Amen. You can be seated. One thing we like to do at Veritas is open up the Bible. Can I get an amen to that? That's sweet. We typically teach through books of the Bible, but this summer we're going through a series called Encounters with Jesus. We've primarily been in the Gospel of Luke. And this morning I looked at my assigned text. If you have a program, you look at is three different texts. And I'm a dad of three little kids. I looked at that and I said, there is no way we're covering all that. So I have five verses for you this morning. It is in Luke, chapter ten. Would love for you. If you have a physical Bible or a Bible app, go to Luke ten. We're going to be at the end of that chapter. And as you're on your way there, I want to just ask you a really simple question. It's really an easy answer. How many of you love running on a treadmill? One person, and it's a kid. Okay. The reality is most of us hate running. And even if you enjoy running, you probably don't enjoy paying to run inside on a piece of machine that takes you nowhere. Right? So not many people love running on a treadmill. And yet sometimes, if you would just stop and consider your life, it can feel like you're stuck on the treadmill of life, can't it? There's just so much going on. I mean, just this last week, my wife and I, Ellie, we looked at each other, and it's like, we can't believe it's July 15. Where did summer go? There's just so much going on. And I just started thinking, man, I don't remember the last time I didn't feel busy. And you've probably noticed that if you would just ask somebody, like, how's life been lately? A common response is, busy. Life is busy. We have a lot going on between family and work and sports and not yet kids, but eventually school and hobbies and appointments and everything going on, you can just feel like you're on the treadmill of life. In fact, a recent poll said that the majority of us adults have reported feeling too busy to enjoy life. Too busy to enjoy life. It's a problem. And it's not just that there's a lot going on around us. There's a lot going on inside of us. There's a lot competing for our time, our attentions. We have these things that we often keep in our pockets called smartphones, where even when you're not busy, you find your mind running, look at social media, pull up something on YouTube, something on the tv. We're just constantly feeding ourselves. And the reality is we have a lot of choices in life, a lot of choices of how we can spend our time, how we can spend our attention. And there's a psychological theory known as the paradox of choice, which essentially says the more choices we have, the more anxious we feel. And maybe you guys have been to the cheesecake factory before. Any foodies out there? The cheesecake factory, they pride themselves on this giant menu. More than 20 pages, over 250 options. And when you think about ordering there, it's like, this is a lot more complex than raising canes. When I'm in the drive thru at raising canes, I know I'm getting chicken fingers. When you go to the cheesecake factory menu, you want to just come to a waitress that knows the menu well and say, what's your favorite thing on the menu? You want a narrowed selection. And I got thinking this morning, you know, we have so many choices in life, so many things that we can spend our time and attention on, obviously several things that we ought to spend our time and attention on. But as you look at today's text, Jesus actually says that there is one thing that is necessary. So in the grand scheme of priorities, if there's one thing that deserves your time and attention, that narrows our anxiety and allows us to really focus on what's important. The question is, what is it? What is that one thing that is necessary? So, Luke, chapter ten, we're going to start in verse 38. I'm just going to read the first few verses for us. They'll be up on the screen as well. Here's what the word of God says. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to Jesus and said, lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. So you're all relatively intelligent. You don't need a lot of help unpacking this story. Jesus enters this village and he comes into the home of Mary and Martha. They have this home in Bethany. Jesus walks in, and these two sisters seem to have these contrasting reactions. And if you had read the entire chapter of Luke Ten up to this point, you would feel a little bit at odds. You find yourself almost rooting for one of the sisters because Jesus earlier in Luke Ten has lifted up this ancient mediterranean culture of hospitality. He had just sent out 72 disciples. And one thing that he says earlier in the chapter is, as you enter into these villages to do ministry, if someone would welcome you into their home, stay there, right? Stay put, because that is a home to post up shopping. They are doing the right thing. But if people will not welcome you, brush the dust off your feet and move on. And in fact, the verse is right before. This is the good samaritan. Most of us are relatively familiar with that passage where the lawyer is asking Jesus, who is my neighbor? And Jesus, in this teaching, props up a samaritan who in a strange, unexpected way shows hospitality to this broken man on the side of the road. He puts him up in an inn and extends mercy and compassion to him. As you enter into this, you're looking at the text, and you're saying, man, Martha seems to be doing the right thing, right? She welcomes Jesus in. She gets to work, she's showing the hospitality. Meanwhile, what's Mary doing? She's just sitting right, like Martha is slaving away and Mary is sitting down. And as you look at this text, you actually can get a little bit of a clue of who the older sibling is. I mean, one way you can tell is who's listed first in the scripture. That's a real Bible reading tip. But for all the kids here today, you know who the older sibling is, because Martha is the tattletale, right? The older child is the tattletale. They're the extra set of eyes for the