Luke chapter 10. Luke the 10th
chapter. We'll begin our reading at verse
38. Luke chapter 10 and verse 38. 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 heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving and came to him and said, Lord, Does thou not
care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Admit her
therefore that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many
things, but one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good
part. which shall not be taken away
from her. Now, in these five short verses,
we have one of the most instructive pieces of history recorded in
Holy Scripture. It describes for us an event
that took place in Bethany, a town about two miles east of Jerusalem,
where Mary and Martha and Lazarus, their brother, lived. When the
Lord Jesus and his disciples came to Bethany, Martha, Mary,
and Lazarus, being true disciples, opened their home to the Savior
and to his disciples often. They frequently came to Bethany,
and as often as they did, it seems that they stayed at Mary
and Martha and Lazarus' home. They showed hospitality to the
Lord Jesus and to his disciples. Encourage you again, especially
you ladies who have the responsibility and the chore of taking care
of those who visit. Open your homes and open them
often to God's people. Open your homes and open them
often to God's servant. Scriptures tell us to entertain
strangers for thereby many have entertained angels unawares. Many have entertained messengers
from God unaware of what they were doing. You take me to record. Many of you have entertained
a good many of God's servants as they visited this place, both
coming through town or coming to preach, visiting during conference,
you entertain them. How many times have you ever
had one of God's servants or a family of God's people in your
home that you didn't benefit from it. You always receive some
fresh word from God, some fresh token of God's grace, and thereby
you benefit yourself by the hospitality you give to others. Apparently,
our Lord and his disciples frequently visited this beloved family in
Bethany. But on this particular visit,
something took place which the Spirit of God inspired Luke to
record, something that gives us a great deal of instruction
concerning our lives in this world. Instruction given from
the experience of Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus as
the Savior here came to visit them. When we connect chapter
11 and 12, In the gospel of John with what we read here in Luke
chapter 10, you see how they all three fit together. I take
the words of our Lord to Martha in verse 48 for the title of
my message. One thing is needful. One thing is needful. Now, I
want you to get one point, just one. I want you to get one thing
from this message. Joe, I want you to carry one
thing home with you. Matthew, I want you to carry one thing
home with you. One thing. Young and old, will you write
this one thing down? Write it down. Write it down. Please write
it down. Many things in life demand our
attention. Many things in life demand our
attention. But only one thing is needful. God, write that on my heart. Many things in life demand our
attention. But only one thing is needful. Alright, now to show you that,
you hold your Bibles open here. As we look at this family at
Bethany, and I want to call your attention to five distinct things
that will bring, I hope, this message home to your heart. Many
things in life demand our attention, but only one thing is needful.
All right, here's the first thing. We often need to be reminded
of this and we often need to remind ourselves of this. Faith
in Christ is no exemption from trouble. Faith in the Lord Jesus does
not put you on a bed of roses. Faith in Christ does not take
away all your trouble. Faith in Christ does not solve
all your problems. In fact, it only gives you additional
problems. We live in this age of tomfoolery
religion where everybody is preaching a health, wealth, prosperity
gospel, which is no gospel at all. And they tell you that if
you will do good, you'll get good. If you'll believe God,
you'll get rich. If you believe God, you'll stay
healthy. If you believe God, your family won't have any troubles.
If you believe God, you won't have any difficulty with your
children. If you believe God, everything will just be hunky-dory.
That's a bald-faced lie. It just isn't so. And the fellows
who tell the lie know that it's not so. That just is not so. It is not so. Believers have
trouble in this world just like unbelievers have troubles in
this world. Believing families, few they
are, but believing families have trouble just like other families. Faith in Christ will not prevent
sorrow, heartache, pain and trouble. We realize, of course, that faith
in Christ does not run in bloodlines. Grace does not run in bloodlines. God doesn't save anyone because
they're related to somebody else. Grace doesn't come to you because
mom and dad are believers. God saves his elect and he saves
whom he will as he will. There were two boys born, Jacob
and Esau, twin brothers. God loved Jacob and hated Esau.
