, at the top of your sermon section this morning, I want you to put down the thing that worries or bugs you the most. Now, it’s nobody else’s business, so you can put your hand over it. Ladies, turn away from your husbands so that they don’t see you write their names at the top of the paper. Maybe it’s your family, maybe it’s your job, maybe it’s your health, but what worries you the most: put it down on the piece of paper.

-I want you to turn to 2 passages of Scripture with me: 1st of all, I want you to go to Luke 10 with me. It’s the story of Jesus coming by the house of a couple of his friends, Mary and Martha. Classic illustration of one person who worries and gets all uptight and full of stress and one who doesn’t. Let’s start with verse 38. Jesus is visiting 2 of his friends in Bethany.

Scripture: Luke 10:38

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.”

-It’s a beautiful scene. Two sisters who welcome the Lord into their home. They’re all excited. Who wouldn’t be? He’s a friend. And when the Lord comes in the house, Mary, the younger sister, just sits at his feet because she wants to hear everything that He could say to her. She wants to drink in all the truth.

-So they’re in the sitting room and she’s just listening as the Lord is telling her about where He’s been and the miracles and all the great things that are happening. And while Mary is sitting at the feet of the Lord, Martha, who is probably the first-born of the family, is in the kitchen preparing a meal for Jesus. She knows what a joy it is to have Him in her home, and she’s in the kitchen moving pots and pans. And every once in a while she glances over her shoulder and she sees Mary doing nothing.

-One of the things that make uptight people more uptight is looking over their shoulder and seeing other people doing absolutely nothing. She could finally handle it no more. Look what happened in verse 40:

Scripture: Luke 10:40

“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!”

-It says, “Martha was distracted…” Now, if you write in your Bibles, circle that word. It’s a key word. ““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!”

-Can you relate to that? How many of you have ever gotten bugged by somebody like Mary? Really grabs you, doesn’t it? And guess what happened to Martha? She finally reached her breaking point. Like so many of us, Martha allowed her anxiety to reach a break her. Notice how she reacted:

1. She assumed that Jesus didn’t care. (vs. 40)

-Can you believe what she asked Jesus in verse 40? “Lord, do you not care?” In other words, she’s saying, “Lord, I’ve been in this kitchen now for 45 minutes, and you’ve been talking to Mary, and neither of you have even looked in the kitchen to see what I’m doing. You don’t even act like you care what I’m doing. Don’t you care?”

-So she assumed that Jesus didn’t care. Of course, we all know that old adage about not assuming things, and we can’t say it in church, but there’s a lot of truth behind it.

2. She blamed Mary for being irresponsible. (vs. 41)

-She said, “my sister has left me to do all of the serving alone.” And you just know that she stretched out that word, “all,” in a real pathetic sounding voice! “She’s going to let me do aaaall the serving by myself.”

-And isn’t it always true? A person full of stress is always blaming someone else. Oh uptight people can thank God for the Marys of life. So we can kind of point the finger out and say, “Look! She letting me do aaall the work by myself!”

3. She tried to work things out her own way. (vs. 41)

-Man, that’s me and you, isn’t it? I mean, it’s almost everyone in our day. Not only do we have stress, but we have plan to put everybody else under stress with us. If I’m going to mess around in the kitchen and worry and scurry and be bothered and get uptight, the least I can do is get the Marys in life worrying and scurrying and uptight, too.