Just One Thing Series

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

ENGAGE

We’ll begin this morning with a clip from the 1991 movie “City Slickers” in which well-known theologians Jack Palance, who play a ranch hand named Curly, and Billy Crystal, who plays a Manhattan yuppie named Mitch Robbins, introduce the main idea from today’s message.

[Clip from “City Slickers” – the “one thing”]

We are going to see this morning that Curly is right. The secret of life is indeed “just one thing”. And the good news is that the passage that we’ll look ta today is going to help us answer the question that Billy Crystal’s character asked: “What’s the one thing?”

TENSION

That is a question that has been posed over the years not only by theologians, but by people from every walk of life. In his 2015 book, First Things First, management guru Stephen Covey and his fellow authors asked this penetrating question:

“What is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have significant positive results in your personal life?”

They then go on to pose that same question with regards to professional and work life. And then they ask this follow-up question:

“If you know these things would make such a significant difference, why are you not doing them now?”

I want to ask you to think about those same questions as they pertain to your relationship with Jesus.

What is the one activity that you know if you did superbly well and consistently would have significant positive results in your walk with Jesus?

I want you to think about that for a moment and then I’ve given you some space in your sermon outline to write down your answer.

Now that you’ve written down that answer, let me ask the same follow up question:

If you know that one thing would make such a different difference in your walk with Jesus, are you doing it on a consistent basis? And if you are not, why not?

TRUTH

This morning, we’re going to look at a familiar passage which will help us to answer those questions.

Although Luke does not identify the location where this event occurs, we can use information that we find John’s gospel account to help us fill in some of the details. Based on that information, we know that this story takes place in the village of Bethany, which is located just a few miles outside of Jerusalem on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives.

Jesus visits the home of Martha, who lives there with her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus, who Jesus will later raise back to life after he dies. This was likely a place that Jesus visited frequently and a place where He was loved and accepted. But as we’re going to see the two sisters express that love in very different ways. Since the passage we’ll study today is short – only 5 verses – will you read it out loud with me.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat 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.”

(Luke 10:38–42 ESV)

This is a very simple, straightforward story. So I’m not going to take a lot of time to dig into the meaning of the underlying Greek words or parse every single verb here because that just isn’t necessary for us to understand the main idea. But I do think it is appropriate to share a few words of caution before we consider that main theme.

First, I think there is a tendency for us to “take sides” when it comes to this account, often based on our own natural tendencies. But nothing that Jesus does or says here should lead us to do that. So we need to be careful not to make Martha out to be the “villain” or to make Mary the “hero” here.