June 23, 2024

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take your Bibles. If you brought them this morning, if you didn’t look on with somebody, if you didn’t do that, pull out your phone and download the Bible app. I don’t know how to do that, but you’ll figure it out. if you can’t just Google this verse.

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And I would really like for you this morning to look at the scripture with me, follow with me, because some of the things that I think the Holy Spirit wants you to see today, wants us to see will be life changing and profoundly impactful for your life. And so we’re going to begin in Luke chapter ten. It’s good to see y’all.

00:00:31:28 – 00:00:58:19
Glad to have all of those tuning in on Facebook this morning. glad they can tune in and watch and worship with this. And I don’t know about you, but I have already been blessed. I came to be blessed. I came expecting a blessing. And, Bill, every time you come, brother, it’s like y’all may think that he and I talk, or even our worship team.

00:00:58:25 – 00:01:24:02
Like, we talk about what I’m going to preach. But the honesty is, you’ve heard me say, I normally don’t know what I’m going to preach till I get up here. Or maybe at best, a day or two ahead of time. But, I don’t really ever tell people maybe in my life what I’m going to preach. And so had I been the one saying how to pick what he’s saying this morning, I’m like, man, the Holy Spirit put this together.

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This is going to be good. This is going to be good. And it’s the reason, because we’re going to talk about worship this morning. What is worship? And why is it so important. If you look in Luke chapter ten, I’m going to begin in verse 38. And we’re going to we’re going to look at a number of passages in a little bit.

00:01:44:22 – 00:02:08:14
But if you’ve been around, you know my style. We’re going to preach through a particular text of the Bible. And for the reason that I believe that it is important to look at the Bible, put your opinion aside, in my opinion aside, and let’s hear what God says about it. In other words, it’s good to discuss the Bible, but unless you’ve got God’s opinion on it, you’re just blowing air.

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And I don’t want to blow air this morning. I want to know, what is God saying to you and to me in his word? And he says something here. He shows us something that I really believe can change all of our lives if we really get a hold of what’s happening in just a few verses of the Bible.

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So Luke chapter ten and verse number 38, you have the story of a man or a woman, two women, one’s named Mary, one’s named Martha. They become very familiar people in the Bible to us because of their brother Lazarus. If I were to say, how many of you know who Lazarus is, I’m sure a lot of you would remember Lazarus.

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Lazarus was the dude that died his brother. His sisters sent word to Jesus. Jesus, come. Our brother is very sick and he’s at the point of death. And the Bible tells us Jesus waited four days. So by the time he gets there, Lazarus has died and Jesus ends up resurrecting him from the grave. That’s not this story, but that’s this Mary and Martha, that’s his sisters.

00:03:15:13 – 00:03:39:07
And so you’ve got to understand that they were very close friends with Jesus. They did a lot of things together. Jesus, when he walked on this earth, had people who did ministry. We often read about 12 disciples, but he had many disciples. And by the way, a disciple is one who learns from another. And so whether you realize this or not, this morning, you and I are disciples of somebody.

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You may be a disciple of the world. You may be a disciple of yourself. You may be a disciple of Jesus, but you’re a disciple of somebody. And it depends on whom you have chosen to worship. Worship means to ascribe words to, to say, this is worth my time. More than that, this is worth my life. This is worth everything I am and everything I ever will be.

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To give my time, my attention, my talent to. And I’m here to tell you that I believe the only one that is worthy of worship is Jesus, because he’s the only one who’s ever laid down his life for me or you, and took it up again, and in return gave us more than just life on this earth, but eternal life.

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So Jesus obviously is very worthy of our worship. So when you read in this chapter and this where we’re going to in in verse 38, this is the story of Mary and Martha, Jesus. And we don’t have Lazarus so much mentioned, but it says right here in verse number 38. Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

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And she she had a sister called Mary, who also. And I want you to get this, who also did what? SAT at Jesus feet and heard his word. Now I often say to you, if you get a chance to underline in your Bible or mark in your Bible, please do that here. Because what God’s Word says is very important.

00:05:22:17 – 00:05:51:29
And as I’ve tried to teach you, every word of God’s Word is important. I don’t think there are words by accident in the Word of God. I think whenever you tune into the Word of God, you need to read every word with detail. Understand it’s there for a reason. Every phrase has deep and profound meaning. And when we study the Bible, we look at that and we we take in everything that the Holy Spirit is trying to say to us through God’s Word.

