Luke 10:38-42
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And 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, “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.”
Let’s point out the good things about Martha.. She welcomed Jesus into their house… serving…
The only problem was that Martha was DISTRACTED
We live in a very distracted culture
Microsoft published a study a couple years ago…The study revealed that Goldfish have an attention span of nine seconds, and the study revealed that our attention span as humans is now an average of eight seconds
This is directly linked to the mobile revolution in the early 2000’s
The first iPhone only came out in 2007 and we were never the same again Smartphone’s are a blessing but they can be very distracting
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that texting and driving is 6 times more dangerous than drunk driving.
One of many distractions
It might not just be sin that is distracting you from God… Here’s the scary thing… It might even be good things that are distracting us from God
Everyone is so “busy”
Many of us are so busy that we’re too busy for God. God can’t get a word in edgewise! And many times we are distracted by many things.
Sometimes we just need to stop everything and Be still and know that He is God If we just do do do then your soul starts to feel like do do
The one thing that is needed is often times the one thing missing for many of us
One Thing? = Sitting at Jesus’s feet and HEARING Him
Last week we talked about reading the written word of God and this week we’re talking about hearing Jesus
Many Scriptures about hearing the Lord
John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
Hebrews 3:15 “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”
Isaiah 30:21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it”
God has spoke to people in the Bible in so many different ways..
He spoke to people in dreams, he spoke to people through Angels, he spoke to people through prophets, he spoke to people by thundering from the heavens, he spoke through a burning bush, and he even spoke through a donkey
If I told you that God spoke to me through a donkey yesterday… You would say Ryan you’ve been watching too much Shrek
My point is is that God speaks in 100 different ways… I can’t tell you exactly how God will speak to you, but I know that he will if you’re willing to listen
Story of God speaking to Elijah
1 Kings 19:11-13 11 God said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him..
Elijah and the still small voice Still small voice = low whisper Whisper = 20 dB
When someone whispers you have to get quiet and get close to the person whispering in order to hear them
We hear God speak the loudest when we are the quietest.
This is often how God speaks to me… It’s not like the clouds part and a holy sunbeam hits my face and Angels are singing hallelujah… no, often times God speaks to me with a still small voice
And I need to quiet myself and draw near to Him in order to hear what he is whispering
Young Samuel learning how to recognize God’s voice…
1 Samuel 3:9-10 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
I was studying electrical engineering at OSU and I was 2 1/2 years into it, already well into the pro school program. But I got into that major in the first place because I knew that the salary would be good. I had went down that path with the wrong motives. It was more motivated by money.
But at that time I started asking God a dangerous question: What are you calling me to Lord?
“Speak Lord for your servant hears”
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,”declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope”
I hear a God who is on the edge of his seat excited to share his plan for us
God is so for you!
Some people don’t want to hear from God because they think he’s just going to point out everything they’re doing wrong.. yes he may convict us on some things because he loves this, but more than that he wants to speak to us about our calling in life. He wants to share with us his thoughts about us so we can prosper.
He is for you!
There are 7 billion people on the planet but God has a unique plan for your life. You have a unique calling. He doesn’t want you to be someone else. He doesn’t want you to be a cookie-cutter copycat Christian.
God wants to fully unleash the person he made you to be.
I turn 40 this year… I’ve been asking, am I on track with Where I thought I’d be in life..Am I successful?
It doesn’t matter if we are successful, but we are called to be faithful.. To be faithful with what God gives, to be faithful with the path he puts in front of us
“Well done good and faithful servant”
The story of Namaan… Namaan has leprosy, and he visits Elisha the prophet in order to be healed. Elisha tells him to dip in the Jordan river 7 times. And Namaan gets angry, complains that there are other rivers that are better than the Jordan river, and the whole thing just seemed silly to him…
2 Kings 5:13-14
Namaan’s servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So Naaman went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Being willing to do big things but not willing to do small things God is asking of us
Giving up wine for a month
Taking rocks and throwing them into the river to cast my cares upon God… A small act of obedience
If we say we are willing to do big things for God, are we not willing to do the small things for God?
We might say “God I’ll go wherever you send me! Even to the ends of the earth!” ….What about also doing the small things asks us to do?
Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
This was written to the church
In 1853, William Holman Hunt painted “light of the world”..
No door handle on the outside, only a door handle on the inside
I encourage you to pray this daily… Lord I let you into my heart today”
Some of us may even let Jesus into the front door of our heart and give them access to the living room.. for many of us in our house is the living room is the most clean and tidy room because that’s the room that guests see first..
We tend to close the doors to the rooms that are messy because we don’t want people to see our mess
Picture Jesus coming in to the front door walking past the living room and going straight to a room in the back of house that is the most messy and knocking on that door..
He wants 100% of our heart.