parents. And I say that as the baby of the family. So if you're the baby of the family, I'm with you, right? Martha is the tattletale. She goes to Jesus and she says, jesus, don't you see my little sister? Tell her to do something. Put her to work. She's expecting Jesus to answer and to almost call Mary into action. But Jesus does something unexpected. Here's what the word of God says next. It says, but the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. I just want us to see two really simple realities in these few verses here. The first is that Jesus is not condemning Martha for working. Working is a good thing, right? As you look back at Genesis two, work was existent in the garden before sin ever existed. But what he is condemning here is Martha's worry, because just like we saw last week, when Jesus confronts the Pharisees he sees the heart and he sees beyond Martha's external performance, and he sees that she is striving. She's striving to earn or to perform, and it's leaving her anxious and troubled. And the second thing we can see in this text is Jesus is not necessarily calling Martha's activity bad. He doesn't say that what she's doing is wrong. He is just saying that Mary's activity is better. So this isn't a matter of right and wrong, but rather doing something good versus doing something that's necessary. And you think about that word, necessary, like required, like without it, you're completely missing the point. And so the question is, what is that one thing? Like, one thing is necessary? What did Mary choose? She chose to sat at Jesus feet and to listen to his teaching. And that's really profound, because if you would just imagine with me, you go home today, you spend the rest of your day maybe outside hanging out, and then you're calming down for the evening and say, it's 06:00 you hear a knock at your door, and who is it but the God of the universe? And you open your door for him to come in. What do you think is the one thing that is necessary? Don't give me the right answer. What are you actually compelled to do? What's stirring with inside you? Because I know the first thing I would probably be doing is sweeping up the nutrigrain crumbs off of the floor to say, hey, wait, lord, before you come in my house, let me get it clean for you, or let me do something for you. Let me serve you. That's Martha's reaction. It seems just and right to say, man, I want to be hospitable to the God of the universe. And yet what God is saying here is that's not what I'm looking for ultimately. And God, that's not the, that's not the God we serve. Church, when you look at the good news of Christianity, it is not Jesus. Look what I did for you, but rather Jesus, thank you. What you've done for me, right? The one that is commended in this passage has done absolutely nothing. Mary, Jesus came to her. He walked into her house, and all that she did was sit and receive his teaching, and yet Jesus props her up. This is the good news of the gospel church, that we could do nothing to earn our way to God. It's not about us being good enough or performing or striving or earning in identity before him, but rather God putting on flesh in the person work of Jesus Christ to live perfectly as we never could. To die gruesomely on a cross, bearing the burden that we should have taken and rising again victorious. To offer to us, free to us, but at the precious expense of Jesus blood. Redemption, right relationship with God. And so, from a 30,000 foot level, the one thing that's necessary in your life is not the job that you have. It's not the family you grow. It's not the feats you accomplish, but rather, it is. Stop trying to earn your way to God and simply accept the fact that he has come to you to simply receive that right. What a sweet invitation. Because here's what's true. Resumes, bank accounts, trophies, toys, and yes, even the people that we love the most. It's fleeting. Relationships can be fleeting. Resumes are fleeting. But when you think about your relationship with the Lord, the reality is it'll never be taken from you. That's what Jesus tells Martha. He says Mary has chosen the good portion, which will never be taken away from her. But I also want to get down to the ground level and just say, hey, this week, tomorrow, maybe even tonight. Here's what you need to consider. There's countless things you could do with your time. There's countless things you could give your attention to, but only one thing that you must do. And it's in the midst of this chaotic, anxious, busy world that Jesus is telling you, and he's telling me one thing is necessary. And here's a big idea for today. Nearness to Christ is a necessity. Nearness to Christ is a necessity. Jesus says, hey, if you want to not be anxious, if you want to step off the treadmill of life, here's what you need to do. Draw near to Jesus. The only way we can do that is because he drew near to us first. But we also have this thing called the Bible church that God has spoken to us through his word. He has given us the pages and promises of scripture for us to come to and root ourselves in deeply. And when Mary here chooses the better portion, I love the way one translation reads that Mary has chosen the right meal. The right meal. It's like Martha is making a meal and Mary is enjoying a meal right in John six. Jesus says, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger or thirst ever again. Jesus is saying, I came to offer exactly what you're looking for. There's so many of us that are reaching and grasping for different things in this life. Rest, man. I just want rest. I want to go on a vacation. Well, Matthew 1128 says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. We want joy. Psalm 1611 the psalmist says, God in your presence is fullness of joy. We all want love. We want to be loved, to feel love. Ephesians two, four and five says it's because of the great love of God, the great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in our sins, God made us alive with Christ. You know, a God that can see you at your worst