00:05:52:01 – 00:06:21:13
So notice it says that Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. She had a sister called Mary. And notice where Mary’s at? She sat at the feet of Jesus. So you get this scene in in that day and that custom, if you were to go into their house, they didn’t have kitchen tables like we might have, or they didn’t have a bar area in their house with bar stools where they might have sit around and they they didn’t even have TV trays in that Middle Eastern culture.

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They would have gathered in a circular formation or just around the room, normally seated, and recline maybe, maybe on a pillow or something. But they were simply there amongst each other. And if you’ve ever been around any Middle Eastern people, Jewish people or anyone else, you would understand that for many of us in our Western culture, and especially in this generation, we don’t really value meals anymore.

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We don’t really value family time anymore. It’s far more convenient to go to, a fast food place and grab something, and the kids go off and the families go. Matter of fact, you go to restaurants today, and I’ve been guilty of this too, and you got a couple sitting across from each other that should be spending some time to each other, and they’re on their cell phone and not even paying attention to each other.

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And then we wonder why our world’s in such a mess. Families don’t have family time, but in this culture, they did and they’re doing this. They’re sitting around and there’s something even more going on. That’s what I want you to see in this story. So the Bible says, Martha had this sister. Her name was Mary. She also said at the feet of Jesus and heard his word.

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But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him, and she approached Jesus and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, let me say it the way he was at Martha. Martha, you’re worried and troubled about many things, but if you don’t underline anything else in this that I teach you today, underline this verse 42.

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But one thing you’ll say one thing with me, one thing is needed. Can I tell you what that means? And I’ll finish at verse in a second. That means there’s one thing more important than all other things in your life. One thing is needed more than anything in your life. And it says, And Mary has done what she has chosen, that good part which will not be taken away from her.

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Now, I want to take you back in the story for a moment here. Jesus goes into the house of his friends Mary, Martha, Martha is obviously in the kitchen. She’s cooking. She’s doing what women would have done in that time. And what, it was very unaccustomed, Mary, for women to actually be in the living room, if you would, where the men were.

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As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until Jesus came that he really began to bring liberation, if you would, to how women were treated in viewed in the religious system. And and they were they were just continually put down. Matter of fact, when the Jews would go, when the Jewish Jewish men, by the way, when they would go to the temple and there they would pray, their prayer would always end with this.

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I pray that I know that ignorant man. I pray that it on the Gentiles, and I pray that I’m not a woman that would have been there. Prayer. And you have to understand, when Jesus comes along, he he doesn’t see men is greater than women, but he sees them as equal. Now listen to me. It doesn’t mean that women and men and women are the same.

00:09:58:11 – 00:10:17:29
Let me say that again. And somebody will stand up and shout over that one. Men and women are equal, but it doesn’t mean that men and women are the same. Did y’all get that? Did you catch that one? But the reason I tend to catch that one because our world don’t even know the difference anymore. Our politicians don’t even know the difference in that.

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But I’m going to tell you, God’s not confused in His word. He knows the difference. We’re equal, but we’re not the same. We have different roles. But here’s the problem it whenever they get their minds up, is in this kitchen. She’s cooking. She’s serving. At first glance, I don’t think any of us can say, Martha, you’re doing something wrong because I don’t believe she’s doing something wrong.

00:10:41:02 – 00:11:26:27
Except for she’s got some priorities out of whack. She’s got some order in her life distorted, and Jesus is about to help her with that and show her that not only was Mary, who was at the feet of Jesus, not only was Mary okay to be in there, he was fine with her. He said that Mary had chosen the better part, and he encourages after Mark that comes to him and says, Lord, would you please tell my sister Mary to quit sitting around here in the men’s place, quit sitting around in here talking with y’all and tell her to please get up and come in here and help me prepare the meal.

00:11:27:05 – 00:11:54:21
I’ve got to tell you, I can see the difference in Mary and Martha already. Mary is the kid at when they were growing up. That was a little bit not very sophisticated. She was probably the kid that was often amused by a lot of things. Martha was the girl who probably put all her baby dolls in the right place here with me.

00:11:54:23 – 00:12:13:20
My daughter’s looking at me. You see those little melt? She. She was probably the person who like perfect order in everything. So I’m going to just go out on a limb. I think if we went into her kitchen, we would have found all the napkins matched. I think we’d have found the silverware in the right place, I think.

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I think the plates would have been a certain design and color and it would have been when I was growing up. My mom was going to kill me for this when I was growing up, my brother and I had to do dishes because we had no sisters, I was dead. I had a sister with a con her into doing that, but it became, this is my brothers, my brother and I.

