Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 10. This morning will be a little different though, because instead of diving deep into one passage, we are actually going to be turning to several different passages of Scripture. So you might want to flex your fingers to get them limbered up, because they are going to get a workout this morning!
I don’t want to alarm anyone, but today is October 25. And that means that exactly two months from today is Christmas Day.
I know, I know. You aren’t supposed to talk about Christmas until after Halloween. But its true. Sixty days from today is Christmas Day. Which also means that after today, there are fifty-nine more shopping days until Christmas.
A few years ago I heard about a new trend that was becoming really popular with parents. Its called the “Four gift rule.” It’s the idea that every person in the family gets just four gifts. Now just to give you an idea of how popular this is, I Googled “Four gift rule” and got 436 MILLION results. Now, I have no idea how popular it is with kids. Right now I’ll bet there are lots of kids that are saying, “Mom. Dad. Stop listening to Pastor James.” But hear me out.
The four gift rule boils down all the wish lists to just four gifts:
One thing you want.
One thing you need.
One thing to wear.
One thing to read.
Again—kids might be going, this is a terrible idea. We need to change churches. Can we please be Methodist? But parents have found that by giving their kids input and really listening to them, they are learning more about their passions when they hear about what they want. They are learning more about their sense of style and their interests when they really listen to their ideas for something to wear and read. They are learning about their challenges and their difficulties when they listen to what they say they need. And the kids are learning to prioritize. How to choose the things that really matter.
Now whether you decide to go with this idea or not, it’s a great exercise for all of us to figure out what our priorities are. Imagine that you were given a blank grid, and told to write ONE thing in each quadrant: Think of this as the grown up version of the four gift rule:
• The One thing that defines you
• The One thing you need right now
• The One goal you have for your future
• One obstacle that is standing in your way
Could you do it? Probably the biggest challenge for you would not be to think of one thing to put in each box. Your challenge would be to think of ONLY one thing to put in each box. We aren’t very good at that. We hate the idea of being limited to one thing because we like to keep our options open. If we commit to one thing it might mean missing out on something else. And so we look at these four areas and we think—there’s not one thing that defines me. I’m a multifaceted person. I don’t need just one thing. I need one thing more. One goal? I have many goals. I have goals for my family. I have goals for my career. I have a bucket list of things I want to do before I die. How can I think of just one goal?
Its that phrase “ONE THING” that’s really the sticking point, isn’t it?
There are several places in Scripture that address the importance of ONE THING. And that’s what we are going to talk about this morning. We are going to look at five different ONE THING passages, and as we do, my prayer is that this is going to help you shift your priorities—from being worried and anxious about “many things” to prioritizing ONE THING. That’s what our first passage is about. Let’s look at Luke 10 together. This is the story of Jesus’ interaction with two sisters—Mary and Martha. If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word, beginning in Luke 10:38
38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus[d] entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 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.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary.[e] Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray.
The story itself is pretty straightforward. Two sisters—one who is “distracted with much serving” and one who is sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to his teaching. Martha, the distracted one, goes to Jesus and complains about Mary. “Lord… do you not care?” In other words, “Are you paying attention to all I am trying to do for you? Can you tell how busy I am?”
I love Jesus’ gentle rebuke. I love that he has to call her name twice: “Martha. Martha!” I have a feeling it took two times to get her attention. And when he has her attention, when she puts down the dustmop, when she tucks the stray lock of her back into her ponytail, when she wipes her hands on her apron and finally looks Jesus full in the face, Jesus says, “You are anxious and troubled about many things, but only ONE THING is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.
Notice that Jesus doesn’t explicitly say what the ONE THING is. What exactly did Mary choose? The text doesn’t say. She’s sitting at Jesus’ feet. She’s listening to Jesus’ teaching. Is that it? Does that mean that we all just need to quit our jobs and let the dishes pile up and let the bills go unpaid and the kids go unfed and just curl up with our Bibles and a John Piper podcast?
It sounds nice, but it doesn’t sound very practical. After all, the book of James says, “Don’t merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” Paul told the church in Thessalonike that if a man didn’t work, don’t let him eat (2 Thess. 3:10). It feels like there has to be more to the answer than that. What does it mean for us to focus just on ONE THING?
That’s where the other passages about ONE THING come in. Let’s spend the rest of our time together looking at these four areas. Turn to John 9.
One day Jesus and his disciples came across a man who was born blind. The disciples wanted to have a theological discussion: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (That’s a good “sit at Jesus’ feet all day” kind of question, isn’t it?) But instead of debating the doctrine of suffering with his disciples, Jesus just healed the guy.
His neighbors start arguing: Is this the guy that used to sit here and beg? Some said yes. Others said no. The man himself said, “Yeah—that’s me.” Well how is it you can see now? “Jesus healed me.”
So they bring him to the Pharisees. And they start arguing. “Jesus can’t be from God—He broke the law by doing a miracle on the Sabbath.” “But how can he heal someone born blind if he’s not from God?” They ask the man, what do you think? The man says, “He’s a prophet.”
