Jeff Tacklind’s message on Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42
Sermon notes:
LUKE 10:38-4238 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
“Blame is simply the discharging of discomfort and pain.” BreneBrown
Psalm 119:
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
John 10:27-30 (ESV)27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.” Dallas Willard, Hearing God
What can we learn?
1.Your value is not what you do, but who you are.
2.Stop comparing yourself to others
3.Give others the benefit of the doubt
4.Cultivate a habit of listening for God’s voice.
Questions:
1.Where are you worried, anxious, stressed? Where do you find yourself looking for someone to blame?
2.What are you carrying that you aren’t supposed to? What are you trying to control? What is the actual fear?
3.Where do you experience envy or jealousy? Who do you measure yourself against? What would it be like to let this whole thing go?
4.What comes to mind when God thinks of you? Have you asked Him?
“In the next few minutes, I prayed with her for healing. Then I asked her if she would find a quiet place every morning for the next thirty days, sit down in a chair, close her eyes, upturn her palms, and pray this one phrase over and over: ABBA, I BELONG TO YOU.”
― Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God
Father in Heaven, what are we without you?
What is all that we know, vast accumulation though it be,
But a chipped fragment if we do not know you?
What is all our striving?
Could it ever encompass a world,
But a half-finished work
If we do not know you?
You, the One who is one thing and who is all.
So may you give
To the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing
To the heart, sincerity to receive this and this only
To the will, purity that wills only one thing
In prosperity, may you grant perseverance to will one thing
Amid distraction, collectedness to will one thing
In suffering, patience to will one thing.
You that gives both the beginning and the completion
May you early, at the dawn of the day,
Give to the young the resolution to will one thing
As the day wanes, may you give to the old
A renewed remembrance of that first resolution
That the first may be like the last
And the last like the first
In possession of a life that has willed only one thing,
To know God.