 So, here we are, Luke chapter 10, verses 38 through 42. And I chose to call this particular study, and you'll know why all of you are probably familiar with this portion of Scripture. I chose to entitle this, laboring or listening. Beginning at verse 38, now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him 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, shut up. Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. You're troubled, many things, laboring or listening. Now as we begin here in Luke chapter 10, we begin by just giving you a basic location. Jesus and his disciples are in what would be called the South. It's by Jerusalem. They're near the city a couple of miles just northeast of Jerusalem. If you were thinking of the map of Israel and you saw in the southern portion, the city of Jerusalem just to the north a bit and little to the east is a village there that's named Bethany. And that's where the Lord Jesus Christ is. John chapter 11 verse 1 tells us that he's in Bethany. And so as he enters this city, according to verse 38, there's a certain woman named Martha. And Martha, as we see, has welcomed him into her house. Now Luke introduces us to this woman who is a disciple of Jesus, a woman named Martha. And Martha is mentioned here in this particular Gospel, Gospel of Luke, as well as twice in the Gospel of John. She's mentioned in John chapter 11 as well as John chapter 12. And so Jesus is welcomed into her house. So she has graciously welcomed him into the home that she lives. There are many commentators who believe that the reason it is referred to as her home is, one is obviously she's a homeowner, but two, she may very well have been a widow. Now, as I was looking at this today, and it doesn't just take a moment to develop this with you. I want you to see it, though. I want you to notice how it says that Martha welcomed him into her house. And that to us is very common. We see that quite often in Scripture. But it's interesting how many lessons are not learned, how many lessons are not learned in church buildings and church meetings. It's interesting to me how many lessons concerning God and the kingdom of God are actually learned in homes, in houses. You see, we have a habit of thinking that genuine Bible teaching occurs most often in some building, a sanctuary and all. Well, that's obviously not true. Jesus quite often ministered and taught in homes. I mean, I could give you so many examples. I'll give you a few. You can go to the Gospel of Mark, for example, chapter 1, verse 29. It says, as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. And when they entered into the house of Peter, really, Simon Peter, that's where Jesus actually performs a miracle where he heals Simon's mother-in-law. So there's ministry that takes place in a house. I remember one time a friend of mine was speaking to me and he said, you know, do you know why Peter denied the Lord? And I said, I think I do, but why? Well, because he healed Peter's mother-in-law. So that's why he denied the Lord. But anyway, that's theologically unsound. But that's why he denied the Lord. But anyway, so we know that Jesus ministered in homes. In chapter 9, verse 10, Matthew speaks of Jesus ministering in the house of Matthew in his own home. In Matthew 9, 23, when Jesus healed Jared's daughter, he did so in the ruler's house. In Matthew 9, 27 through 29, it says, when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying out and saying, Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They said to him, yes, Lord, he touched their eyes, saying, according to your faith, let it be done to you once again in a house. We looked at Mark chapter 2, where Jesus was in a house when he healed a paralyzed man. And in Mark chapter 7, verse 24, he arose and went into the region of Tyre and Sidon. He entered a house, wanted no one to know it, but could not be hidden. Jesus often would minister in homes. And so a part of what we've always appreciated is fellowship that takes place in homes. Ministry that takes place in homes. Home Bible studies are great things. Home gatherings are great things. When you open your house up and you invite friends to come over and you have a meal with them. And you talk about the things of the Lord. There's a lot of good ministry that takes places, takes place in houses. My very first Bible studies I ever did. The very first study I ever did was, it was in a house in Norwalk. I started Bible studies in September of 1973 in my mother's house. I taught a lot of home studies over the years. This church began in a house on a Wednesday night. Then this church began meeting as a church in a house on Sunday mornings. So there's a lot of good ministry that takes place in a home. It's a very comfortable place for that to take place. Jesus taught everywhere, not just in the temple, not just in synagogues. He taught on city streets. He spoke on mountains. He gave lessons while on lakes. He even spoke in a graveyard. The message of grace can be given everywhere, but it should begin in our homes. And so Jesus is ministering here and he's ministering in the home of Martha and her sister Mary as well as the brother who is named Lazarus. It says in verse 39, she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. So Luke introduces us to a second person. This woman's name is Mary. She's the younger sister of Martha and her brother's name is Lazarus. Now as we look at that, notice with me that Luke makes it very clear that Mary comfortably sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. Now when it speaks of her being at his feet, that is a picture that is actually, during the time of Christ, a common way of describing a person who is a disciple. The rabbis, during the time of Christ, when they were