He says so plainly. Grace doesn't run in bloodlines. Salvation comes to sinners who
are chosen by God Almighty from eternity to all of them and none
but them. Salvation comes to sinners who
have been redeemed, purchased by the precious blood of Jesus
Christ at Calvary, to all of them and none but them. Salvation
comes to men and women who are called, born again by God the
Holy Spirit, to all who are called and to none but those who are
called. Are you saying, preacher, that it's altogether up to God
whether or not he saves me? Altogether up to God. You mean
it's all together up to God, whether or not I enter into heaven?
All together up to God. You mean salvation doesn't have
anything to do with what I do? Absolutely nothing to do with
what you do. Salvation by God's free grace. Oh, may God be pleased to open
the windows of heaven today and give you life and faith in Jesus
Christ. Martha, Mary and Lazarus were
an exemption to the rule. Here are three siblings living
under one roof. All of them believed God. The
rule I'm talking about is it's rare for all in one family to
believe God. Most of us here are one or two
in a family who believes God. One or two in a household who've
been born of God. Our hearts ache for brothers
and sisters and mothers and fathers who don't know God. And we pray
God will have mercy upon them. But Martha, Mary, and Lazarus,
here are a brother and two sisters living under one roof, and all
three of them were born of God. All three of them loved of God.
All three of them chosen of God. All three of them redeemed by
the precious blood of Christ. But these three had pain and
heartache and trouble. Grace doesn't exempt from trouble.
Faith in Christ is no exemption from heartache. Salvation won't
keep you from adversity. I recall. Many years ago, 40
some years ago, 30, 30, no, 30 some years ago, I was laying
in bed, I'd been taking chemotherapy treatments, and I couldn't hardly
wake up. I just, I laid in bed. For some reason, I turned the
radio on and listened to that baboon down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
Mr. Swagger. And he said, he said,
it's not God's will for you to be sick. If he had been standing
in front of me, I believe I could have mustered the strength to
busted his jaw. My immediate thought is, if it's
not God's will for me to be sick, I wouldn't be sick. And if it's
not God's will for you to be sick, you won't be sick. Faith
in Christ does not exempt anyone from trouble. Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus had trouble with sin because they were still sinners.
Just like you and I have trouble with sin because we're still
sinners. Here we're told that Martha lost her temper. She said
things she wished she hadn't said she did things that she
wished just Just a little bit later. Oh, I wish I hadn't done
that Kind of like you Kind of like me. She said things did
things just immediately wish she hadn't done them Martha had
trouble This family had trouble Mary had trouble the cause of
sickness bereavement and death. Because like you and me, they
lived in a world of sickness, bereavement, death. We sometimes
ask when trouble comes, why me? Why mine? God forgive us, but that's usually
the first thing we ask. Why me? Why did this happen to
me? Our first question ought to be,
why not me? Why not mine? You see, you and I just as fully
deserve any trouble as anyone else does. Martha, Mary, and
Lazarus had trouble with persecution because they were devoted to
Christ. They had experienced the grace and power of God in
their lives. They believed the Lord Jesus.
They walked with the Lord Jesus in sweet communion and fellowship.
They served Him. They sought to make Him known
to others. Because they loved Christ and
followed Him, they were despised and persecuted by others. Mary,
we read in John 12, took an alabaster box of ointment, spiked and very
precious. And she broke it. And she'd been
saving this in preparation for the Lord's burial. She believed
he was about to die as her substitute, and she broke this alabaster
box open. It was worth a year's wages. That's some sacrifice. And Skip, it didn't buy anything.
It didn't secure anything. It didn't benefit anybody. It was all done just for Christ. That's all. I've got an opportunity
now to anoint him for his burial, to honor him who loved me and
gave himself for me. And as soon as she did, Judas
Iscariot began to mock her. And he said, why wasn't this
ointment saved and sold? It could have been sold for 300
pence and given to the poor as if he would be willing to do
so. But that doesn't surprise me with Judas. What is surprising
is that Peter, James and John immediately joined in mocking
her. The rest of the disciples followed
Judas's lead. And Mary was berated for her
devotion to the Savior by men and women who loved the Savior.
