One Thing
Luke 10:38 - 42 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. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 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!" 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
Intro: Maybe you’ve heard about the preacher who was getting ready to speak at a big conference. He was a little bit nervous, because he had a lot to say and had prepared a long complex presentation on his topic. Just before he was called up to speak, his wife slipped him a note that simply said, “KISS.” He didn’t have much time to think about it, however, because he was introduced and called up to begin his presentation. He waxed eloquent, going on and on about the intricacies of theological methodology. When he sat down an hour later, he asked his wife what the note was for. Was she giving him a KISS to encourage him? She smiled sweetly and said, “No. KISS means Keep It Simple, Stupid.”
-We often complicate the things of the Bible and make them harder than they need to be. When we boil it all down, it really is pretty simple. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist, or have college degrees or even a high school diploma to know Jesus. Keep it simple, stupid. Or, to put it more kindly, “Keep it simple, sweetie.” Only one thing deserves level one priority in our lives. So here is the main idea of the message today.
Prop: Getting to know God must become our single greatest pursuit if we truly want to honor Him with our lives.
Interrogative: Well, what does that look like? How can we make knowing God the most important thing in our lives?
TS: Let’s talk about some of the demands of life first, and then we’ll move on to the one thing that is needed.
I. The Tyranny of “Many Things” (Lk. 10:40-41)
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!" 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things.”
- In the movie City Slickers, Jack Palance asks Billy Crystal, “Do you know what the secret to life is?” Billy answers, “No, what?” Jack holds up his finger and says, “This.” Billy says, “Your finger?” Then Jack says, “One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean [nothin’].” Billy answers, “That’s great, but what’s the one thing?” Jack says, “That’s what you’ve got to figure out.”
-There are many things in our lives that require our attention, our efforts, our time, and our resources. If you are a parent with children at home, you are reminded every morning that somebody needs you. There is breakfast to fix, clothes to find and put on, lunches to prepare, chores to do, rides to give, money to part with, and so on. Whether you are a parent or not, you still face several of these things each day: bills to pay, cars to repair, groceries to buy, broken things to fix, doctors to see, insurance to deal with, taxes to worry about, and many other concerns to attend to. It is easy for us to get lost in the flurry of demands that each day brings. Been there, done that, still do it!
-Martha too was distracted by all of the things she had to do in order to be a good hostess and provide the expected generous hospitality for their special guest, Jesus, and all His disciples. There were likely at least 13 mouths to feed that day, not counting Mary, Martha, or their brother Lazarus. Here is how things might have gone down that day at Martha’s House of Pancakes. Martha was up to her elbows in Jewish food preparation, and suddenly realized she was low on fresh water. So she grabbed the bucket and ran to the well, filled it, spilled it, refilled it, and rushed back as quickly as she could. Mary was still sitting there and hadn’t even been in the kitchen to help with anything. As Martha bustled around the kitchen, she was getting more and more frustrated with her sister. Finally, when she heard Mary laugh out loud at something Jesus had said, she’d had it. She marched into the room and gave Mary one of those unmistakable sisterly looks that said, “Just wait until I get you alone.” Jesus glanced up and gave Martha a little smile, inviting her into the conversation. But Martha was in no mood for chit chat. She said, “"Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
-Many of us can relate well with Martha. We like to work hard and help people, but when we look around and see others just enjoying the fruit of our labor without even considering how hard we worked for it, we get a little irritated. We may start thinking that nobody really appreciates the hard work we do. Would it really kill someone else to offer to help? They just take me for granted. Maybe I should just quit helping. Then maybe they would know how much work I’ve been doing.
-Now my goal is not to minimize the work anybody does at home, here at the church, or elsewhere in the community. However, if your service has become nothing more than a flurry of worry, then you may need to pay more attention to Mary’s side of the story.
