I am it seems that I'm constantly
asking you asking myself this question because it is the utmost importance. It's of eternal consequence.
It's the reason I continually ask this question. So I'm going
to ask it again. What is it that you truly need? What is it that you truly need? And I ask you, in all honesty,
upon hearing that question, I ask you to really search your heart
and your mind and ask yourself in all honesty, what is the first
thing that comes across your mind? What is the first thing
that comes out? Generally, that is what you feel
like you need or want. Now, the average person will
begin listing things, such as money, food, clothing, a job,
a house, a car, etc. That is, the people of this world,
these are the things that they feel like they need, or rather
want, and consequently, this is what they are seeking after,
pursuing with all of their industry. And this is what they're taking
up with, taking up with accumulating as many and as much of these
things as they can get. Only to lose it all in the end. Only to have it all just disappear
in the end. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
6. Matthew chapter 6. Our Lord gets
to the very heart of this question and answers it. Matthew chapter 6, he very clearly answers this
question in verse 24. Beginning with verse 24, Matthew
6, Christ says, now, no man or no woman or young person Now, stay with me. Let's forget about the baked
beans, and let's pay attention for a little while here. This
is vital. No man can serve two masters, but either he will hate the one
and love the other, or that is, be so taken up with one as to
forget about the other and appear ignored or hated in these words. or else he'll hold to the one
and despise the other. Now, you cannot, this is God talking here, you
cannot serve God and mammon over this world. Let's read on. Therefore, since you cannot serve
God and mammon, and you're either taken up with one or the other,
Therefore I say unto you, I exhort you, take no thought for your
life, that is, this life, what you shall eat, what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body, what you shall put on, your clothing.
Is not the life, true life, more than meat and the body than rain? Behold the fowls of the air.
Oh, how we need this. Take a look at the birds, he
says. They don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns, accumulate. Yet your Heavenly Father feeds
them. Are you not much better than
a bird? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit unto his stature? In other words, which of you,
willing to do so can grow one inch physically. Something that's seemingly simple.
Why take your thought for rain money? It's much simpler to come
by than that. Consider the lilies of the field,
the flowers, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon and all his riches and glory was not arrayed like one
of these little daisies or flowers? Wherefore, if God closed the
grass, if God so closed the grass of
the field, which it today is, and tomorrow is cast in the oven,
shall he not much more close you, O ye of little faith? Says it again, take no thought,
saying, what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal
shall we be clothed? He says, after all these things
do the Gentiles seek, unbelievers are taken up with His. You've
got a Heavenly Father, He says. Look at it, verse 32. Your Heavenly
Father who owns it all, He knows what you have need of. that you
have need of food and clothing and so forth, shelter. He knows
what you have need of. Now, what Christ is saying here,
He says, God created you. He brought you into this world.
Now, did He bring you into this world just to leave you alone?
No. Reveal Christ to you only to
have you Try to make it the rest of the
way by yourself? No. He said, God created you and
everything in this world, in a sense, for your use. And He
knows what you need to sustain this life even before you ask.
He said in one place, God knows what you have need of even before
you ask Him. He knows when your rent's due.
He knows when your clothes are getting ragged. He knows when
your car is about gone. even before you ask. And in other places, he says,
even in the unbelieving world, God blesses them. Rain falls
on the unjust as well as the just. He blesses them. They don't
even ask. And think about this. He says,
could it be, or I say, could it be for you believers that
you don't have some of the things that you Desire, because your
Heavenly Father is too wise to give them to you? They know nothing
about it. Because your Heavenly Father
knows you don't need them. Just like a wise parent. Honey,
that's not good for you. Don't eat that. Can I have some
candy? No. No. Spoil your dinner. Well, and He even removes some
things that we don't need. If a child plays with something
that you feel is harmful, you go take it away from them, right?