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Our job was one of us had to set the table. One of us had to clean off the table. My mom made sure that she was like, okay, y’all. And and so it would be like one night you got to do dishes when you got to. So we would bargain. I even got where I would roll dice and bet he him like hoping I would win.

00:12:53:04 – 00:13:17:09
Like, if I win, you got to do it all week. I mean we had we would have catfights all this time and we didn’t like doing dishes that to us was girls. Were we were supposed to work outside. So we thought we just didn’t like doing that. And I have always been a strong proponent of paper plates and plastic forks, because you don’t have to do dishes.

00:13:17:11 – 00:13:34:11
I just do it to this day. You can ask when I’m like, please just keep some paper plates, some plastic forks. I don’t need nothing real. Just give me a little something you don’t want to. I can throw it away when it’s over these years. Me sure it is. The better I like it. And I’m just going to go ahead and confess this more.

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I don’t like housework. I I’d rather have both eyes poked out than I have to do. However, I don’t mind doing too much outside. Other do I hate mowing, but, I really don’t like doing housework. Just wasn’t the way God made me. I think that Mary probably was that girl, and I think Martha, she was very much more organized, which was good.

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But in this instance, they have a very special guest in their presence, and that is Jesus himself. Imagine just just put yourself in this picture. If Jesus came to your house, I think as as Zacchaeus, a wee little man. And maybe I remember seeing that song when you were a kid. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, you know, and and then Jesus finds him in a tree and says, I come down from there, I’m going to your house today.

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I’m going to eat lunch with you. And I think about that. I think what an honor it would have been to have Jesus himself walk into your house in the flesh and he’s going to he’s going to fellowship with you. He’s going to eat with you. And so you cannot criticize Martha for wanting to serve him, wanting to cook.

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no doubt she was probably endeavoring to provide and and maybe cook her very best dish for Jesus. Who wouldn’t? If I could cook and he came to my house, I’d want to make the best thing I could. I’d want to make sure he’s my honored guest. I want to serve him. I want to do that well. But here is the problem.

00:15:10:00 – 00:15:27:10
Mary is at the feet of Jesus. She’s not in the kitchen. Martha is in there working. She’s laboring. She’s doing. And she gets frustrated because she looks out there and she sees Mary at their feet, at Jesus feet. And she’s just talking. She’s listening to his stories. She’s listening to his teaching. And she comes in there and she says, look on.

00:15:27:13 – 00:15:59:10
My sister left me to serve alone. Would you tell her to come in here and help me cook? That’s her place. And notice. Notice what Jesus says, verse 41. And Jesus answered her and said, Martha, Martha says it to us. How many of you know when you say someone’s name twice, you’re trying to get their attention? Martha, Martha, listen to me.

00:15:59:12 – 00:16:27:14
Listen to me. Well, why would he say it that way? Well, the next few words tell us you’re worried and you’re troubled about many things. Oh, wait a minute. I thought she was preparing a nice meal for Jesus. I thought she was serving him. I thought I thought she was trying to honor him. Jeff, wouldn’t that be a form of worship?

00:16:27:14 – 00:17:02:11
Yes, but it’s out of order because she’s missed something. And Jesus tells her that. And here it is. But one thing. Remember I asked you to say one thing with me, but one thing is needed. In other words, what that means is there’s one thing that’s more important than all the rest. Jesus is about to show her that there was greater value in sitting at his feet.

00:17:02:13 – 00:17:34:05
First than being in the kitchen, serving. Is this a? Is this a difference in setting and serving? No, it’s just that Martha had missed the best part. She missed the order. How did that happen? He said, but one thing is needed. And Mary has done what she’s chosen. The good part or the better part? The translation translations even say she chose.

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So in other words, I need you to understand when it comes to worshiping the Lord. Every one of us has a choice. In other words, when you come in on Sunday. And by the way, son, is the time that we, the Body of Christ, come together to corporately worship the Lord. But let me tell you, your worship will stink on Sunday if it wasn’t good on Monday through Saturday.

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If you didn’t have any time with the Lord during the week when you come in, you’re going to be one of those guys. I love you, but I’m fixing this person feels just hang on with me because it’s either Paul failed to throw the mic. if you come in on Sunday and you ain’t got nothing to give God, but you can go whooping holler in the bull run arena.

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You ain’t right with God. You don’t love him. Quit Coleman. Quit showing up and telling me you love Jesus, but you have nothing to offer you. You’re wasting my time. And yours. I love you, but you’re burning me out. But more importantly, you’re wearing the Lord out on that. I’m, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve got to just be honest with you.

