Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Luke chapter 10 we're going to our message tonight is going to
come from 5 verses coming from Luke chapter 10.
The text tonight will be verses 38 through 42 and as you're
finding that I just want to commend you for gathering
together of course in the middle of your busy week, you've put
other things intentionally aside to be here tonight.
I know it's it's a good habit of the majority of us, but don't
take it for granted that you certainly are busy, busy
schedules. Maybe you've come right from
work, but you've you've chosen to be here tonight and it says a
lot about how you feel about the Lord and how you feel about his
church. And I just I'm thankful that
you're here and I know the Lord wants to bless as we continue
tonight in looking at the word of God.
So Luke chapter 10, our text 30, verses 38 through 42, it's a
familiar passage of Scripture. And maybe you're gazing down at
the verses right now and you're looking at these verses and
they're already very familiar to you.
And as I've said before, when we consider a familiar passage of
Scripture, we want to not have in the forefront of our minds.
So I know what this this passage is talking about.
I know what it says. And so unfortunately I came
tonight, but I got to hear something I already know.
And so I'm going to tune out. I want to encourage you to be
continue to be open to what the Lord would have to say to you
through our passage tonight. And so in our passage we are
presented with the two, with two sisters that who are known for
their love and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ, that being
Mary and Martha. I think when you hear those
names, if you're familiar with the word of God, you when you
hear the names Mary and Martha, you probably think of 2 ladies
who were part really of that early church and they were known
for their love and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the
cause of Christ. And of course, there are some of
us here tonight who are not as familiar with Mary and Martha.
Some of these things tonight will be new to you, and they
will be profitable for you in your your Christian life as we
hear God's Word and take in these truths tonight.
But though these two ladies, Mary and Martha, undoubtingly
love the Lord, we will see that even faithful servants need
gracious reminders about the most important areas of the
Christian life. And that in fact, that's the
reason why we do come to God's Word and why we do gather as a
church. One reason is because we need
reminding of the truths of God's Word and how they apply to our
lives. And so if we were to consider
the the whole of Luke chapter 10, we'd see a lot of
information, we'd see a, we'd see a few things that need to be
important to us in the Christian life.
And so we'd see a couple other areas that are essential to the
Christian life. And so earlier in Luke chapter
10, we would see that Jesus was commissioning the 70 to go
deliver the gospel of Jesus Christ around Israel and around
Jerusalem. And so we would see from that
passage of Scripture, we'd be reminded that we are ambassadors
for Christ. We are representatives of Jesus
and then as we would further read into Luke 10, we would see
in read of Jesus telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.
So these are all in the same passage of Scripture where Jesus
is commissioning the 70, where there is a man who's been robbed
and beaten on the road and the one person who walked by him and
took care of him and loved on him was the man from Samaria.
And we would see from that account that we are to be loving
neighbors. We are to be caring neighbors
out there in the community. But in our chunk of verses
tonight, verses 38 through 42 will discover that Christ places
more significance on an area of the Christian life.
So we see that we are ambassadors for Christ, but then
we also see that we are to be caring and loving neighbors.
But in just these these 5 or 6 short verses tonight, we'll see
that this is actually one of the most important aspects of the
Christian life. And that is the matter of our
personal relationship with Christ, our personal worship of
the Lord Jesus. In fact, without our own
personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ, the rest of the
Christian life is going to be difficult to live out unless our
heart is in tune and in love with and in submission to the
Lord Jesus. So we have a lot of
responsibilities in the Christian life, do we not?
That is why we therefore need a gracious reminder quite often
from the Lord. So let me ask you this just a
question to get you thinking along these lines tonight as we
jump into our passage. Why did Christ come into your
life to save you? Why did Christ save your soul?
You say, Well, it was to forgive me of my sin, and to make me
free from sin, and to Take Me Home to heaven when I die.
Well, I ask you this is that the only reason for which Christ has
saved you, saved you? Why has he forgiven you?
Why has he cleansed you from your sin?