She was berated by men and women who were her fellow disciples,
one with her in the kingdom of God. Lazarus was persecuted by
the Pharisees in John chapter 12 for just one reason. He was alive. The Lord had raised him from
the dead. That's all. He had just raised him from the
dead. And because he was alive, many of the Jews believed on
him. And other Jews came and reported to the Pharisees, this
man Jesus of Nazareth has raised Lazarus from the dead. What are
you going to do? And they sought to put Lazarus
to death. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were
troubled with these things just like we are. Because grace does
not exempt us from trouble. And true godliness is not perfection
in this world. God's people have their difficulties
with sin and with trouble. Because God's fixed it. God's
fixed it. And he keeps on fixing it, Rex,
so that you and I have to keep looking to him for help. He fixes
it so we must keep looking to him for grace. He's fixed it
so that we have no grounds for boasting about ourselves or anything
concerning ourselves, so that we have no self-confidence, no
self-righteousness, and must ever look out of ourselves to
Christ Jesus the Lord. All right, here's the second
thing. Number one, faith. Faith doesn't prevent troubles.
Number two, Martha and Mary show us that God's saints are individuals. Genuine believers all differ
from one another. There's Bobby Estes and here's
Don Fortner. Dear friends, dear brethren,
saved by the same grace, washed in the same blood, called by
the same spirit, going to the same heaven. But my soul, how
much difference. How much difference there is
in personality. Temperament how much difference
there is in the way we think and the way we do things So it
was with Martha and Mary they both loved the Savior and they
were both loved of the Savior They both walked with God and
God accepted them both in Christ Jesus But Martha was an active
impulsive strong-willed hard-working woman She she felt things strongly
And she spoke her mind openly. She was a woman truly devoted
to the Savior. She was cumbered with much serving,
but she served. Now, Martha generally takes a
beating. Martha generally, folks, give
her a rough way to go. Let me tell you something. I
thank God for Martha's. Got a lot of them here this morning.
Without Martha's, nothing would ever get done. I just said to
Brother Lindsay this morning, something I learned early on
as a pastor. If you want to get something
done, if you want to get something done, ask somebody who couldn't
possibly do anything else. They'll figure out a way to get
it done. Ask somebody who's got nothing to do, They like to get around to it.
They're not likely to because people who have nothing to do
really want nothing to do. But you find somebody whose hands
are full. Yeah, I can handle that. I take that. I live with Martha. Martha. washes and irons these
shirts and Martha presses my suits and Martha lays out my
clothes and Martha cleans my house and Martha cleans up my
messes all the time Martha fixes my meals and Martha packs my
suitcase and unpacks and packs it again and Martha Martha takes
care about everything Martha handles everything for me so
I don't have much to handle and Martha sees to it that every
load she can take off me she takes off me A few weeks ago,
a lot of you Marthas labored hard to serve several hundred
guests here during our conference and feed them and house them
and take care of them. You labored before the conference
to take care of the property, get everything prepared for them,
and labored after the conference to clean up their messes. Well,
who wants to clean up the floor? Who wants to get down on their
hands and knees and mop the floor where somebody's made a mess
or let the child make a mess? Who wants to do that? Martha.
Happy to do that. keep things taken care of so
that you and I can have a place to worship that's clean and comfortable
and presentable. Marthas, male and female. I thank
God for Marthas. We had two Marthas, Betty and
Shantaya. Look at them, they've been working
over here every week this month, about once a day, about eight
or ten hours a day, cleaning this building up downstairs and
up so your children could have a nice clean place to have their
Bible classes so that the nurse should be clean for your babies
to crawl around on the floor so that you'd have a comfortable
place to sit and not have to look at trash laying around or
get dirt on your hands when you touch the pews. Why would you
do that? It's called serving. Thank God for Martha's. Thank
God for Martha's. Mary was quiet, contemplative,
far easier going than Martha, but still not less firm in her
convictions. She felt things deeply, but she
didn't say much. A woman genuinely devoted to
the Savior, but no more devoted to him than Martha. Martha, when
the Lord Jesus came to her house, was delighted to see him. Ah,
the master's coming. I can almost I can almost hear
the conversation Mary Lazarus I was just in town and I heard
that Jesus and the disciples are coming to Bethany They'll
be here in a little while and immediately she begins to do
everything she can do to prepare a lavish service for the Unexpected
guest that she's about to have in her house Mary also rejoiced
she rejoiced to hear the Lord was coming and when it came to
Her first thought was to sit at his feet and hear his word.