God is so much wiser than we are. Well, let me ask you, in
light of death, it's very real. It's not too
real to some young people, teens or twenties or whatever. Death
is not, you know, you just don't even think about it. I thought
about it when I was 15 years old when I pulled my buddy out
of a basement who had asphyxiated from a little gas heater. He
was foaming at the mouth, dead as a doornail. It hit me real
hard at that time. I soon forgot about it. And then
when I saw my best friend laying in a casket after he was stabbed
to death in a fight when I was 18 years old, I thought about
it then. pretty real to me then, but I
soon forgot about it. But nevertheless, death is pretty
much far removed from nearly all of us until we see somebody
we really love laying there, or unless we're laying on the
deathbed. Betty and some of you have been deathly sick. But in
light of death, if we could think about it at all, in light of
death and in judgment that there's a God we have to face, an eternity
to spend somewhere. Now let me ask you, what do you
need? Look at verse 33. Christ says,
you need to be seeking the kingdom of God first. First. Seek ye first the kingdom
of God. That's just another way of and
saying, Salvation in Christ. Seek Christ. Seek Salvation in
Him and His righteousness. That is, Him to represent you
to God. And he says, All these things
shall be added unto you. Isn't that what he said? That's what he said. That's my
Lord speaking. That's your Lord speaking. And
he meant every word of it. He doesn't say idle words like
you and I do. You know, we say something sounds
real good, real religious, religious rhetoric, you know, to sound
good to someone or maybe to help somebody out. But his words are
life. They're truth. Life. He never
spoke an idle word. He said, oh, they seek first
the kingdom of God, seek salvation, all these things they had done
to you. Don't seek salvation to get these things. Love them. But you seek Christ and have
Him revealed to you, you'll have everything you need. You'll have
Christ and everything you need for this life. It says, therefore,
verse 34, take no thought for the morrow. The morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself. Don't worry about tomorrow today.
You'll be worrying about it tomorrow. Why not rest today and have some
peace today? And maybe worry about tomorrow.
You shouldn't worry at all, but you're going to. It's the nature
of the beast. Sufficient of the days of evil there, though. That's
what he's speaking of. I'll tell you what we need. I'll answer
it for you. We need to know God. We need to know Christ. We need
Him to represent us to God. We need salvation. Now, turn
over to Luke chapter 10. This is where we're going to
dwell. Luke chapter 10. I'll try to be brief. Now, if you are like me, you
can talk yourself into believing that what you want is really
what you need. I mean, you don't have any trouble
at all talking yourself into, I ain't got to have that. Well,
let's see. The reason I need that is because
of this. I can do this with it and that.
And somewhere down the line, you say, well, I'd glorify God
for that. We can talk ourselves into anything. How many times
have you done it? only to get yourself in trouble. We can come
up with every sort of excuse to buy or to do or just about
anything. I mean anything, can't we? I
mean, yes we can. I'm talking to myself today.
We think there are many things we need when in fact, one thing,
one thing, And this is a very typical story. Look at the beginning
of verse 38 of Luke chapter 10. Christ entered into a village. It came to pass as they went
that he entered into a certain village. He had a task. I like the way the scriptures
always say, a certain man, a certain leper, a certain village. He
must need to go through some area. Well, he had somebody on
his mind. He entered into this village
and a certain woman named Martha. received him into her house.
Here's the Lord. Come in, Lord. Come in. And she had a sister called Mary,
which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. It's a very
typical story. You've heard it before about
two sisters, Mary and Martha. I'm going to ask you to ask yourself
which one of these ladies you are. I mean, which person are you,
Mary or Martha? The Lord came to visit, had some
friends at his house. He loved these people. He loved
Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. And Martha, upon seeing the Lord,
asked him to come in. Asked him to come in and stay
a while and eat. The Lord came into town. And
as soon as he was in the house, which was his, the way he was,
he began to teach and preach. Just as soon as he came in. sat
down and everybody, as many as could get in there. I'm sure
Martha, all of her, Freddie and so forth, was over the fact that
her house was now full of people. But anyway, a bunch of people
crowded into this room and the Lord sat down and he immediately
began to teach and to preach. He said in one place, even as
a child, he said, I must be about my father's business. I must. I must. Oh, how we meet. I wish that we were taken up
in that way with the glory of God and his service, don't you?