Why has he removed the consequences of sin from your
soul? Why did Christ enter into your
life and save your soul? You might be thinking, Dan,
you're talking to the choir tonight.
I, I think we know why Christ save us, saved our souls.
Well, if Mary and Martha are also in the choir, they're
singing soprano. There's some things that they
know as well, but some things that Christ observes that they
needed to be graciously reminded of.
And so the title of our message tonight is a gracious reminder
to faithful servants, A gracious reminder to faithful servants.
So let's look here tonight at verse 38 through verse 32 of
Luke chapter 10. God's Word says in verse 38 Now
it came to pass as they went, this is Jesus and his disciples
as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a
certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and
heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving. She was busy, very occupied with
much serving, and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?
Bid her therefore that she helped me.
Martha a little fired up here, a little aggravated.
Verse 41 and Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things.
There's a lot on your heart. There's a lot on your mind
there. There's a lot causing you to be
overwhelmed with anxiety. But verse 42, he continues to
say to her, one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen
that good part which shall not be taken away from her.
So if you're taking notes tonight, I want us to see, to
begin, that Jesus entered the home of a family who were known
for their love for him. If you were to walk around this
area of Bethany, which is the small town in which Mary and
Martha lived, and you heard the name Mary and Martha and you
heard the name Lazarus, you would probably automatically
associate them with Christ and his disciples, with the Kingdom
of God and the work of God in the earth.
And so this is the home of which Jesus enters, that he enters,
the home of a family that were known, had a reputation and had
a testimony of their love for Christ.
So this was the home of Martha, whose sister and brother were
Mary and Lazarus. And so I want us to consider
these two ladies tonight in their response to Christ
entering into their home. And so let's consider Martha for
a moment. So Martha.
Martha has been known for being a worker for Jesus.
As we consider her throughout the Gospels, we typically see
her as being occupied. We see her being busy with much
serving. She it was no problem for her to
get hard work done. It was Martha's love for Jesus
that perhaps drove her to so much serving.
She was perhaps very hospitable. She really had no problem
hosting people in her home. Probably she was considered an
exceptional cook of her day. She gave attention to some of
these details when it come came to hospitality.
No doubt she knew how to make her house a home in that it was
presentable and it was welcoming, especially when Jesus
Christ was going to stop in. Imagine that.
Imagine getting word that the Messiah was going to come visit
you in your home. Martha likely was the type of
person who didn't feel satisfied with herself unless she was
convinced that she worked really hard at whatever she set her
hands to do. It seems as if though that she
was certainly the person to go to.
If you needed to be assured that something was going to get done,
you could put your trust in Martha that she was going to not
displease you with her effort. It would then be safe to assume
that Martha found it very easy to say yes to other people when
they needed someone to make sure something in her skill set got
done. They could count on on Martha.
People probably knew that if they left the task up to her, it
would certainly get done. She was committed.
Martha was dependable. She had a good testimony for the
Lord in this regard. She was committed, she was
dependable, and she was no doubt hard working.
So that's Martha. But her sister Mary on the other
hand, is known throughout the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John for worshipping, being found worshipping at the feet of
Jesus. If we were to consider Mary in
John Chapter 11 and verse 32, the Bible says there that she's
found with a broken heart over the death of their brother
Lazarus crying at Jesus feet. In the next chapter, John 12
verse three, if we were to take a look at that, just after the
resurrection of her brother Lazarus, she is found anointing
the feet of Jesus with her precious ointment and with her
hair. And so in one chapter she's
broken hearted and she's cast it.
She's cast herself at the feet of Jesus and just a couple days
later she is worshipping and thanking Jesus for his
faithfulness. And then of course, tonight in
Luke chapter 10 in our text, she's found sitting in her
sister's home with Jesus and his disciples at his feet, sitting
at the feet of Jesus. So nonetheless, both Martha and
Mary were unashamed, unashamedly associated with Jesus Christ.
And no one who reads the Gospels can doubt their mutual love for
Christ. Nobody who knew Martha and Mary
doubted that they loved God, that they loved Jesus, that they
loved what He was doing and what He came to do, and that they
were unashamed of associating themselves with Him.