-Loving service is very important! I really appreciate people who are willing to jump right in and help get the job done. Serving, helping, working – we wouldn’t get very far without them. Most of us have plenty to do just keeping our own homes and families in some kind of order. If you work on top of that, life seems to become even more busy. Then, if you are involved in helping out a friend or neighbor here or there, or if you are involved in other activities in the church or community, it doesn’t take much to feel busy all the time. It might be easy for us to single out poor Martha, but how many of us could have had similar stories written about us?
-V. 40 says that Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. The word “distracted” comes from the Greek verb perispao, which literally means “to drag around in circles.” We may be doing a lot of good things and necessary things, but sometimes it seems that we are only running around in circles, never really getting anywhere.
-Now it is important for us to recognize that Jesus was not faulting Martha for her service. Jesus knew what it was to serve others. In fact He said that He had not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Martha was serving Jesus out of love and devotion for Him. However, something was missing in all of her efforts.
-TS: Let’s go ahead and take a look at what Mary chose that was so much better than all of Martha’s gourmet cooking and hard work.
II. The Simplicity of “One Thing” (Lk. 10:39, 42)
39 Mary … sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 42 … only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."
-Illustration: One New Year’s Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of gas.
[Dutch Sheets, using Larson]
-Do you ever get tired and just run out of energy? Even though we know we have all the resources we need in Christ, we still find ourselves running on empty sometimes. Even though we know the One who gives living water, which will make us never thirst again, sometimes we feel dry and parched and empty. How do we avoid letting this happen?
-Well, Jesus told Martha that she was worried and upset about many things, but what she really needed was one thing. Whether the “many things” got done or not, she needed to prioritize the one thing that would make all the difference in her life. What was that one thing? That one thing was the same thing that King David had desired and sought after hundreds of years earlier. In Psalm 27:4, David wrote, “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.” We could say a lot of things about David’s words here, but in essence he was saying, “The most important thing for me is to spend time with the Lord, enjoying a right relationship with Him. I just want to be where He is, and be close to Him.”
-We are so busy living our lives, we are distracted from fulfilling the purpose for our lives. We were created for fellowship with God. Adam and Eve enjoyed unbroken fellowship with God in the beginning. That is how it was supposed to be. So why is it that we are so easily distracted from what is most important?
-Author Ken Jones tells about a lesson he learned about hearing God:
[When I walked into my office] I noticed something I had never seen before. It was round, about the size of a dessert plate, and plugged into the wall, giving out a constant noise. It wasn’t a loud noise, just constant. What in the world is that thing? I thought as I stopped to stare.
I finally asked the receptionist about it. She said, “It’s an ambient noise generator. If it is too quiet in here, we can distinguish the voices in the counseling offices, and we want to protect their privacy. So we bought the noise generator to cover the voices.”
Her explanation made perfect sense to me, but didn’t it have to be louder to mask the conversations? I asked. “No,” she said. “The constancy of the sound tricks the ear so that what is being said can’t be distinguished.”
Interesting, I thought. Very interesting. One kind of noise to cover the sound of another. It made me think and pray.
No wonder, Lord. No wonder I strain to hear what you have to say to me…. The constancy of sound – little noises, soft, inward, ambient thoughts and fears and attitudes – tricks the ears of my inner man and masks your still, small voice.
God isn’t silent. We just have trouble hearing Him. [Dutch Sheets using Jones]
-What is your noise generator? What things in your life keep you from sitting down with Jesus and hearing what He has to say to you? Busyness, daily responsibilities, family needs – these are all important, and I am not suggesting that you stop doing what you need to do each day. The issue here is one of priority. What priority does your time with Jesus take?
-Mary had chosen the one thing that was needed. Normally, she probably would have been helping in the kitchen, but Jesus was there! She chose to sit at the Lord's feet and listen to what he said. Whatever we do for the Lord should come out of spending time with the Lord. Relationship comes before service. God wants us more than He wants our service. When He has us, then our service for Him will be blessed and will yield greater results.