00:18:44:16 – 00:19:08:06
And I love you. And so I’m going to be a little hard this morning. But you’ve got to understand something. You and I, every one of us, we have a choice to come and worship and to give God worship. Or we can sit on our hands. We can. We can show more attention to the world and to everything else than him.

00:19:08:08 – 00:19:29:22
But how do you come to that place that you really worship him and then grow in your relationship with him? It begins like this. First of all, I want you to go back with me. Let’s look what Mary was doing, the Bible says. And it just kind of it just kind of happens here in verse 39 and it says that.

00:19:29:26 – 00:19:58:26
And she said her sister, her sister, as she called Mary, who also sat at Jesus feet, she sat at Jesus feet. And it was an exercise. And she heard his word. So what? What is sitting at Jesus feet? My question to you is, do you ever sit at Jesus feet? Do you ever? And here’s what. Here’s what. Sitting at his feet.

00:19:58:26 – 00:20:30:02
This is what it looks like the first thing sitting at the feet of Jesus. I’m not triple mom sitting at the feet of Jesus looks like this. Number one surrender, surrender you. You will never listen to me. You will never grow beyond a casual Christian until you first surrender completely to Jesus. You can’t do it. Too many Christians today.

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What is? I’m going to do this. I’m going to get involved. I’m going to serve. I’m going to I’m going to be a Christian. I’m going to testify. And yet nowhere in their life have they ever totally and completely surrendered to Jesus. When does surrender look like? Surrender? Says, I’m going to lay down my will. I’m going to lay down my agenda.

00:20:51:03 – 00:21:22:29
It is no longer my life. It’s no longer about me. I die to myself. That’s why you never hear me get up here and criticize preachers. But I hate the prosperity gospel because it is a self-aggrandizing gospel that is full of garbage that just elevates self. Let me tell you, the true gospel, the true gospel of Jesus Christ says, die to your self and live in him.

00:21:23:01 – 00:21:54:26
How does that happen? It happens by hearing His word as Mary was doing, but also obeying His word. Look with me turning in your Bible, for instance, over here to Luke chapter nine, just one chapter back from where we’re at, Luke chapter nine. Let me give you something that the Bible says about sacrifice or excuse me, about surrender and what it says about you and I dying to our own will.

00:21:54:28 – 00:22:21:20
Here he is in Luke chapter nine, verse 57, this worm again, notice this is a just actually a part of the story that precedes Jesus going to Mary Martha’s house. And what does he say? It says, now it happened after they journeyed on the road, that someone said to him, said to Jesus, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.

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That sounds like a grand statement, does it? I think that’s the statement all of us should have. Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And look what Jesus says. And he said to him, foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Then he said to another, follow me.

00:22:44:05 – 00:23:06:10
And he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. In other words, I’ve got a busy schedule. I’ve got some really important things going on. Marla, look at Jesus said, let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and preach what the kingdom of God you go preach. And by the way, can I just stop right here?

00:23:06:10 – 00:23:28:20
When he talked about going and preaching, he wasn’t talking about go out and tell everybody. If they follow Jesus, everything will be soft, rosy, peachy. Your life will be great. If you’ve bought into that lie. You’ve bought into a lie from hell. This morning in other words, when you read this, Jesus just said, look, guys, I’m 33 years old.

00:23:28:20 – 00:23:48:29
I’m walking it. I don’t even have a home. I don’t even have a bed to lay my head in, you know, follow me, follow me. In other words, God, if you hear a gospel that promises you new cars and new houses and you’re never going, your kids are never going to get sick and your wife’s never going to be cranky.

00:23:48:29 – 00:24:23:06
And if you hear a gospel like that, you just turn that mess of you’ve bought a lie. The gospel message is this it is the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The disciples didn’t die by the way. Listen to me. They died. Every one of them died, gave their life to preach the gospel. They weren’t running around telling people that some prosperity gospel, they wouldn’t run around trying to tell everybody, if you follow Jesus, everything would be great.

00:24:23:06 – 00:24:47:21
For you know, they were crying out to people, repent, turn from your wicked sin, give your life, surrender to Jesus. And so he says to them in this very statement, then he says, follow me. And they said, Lord, let us first bury the dead. No, if you’re going to let the dead bury the dead. And another also said, verse, we’re 63, verse 61, he says, and another also said, Lord, I’ll follow you.

00:24:47:27 – 00:25:11:15
But let me first go and bid them farewell. Who are at my house? Let me go tell my family. Bye. And Jesus said to him, no one get this. No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom. I didn’t say that. If that makes you angry, let that itch scratch your itch, okay, I didn’t, I didn’t, I snuck my work.