Grace reigned through righteousness in them both. Both of them believed
God and loved the Savior, but they showed it in different ways.
Now, remember this. We must never imagine that this
person or that is unsaved because he's different from us. We must
never imagine that he's unconverted because he or she doesn't have
the same temperament or personality that we have. What foolish pride
to imagine such. God's sheep, all of God's sheep
have their own peculiarities. The trees of the Lord's garden
are not exactly the same. They're all trees of righteousness
planted by him. They're all cedars planted by
him. But they all come in different shapes. All true believers do
have those vital things to life in common with one another. Every
believer confesses his sin. Every believer trusts the Lord
Jesus Christ alone as his savior. Every believer has a good hope
through grace. Every believer loves the brethren.
Every believer seeks God's honor. But in many, many ways, Believers
are different in the church and kingdom of God. We have Martha's
and Mary's. Thank God for both. Thank God
for both. Number three. I'm certain the
Holy Spirit here inspired Luke to record this event at Bethany
to remind us of this fact. Carnal cares. I'm not talking
about ungodly cares. Carnal cares. Don, that's cares
that have to do with life in this world. When the word carnal
is used in scripture, it doesn't necessarily mean, it doesn't
usually mean something evil. It simply means something that
has to do with the flesh, has to do with life in this world.
Carnal cares. Carnal cares have a way of choking
out the influence of God's word in our lives. carnal cares have a way of choking
out the influence of God's Word in our lives. The cares of this
world, cares that are legitimate cares, cares that rightly demand
our attention may become a snare to our souls if we allow them
to come between us and the Savior. Nothing in this world. Nothing
in this world. And be careful, preacher, what
you say. Nothing in this world, Oscar Bailey, is as dangerous
to your soul as that farm you own down there. Nothing. Nothing in this world,
Mark Henson, is as dangerous to your soul as that woman sitting
beside you. Nothing in this world, nothing
in this world, Bill Rodgers is as dangerous to you as taking
care of Tony. Nothing in this world, nothing more dangerous. But Brother Dunn, those things
are necessary. Those things are right. Yes,
sir, they are. Yes, sir. It's your privilege,
your delight, and your responsibility to take care of them, isn't it?
Yes, sir. What an honor. What an honor.
It's your privilege, your honor, and your delight as a husband
to feed and clothe and educate your family. It's a privilege
and honor, a delight as a husband and wife to take care of those
things that involve your family and life in this world and take
care of one another. It's a privilege, an honor, a delight to exercise
responsibility in this world. Men work to provide for the families
because it's right and it's good. That's good. But you dare not
allow those things to interfere with worshipping and serving
the Redeemer. Dare not. You dare not. Verse
40 tells us Martha was cumbered about much serving. Her anxiety to provide the best
entertainment possible for her honored guest put her under tremendous
pressure. Now, I expect it would. I expect it would. Shelby and
I, back some years ago, often, often
had Folks coming with had come to hear the gospel different
places and still do occasionally not as often but this we live
close to Bible College in West Virginia and some Bible College
students started coming first two or three and then four or
five as soon as about 20 of them and Showed up for dinner. I never
will forget one day. I got a call from Someone they
were planning to be at services. They were on their way they were
driving in from Somewhere in Ohio they've driven a long ways
Not one or two She was expecting Pam Woods brother Ron to be dinner
with us. He was our guest. He's preaching for me and she
was expecting her and faith and me and Ron and Suddenly she's
got 20 some people there for lunch Knows about about an hour
four times services start That'll kind of put you in a tizzy That'll
kind of bend things out of shape. And so she peeled lots of potatoes
We had we had lots of potatoes in the basement and everybody
got lots of potatoes not much else But a lot of potatoes and
everybody got well fed and everything's taken care of well Martha isn't
just expecting 20 guests She's suddenly expecting 12 15 16 20
guests and the Son of God is at the head of them Ooh, now
that puts you under some pressure. That'll make you get up and get
going. And Martha was doing something noble. She's doing something
right. She's doing something very good.