But he was. And he came in, he sat down,
he began to teach and to preach. And everybody shut up and began
to listen. Now, here's the Lord of Glory
now. God in human flesh came into this house and sat down
and began teaching and preaching. And everybody, most everybody,
began to listen. Everybody began to listen. But
soon, Martha got a little fidgety, got a little restless. Now here
the Lord is speaking now, but it wasn't enough, it didn't suffice.
She began to look around, you know, we're going to have to
have something to eat, you know, he's going to be done preaching
soon, and we're going to have to have something, and this is
my house, I'm going to have to fix something. So she got up and began to go
out and prepare food. Now she had just forgotten that
not too long, not too long before that, Christ had just fed 5,000
people. You reckon if they was going
to need something to eat that he could have said, y'all hungry?
Spread the table. But Martha, you know, she forgot
all about that. Faithless. Instead of sitting and listening
to the words of the Lord himself, who had come to grace her home.
But we've got to get something done here. We've got to fix some
food. She felt like she had to fix
some food. So she went in and started fixing
some food, which is okay in itself. But after a while, she felt like
she needed some help. And she began to appeal to the
Lord. Look at it in verse 40. It says, now this seems to imply
that Martha didn't really even sit down at all when Christ began
teaching, doesn't it? I just noticed that. This seems
to imply that she didn't even sit and listen at all. Mary sat
down, the folks sat down to hear Christ, but Martha didn't. It
says, Martha was cumbered about much serving, and she finally,
she got so worked up and such in a frenzy that she came to
the Lord and said, Did she stop his preaching? Did
she interrupt him? Think about that. Lord, don't
you care? You think about this. Don't you
care that my sister, Lord, don't you care? Is it nothing to you
that I'm in this fuss and this frenzy? This was just like us. Oh, this is so like us. We become
so selfish. so self-centered, so concerned
with our own selves and what we're doing, that we eventually
blame God for the mess we get ourselves into, don't we? In
spite of being warned repeatedly, now don't do this, don't get
involved here or there, don't go there, don't do this, from
the Word of God, it's very clear if we just open our eyes and
our hearts to receive what God's Word says, we'll be led aright.
Yes, we will. But in spite of all the warnings,
we get into something, and then we get into it, get ourselves
in a mess, head over heels in debt, or full of responsibilities
and all this. Lord! Lord, get me out of this mess!
Why should he? He got yourself into it. If he
had done what you're supposed to do, you wouldn't have been
there in the first place. But he's kind and merciful. But we
generally end up blaming God. Lord, don't you care I'm so troubled
and so disquieted? Lord, why don't you do something
to help me out?" We'd truly been concerned with
what was really needful. We might not have gotten into
the trouble we get ourselves into. Right? And he had no doubt
about it. No doubt about it. It says, Martha
was cumbered. Cumbered. That word means distracted. She was cumbered. She was distracted. from what was really necessary
by a lot of unnecessary things. That's what that word, cumbered,
means. You know, burdened, that cumbered. Something is a cumberance
to you. It's something you don't need,
right? It's getting in your way. It's a cumberance. She was cumbered. She was distracted from what
was really necessary. Her mind, her reason, her logic,
her conscience were drawn away with care and concern over serving
food when the Lord was preaching. She was wholly removed from rational
thinking because of trivial concerns. That's us. We lose all rationale, all faith,
because of trivial things. Now, there are many things that
are good and helpful and valuable, such as service to others. There's
nothing wrong with having the things of this world, and we
ought to take care of them when we get them. This is speaking of nothing.
Nothing is to get in the way of our knowing and learning of
Christ. Nothing. No one is to get in our way of
knowing and loving, being taken up with, the one who is needful. You call it what you like, whatever
this is that you may be taken up with, or whoever, whatever,
justify it all you will, but whatever prevents you from worshiping. Whatever. prevent you from worshiping
God and learning more of Christ is being cumbered about. Cumbered with much care. That's
just the truth. Now, Martha was a good wife.