mentoring or training up disciples, would have them in a way that they were referred to as sitting at the feet of the rabbi. When you look at the apostle Paul, which is interesting, and he's giving his own testimony in Acts 22 verse 31, this is what the apostle Paul said. He said, I am indeed a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our father's law. At the feet of Gamaliel, Gamaliel was a rabbi, Paul was simply saying, I was mentored and discipled by a man named Gamaliel, but he uses the phrase, I was at his feet, because that is literally how they would learn at the feet of someone. I've said this to you before, but it comes to mind whenever I mention the phrase at his feet. I was teaching Bible studies in Ontario. I started teaching a Bible study in the city of Ontario in September of 1974. My brother Frank had gotten saved on August 4th, 1974. I remember the date very well, and the reason is because that's my sister Rebecca's birthday. And so on her birthday, August 4th, my brother got saved. My brother had been going through some real bad times and was living a dangerous and crazy life. He was getting drunk, driving his motorcycle on the freeway, doing crazy things. He was going through a crazy time in his life. And we'd been sharing with him about Jesus and how God can change a person's life. And he had hit the bottom. I invited him to go to a church service. It's August 4th. It was a Sunday night service. He gave his heart to Christ. After my brother living in Ontario and me living in Norwalk, my brother was only going to church once a week. And I got concerned for him because just going to church wasn't enough. He needed to be discipled. And that's why in September of 1974, I began to drive. My sister Madeline and I would drive from Norwalk, and we would drive to Ontario. We would come up here into the city of Ontario, and I would give my brother Bible studies. And that's where a young woman who was a co-worker with my brother began to come to the Bible study. Marie, that's how I met my wife, is she came to the Bible study. And when she came to the Bible study, she got saved about two weeks into the studies. And we became boyfriend and girlfriend a couple months later. And then as I was teaching, she began to do this, and it was on her own. I had a little chair that I would be seated in. There were only six or eight people in the front room, and she would always sit on my right side. She always did, and she would lean against the chair. And she literally, for the last many years, has literally sat at my feet. And that wasn't something that was like, oh, you know, woman, stay there. You know, a wretch of a woman, you know. It was just a comfortable place for her. But I often think of that when I use that phrase, because for many years she literally, literally, would just take her place right there next to me at my feet. But that was a biblical picture of becoming a disciple. And that's how it is here with Marie. Jesus is there in the room. And Marie has found a very comfortable place to just be at the feet of the master. And from my perspective, that's a very, very beautiful picture. Notice it says that she heard his word. The word heard is more than simply hearing. The word heard means to consider what is being said. When it says she heard his word, it means that she was learning. She was attempting to understand. She was actually searching out the things that he was saying. Listen, a lot of times when people come to churches and Bible studies even like this, they may hear, but they're not hearing. Ears they have, but they cannot hear. They're not really wanting to know what that really means and how that really works in my life. Sometimes we accumulate information, but we're not accumulating information for the purpose of transformation. We're accumulating information because we find it interesting. And that's a dangerous place to be with the Bible. Because the best way to know a scripture is to hear it with the intention of obeying what it says. That's the best way to know scripture. And that's what she was there to do. She came not to just hear and debate. She came to hear and understand. Because she knew that Jesus had the words of life and that by holding fast to what he said, her life would be transformed. She knew that. And so we have a picture of a woman there who is considering what he says. In Psalm 131, 1 and 2, it says, my heart is not proud, oh Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul. Like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. I'm just there in a comfortable place. A weaned child is a child that has nursed to the point where they're no longer nursing. Every nursing mama in this room knows that when your baby is small and nursing, that very often they just want to nurse even if they're not hungry because they just do that. At a certain point, the baby is able to just rest their head on you without making demands on you because it's the comfort of just being with you that they want. That's a beautiful thing. I have a nine month old granddaughter, my Zoe. And Zoe is getting to the point at nine months where she's not weaned yet, but she's getting to the point where she just wants to hold on to her mama and not always be nursing. And so what we do is we we comfort ourselves in the fellowship with the Lord like a weaned child. Now it seems obvious here that Mary understood her spiritual needs. And she also understood how that Jesus met him. And she knew that the best place for her would be to be at the feet of Jesus to receive instruction from him because she knew that his words were life. And she wanted to receive from him. It's like what it says in Psalm 119, 130. The entrance of your words give light. It gives understanding to the simple. And that