and yet still say, you are mine, you belong to me. We all want worth. I mean, oftentimes that's where we run to for our grades or our performance at work. One peter, one says that we were not bought or redeemed with silly things like gold and silver. No, we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. And we're longing for purpose, man. We just want to make a difference in this world. And what greater difference than that laid out in two corinthians five, verse 20, that we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. God is saying, hey, I want to put my glory on display to a watching world. Here's who I want to use, you. And these are things, these are promises that cannot be taken from us. So our problem is really, I think for most people, if you look at this text, not that we don't believe in God, I don't think that was Martha's problem. I don't think she had a belief problem necessarily. But I think what Martha had was a treasuring problem. Yeah, maybe she believed that Jesus was Lord, but she wanted to just go to work. Mary, on the other hand, is like, wow, Jesus is in my presence. I can just simply sit and listen to him teach. She treasured God like Martha. I think we can be too distracted and anxious because for whatever reason, nearness to Jesus is not enough. Just not. So we leave to decide the one thing that we need, which is a deepen, intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. And I'm not going to teach on it. But if you were to flip a few pages forward and hit Luke twelve, you have Jesus addressing his anxious disciples. They're worried about what they're going to eat, what they're going to wear, how is life going to go on? And Jesus is assumingly teaching at the sermon on the mount, right? He's looking out and he's saying, hey, look at the birds, right? Don't I take care of them? Look at the grass, look at the lilies, the wildflowers. Don't I take care of them? How much more precious are you? How much more precious are you? And if I can take care of the birds of the air and the wildflowers of the ground, here's what I will do. I will take care of you. I will take care of you. But here's what you need to do. Seek first the kingdom of God like treasure, Jesus. Enjoy being near to him, sitting at his feet. Set aside all of your earthly anxieties and fix your eyes on eternity. And Jesus promises, hey, your earthly needs, those will be taken care of. Here's what you ought to do. Store up your treasure in heaven. And so, church, I just want to leave you with one invitation and one challenge today. Can you guys take that? Okay, one invitation. The invitation is to stop striving. I mean, we're invited here in this text to stop trying to platform, stop trying to just run faster on the treadmill of life, but simply straddle the side of the treadmill or even just get off and say, lord, what you need from me is not my performance. What you need from me is for me to be present with you. Right? We talked about that a little bit last week, right? God does not desire sacrifice, or we would give it what he desires. As a broken and contrite heart, he wants you. So the invitation is stop striving and trust in the finished work of Jesus that he is enough for you. But the challenge here is, for those of us who have said, I've already put my trust in Jesus, I would say, great, praise God. Now the question is, are you prioritizing? Are you committing to time and God's word? Do you view time in the word as necessary? Right. The one meal of your day that you will not skip. Because I trust for so many of us, it's like, hey, can you fast for 24 hours? Most of us would say no. Then why can't it be so easy to skip our Bible reading in the day? And so that's the challenge. To say, man nearness to Christ is a necessity. This is the one meal that I need to eat in a day, not because God needs something from me, but because I need to be near to him. He is my only source of satisfaction and strength and joy. And so getting practical, I would say find a Bible reading plan you can actually stick to and find somebody to actually read with. Maybe that's your parents, your siblings, maybe it's your spouse, a friend, a member of your connection group to say, hey, let's commit to making sure we are in the scriptures every single day because nearness to Christ is a necessity. And church, as we throw ourselves back just on the finished work of Christ, as we throw ourselves back into the precious promises of scripture, what we would be in an anxious and distracted and broken world is just a peaceful, joyful presence. And maybe, just maybe, if people would run into us and they'd say, how's life been lately? We wouldn't have to respond. Busy. Maybe we could say something a little bit more like full, which isn't lying, right? To say, man, life is full. But it's not just my schedule that's full. My heart is full. My cup overflows. Here's why. Cause the joy of the Lord is my strength, right? An awesome opportunity for us to say, man, joy in Jesus would not just see us through the busy seasons of life, but would also spread throughout our communities. As we say in our mission statement, all for God's glory. Amen. Let's pray together. Father God, I just thank you for this simple text in Luke ten, five verses, Lord, that pack a punch and remind us that there are many things competing for our time, our attention. And, Lord, I trust there's many people that are like me that can even get caught up in. In serving you or trying to perform in just do more thinking that that's what you want ultimately from us, God. But what you want ultimately from us is our heart. You want us to be near. So we thank you for the finished work of Christ that allows us to draw near to you. And we thank you that you are a God that speaks, that you have drawn near to us through your word. God, give us all that we need in life and godliness to draw near to you this week to find the rest, the joy, the love, the peace, the purpose that we are ultimately longing for. We love you, Jesus. We pray this in your name. Amen.