If she was married, she was probably a good wife. A mother. She had children. A sister. She
was a good sister. She was a good friend. She was
a good cook, good hostess, good things. But Martha, maybe, was an unbeliever.
I don't really know. At least,
if she was, she was a very immature one. It was evidenced in John
chapter 11, when Lazarus died, wasn't it? Well, look at verse
41, or verse 40. It said, Lord, she said, Lord,
don't you care, don't you care that I'm Serving? And my sister has left me to
serve alone? Tell her to help me. Tell her
to get up and help me out. You know, if we stay unrepentant
very long, if we stay unchanged very long, we'll start looking
at other people and start... Not only we start by blaming
God for the mess we get into, but if we stay unrepentant, unchanged,
and don't make a reversal, God doesn't stop us and turn us about.
We'll start blaming other people too. Lord! We'll start finding fault with
others to boost our own selves up, you know. Why we get in the
mess we get into. She made me mad. And I don't
like the way he's doing it. You know what I mean? And this
is usually the only reason behind talking about somebody. But look at the verse 41. Our Lord answered her, and I'm
sure he said this in a very compassionate way, is he merciful, he's so
kind and gracious. I wish we had more of it. But
Jesus answered in her, you know, her, her wicked outburst. Like this,
Lord don't you care? I'm doing all the work around
here. My sister's sitting there doing nothing. Get her to get
up and help me. That was it. She was, I mean,
she was acting nasty. Acting like a fool, what she
was doing. And our gracious, kind, heavenly
Father, our Lord, answered and said unto her, Martha. Martha. I'm sure just that right
there, just... You know, she came in. Lord,
don't you... Martha. Now, Martha. Oh, I tell you. We need Him to
speak to us, don't we? Oh, how the Lord needs to call
us personally and get our attention. Now, Paul, son, Paul, Martha, how the Lord needs to
stop us in our wild career of sin, or else make us stop and
realize what we're doing if we're children of God. He needs to
stop us and make us realize the futility of what we're doing
and show us our great need. Martha! Believer! Believer! You're careful and you're troubled
about so many things. So many things. But... Verse 42. There's just one thing,
Napal. I know you know this in your
head. Martha, I know you've heard me enough. to know this in your
head. But it's a fact. There's just
one thing, Napal. One thing you should be taking
up with. Christ. Me. Me! Christ is all we need. Whether
we know it or not, He is. Right? Let me read to you from
Philippians chapter 3. You don't have to turn. The Apostle
Paul says this in Philippians 3. He says, He said, I used to
think some things were gained to me. He said, oh, I used to
think some things were necessary to me. Now, this is a man who's
riding from prison in a cell. He said, I used to think there
were some things I needed, some things that were profitable to
me and then gained to me, that I kind of lost for Christ. They'd
gotten away. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
for whom I suffered the loss of all things. But it ain't nothing.
He said, it's done. I might win Him. See, I'm going
to lay this old body down real shortly, and I better know Him,
be found in Him, not in my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, really knowing
Him. Not in the head, but in the heart, knowing Him. I may
know Him, the power of His resurrection, the fellowship, a real union
with a real person, not indoctrinated. Although it starts there, it
moves down, but see, we need Him. Why? Because the things
we need are in Him. Jesus Christ is made to me. All I need, all I need. Wisdom. We don't know much. We're stupid. That's me. That's you. By nature, we're
stupid, aren't we? Because we get into every sort
of nonsense and mischief there is. And if God doesn't stop us,
we'll try our best to work our way to heaven even. But we're
stupid. We need some wisdom. Because by nature, we're so ignorant.
We're blind fools. We don't know God. We don't know
ourselves. We don't know how to get to God.
God better show us something, hasn't He? He better reveal His
Son to us, Christ, whom to know is to have eternal life. We've
got to know Him, that He is God's righteousness. Paul said, there's
so many people ignorant of this. Aren't there? You run into them.
You see them on TV, radio, out in the world. They're so ignorant
of the righteousness of God. No one about to establish their
own righteousness when God plainly calls it just filthy, stinking
rag. Get out of here. That won't get
you anywhere. We got to know Him. Know Him. For He is our only acceptance.