They say, no. He can’t be. So this guy must not have been born blind. So they bring in the guys parents, and they confirm that he really was born blind. Then they call the guy back, and they go through the whole thing again.
Finally, look at verse 24:
24 So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.” 25 He answered, “Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
The dude doesn’t know how Jesus did what He did. He doesn’t really know who Jesus was or where He went. And you know what? We know even less about him than he knows about Jesus! We don’t know his name. We don’t know where he was from. All we know, and all he knows, is that he once was blind, and now he sees.
That is his whole identity. That is his whole story.
What is your identity? Who are you? Last night I walked through the room while Josh was working on his homework for sociology. And he and Trish were talking about all the different kinds of cultural identifiers—race. Gender. Level of education. Political affiliation. Economic level.
Let me ask you something: Ten thousand years from now, are any of those going to matter? That’s right. None of them will.
What will matter is whether or not you have had a transforming encounter with Jesus. Have you encountered Jesus? Have you allowed Jesus to change you? Can you say, along with the blind man, “One thing I do know: I once was blind, but now I see?”
Please listen, because this is absolutely the most important thing I’m going to say this morning: The most important thing about you is whether or not you have been saved by Jesus Christ and set free from the power of sin in your life. Whether or not you have confessed your sin, asked Jesus to forgive you, and surrendered your life to him. Please hear me: If your identity is in Christ, then nothing else matters. If your identity is not in Christ, then nothing else matters. And if you need to tune out the rest of this message while the Holy Spirit helps you deal with this question, then you have permission to tune me out.
But for those who have the identity question resolved, let’s look at the next “One thing” statement. This time, we are going to the Old Testament. Turn to Psalm 27, and let’s talk about King David.
Psalm 27 was written by King David. But most likely, it was either written before David became King, or it was written later when David was reflecting back on that season of his life. See, David spent a good portion of his life on the run from King Saul. Saul was jealous of David because God was with David but not with Saul. David had killed Goliath, he was popular with the people, and Saul was jealous. So David is hiding out in the wilderness while Saul and his entire army was trying to kill him.
So keep that in mind as you read the words of this Psalm. David writes,
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold[a] of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet[b] I will be confident.
Now, does this sound to you like someone who is on the run from a jealous and powerful king? Not at all! In fact, it sounds like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Now look at verse 4:
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
Let’s stop there for a minute. If you were hiding out in the desert from a king who was determined to kill you, what would come after this? What would your desire be? That King Saul would fall over dead? That you wouldn’t die of thirst? That your hiding place wouldn’t be found? Not gonna lie—I think those are the things that would be on my wish list. But look at what David asks for:
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
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 inquire[c] in his temple.
You know, if he could say, in the midst of stress, anxiety, and danger that his greatest desire was to be in the presence of the Lord, then doesn’t it stand to reason that he would have the same answer in every season of his life?
What’s your ONE desire? At this moment in your life, what is the ONE THING you would ask of the Lord? If the answer to that question changes according to your circumstances, then there’s a really good chance you need to shift your priorities.
It’s not that the other things aren’t important. It’s just that they aren’t ultimate. God encourages His kids to cast their burdens on Him (Psalm 55:22). We are supposed to make our requests known to him. But our ultimate desire has to be God’s presence. Can you say this morning that you would have the same prayer as King David:
“ONE THING have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
So, our identity is IN Christ. Our desire is to be WITH Christ. Now let’s look at our third “ONE THING.” Turn to Philippians 3.
We probably know more about the apostle Paul than any other character in the New Testament other than Jesus. We know that he started out as a Pharisee who violently persecuted the followers of Jesus. We know that he met Jesus on the road to Damascus (that’s in Acts 9) and that he went from trying to stop the gospel to trying to spread the gospel. So if someone asked you, what was Paul’s ultimate purpose in life, you’d probably be tempted to say “to tell people about Jesus.” But let’s look closely at how Paul himself answers that question. In Philippians 3, after outlining all his credentials and history as a Jew, a Pharisee, a zealous persecutor of the church, Paul says that none of that matters. It’s all rubbish. Look at verse 10. This is Paul’s statement of his ultimate purpose:
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Now, here is Paul’s ONE THING statement:
12 Not that I have already obtained this [what he’s just been talking about] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The question: What is your purpose? What’s your calling? It’s simple. To be like Jesus in every way. Let’s talk about the difference between calling and assignment. Calling is what you can do that nobody else can do in your place, and what you will ultimately be for all eternity.
Now let’s look at our final ONE THING statement. This one is found in Luke 18.
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.
Now, is Jesus telling you that you need to sell all you have and give it to the poor? Maybe. I can’t tell you that He isn’t. But the point of this is that Jesus was able to immediately identify the ONE THING that was distracting the rich ruler. The one thing that was keeping him from being all in with Jesus. So it might be the same thing for you, but it might not be.
The question you have to answer is what is distracting you.