Oh, what an honor, what a privilege, but what a chore, what a task. And after a while, she just got
carried away with herself. And while her conscience began
to torment her, she knew her thoughts were terribly selfish
and sinful. And I can just picture it. I
ought not say anything. And bite her tongue off. I ought
not say anything. And suddenly, she just couldn't
resist any longer. She said, Lord, don't you care? What? Don't you care? God, don't you care? Don't you
care? That's not what she said. That's exactly what she said.
Don't you care? Don't you care? Don't you care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone? Well, she ought to have said
that. God, don't you care my husband's sick and died? Same
thing. Lord, don't you care that I've
got this family to take care of and the plant shutting down?
Lord, don't you care? Don't you care? Oh, God, forgive me. How often I've
said, God, don't you care? Don't you care? Carest thou not
that my sister hath left me to serve alone? You see, Martha
was cleaning up the spills and providing the food and taking
care of all of her guests and Mary was just sitting there.
As far as she could tell. She's just sitting on her fatty
doing nothing. As far as she could tell. Mary
was sitting there worshiping the Savior. She was sitting there
hearing his word. But all Martha could see is she's
sitting there while she's cleaning up the mess. There was a warfare going on
in her soul. Her biting conscience, the pressure
of the hour combined. The old man, Adam, broke out
in her in an open complaint. How sad. For a brief moment,
Martha forgot who she was and whose she was and to whom she
was speaking. And she brought on herself a
sharp, open rebuke. The Lord spoke plainly to her before all of those who heard
her hot-tempered question. How great a fire a little matter
kindled. All of this happened because
Martha allowed the innocent household affairs of preparing dinner to
come between her and the Lord. Her anger with her sister really was something more than
that. It was anger with her master. And so it is with you and I.
Our anger with men and events is not anger with men and events. It's anger with God who made
the men and brought the events. Let us bridle our tongues and
worship our God. Martha's fault should be a perpetual warning
to you and me. Let us ever beware of the cares
of this world. Martha was only doing things
that needed to be done. She was doing them for the Lord.
But she was overdoing them. She was consumed by them. They
were important, but not that important. When the cares of
this world interfere with the worship of Christ. The doing
of God's will. the service of God, Lindsay,
the cares of this world are too important. You've got that business
to run. I want you to be the best insurance
agent in the state of Kentucky. You ought to be your gods. I
want you to do the best job any insurance agent in the state
of Kentucky does. You ought to, your gods. But
don't let that thing run you. Don't let that run you. We belong to God. We belong to
God. Take no thought, the master said.
You want to read it again? Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter
6. Verse 31. Therefore, take no
thought, saying, what shall we eat or what shall we drink? Or
wherewithal shall we be clothed? Now, wait a minute, preacher.
Father's got to take thought about those things. He's saying, don't be
concerned about those things. And here's the reason. For after
all these things, food and clothing and shelter, after all these
things, what you going to eat? Well, we haven't had anything
but beans for a month. Thank God I've had beans. Take no thought about what you're
going to wear. Well, I have to shop at the Goodwill for my family.
They get to go to whatever the rich man's store is. Thank God
you get to shop at the Goodwill. Oh, but where? Where are you
going to live? Well, we're just poor trailer park folks. Why can't we live up there where
the big shots live? Take no thought for these things.
Take no thought for them. Now watch what it says. For after
all these things do the unbelieving folks who are going to hell live. Well, that's just what he's saying,
isn't it? That's what the Gentiles seek after. After all these things
do the Gentiles seek. People who don't know God live
for those things. That's all they've got. That's
all they've got. Why would you hinder them? That's
all they've got. Don't be concerned about that.