-Just as Mary had made a conscious choice to sit and listen to Jesus, so we need to do the same. Prayer and time in God’s word will not happen by itself. We must make a choice to do it. Part of that choice involves coming up with the details. When will you spend time with Jesus? Where will you do it? How long? What is your plan for Bible reading, and hearing God speak to you through His word? If you don’t have a plan, grab a Bible reading schedule from the table in the foyer. At least start reading the NT portion each day. It might take you 3-4 minutes. Start discovering God in the Bible! Even a few minutes a day in God’s word will make a difference in your life. The point is that we have time with God. Remember, with God all things are possible. However, if we’re seldom or never “with Him,” then we will lose our focus and find ourselves running around in circles accomplishing very little.
-TS: As we begin to focus on the simplicity of being with Jesus, then we will be better equipped for service and able to see great things happen. That brings us to one final point.
III. The Capacity for “All Things” (Phil. 4:13)
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
-Mary & Martha’s story does not imply that all we should ever do is sit around and read and pray. Jesus Himself emphasized the need to work, because the night was coming when nobody would be able to work. There are needs to be met and responsibilities to take care of. However, being precedes doing. What we do for the Lord should flow out of His grace and His strength in our lives. Our work for Him is only as effective as His work in us. If we do not prioritize the “one thing,” and spend time at the feet of Jesus, we will be spinning our wheels and going nowhere fast.
-The apostle Paul knew the importance of being close to Jesus. In Phil. 3:10, Paul said His desire was to know Christ more and to become more like Him. Then, in chapter 4, Paul shows the result of knowing Christ and spending time with Him: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
-Christ only strengthens us when we come to Him and ask Him. When we make it our lifestyle to spend time with Jesus and draw strength from Him, then we find that we too can do anything that He wants us to do. One thing about spending time talking with the Lord is that He shows us what is worth our time and efforts. He shows us where to invest our energy and resources. Beyond that, He then enables us to do what is needed, according to His power that works in us.
-When Paul said he could do all things through Christ, he was speaking in the context of being able to live for Christ during the good times of plenty as well as through the difficult times when he had little or nothing. Now, even though Paul said “all things,” he would probably tell you that “all things” are not worth doing. Some things may need to be left undone, because God is not asking us to do them. “All things” needs to be qualified and defined as “whatever God wants me to do.”
-If you are so busy trying to do all the things that seem important, but you never seem to find time to spend with Jesus, then you might have to learn to say “No” to certain things. Don’t sacrifice what is most important for what seems urgent.
-Above all, one thing is needed, and that is time with Jesus through prayer and through His word. When that priority is in place, then nothing can stop you from being able to do all that God puts in your heart to do for Him and for others.
Conclusion: As we close, I hope I’ve kept this simple enough for us to see the importance of our time with Jesus. It is so easy to get distracted by the tyranny of the many things that call for our attention. Don’t stay distracted! Simplify your life. Prioritize your time with the Lord. One thing is needed. Keep it simple. Spend some time with Jesus each day, and then face what life may bring.
-Maybe today you are sitting there thinking, “I’m not sure what the preacher means. How do you spend time with someone you can’t see?” You’re not quite sure what the big deal is about praying and reading the Bible. It just sounds like something for religious people. But maybe you can identify with the feeling that your life is filled with one big distraction after another. Maybe you have a sense that you are not finding your purpose in life. You were created to have a close relationship with your creator, God. You can have that close relationship by asking Jesus, God’s Son, to be your forgiver and leader. If you would be willing to pray a prayer this morning, asking God to forgive you and help you find your purpose in life, I would love to talk with you after we close. It really is pretty simple. God loves us, but our sin separates us from Him. Jesus came and died to take care of our sin problem. If we believe in Him and confess our sins, He will forgive us and change our lives forever. You never have to be the same again. God has the power to transform your life into something totally new!
-Maybe today, some of you just need to make a new commitment to spend time with the Lord. You know that you need the same thing Martha needed. You need to sit and talk with Jesus, spending time with Him. Prayer will change your life! Without it we are powerless! I encourage you to get away sometime this week, and talk to the Lord about how you can spend more time with Him. He knows how busy you are, but He also knows the one thing that you need. Be obedient to Him today and ask Him to help you do the one thing that is needed – listening and talking with Him.