was Mary and that was her heart. What an incredible blessing that would have been. Can you imagine to be in that comfortable position to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak, to hear the words of life from the very source? What could be more of a blessing than to hear God's word while you're seated at the feet of Jesus Christ? You know, in Luke chapter four, it says at verse 22, all bore witness to him and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Can you imagine that to hear the word of life, giving the word of life? Could you imagine what it would be like to hear a Bible study from Jesus himself? Wouldn't that be amazing? Yet every time we open the word of God, the word of life is being presented every time. But Jesus had an eloquence about him, an authority about him. On one occasion, the Pharisees had sent some officers to arrest him and the officers went, listened to him for a while, came back without him and when the Pharisees said, where is this man we sent you to arrest? I love their response. It's recorded in John 746. The officers answered, no man ever spoke like this man. Do you think that Jesus went up there and said jokes and was silly? I'd rather doubt it. Do you think that Jesus had a sense of humor? Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. Sometimes we don't understand it. I had to make a habit of pointing out his humor to you sometimes because it's 2,000 years ago. That was the kind of humor that he had. He would say things that sometimes, they had spiritual meaning in depth. I'm not saying they didn't. But the way he would say it, I'm certain it would cause a smile to come on the face of the people that he was speaking to because he was speaking to the current humor of their time. Though there's a very powerful lesson when Jesus says it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. That is a very powerful spiritual truth. You can't see the people kind of smiling as their picture in this big camel's head going into a needle because Jesus would use phrases like that that actually had an intent to some humor. There's somebody who was arguing one time years ago if God doesn't laugh the only time he ever laughs is he laughs at the destruction of the wicked. No, I believe that the Lord who is the author of joy I have no doubt that Jesus Christ smiled with his disciples quite often. I have no doubt about that. I don't think that Jesus was a bummer to hang around with. Do you? Oh no, here he comes. He's so heavy all the time. Oh! I believe that the men loved hanging around with the master. They loved being with him. When you'd smile at him, could you imagine? You're sitting in the Bible study and Jesus just looks down at you and smiles at you and you go, I feel special. You know? And you would, wouldn't you? Or when he was saying something very convicting he just had his eyes on you too long. That's always uncomfortable. When I teach, I make sure I don't look at anybody more than just a half a second. Because it's uncomfortable. Greg Laurie, when he gives studies to smaller groups, will stare at you as he's talking. After a while, your thumbnail becomes very interesting. Because he's looking right through you. But Jesus was there speaking and Mary just could not resist. She wanted to hear the master speak. And the way he spoke. Oh, she loved. She loved sitting at the feet of Jesus. She loved soaking in his teachings. Receiving the word from him. That was joy. That was pleasure. It had infinite. It had eternal value. Like it says in Psalm 119, 103. How sweet are your words to my taste? Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Love receiving from you. Well, you've got this woman. Mary just there just listening to the Lord. Cut to the kitchen. You've got Martha. Well, verse 40, Martha was distracted with much serving. And she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me. I almost hear Martha in the kitchen rattling those pots and pans. Can you see her fuming? She's looking in the other room there and there's Mary. And Martha's in there and I've got to make this matzabal soup and I've got this lamb shish kabob and whatever, you know. And she's not happy. She is not happy at all. Now here's something for you. How many older sisters do we have in this room? Raise your hand. Yeah, you know what's going on. Who's an older sister? She's got five siblings. She's the older sister. Older sisters are mother hens. And maybe you're not. I'll talk about my wife who's an older sister. She's a mother hen. And her, she was like, I forget how many years older than her baby sister, 14 or 15 years. So she's almost like a mother. As a matter of fact, my sister in Lombardy says, I have, you know, you're more like a father to me than a brother. In many ways that's true. I met her when she was a little girl, you know. So in many ways I've been a father figure to birds for, I call her birds for birdie, for forever, you know. And that's the truth. And Marie is an older sister. And Marie doesn't even see this about herself. And it's true. I think it's cute. There's nothing wrong with it. But it's a dynamic that is there. Older sisters, in my experience, and I don't want to make this a biblical truth, it's just in my experience, have a tendency, of kind of like running the show. They kind of do. And they don't even know they're doing it. It doesn't bother me at all that they do. But I've seen it more than once. Maybe it's not again true with you. But I do see it with Martha. Martha's there looking. It's my house. I've been working. Marie, get up. You have plenty of time to listen to him. Listen, we have all of these guests. Listen, she had supper. And I understand this, by the way. She had supper for at least 16 people. You do Thanksgiving. You know, in my