For your Heavenly Father knows that you get hungry and you need
clothes to wear and you need a place to sleep. Your Heavenly
Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. He
knows. He knows. Your child growing
up, when Faith was growing up, all I had to say to her, some
come along, Honey, I know. Bill, that was enough. She knew
if I know, I'll take care of it. Your father knows you have
need of these things. No need for you to worry about
that. But seek ye first. Seek this with priority. Seek this instead of these things.
Take thought for this, the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
And all these things shall be added unto you. Seek ye first
the kingdom of God. If ye then be risen with Christ,
set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
All temporal things, all temporal things need to be labeled with
skull and crossbones, marked as poison to your soul. Everything
temporal. All the things in this world,
let us hold them with a very loose grip. with a very loose
grip. You. You take all your property,
all your money, all your cars and trucks and stuff, all your
stuff. I saw somebody some some years
ago, I thought how true that saying is in the minds of men
wearing a T-shirt. Life's a race. And the person
with the most stuff at the end wins. Oh, no. Oh, I'd like to
have met him at the end. Take your stuff and take it to
the hospital when your wife's died and see how important it
is. Take all your stuff with you
when you're about to lose your only child and see how important
it is. Take all your stuff with you
when you're about to breathe your last breath and say, oh,
I'm glad I worked so hard for all this stuff. Look what I got. No. It's just vanity. Just vanity. An empty puff of
wind. Just vanity. Vanity. That's exactly what Solomon said.
Do something for me, will you? Every one of you here, if you've
got a hand, stick it up. Every one of you, stick it up.
Now do this. Reach up and grab a handful. What'd you get? What did you
get? What did you get? Nothing. Nothing. It's all nothing. Christ is everything. Christ is everything. We ought to learn this too. God's servants and God's people
are God's servants and God's people. And we ought to treat
them as such. That means you don't have to judge anything
about them, God will do that. That means I don't have to tell
them what to do. God'll do that. That means I
don't have to watch over them and chastise them and correct
them. God'll do that. They're God's
servants, God's people. They're His, not mine, not yours. They're not to be judged by us
or ruled by us, controlled by us or governed by us. Our Lord
came to Lazarus' tomb and said, Loosen and let him go. I know
that in this day of religious nonsense and legality, preachers
in churches everywhere want to control you. And people come
and they say, well, what should, what should Joe Blakely do? What
do you think he ought to do? Do you know what that is? Brother
Bob, that's none of your business. That's just none of your business.
That's none of your business. Every time in this book, There's
not a single exception. Every time in this book, anybody
came to the Lord Jesus and asked him a question about what somebody
else is doing. Cause every time they did, he told him that's
none of your business. Every single time. Peter asked the
Lord about John. So, and what shall this man do?
And the master said to him, what is that to you? You follow me? You follow me? I'll tell you
what the book does. I think I said this to you just
recently. It's worth repeating. In this book, in this book, in
God's Word, I am never told what you should do. I am never told what you should
do. Wouldn't it be, just imagine
how much time you'd have to think about yourself if you didn't
all the time think about what somebody else was doing. Just imagine how much time you'd
have to talk about yourself. if you weren't talking about
what somebody else is doing. This book never tells me what
you should do. Rex, it only tells me what I should do. And if you watch out for what
you do, you've got a full-time job with plenty of overtime.
Don't sit in judgment over God's people. They're His people. Don't
try to control the lives of God's people. They're his people Martha
said said Lord tell Mary The Lord said Martha you watch out
for Martha You take care of Martha. That's your business And Martha took the rebuke as
a genuine believer she She was indeed a genuine believer as
much. So is Mary she made confession
Concerning the Lord Jesus in this 11th chapter of John that
that nobody else made Concerning him being the resurrection in
the light believing him and confessing him when few did and after this
was all over When you get to John chapter 12 You know what
Martha was doing. You want you to if I if I came
and said to you, uh, I You're coming about much serving.
You're letting this get to you. You might get in a huff and walk
off and say, well, shoot, he can have it. I'll go somewhere
else. Martha heard the Master and the
next thing you read about her, you know what she's doing? She's
preparing a table and serving guests, John chapter 12. She's laboring just as hard.