So consider some of these sisters similarities.
So we saw some of their their contrast.
One found it very easy to get to work and get busy and be
consumed with that. And the other it was very easy
for her to maybe put time aside and to spend time with the Lord
and meditating on the things of God.
But both sisters loved Jesus, and they believed Him to be the
Son of God, and they also both did what they could to lift Him
up in their generation. They followed him, they exalted
him, they spoke about Him, they committed their lives to Him and
His 'cause they are set before us in Scripture as wonderful
examples of servants who were committed to the Lord.
But the passage before us gives a contrast in the response of
both ladies while Jesus was present in their home, present
in their their their current situation, present in their
life, if you will. We see here, as we have just
read, that Mary joined the disciples and sat down to listen
to Jesus. We saw that while Martha
continued working around her home in order to accommodate
Jesus and the disciples, and as we hear this tonight, Mary sat
at Jesus feet. Martha accommodated Jesus and
the disciples. We would say from the from off
the cuff that both sound pretty good.
There's in and out themselves. There's nothing wrong with
either of those two things being busy.
Being at work and sitting with the Lord and his disciples both
sound good. One was sitting and listening to
Jesus, the other was busy. But considering why Jesus was at
their home in the 1st place will help us decide if it was if what
these ladies were both up to was good in their context.
And so at the beginning of the message tonight, I asked the
question, why did Christ die for your sin and forgive you of your
sin when you called on him in faith and, and bring you back
into a relationship with the Lord?
And so we have to ask the same question about why Jesus came
into their home and literally stepped in their their life that
day. And we could really come to find
the same answer to both of these questions.
So considering why Jesus was at their home in the 1st place is
going to help us here tonight. There are a lot of things in
life that are good in and of themselves, right?
There are a lot of things that can be deemed good or bad
depending on their current context.
Like some of you, some of you might think that you know it's
OK to eat ice cream three times a day, right?
There's nothing wrong with ice cream, but there might be
something wrong with that diet. We would all agree, and we're
looking forward to forward to this in a couple of hours, that
there's nothing wrong with sleeping.
But there's something wrong with sleeping on the job, right?
So in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with Martha's hard
work. And certainly there's nothing
wrong with Mary sitting with Jesus and listening to him speak
and give his words. So in order to help us
understand if both ladies were doing what was right in the
moment, let me ask you a question again.
Why did Jesus come to visit these two ladies?
What was his agenda? What was on his radar?
What was his point in entering into their home?
And so we see, first of all, that Jesus entered the home of a
family that was known for their love for him.
But we see secondly tonight that Jesus visited these ladies so
that he can minister to their spiritual needs, so that he can
minister to their spiritual needs.
And so we see here in verses 30 and 39 again it says now it came
to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village
and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house and
she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and
she heard His word. And so Jesus intended purpose in
coming to the home of Martha and Mary was to be with those He
loved. He simply wanted to be with
them. And so this passage does not
give us any evidence that Jesus came into their home expressing
any personal need for food, or for drink, or even for leisure.
Certainly it seems that Martha more than likely had that
prepared for him and the disciples, and probably offered
it to him. But her passage does not show us
that he was. He was needy and He was looking
for her to do anything extra for Him.
In fact, and it seems to be the character of the Lord Jesus.
This seems to be the character of the Lord Jesus as He walked
this earth. For example, He says in Matthew
20, verse 28, even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered
unto, to be served, but for He himself to minister, to do the
ministering, to do the blessing, to do the serving.
So this can all work together. Tonight Church to indicate to us
that Jesus came to their home that day, not to 'cause these
ladies to run around the house for Him, but instead so that He
could relieve them for a little while from all of their labor
and all of their cares. So I want us to consider now
Mary's response to Jesus presence in their home.
So we understand from the offset here that Mary's tendency and
what was easy for her was to cast herself at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. So let's consider her response
to him being in her home. The Bible tells us right here
that Mary responded to Jesus presence by sitting down at his
feet with the other disciples. Notice the words in verse 39.