I mean all our acceptance with God. Righteousness. We need this righteousness. We're
altogether unclean, unholy, filthy sinners. We don't even know it. And we need to seek Christ as
our representative to the Father. We need to get in behind Him.
We need to have Him cover us up with His robes. To get into
God's presence. Sanctification. All of our lives. All of our lives. The word sanctify
means, for the most part, to be set apart. All of our lives
have been spent toward me, the big M-E, right? The big I, me. All of our lives have been spent.
enslaved to sin, Satan, and self, right? We're still a great deal
enslaved to it. Somebody needs to grab us and
set us out from amongst them. Come out from amongst them and
get behind me and follow me. Drop what you're doing, who you're
taking up with, and follow me. Somebody's got to do that to
sanctify us. That's Christ. He's our sanctification.
Redemption. We've sold ourselves out. We're
sold out to the flesh. Like Gomer, we're on that option
block, aren't we? Of sin. Adulterers. Adulteresses. And our maker is
our husband, but we don't give him a thought. We go on about
adulterers and adulteresses taking up. unfaithful to our God, to
our Lord, who provides everything and take it up with this world,
somebody. And then we get on the auction block of sin and
such a mess down in the pits. Somebody got to buy us back. And Christ did it. He paid the
ransom price, which was His own precious blood. His own precious
blood. He paid the price. He came to
the Father and said, down in that pit, enslaved to
sin, children of the devil, just like everybody else. Now they're
yours, they're mine. Here's the price. It was His
own blood. Now I'll go get them. I'll go
get them. And He did. The song says, I need thee, oh
I need thee. Every hour. Don't need to leave
on Sunday. Leave every hour, don't we? Why?
Because we're prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love, we say. I don't know about you. I think I know about some of
you, but... I need Christ. I need to learn more about Him,
because I feel like most of the time, I don't even know Him.
Some of the time, a great deal of the time, I feel all alone.
I need to fall in love with Him because some of the time, I'll
admit it, most of the time I feel like I'm in love with the world.
I need to fall in love with Him. I don't need a new car, I need
a new heart. I don't need a new house, I need to dwell in Him.
I don't need a new job, I need to go to work for Him and serve
Him. I don't need food, I need to
feed on Him. I don't need clothes, I need
to be wrapped in His arm. I don't need good health, I need
good faith. I don't need to live longer,
I need eternal life. One thing is needed for Martha. Look at verse 42. And he says,
Mary has chosen that good part. Mary made her decision. I'm going
to say it. I said it. I did it. Mary made a decision. And there
is a decision to be made. Not as far as salvation is concerned.
God makes that decision. But as far as there's a choice
to be made in this life, concerning these things that
either get in or are a hindrance to us or a help to us as far
as worshiping God, worshiping Christ, coming to hear the gospel,
supporting the gospel, taking a job or a husband and wife,
a particular person, doing, taking, being involved with certain things
that there's a choice to be made. I think you know what I'm talking
about. There's a decision to be made. where to go, where to
live, you know, where to take up residence. When the gospel
is at stake, when hearing the gospel and feeding upon a cry,
there's a choice to be made. And Christ said about Mary, she
chose it. What was that? Look back to verse
39, it said, Mary chose the good part. Verse 39, Mary was sitting
at Jesus' feet, hearing His word. So you and
I were talking about this yesterday. This is the good life, folks.