00:25:11:17 – 00:25:26:29
That’s Jesus. In other words, if you put your hand to the plow and you quit, or you look, you look back. You know what? That in those days they had a plow they would hook behind. And oxen. If you’ve never plowed even on a tractor, you know the one thing you don’t want to do is look back. Because you look back.

00:25:27:02 – 00:25:46:06
You won’t get crooked when you start. You fix your eyes on a fixed object. Normally, like for me it would be a tree or fits posts when I was. But fix your eyes on something ahead and you plow toward that and you’ll take your hands off of it. You go straight to it. You got you got a mission.

00:25:46:09 – 00:26:10:23
And that’s what he’s saying to them. Hey, look, if you turn around to look back, you’re going to mess up and you’re not fit for the kingdom. Why? Because they would have done it out of order and wrong. And so when Jesus is saying that, he’s saying, guys, if you want to follow me, it’s going to cost you something.

00:26:10:26 – 00:26:52:19
But in the end, you get a blessed life and you get eternal life. Money can’t buy that. So the first thing that comes is sitting at the feet of Jesus is surrender. But then the second thing that comes is sacrifice. Sacrifice. So when you have surrendered your whole life, let me say that again. When you have surrendered your whole life, when you’ve laid down your agenda and your will, then it becomes so much easier to also sacrifice.

00:26:52:21 – 00:27:22:19
Romans tells us, therefore present your bodies as what a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service, that we may be able to prove. What is that perfect and acceptable will of God. When I when I’m able to lay down my life and sacrifice to him, let me let me tell you about the sacrifice. Sacrifice is not your spare time and it is not your spare change.

00:27:22:21 – 00:27:43:03
And let me let me just say it while I’m on this subject. Nobody has ever built a church on spare time or spare change. It takes sacrifice to be in ministry. But that sacrifice becomes a joy. Because look at Mary. Mary’s not the one troubled. She’s not the one upset. She’s not the one that’s got her stuff in a wad.

00:27:43:04 – 00:28:13:29
Mary is at the feet of Jesus. She is surrendered to him, and she’s doing what she is hearing. His word. And when you’ve heard God’s Word, then it becomes so much easier to lay down your life in sacrifice to him. But let me say what sacrifices I loved how David said it. David was going to buy a vineyard and and a threshing floor.

00:28:14:01 – 00:28:31:14
The man who had it said, I’ll just give it to your king. You’re the king. I’ll give it to you. And David says, no, I’ll not get. And he was buying it for the Lord. And in fact it’s where the temple would be set. And David said, nope, I will pay for it. You guys like, well, look, you’re the king.

00:28:31:14 – 00:28:57:08
It’s a good no, no, I will not offer anything unto the Lord. That doesn’t cost me something. In other words, I hear I see a lot of Christians that start out in ministry, and they start out following Jesus and they the first thing that happens, they get a little challenge, a little something difficult comes in their life. And then before long, they quit.

00:28:57:11 – 00:29:31:00
They fall to the wayside. And you say, why do people do that? Why would someone go there? Why would why would someone start off following Jesus? But didn’t they just man it before it’s over? They just they just quit. There’s a couple of reasons. They never surrendered. Therefore they were never really prepared to make a sacrifice of their life.

00:29:31:02 – 00:30:08:09
And they never. Had their heart at the feet of Jesus. They never chose to really worship Jesus. Yeah. Look at me. And I a quick. Do you know how many people get in ministry for what they can get out of it? Do you know how many people come to church for what they can get out of it?

00:30:08:11 – 00:30:37:18
When the truth is, we should come. Not for what we can get out, but what we can give. I can live my life as a sacrifice to the Lord. And when I do, that blessing will follow. How do you know that? Take your Bible real quick. Go to Psalms chapter one. Psalm chapter one. I want you to read the very first Psalm in the Bible, and we’re just going to read a few verses.

00:30:37:20 – 00:30:59:23
Look what the Bible says. Psalm chapter one, verse one. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But what? Verse two but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he what he meditates in the law is God’s work.

00:30:59:26 – 00:31:23:24
So Psalms tell us, the psalmist David is writing. He says, look at the man who is blessed doesn’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. The world will tell you sin is okay. God will accept it. God would do. You know you can bargain with God on it. Let me tell you something. If you bargain with God on your sin, you, the first person in human history to do it.