family, when my family's all together, including our babies, we have around 16 people at one table. That's a lot of people. And when you work to make a dinner for 16 people, how long does it take? It takes all day. And then you eat it in a half hour. Amazing, isn't it? But it's true. All that work and all that effort, making sure that this doesn't boil over, making sure that this is cooked just right. And then she's working in their inner kitchen, doing her work, and there's somebody who should be helping her, just laying there, listening to Jesus, and she gets really angry. She made a lavish meal. It's a great amount of work. But she, I'm certain, resented the fact that her sister is seated while she's standing. Now, let me give you some application. This is one of the most common temptations believers can be trapped by. We can become overly concerned with what we are doing and forget the reason that we are doing it. We can get caught up with what we're doing. Have you ever planned an event? Then in the middle of it, just gotten frustrated and just wished that it was all over? How about Easter? How about Thanksgiving? Christmas? Oh, we're going to have a great, it's going to be, and there's so much work. And you're at the table and you're sitting there going, I just want to go to bed. But I can't because all of these people are going to get up and leave me with the dishes and I'm going to have to clean it. That's true, huh? It is, it's true. They're just going to get up and leave and I'll be up until 3 in the morning cleaning up this kitchen. Marie and I came from different backgrounds quite obviously. Marie is a person that will not leave dishes undone. She will stay up until everything's clean. My mom was different. My mama said, she would say this, they'll be there in the morning. That's what mama said, they'll be there in the morning. She would kind of wash them and get them ready. And in the morning my dad would get up and my mom would wash them clean and she made him breakfast. That's what my mom did, that's what I was raised with. Not Marie. No, if you've got 16 guests, she will stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning. And I help her. I get out of her way, I go to bed. I don't want to get in her way when she's working. But when you serve the Lord, serving the Lord Jesus Christ is to be a joy. Not some duty that you regret having to do. For Martha, what had more than likely begun with the right spirit had ended up in the flesh. An elaborate meal or a perfect order in the house was not necessary for Jesus. Martha's perfectionism and frustration interrupted the entire Bible study. Think about that for a minute. Her frustration? I was a guest at another church many years ago and I was doing the teaching for the evening. I still remember standing up, giving my study. I was almost three quarters through, just about done when I looked off to the left and the pastor who had invited me was seated at the back and there was like a partition. But I could see him looking towards the partition. So as I'm teaching, I'm looking and he's off to my left. I still remember it. I see him looking to his right. I see the partition and I see him, then I see him looking at his watch. Then I see a person who was behind the partition actually step out and get exposed for a moment so I saw her. And she was doing this thing with her watch. Then I looked up at the clock and I realized that I was going longer than they were expecting. And she was telling him, get him off the stage. That's what she was telling him. Get him out. So when I saw that, I looked and I realized that I was going to go a little long and I stopped. I said, well, you know, let me just make one last closing point here. But I came back and I spoke to my children's minister and I said, always have the children's ministers overprepare in the event that a guest speaker may come and the Lord may put something on their heart. Always be prepared to go the extra mile. Don't get caught up with your schedules because God may have something he wants to do at 801 and you're going to close at eight. Be careful with that. Do not organize God out of his church. Be very careful that you don't do that. And be very careful in your ministry that you don't organize him into your calendar because God wants to do something on his own timetable. And what God is doing in this case here with Mary is eternal. Martha's work is not. It's not that it's not valuable. It is, but Jesus is going to make a statement about that in just a moment. So what do we learn? Well, notice with me as the older sister, Martha actually speaks to Jesus. You see, it says in verse 40 that she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? You see, when we serve the Lord with anxiety in our heart, we actually are going to complain. That's what happens. We begin to complain. And so as an older sister, she's speaking to Jesus, but she's doing some notice with me disrespectfully. She not only questions him, but she also takes it upon herself to give him orders. She says, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? And then she says, tell her to help me. You guys, we would never command God, would we? Never. We never say, look, Lord, this is the way you ought to do it. Well, that's what she's doing. You see, again, her perfectionism, her frustration is interrupting the entire work. So Martha is anxious and she's of troubled mind. Notice it says that she became distracted. That word distracted means overwhelmed. It's literally mentally stressed. Because of all the work, she lost touch with the peace and joy that is given her by the Lord. You see, serving the Lord is to be a work of love. And serving the Lord should be done with the thankful heart. Our service to the Lord isn't