She sat at Jesus feet. They these words here in the
description of her action, they indicate to us a couple things.
She sat at Jesus feet. In those other two verses from
the Gospels, it says there something regarding the feet of
Jesus in relation to Mary. And so we see here in verse 39
of this passage tonight. That Mary consciously dismissed
herself from whatever she was doing prior to Jesus coming to
place herself in a position which signified that she was at
rest. She wasn't going to do anything.
She was going to sit there. She was going to take her time.
She was going to focus. She was going to be at ease.
She was going to rest in the presence of Jesus.
Mary was not only resting physically and maybe mentally,
but she was focused in on something else.
He's her seated position signified something about her
mindset. Let me say that again.
Her seated position said something about her mindset.
For example, in Acts chapter 22 in verse 3 the Bible says this
regarding Saul who would become the apostle Paul.
Acts 22 and verse 3 it says. It says that we are told that
before he became the apostle Paul, that he, Saul, sat at the
feet of of Gamaliel. And so Acts 22, verse 3 says
Paul says this of himself. I am verily a man which am a
Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Silesia, yet brought up in the
city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the
perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward
God, as you all are this day. What was Paul doing at the feet
of Gamaliel? Well, as we look at this man
Gamaliel, we understand that Gamaliel was highly educated.
In fact, Gamaliel was an educator.
Paul learned so much about the law in the Old Testament from
this man Gamaliel. And Paul says to us in Acts 22
three that he sat at the feet of Gamaliel.
And So what Paul was doing at his feet was he was learning, he
was being taught, he was being educated by this man.
Gamaliel. Sitting at one's feet is
historically known as the ancient posture, which signified
that a person was learning or being educated by the other.
It was a place of submission. It was a place of humility.
It was a place in which where you would sit perhaps on the
floor, and perhaps your teacher was sitting in a chair.
And it just showed that they were a little bit more elevated
than you were and that they were going to teach you, that they
were going to educate you, and they were going to influence
your thinking, influence your heart, and influence your life.
So again, sitting at one's feet or sitting on the floor by
somebody, it was a sign of 1's humility before the one they
were sitting. So here we find in the same time
period, Mary sitting at the feet of someone, but not just
anybody, not a man like Gamaliel, not a man like
Nicodemus, but the word of God himself, the Messiah, the
Christ, her Savior, her Lord Jesus the Christ.
Therefore, she intentionally forsook whatever it was that she
was doing, and she humbled herself in such a way that
expressed that she was a disciple learning from the words
of Jesus. I believe there is some liberty
we can take to speculate what it was Mary was hearing and
receiving from Jesus. What do you think maybe Christ
was saying in her home at this time?
Perhaps Jesus was teaching Mary what what it is that disciples
are supposed to do to live a maybe he was teaching her how to
live a life that points people to salvation, to live a life of
faith in God, to live a life of loving other people.
Perhaps he was teaching her the importance and the the power of
of prayer of our communication with the Lord.
Perhaps. Maybe he was taught he was
talking about how he had just commissioned the 70 to go preach
the gospel in different cities. I think it's safe to say that
Jesus told Mary that he loved her, that he would provide for
her so long as she followed him and she was faithful to seek
first the will of God. Maybe Jesus was teaching her the
importance of being a godly lady in their society, teaching her
that she has value, teaching her that she was important to God.
Who knows? The point is, Mary responded to
Jesus being in her home by spending time in His presence.
That's really all that matters tonight is that she forsook
everything that was happening right there in her life to show
that she loved the Lord and wanted Him to influence her
life. There's also no doubt in my mind
that her spirit was refreshed as she sat with the Word of God
Himself. But where was her sister Martha?
Where was Martha? Notice the beginning of verse
40. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving. She was cumbered about much
serving. The Bible uses the word cumbered
here at the beginning of verse 40, which carries the idea that
she was obstructed or or busy or disrupted with with something.