00:31:23:26 – 00:31:41:04
But listen to me as a pastor, if you try to bargain with God on your sin, you will lose. You will lose bad. It will bring you to shame. Sin will always cost you more than you want to pay, take you for you want to go and keep you longer and you want to stay. Don’t ever forget that.

00:31:41:07 – 00:32:01:23
And so the Bible says, don’t walk in the counsel of the ungodly. Don’t sit in the seat the scornful. But but the blessed man, his delight is in the law of the Lord and his law. He meditates on day and night. And here it is. And he. Why do people start off and quit? Why do people get discouraged following Jesus?

00:32:01:26 – 00:32:27:08
Here it is the when you’re a blessed man, when you a blessed woman, whenever you don’t follow the world and its advice, but rather you follow Scripture. You, the God’s Word, is the final authority in your life. And when your delight is in His word and you meditate on it day and night, he says, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither.

00:32:27:08 – 00:32:51:23
Oh, and I like this part. And whatever he does shall prosper. Why? Why does it say that? Because he or she has surrendered to God there in sacrifice to God? The word of God is supreme in their life. Look for Mary in this moment. She’s at the feet of Jesus. Yes, it was a being okay to go in there and cook, but she chose the better part.

00:32:51:28 – 00:33:15:10
We have a special guest. What I need more than anything is I need his word. I need his presence. I need to be in his mess. I need to be at his feet. And that’s where she was. And so as an outward flow of that, she was in his presence. She was worshiping him and her soul was being fed, marked.

00:33:15:11 – 00:33:31:08
On the other hand, she’s over in the kitchen, she’s labor and she’s sweating, and she has bypassed the process. And she thinks that working for the Lord is the same as worshiping him.

00:33:31:11 – 00:33:56:19
But here it is. He first surrendered, then she sacrificed, and then she served. Because later you read of Mary and Martha. They served. They were big and key. And Jesus ministry. It was Mary who was one of those who went to the tomb. And she she there were several Mary’s if you read the Gospels and she was there.

00:33:56:19 – 00:34:16:20
She was a very close and intimate friend of the family. And so she had surrendered her life. She had sacrificed in her life. And then she was serving and she her life was an offering. But, I like what I heard one preacher say this week. He says, so many times we want to serve something before our heart is in it.

00:34:16:24 – 00:34:40:29
And I want you to listen to me. If you serve something or somebody before your heart is in it, you’re going to fail. Martha’s problem was she was in there serving her hands around it, but her heart wasn’t in it. Because what did Jesus say to her? You are. You are worried and you are troubled. Let me say something to you.

00:34:41:01 – 00:35:06:04
You’ll hear people say something like this. Well, I’ve got to take ownership in ministry. Let me tell you about that. That’s a that’s. You need to throw that out the window right now because there’s no ownership in ministry. He owns it. And we have the privilege to serve him. And if you serve at any reason for any purpose other than your love for him here in the wrong place, you’re doing the wrong thing.

00:35:06:08 – 00:35:27:04
You’re operating out of order and out of chaos in your life, and that will never work for you. That will only lead to frustration. Look at Martha’s life. She’s just frustrated by. She’s like, I’m serving. I’m doing. Surely this is right. But see, her heart. She was serving with her hands, but her heart wasn’t in it. And she did marry her heart was in the right place because what?

00:35:27:10 – 00:35:58:12
She valued the presence of Jesus more than doing something for Jesus. But listen to me carefully. Now. I’m done with you really value the presence of Jesus when you really value his presence in your life. The surrender, the sacrifice, the service will be a joy, not a burden. It’ll be a joy, not a burden. It won’t see. Can you see the dichotomy here?

00:35:58:12 – 00:36:18:25
Can you see what’s going on for Mary? She’s at his feet. She’s happy. This is a one for Martha, who’s in there serving. She’s pouring her heart out in is making the best and preparing the best meal she can. There was nothing wrong with serving. It’s just that her heart was in the wrong place. She had missed the better part.

00:36:19:00 – 00:36:47:18
And Jesus said, you had a choice. You had a choice. Which one? You wanted. You. You could have been in here two. And so I want to I want to help you with something right now. Some of you are struggling with joy in your Christian walk. And I’m going to propose to you this, and I’m done. It’s because you’ve missed the best part.

00:36:47:20 – 00:37:21:15
And that’s the truth. I’ve been there. I’ve done that many times. Amen. Ministry becomes such a burden. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying ministry ain’t easy. That’s easy. I’m not saying that serving Jesus is he? I’m not saying being a Christian is easy, but there’s a difference in easy and joy. There’s a difference. And if you’ve lost your joy in Jesus, it’s probably because you’ve not been at his feet recently.