an obligation. It's our source of joy. Some people have yet to understand that. That serving the Lord is a joy. I had somebody years ago who used to be with us and went on someplace else. And sometimes I get worried about how the sheep who used to be here are doing. And somebody wanted to let me know that they had seen this woman. And she said, when asked how are you doing, it was told to me that her response is I'm doing well. I'm in a church now. I don't have to serve in. And that, to me, is very sad. Listen, guys, always remember this. And by the way, you don't have to sign up for everything that we say you should serve in. You don't have to. Nobody is forcing you. Please never think that this is the only place you can serve. Of course not. Serve God wherever you are. That's the bottom line, isn't it? Serve the Lord wherever you are, in your house, on your job site, in your neighborhood. Just serve the Lord. But see the value of it. See the value of it. Yesterday we hosted a funeral. The church hosted a funeral. Calvary pastor who had gone home to be with the Lord. The church that he at one time used to serve didn't have a large enough sanctuary to hold the amount of people that were going to be attending the funeral. So they called and asked if we, the church, our church would allow them to use our sanctuary for the funeral service, which of course we did. And they brought a whole team of servants and they were the greatest people. They were sweet and good. But every one of them that I encountered were saying we're so grateful and so thankful because they had a team of servants who came and did all kinds of work and served here. But we also had members of our church on staff and all that were helping to serve so that this man's funeral service could be done with honor to the Lord and joy to his family. And that's what service is. It's when you have a heart like that. That's what it's all about. And in the midst of it, you can become distracted. You can even become frustrated. And you can lose touch with the peace and joy that comes through serving the Lord. But you need to serve the Lord, not because you're forced to, but according to 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14, he said the love of Christ compels us. There's just a love for the Lord that causes you to say, I just want to serve Jesus Christ. Listen, when you lose sight of the reason you serve the Lord, you will always lose peace and you will always lose the joy that comes with serving him. And then I want you to see something else here. Martha had a bad attitude towards people. She resented serving all by herself and was angry because nobody was helping her. Here's a question. Who wants to eat a meal prepared by a grumpy cook? Anybody? Kind of ruins the meal, doesn't it? It does. Have you ever had, I have. Have you ever had somebody who is serving a meal just drop the plate in front of you like that and walk away? Kind of ruins the meal a little bit. Remember 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 7, because there it simply says, God loves a cheerful giver. I have come to believe that serving the Lord is completely fulfilling because the jobs that you may have, the work that you do, will not give you a sense of spiritual joy and fulfillment. You aren't going to be fulfilled just because I am a truck driver or a lawyer or a school principal or whatever. That doesn't spiritually fulfill you. I was thinking about this. Ruling Egypt did not satisfy Moses. Being a shepherd did not satisfy David. Tending fruit trees did not satisfy Amos. Fishing did not satisfy John. Gathering taxes did not satisfy Matthew. Nationalistic politics did not satisfy Simon the zealot. Money did not satisfy Zacchaeus. Religion did not satisfy Nicodemus. And theology did not satisfy Paul. Those were things they did, but they didn't satisfy him. Serving God fills a void that our jobs cannot fill. We have people in this church who are professionals, lawyers and all, who are ushers. These are people who are used to doing things in a high level of responsibility, but they rush over here after work to do that which satisfies them the most, which may be to hand a bulletin to somebody or minister to somebody or pray with somebody. See, that's what's always going to satisfy you. You see, you need to understand that service shouldn't have a bad attitude. I was talking to a brother in our fellowship just this Sunday, and he said this and it made me laugh. He's been with us for 29 years. Ben and Usher, he said, you know what that is? The thing that has blessed me so very much. And he was talking to me because he and his wife moved. They moved out of the area and are going to have to go to another fellowship. And I've been very close to them for many years now. And so he came in and he was just, he was talking to me about that. And he says, you know, I've loved ushering all these years and he's been ushering for many, many years. And I said, yeah. He says, you know, one time I was, I came in with a bad attitude. He said, and somebody was seated and they wouldn't move. And I asked him, could you move over? He says, and I got this attitude in my heart, but the brother who was overseeing that ministry turned to me and said, you know, I think it's a good day for you to sit down and not serve. And he said, and so he sat me for that, that period of time because my attitude was bad. Well, you know what guys? Sometimes our attitudes can be bad. Sometimes they are when we serve. So we have to always keep check on that attitude. We have to remember that, that God gives us a joy of serving. And one other thing I wanted to point out is, and I mentioned it already, but let me point it out again, was when you have that kind of attitude, you can have disrespect. And