She was, she was held back. She was, she was distracted from
perhaps where her focus really was supposed to be.
So in this context, Martha was busy with serving, a lot of
serving. Perhaps she was just finding
things to do. Perhaps once somebody finished
a, a, a plate of food, she would take that and get rid of it.
Once a crumb was dropped, she would sweep that or she would
find something to straighten out.
She was, the Bible teaches us that she was cumber.
She was busy about much serving. She was obstructed.
So in this context, she was serving a lot.
She had kept herself so entirely busy around her home that she
didn't think to say no to those things so she could say yes to
spending time with Jesus. I mean, we're talking about
Jesus here. This isn't just Joe Schmo,
forgive me Joe, but Joe Schmo, that was his, his Jewish last
name, Joe Schmo. This wasn't just Joe Schmo
walking through the door, this was Jesus.
And she continued to busy herself, what with what she was
doing before they arrived. The Bible tells us essentially
with the word cumbered that she was consumed.
She was consumed with whatever she was busy with.
But no, no one doubts still, even tonight that Martha, she
loved Jesus too. She loved Christ too.
In fact, she was probably doing what she was doing because she
thought that that was was best in the moment, because she
thought perhaps that would please Jesus.
She wasn't doing anything that was sinful in and of itself.
There's nothing sinful about working when it's done in its
proper place and time. And so verse 40 tells us that
she was cumbered about much serving.
And so she in verse 40, she now walks into the area of her home
where Jesus is sitting and his disciples are sitting and Mary
her sister is sitting. So verse 40 again it says, but
Martha was cumbered about much serving and, and came to him and
said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to
serve alone, to serve the 13 of you alone?
Did her therefore that she helped me?
And here we find a gracious reminder from Jesus to a
faithful servant. And he says to us tonight, verse
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her graciously, Martha,
Martha, he's he's getting her attention because we know she's
like this, right hair pulled out.
You know, I guess I'll stop there.
So he says, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about
many things. You're anxious, but one thing is
needful and and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not
be taken away from her. He says Martha's busyness was
wrong for two primary reasons. Work in and of itself.
Busyness in and of itself is not wrong.
We've all come from a busy day and it was appropriate and right
for us to be busy about our lives and we could preach a
message on that. But but her busyness on this
day, at this hour and this moment was wrong for two primary
reasons. First of all, her busyness was
wrong at the time because Jesus came into her home not to be
ministered unto, but that He would minister to her and to
Mary. It was time for Martha to put
things aside for a couple of hours and to come and and seat
herself next to her sister Mary and the rest of the church that
was there in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus entered into the home, it was time for both
Martha and Mary to say no to everything else, and to say yes
to the very Word of God himself. Martha's responsibility was to
say yes to sitting at Jesus feet.
And so it was. Her busyness was wrong at this
hour, on this day, because it was it was out of place for her.
But secondly, her busyness, her neglect to sit with Jesus LED
her to a reaction of the flesh, to a reaction of the flesh flesh
when she saw Mary, as we saw at the in the middle of verse 40,
when she saw Mary sitting with Jesus, she technically reacted
selfishly. She was frustrated that Mary
wasn't helping her. She wanted Jesus, who had all
authority, to tell Mary to leave his feet and go get busy
serving. But how did Jesus actually
respond to Martha and all of her attitude?
Right graciously, He responded graciously.
Here's the message tonight. Jesus graciously reminded a
faithful yet burdened an anxious woman of God, an anxious
servant, that time spent at his feet was the most important
thing she could do at that moment.
And he teaches us tonight that the most important aspect of the
Christian life is your relationship with the Lord.
Jesus came to relieve her of the burden.
That's why he came into your life to relieve you of the
burden of sin. But then, even on a daily basis,
He wants to relieve you for a moment of some of the realities
of life and get you saturated in His loving, gracious, and
merciful presence and His fondness of you.
Mary recognized her own need, and she made the best choice at
this hour. Christ stepped into our lives to
relieve us of our burdens, that we might have fellowship with
Him and thus serve Him as a result.