00:37:21:17 – 00:37:49:03
It’s probably because you’re pursuing your own agenda. It’s probably because you haven’t totally surrendered. You’ve not made the sacrifice. He asked of you, and you’re finding yourself in your life in frustration, and you’ve lost the joy of being in his presence. See, there’s one thing Jesus said it’s needed. In other words, there’s one thing more important than all others.

00:37:49:07 – 00:38:12:10
And by the way, I started on this. I said, hey, when we come to church on Sunday and we worship together, corporate, right? But you’ve got to worship. If you don’t worship on Monday through Saturday, Sunday is not going to mean anything. So Sunday, when we come into worship, this should be an overflow of what we’ve been in all week long.

00:38:12:13 – 00:38:33:10
Sunday should be like, man, I am bubbling over because I’ve been in his presence all week long. So would I come in here? Hey, that happens for me as a preacher. People ask me like, do you preach with notes? And a lot of preachers do, and I get that, understand it. I have some reasons I don’t, but, you know, one of the things a pastor taught me years ago was, hey, you study all week, be in his presence.

00:38:33:13 – 00:38:48:14
But on Sunday when you get up and that’s why, you know, you’ll hear me say it. I really do mean it sometimes. I have no idea what I’m going to preach on, but I’ve been in his presence and I’ve been in his word through the week. I’ve been filling my mind in my hearts, my words. In other words, I.

00:38:48:16 – 00:39:19:11
I listen constantly to preachers and teachers, and I’m filling myself up so that when I come in here on Sunday, I learned just to preach from the overflow. Some of y’all going, man, you got a lot of overflow because you sure preach long as hell. That’s. I’m just telling you. Mary found the better part, and I want you to notice what Jesus said to her.

00:39:19:13 – 00:39:52:23
He said Mary found the better part and he said, I will not take it away from and it words. It’s something that no one can take away. And what he was trying to say was, that’s something she can’t lose. See, you can buy happiness. How many of you know that you can buy happiness? And someone says, well, you can’t buy happiness, but buy me a bass boat and see if I’m not happy.

00:39:52:26 – 00:40:29:27
You can buy happiness. You just can’t keep it. But you can’t buy joy, right? You can’t buy joy. Joy is something. Joy and peace is something that only comes through the Holy Spirit. In relationship with Jesus. She Mary found the better part. She learned to sit at the feet of Jesus there. She worshiped him because she gave her attention to him and not about him.

00:40:29:29 – 00:41:02:24
To him. She gave her attention to him and not about him. As a pastor, someone in ministry, I do this every day. I’m serving the Lord every day, and I serve the Lord by serving you, by serving other people. And I will be very I’m be very candid, open with you. There are times that it becomes extremely frustrating.

00:41:02:27 – 00:41:31:02
If you don’t believe me, ask my wife. She hears about all of it. There are times that I will kick the dog, curse the birds and throw rocks at the rabbits. I don’t know I to have some bad days and when those days happen, I find the Holy Spirit saying to me, you’ve been busy serving, but you haven’t taken time to worship.

00:41:31:04 – 00:41:46:21
You you’ve been going and doing and talking about Jesus, but you ain’t been spending time in his presence and at his feet. And boy, that’s when I have to do a gut check.

00:41:46:23 – 00:42:26:29
I can’t serve, I can’t sacrifice, and I can’t surrender until I first sit down at his feet. Someone says to me when I’m just too busy, well, let me tell you what I there used to be a commercial. You’re just too busy. If you’re too busy to spend time with Jesus everyday, you are too busy. You’ve got to make that time like Mary did, to sit down at his feet and and soak and receive and love and hear.

00:42:27:02 – 00:42:47:00
And then from there, let the joy of his presence overflow in your life be. Would you come back, brother? Let’s bow our heads for a moment. I’m going. I know it’s hot. I appreciate you staying with me. Appreciate you sticking with me through the morning. I know it’s been warm.

00:42:47:02 – 00:43:09:10
And I just go get the air conditioner fixed. Well, I need to. They came out, they checked it. They got a part ordered, so I’ll be all right. Let me close with this. With heads bowed, eyes closed. Let me just build. Would you sing it? Come back to the heart of worship.

00:43:09:13 – 00:43:43:20
He started singing that earlier. And I’m just like, man, that that fits what the Holy Spirit said to me this morning. Like that. Thanks. The sermon. That’s that. That’s the message. That’s why I’m like, I kind of just got up here not even preaching that. That said it all. Until you come back to the heart of worship and maybe for some, maybe until you come to the word, till you come to Jesus, you won’t have joy or peace in your life, in your home, in your marriage, in your job and your relationships.