she had disrespect towards Jesus Christ. Now it's interesting. I want you to notice this. Martha made her comments to Jesus while others were watching. Is that not disrespectful? I mean picture her. I don't know. I can't create the scene in my mind other than to think that I picture her stepping out from whatever place it is that she's serving. And perhaps there's a doorway that she's standing in. Perhaps. One way or another, I don't care. And I almost picture her with her hands on her hips, looking at Jesus, and speaking to him with a tone. Don't you care? Tell her to help me. That is absolutely disrespectful. I don't know. I couldn't imagine my mother doing that to my dad. That wouldn't have flown in our house. I know that Marie would never do that to me. That doesn't fly. That's disrespect. You treat each other with respect. And in front of the kids, in front of guests, oh no. You know, my father, my father, my dad was the kind of man who would not embarrass me in front of people. And he taught me that. I remember one time, I had a friend of mine who was outside. I was talking to him through a louver window. My dad spoke to me. I was a young teen that had spoken to me. And I kind of disrespected my dad as I was talking to my friend. So my dad said, close the window. And then he gave me a... He didn't hit me, but he sure let me know. That wasn't what you do. My father, my dad, I could not say yeah to him. I never said yeah to my dad. I did it one time. I was speaking to my dad and my brother had stolen my marbles. I still remember that. I was not happy. I lost my marbles over that one. And my dad let my brother... He cheated and he won my... We were playing marbles. And my dad, I walked out, I stormed out of the room and my father said, David. And I said, yeah. And he said, what did you say? See, I didn't say that to my... I couldn't speak to my father even like that. Now that's so minor here, huh? I have seen so many young people just say such disrespectful things to their parents. They treat them like they're... One time, one of my kids said something to me disrespectfully. And I said, you may be able to say that to your little punk friends. I wasn't happy. But you don't talk to me like that. I'm your father. And you speak to me with respect. That's kind of what dads do. You're not going to speak to me like that. I've had people in this church come up. I had some women screaming at me in my office once. I mean screaming. And my assistant was next... he was in the next room and he walked in and he said to me, he goes, I thought that was Marie. I said, no. No. When the lady yelled at me, I remember telling her, I said, let me tell you something. She was screaming at me. I said, you don't speak to me that way. If you want to remain in this room, you lower your tone and you lower your voice. Or this conversation's over. You can speak to your husband that way, but you're not speaking to me that way. Because that's not the way you deal with people. I didn't raise my voice and scream at her. I just let her know, we're not going there. You're not going to talk to me that way. So when I see Martha and I do picture her tapping her foot, that is a real disrespectful thing that's going on. She's blaming him for not caring about her and demanding that he tell Mary to help. Now, again, that's the inevitable result of laboring in the flesh. We will blame God for our own dissatisfaction. And we begin to believe that he simply is not aware of what's going on. Therefore, we have to tell him. It's like what the psalm has said in Psalm 10 verse 1. Why do you stand to far off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? So all of this that Martha's doing for Jesus is appreciated, but not the highest priority verses 41 and 42 in closing. Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and in trouble about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her. Martha, you are inwardly anxious and outwardly restless and you have forgotten the highest priority. There's only one thing that's needed. Mary has chosen that good part that will not be taken from her. In other words, Mary has a proper perspective and she did the one thing that is the most important. She's chosen to fellowship with me. Psalm 27.4, one thing I have desired of the Lord that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple. She knew the most important thing for her was to be seated at the feet of Jesus Christ and at his feet she was drinking in his word. She was loving him and fellowshiping with him and hearing him was her top priority because his word gave her strength and wisdom and notice how Jesus says Mary chose that good part that was a conscious decision on her part to be at his feet. She chose to do that and we still do. Make sure make sure that you spend time with the Lord in prayer. Make sure that you spend time with him in your devotions. Listen, if there's any burden that I have for this church it's that this church matures in the things of God and the only way that we as a church community will mature the only way is if we learn to first listen and then labor. The laboring comes after the listening. So listen to Jesus and labor for him. He was not saying that Martha was wrong for serving but he was saying Mary chose the priority and from her priority she would serve in that kitchen without banging those pots and pans because she first sat at my feet and out of love was able to serve others. That's why you'll burn out. That's why you will burn out. If you're not laboring first by listening you will resent the people you serve. I've been asked how have you continued to teach and minister for 40 plus years? The answer is learn to listen listen to Jesus and then labor for him because he always refreshes you he always does.