I was like Solomon as a young man. I tried it all. And the
Lord gave me most everything, made me rich, and then just in
one instance, it seemed like, made me poor, took it all away. There ain't nothing out there,
is there? I mean, there ain't nothing out
there. I had the finest car there was. We just left our home of
our dreams. There ain't nothing to it. There just ain't nothing to it. But, buddy, this is something
else now. This is what I enjoy. I see some of you smiling, shaking
your heads. This is where it's at in modern-day
vernacular. This is the good life. This is
the good life. Fellowship and with around the
gospel Worship in Christ somebody's you know young people here probably
That's stupid That's what I used to say. Oh, it's stupid He would
want to go Rick you and I were talking about this if you'd have
told me 15 years ago when I was 19 that I'd be on a Wednesday night or even
a Saturday or whatever, going to hear the gospel preached,
you know, going and traveling a long way just to hear the gospel,
taking my vacation just to hear the gospel. I said, that's hogwash! That's stupid! Or I'd have used
some more adjectives. Who needs that stuff? I'd a whole
lot rather party, you know. I almost would have rather killed
myself. And then I'd have found out what
was needful. I'm glad God showed me before
it was too late. You know, some of us like to
eat. It's obvious. And these ladies fix good food.
We're going to go down and partake of some of it here in a little
bit. But it's not only good to eat, but it's good for you. I mean, it's good for you. And
by God's grace, some of you like to feed on the gospel. And it's
not only good, it's good for you. It's good for you. It gives you peace, it gives
you comfort, it gives you encouragement, it gives you instruction, edification.
I realize a preacher, a pastor, gets on to people for not coming
to church or falling asleep in church or whatever, but you know,
and his motive may not be altogether right, but he's telling you what's
necessary. Because this is good for you.
I mean, this is the only way. God's chosen by the foolishness
of preaching to save people, and not only save them, but to
instruct them, to admonish, to comfort, to give peace, encouragement,
motivation, inspiration. God uses this right here. This
is what He uses. To edify the body. And we need to
avail ourselves of every opportunity. Not just so, you know, preacher.
I don't get mad at you because you feel guilty, but because
this is what's necessary, this is needful. And Christ said there
in verse 42, He said, Mary chose that part. And I ask you, Mary,
if you're Mary, or if you're Martha, what have you chosen? What do you choose? When it comes
down to, you know, going to worship God or doing whatever for the
glory of God, Truly be best for you. What we gonna decide? We gonna choose? We said Mary
chose the good part. Verse 42. He said it won't be
taken away from her. The house is gonna go. She's
gonna go. Maybe up in smoke. If we hold
on to it too tight, it might just... Oh, then it'll really hurt to
let go of them. Oh, my. Car? Some of them, our car's
already gone, aren't they? They're about gone. Car's gonna
go. We got a brand new 89, not brand
new now. We've got an 89 car out there,
you know, first new car I've ever owned in my life. You know,
somewhere down the road, that thing's just gonna go, and I'm
gonna get so mad at that thing. Just a car. That's what happens
to cars. That job is going to go. I mean, someday
the boss might come up to you. Oh, my. I hope it doesn't happen,
but he might come up to you and say, Billy Bob, I'm calling. We just don't need you anymore. Me and what? Well, same one that gave you
that one, give you another one. Her husband. Some of you know something about
this. Gonna go. Child, it'll be tough,
but they're gonna go. But if you have Christ, He said nothing, nothing, tribulation,
persecution, life, death, nothing, nothing shall separate you from
the love of God in Christ. Nothing! Now what's needful? Hmm? Now what's needful? Let me read you this poem. Christ engraved it on my heart that,
Thou the one thing needful art. I could from all things parted
be, but never, never, Lord, from Thee. Needful art Thou to make
me live. Needful art Thou all grace to
give. Needful to guide me lest I stray.
Needful to help me every day. Needful is Thy precious blood.
Needful is Your correcting rod. Needful is thy indulgent care,
needful thy all-prevailing prayer, needful thy presence, dearest
Lord, true peace and comfort to afford, needful thy promise
to impart fresh life and vigor to my heart. Needful art thou,
my soul, can say through all life's dark and thorny way, in
death thou wilt most needful be when I yield up my soul to
thee. Needful art thou to raise my
dust. in shining glory with the just,
needful when I in heaven appear to crown and to present me righteous
there." Oh, I need Him. How about you? I need Him. Let's stand and sing number 329,
shall we? Sitting at the feet of Jesus. I think you know it, don't you?
Don't know it? Try it. If you can't get it, we'll sing
it acapella. $3.29.