Finding Balance: Action and Contemplation in Christ

1. "Now, we're going to turn to the Gospel of John, to the Gospel of John chapter 11, and I want to read the first three verses for you. So we get a picture of Mary and Martha. It says here, Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters went, sent word to Jesus, Lord, the one who you love is sick. The point I want you to see is this is the Mary that anointed Jesus, wept on his feet, wiped them with her hair. She had this unrighteousness. Unbelievable love for Jesus. Took a year's wages and dumped on Jesus. How many of us would do that?" [00:38:35] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "But they're there in the home. Now, if we back up, in Luke chapter 10, the verses 5 and 6, it says Jesus telling his disciples when he sent them out, when you enter a house, first say peace to his house. If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them. If not, it will return to you. And what I want you to see here is by Martha opening her home and welcoming Jesus, she was blessed. Could you imagine the peace in your home? If Jesus came in?" [00:41:17] (34 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "Complaining to Jesus this just hits me about the labor involved in ministry is fruitless and I complain way too much my wife's here she'll confirm it and I complain way too much my wife's here she'll confirm it ministry is work and it does no good to complain martha was ministering to the king of kings and to the lord of lords could you imagine being able to go to town and say i prepared a meal for the messiah he was at your house he's month complaining Wow." [00:45:51] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Now how many of you know Jesus gets right to the root of the problem anybody else know that here you see we can look at this story well this was kind of a little spat between Martha and Mary and they were kind of fighting and they had some sibling rivalry and all this was going on and Jesus knew it wasn't all about that and so your next point Jesus recognized Martha's many worries isn't it interesting and how much does he love her it's so awesome he goes Martha Martha what a great line do you know in scripture what I see is he usually says a person's name twice if it's a man because we need to hear it twice or we aren't going to hear it I'm just I'm just telling you it's a failing common to men so he says things like Abraham Abraham you know Isaac Isaac Jacob Jacob but here he goes Martha Martha" [00:48:53] (56 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "And he says, there's one thing needed. And he said, Mary has chosen it. Oh, how that had to hurt Martha at first, because she was sure she was right, that Mary should get up and start getting the leg of lamb ready. And that she should have been there helping her. But instead, Jesus says, you're worried about a lot of things, but there's one thing that's needed. You know, if we had a quiz today, and I said, what's the one thing that's needed? You know, what would you say? We'd say, well, Martha and Mary need to get along. Now, that's not the thing. It's Jesus. Jesus is needed." [00:50:30] (49 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "And man you know how many people I've told hundreds of people this year who say well I don't have a bible or I don't read well or you know my bible's in a different language I get so many questions I get so many excuses why people don't read the bible and I say do you have a smart phone oh yeah man I can't believe how proud people are of their smart phones especially teenagers I say do you have a smart phone oh and they show it to me and I said go to your apps and I said look it right there free bible download it man I had one little boy man he downloaded it right away he was so happy and his mom said can't you send that to me and I said you can do it on your your smart phone too and I said now you can tell that phone to read a scripture to you and it will and they were like you're kidding and I said absolutely it'll do it" [00:52:45] (53 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "And every time I go to church every time you know every time the you know the retirement the planners you know and they go man you just don't have enough money to retire and I'm thinking oh my goodness I'm going to be homeless and I have nothing to eat in my old age and then I hear I hear the psalmist say hey I was young I am old never have I seen the righteous forsaken or his descendants begging bread and I go I think there's hope" [00:54:24] (28 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "Now, look at your next point. It's very, very important. Martha took Jesus' advice. I'm going to prove it to you. She took Jesus' advice. I want you also to know that the key to the text, the key to what we're talking about today is listening. Do you know what I tell young couples in premarital counseling? I say to them this. I say to the guys, I say, now when she says something to you, repeat it back word for word. And they look at me like, huh? I'm like, just trust me, man. Because you know how many times I've heard, he never listens to me. I said, I'm going to help you out. Just listen to what I'm going to tell you right now. After she tells you, repeat it back word for word." [00:57:01] (57 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "abandoned the leg of lamb in the oven and she ran out to see jesus and she went to see him lord martha said to jesus if you had been here my brother would not have died but i know that even now god will give you whatever you ask man this girl sat down and she listened to jesus jesus said to her your brother will rise again martha answered i know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day listen this girl has her doctrine her theology down how did she figure that out she did what jesus said she sat at his feet and she listened or she listened while she was cooking one or the other but she listened the key is listening now the rest of this is so awesome jesus said to her i am the resurrection and the life the one who will rise again in the resurrection at the last day listen this girl has her doctrine who believes in me will live even though they die and whoever lives by believing in me will never die do you believe this what a great question listen to martha yes lord she replied i believe that you are the messiah the son of god who is to come in to the world martha took jesus advice" [00:58:45] (77 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "Your last point, be a balance between Martha and Mary. Now, for the guys who are going, well, this is just for the girls. Okay, be a balance between the Marks and the Malachites. I don't, you know, whatever you want to do here, but we all have these personalities and we all have gifts. But the most awesome thing is when you have a Martha that sits down at the feet of Jesus and becomes more like Mary. And when you have a Mary who's at the feet of Jesus who says, hey, I think I'm going to help my sister or my brother in the kitchen. Because Jesus loves both and he's created us in these ways. It's not about being one or the other. It's about sitting down and hearing what Jesus has to say to you." [01:02:46] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)