And that's the gospel. Why did Christ come into your
life? Why did you call on Christ to
save you on the day in which you were saved?
Because remember this tonight, there was a time in your life
where you were convinced and convicted that your sins
separated you from God, that your sin was between you and
having a relationship with God. And finally, by the grace of
God, by the teaching and the preaching of the gospel, the
Holy Spirit drew you in, helped you to realize what was
separating you from a relationship with God.
And upon your conviction and upon your faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, he removed sin out from between you and him, and he
brought you back into a relationship with him.
This is the essence of the gospel.
And so Jesus did not forgive you of your sin.
Listen tonight, just to take you to heaven.
And that's often what we preach is get saved to go to heaven.
Get saved to go to heaven. No, no, no, no, we get saved to
be restored into a relationship with God, and heaven will be
indeed in our future. But He stepped into your life to
restore a relationship with Him. He wants to fellowship with you.
When God created man, He created us primarily that we might know
Him and joy Him and love Him and glorify Him forever.
And in our sin, our sin hindered that from taking place.
And so Christ did not step into your life to make you a busy
person. He stepped into your life so
that you could be saturated with Him.
And the fact is tonight that as we walk with God, we will want
to get up and serve Him at some point.
But the cart doesn't come before the horse.
We are to fall in love with Him primarily, and then we will want
to serve Him. If we are just serving and
serving and we are busy and busy, we're going to get burned
out and we might not be very interested in having a daily
walk with the Lord. In fact, that can cause us to
forget why Jesus stepped into our house, why Jesus stepped
into our home to have a relationship with you and with
me. This is the gospel.
Christ wanted them to live in light of the gospel.
And what was the gospel at this moment?
Him. It's always him.
It's always the Lord Jesus. When we allow ourselves to to
minister more for Christ than we allow Christ to minister to us,
our ministering can become empty, vain, heartless.
We can become and act in ways that are off balance and out of
place. Allow me to phrase it.
To phrase it this way, when we allow ourselves to become too
busy with daily life to spend quiet time alone with God in His
word and prayer, we are missing out on the primary reason Christ
came into our lives in the 1st place.
And that reason was so we could have a relationship with Him.
I asked this question a few moments ago.
Why did Christ forgive your sin and remove the consequences of
sin so that you can have a relationship with your Creator
through Jesus Christ? Isn't that an amazing truth?
God, the high and holy God wants to be with us, the likes of us.
It really is and truly is Amazing Grace.
Remember now, Martha loved Jesus.
She wasn't rejecting him. She she wasn't bitter toward
Jesus. She wasn't trying to ignore
Jesus. She simply allowed herself to
become too busy. I would say that's the case with
all of us at times. The Bible says that once Christ
stepped into your life at the moment of salvation, the love of
God was shed abroad in your heart.
You had a love for God that you never had prior to salvation.
And when he stepped into your life, you loved him.
And when he stepped into your life, you loved His church, you
loved Christians, you loved the word of God, you loved the
presence of God. And so that was who Martha was.
She certainly loved God. I wonder though, can we be
guilty of telling ourselves when we're busy and busy and busy?
Well, God knows my heart. He knows to justify not taking
personal time at His feet. Yes, there are times where where
where God, God always knows. And there are times where God
does understand certain circumstances, but as a regular
habit to not take time at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So know this. Thirdly, tonight that there is
nothing more important in your day than personal time with
Jesus. But what distracts us from
spending time with the Lord on a daily basis?
What are the ways? Maybe we might act like Martha?
I want to say this tonight, that business busyness in the work of
the Lord does not equal godliness.
Busyness being overwhelmed in the work of the Lord does not
equal godliness. We could have our ministry, we
could have our vocation, we could have our career.
These are all good things and we might come to the place where we
are content with serving work must be must get done and and
God and God knows this, but these things are not to replace
our time in his presence in the word and in prayer.
Perhaps it's it's family, it's different priorities in your
life, it's different habits, it's it's different routines.