You know who the guests were? the Lord Jesus and his disciples. And now she's got Mary and Lazarus
both sitting at the table listening to his word. She's serving all
alone and glad to do it. Fourth. One thing is needful. One thing is needful, just one
thing. Mary came and sat down front
of the Savior to hear His Word at His feet. Oh God teach me to abide at His
feet. This is the place where you learn. This is the place where you worship. This is the place where you fall
in contrition to Him. at his feet, at his feet. This is the place of sweet communion, loving devotion, blessed fellowship
at his feet, at his feet. At his feet is where you come
to know him, at his feet. I know everybody these days want
to go to church where they've got a lot of entertainment and
whoopee stuff going on and bands and drums and all the stuff. And plays and skits and programs,
all the stuff. And entertainers and politicians
and all the stuff. We come together three times
a week and I labor hard at trying to keep all the stuff out of
your mind. And I ask God to bring us to his feet. And when you
go home, I ask God to keep you and me at his feet, at his feet. That's the place of deep devotion. consecrated love. I've often
told the story, but I'll tell it again because I like to tell
it. Any boy raised in the city might
not know this, but when you get close to a river and you hear
it, the water is not very deep. If you hear it running, the water
is not very deep. It's only a few inches or a couple
of three feet at the most. It's just rolling over rocks
real fast. When you don't hear it, you get close to the river,
you look at it, and you think, well, that's just a pond or a
big pond or a lake. It's so quiet and still. That's
because it's very, very deep. Still waters run deep. And sometimes
folks might come in here and not all the shouting going on
and folks making a lot of yapping noise and clapping hands and
waving their hands and all that stuff. However, nothing there. Might ought to look again. Steel
waters run deep. The story I'm going to tell is
when the first time I kissed that pretty blonde there, I took
her out to Yadkin River at a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. Nobody had
ever thought about sitting on the hood of that car before.
Nobody ever thought about sitting on it. I just picked her up and
set her right on the hood of the car. If it smashed, it's
all right. And we talked for a little while, and I kissed
her. Man, the sky lit up. Skyrockets
went off, sparkles shined. Oh, wow. What is this? And I kissed her about an hour
ago. She came in the door and I kissed
her again. And nothing lit up. No skyrockets,
no sparklers, didn't start jumping around in the sky. You must not
love her like you used to. Oh, you know better. You know
better. We've been together 43 years
now. And with the heat of trouble
and heartache and pain and the cold chills of life, We've been
welded together. And the love's deeper than ever.
You find that at his feet. And I'm talking now about love
for him. At his feet. Worshipping and serving him.
One thing is needful. Now this last point. If you would have this one thing
needful, a choice has to be made. Uh-oh. Now the preacher's lost
his mind. He's talking about me making
a choice. I have to make a choice. Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from her. Must be chosen. If you would have Christ, you've
got to make a choice. Life or Christ. Life in this
world, your life or Christ. You can't come to me and be my
disciple except you take up your cross and follow me. Except you
hate your father and mother and brother and sister, yea, in your
own life also and follow me. You can't be my disciple. What's
he talking about? What's he talking about? I'm
calling for you to believe on the Son of God. That means you
give up everything for Him. You surrender everything to Him.
Everything. Years ago, I was sitting in the waiting room at Duke University
Hospital, waiting to take Cobalt treatment. I'd been going for
months, about to finish them up. And I was at this time reading
a book by J.C. Ryle called True Christianity.
And I spotted a fellow sitting close to me, kept looking at
the book and looking at me. And finally, he said to me, he
said, What does it take to be a Christian? And I thought I
may not have a chance to say one word to him before they call
me to go back there and take these treatments or call him.
I thought for just a few seconds and I said. Nothing from you. But all of you. That's what it
takes. It's the surrender of your life
to the son of God. Believing him Our Lord Jesus
told a parable about that man Pearl merchant who went about
seeking goodly pearls and he he found one pearl of great price And he went and sold everything
he had to buy that one pearl imagine that Alan Why would he
do that? When he did he got one thing
He was the possessor of one thing. He didn't have anything else,
just one thing. He had that pearl. Christ is the pearl of great
price. Come by without money and without price. Come by Him
who is the one thing needful. Amen.