00:43:43:24 – 00:44:15:10
You won’t have it. That only comes in a relationship with Jesus. Whether you’re an unbeliever here today and you came and you say that I need, I need more than anything your relationship with Jesus. Here’s how you do it. You call upon his name. You acknowledge your sin. You confess Jesus as Lord. You believe with your heart that he died for your sins.

00:44:15:10 – 00:44:41:24
He was buried and God raised him. The third day. And the Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name shall be saved. So my question first to you, have you got a relationship with him? Have you have you ever have you ever come to Jesus? To receive him as your Lord and Savior? And maybe you’re there. Maybe you’ve got that.

00:44:41:24 – 00:44:59:18
But here’s the second question. Maybe you’re a believer today, but you say, I have lost my joy. Ministry. Serving, living for Jesus has become such a burden.

00:44:59:21 – 00:45:24:14
How can I even understand? I know that I’ve been there. Okay, I, I got 2 or 3 T-shirts for that. I’ve been. In as simple as I know how to tell you this morning, when you’ve lost your brother and your sister is you’ve lost the joy that comes from being in his presence. Somewhere along the way, you’ve gotten too busy.

00:45:24:16 – 00:45:53:25
Somewhere along the way, like a marathon, you got distracted by life. And then preach this message to me. You have reached this message this morning that there’s a whole list geared to help. Help show you, from my word, what the good part is. And this crucial. It’s being at his feet.

00:45:53:27 – 00:46:28:07
Holy spirit right now in the service, I pray for everyone and the sound of my voice. Who here in this building and watching live. I just pray, father, for those who lost. I pray for those who find themselves this morning feeling more like Martha than Mary. Lord, I know that feeling. I’ve been there and I pray Jesus that right now your presence would just flood the light.

00:46:28:10 – 00:47:08:16
I pray Holy Spirit, you would just pour out upon them the measure of your grace, your feet, joy, Lord, draw them back to the feet of Jesus where it all began. Let them relish in your presence. Let them you the joy, the peace that comes for you and. In this.

00:47:08:18 – 00:47:19:15
I’m going to dismiss them differently today.

00:47:19:18 – 00:47:34:28
Cody, you. You have to make everything you do listen. You choose.

00:47:35:00 – 00:47:59:27
These people that I’m asked to walk appeared to front against you because they see these folks right here to front. These. These are what I call prayer team. Judd, you’re in the back, so you just stand. I’m just going to ask this because when I dismiss it, I’m not going to really dismiss you. I’m just going to say, well, you can go.

00:47:59:29 – 00:48:18:17
But if you need prayer today. Any one of these be the people I know I trust. And I know they going to walk with Jesus and know that they’ll love on you, pray with you.

00:48:18:20 – 00:48:33:22
So before you leave today, if you need prayer, you need to talk with him. Come up and talk. Come up to arms. Randy, I love you. I promise you, they’re here because they’ve been at the feet of Jesus.

00:48:33:24 – 00:48:56:03
We don’t pass an offering plate here. If you want to give, there’s a medkit in the back. If you want to give an offering before you leave, you can do that. Brad, today is at 5:00. Bible study. This way to be sure. Can get a bullet. There’s all kinds of stuff in there you probably want to know about, but don’t live here today.

00:48:56:06 – 00:49:32:18
Don’t leave here today the same as you came. If you do that with Judas, yes, the better. In other words, I would say. I would say to everyone here, I would not leave this building today until I got Ahold of God and said, God, change, do something different for me, change my life, whatever that is. Whatever you need, it’s here.

00:49:32:20 – 00:49:56:16
His presence is here. There’s some sons and daughters here to pray with you that love you and love him and will help you if you if you come so, Bill, thank you for being here today, brother. Thank you for playing lovely, very love.

00:49:56:18 – 00:50:21:15
Father, we love you. We thank you. We glorify you. We honor you, and we’re grateful to be in your presence. No, Dylan. A person leave you today. The. Changes all who let us walk away from here knowing you’ve done something.

00:50:21:17 – 00:50:54:25
To restore the joy of our salvation. Lord, I know there’s something you’re struggling to do. Or something. Restore the joy or salvation in Jesus. Amen. We’ll just play for a little bit. You. You need prayer. There appeared to front. I’m not saying you’re dismissed. If you need to go, you can go. If you got all you need, you do.

00:50:54:27 – 00:50:58:01
But if you need prayer, they’re up there and available. God.