And as we look at these verses tonight, we consider this
passage. We can very easily apply this to
church life. You've chosen to be here tonight
when you're here. I mean, you've made a decision
to be here every time you're here.
Obviously, I don't think anybody is here against their will, but
this even comes into play with church life.
What you have done tonight, even right here in the middle of your
busy week, is you have put certain things aside.
You have put your life on pause, the rest of your life on pause.
Although you might have things to do even as soon as you get
home tonight and you've come and you have sat at the feet of the
Word of God, and I commend you for that.
Every time you're here, you're choosing that you want to be
influenced by the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This has to do with your personal walk with God, and also
has to do with your corporate walk with God.
Is it too much to make the Lord's Day entirely devoted to
Him? On Sundays, where we take one
day a week and we put the rest of our life on pause, and when
the church gathers in the morning, we gather.
When the church gathers in the evening, we gather.
Why? Because Jesus is here because
it's time to sit at his feet. When we put other things on
pause, we are showing that the presence of Christ is important.
One of the greatest things my parents ever did for me, and
I'll never forget it. When I was probably 14 years
old, 1314 years old, I wanted to join the Police Explorers.
OK, as I was pulled between preaching and policing.
Sometimes they're the same preaching and policing.
I I thought that's probably the direction I would have gone if
the Lord didn't call me to preach was law enforcement.
And so I, I wanted to get involved in the club, right?
I want to get my feet wet and stand there at at fall festivals
and paint people's faces and tell people where to park with
combat boots on with my oversized polo shirt tucked in,
right, Yes, Sir, right. But the thing was, and we were,
we were my grew up in a Christian home.
The thing was about the police explorers was that they had
their primary meeting on Wednesday evenings, Wednesday
nights. And before I committed myself to
that, my, I had a father and I still do who evaluated the
situation. And he said, Dan, that's going
to take the place of your time in the church.
I believe you can do this. And it was hard.
It was just like, man, you sure? You sure we can't squeeze it in
somehow and maybe show up to church a little late.
And we said no. And so he helped me recognize
that I needed to prioritize the feet of Jesus being where God is
at work, being where God wants me to be.
And here's the thing, we, we, we just take maybe 20% of our week
and we congregate as a church and we assemble as a church to
be in the fellowship, to be in the word and to be equipped to
fulfill the Great Commission or even to actually fulfill the
Great Commission. But this is true even in our
personal lives. We get into a routine, maybe in
our in the home and before we know it it's been a couple weeks
since we have gone and spent time with the Lord in the Bible
and in the place of worship and prayer.
Perhaps you're over committing to favors and responsibilities.
You're serving and helping other other people and that is good.
But some people become so busy serving others that they have no
time to sit with Jesus. Maybe it's entertainment, and
entertainment can be a blessing at times, but we are all guilty
of prioritizing entertainment over time at the feet of the
only one who can satisfy our most deepest desires.
And I'll say this too, maybe about your routine, that it is
true that health can become a factor that makes you to have to
rework what time with Jesus looks like for you.
No one's saying tonight that you need to meet with the Lord first
thing in the morning and you need to spend an hour of God
with God. And you have to keep a journal
and you need to report it to the pastor, and you need to prove
that you're spending time with the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it needs to be this time, this room at this hour.
That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is though,
there comes a time every day where you need to put your life
on pause and say it's God and I time.
That's why he saved you first and foremost, to have a
relationship with you. Think of the gospel.
Christ stepped into our lives so we could be together.
We need to be deliberate and intentional about our daily walk
with God, or else other things are going to get in the way.
You say, Brother Dan, I'm not really sure what to do.
I'm not 100% sure what you're talking about.
A personal daily relationship with God like in the Bible.
And where do I start? Well, that's what we're here
for. You come and you ask, and we'll
disciple you and teach you how to get involved in God's Word,
teach you how to pray, teach you to get how to get deeply rooted
in your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Having a time and place where we daily come into His presence is
helpful. Worshipping Him, reading His
Word, listening to His Spirit is why He saved us.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.