In Stressful Times, Put First Things First - Nicky Gumbel - HTB at Home

so i want to speak to you all today uh on the subject choose the best thing now first things first at the end of last term and last term was a pretty unusual term wasn't it with covid19 so many challenges difficulties decisions changes and by the end of term just about i was about two weeks before the end of but we before we were going on holiday i said to pix one time i said to i feel so distracted i feel worried and upset about so many things and i thought i know there's a passage in the bible that uses those words and of course it's this passage of mary and martha that the tale of two sisters which uses these words and i i turned to it and this is what it says as jesus and his disciples were on their way they came to a village where a woman named martha opened her home to him she had a sister called mary who sat at the lord's feet listening to what he said but martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made she came to him and asked lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself tell her to help me martha martha the lord answered you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her and you know the words that he used there the word for distracted means pulled in different directions at the same time that's how i felt upset troubled about many things worried the english word worried comes from the old english regan which means to struggle to have the joy choked out of your life and the original greek word there means to be unduly concerned or i suppose what we would say catastrophizing i i catastrophize when i overestimate the danger and i underestimate my ability to cope and the thing that i tend to testify about are like health issues like very much any minor pain and i think i'm dying and so like my pattern in the morning is i like to read the bible in one year to start with and then i go for a walk i like to walk and pray and normally i walk around hyde park but as i was on holiday i was walking we were in brighton and i was walking along the promenade and i was praying for pips and pips has three minor health issues and i was praying through those and then uh i thought right now i'm gonna pray for my three minor health issues and i thought i can't remember what they are and then i remember that one of them was losing my memory and i literally i was laughing out loud at myself thinking how ridiculous to be worried about things and you can't even remember what they are that is what this passage is all about it's about the distractions the undue worries and all the kind of troubles and you can't go through life without troubles you can't go through life without worries there will never be in a moment in our lives when there isn't something to worry about but in this passage we see the remedy and what we see here is first of all we see martha jesus loved this family they were his friends in john's gospel we read it actually says john chapter 11 verse 5 jesus loved martha and jesus loved mary and jesus loved lazarus lazarus isn't mentioned in this story so i i imagine it was like this martha was the elder sister mary was the younger sister and lazarus was a younger brother and in this story we read about mary who was sitting at jesus feet martha who was doing all the work and no mention of lazarus at all i imagine he was in his bedroom streaming instagram but he wasn't serving and he wasn't listening to jesus anyway it doesn't say that in the text but what we know about martha is she opened her home to jesus martha was a saint in fact she's known as the many churches named after saint martha she loved jesus not only did jesus love her she loved jesus she opened her home to him and she served him i mean what is better than serving jesus the word used for service is the word that comes from the greek word diaconos which is the word use of christian ministry and the word jesus used about his own ministry he said the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many so martha was doing all the right things she was serving jesus and probably the 12 disciples were there as well so it was quite a lot to do and she was no doubt she had her to-do list like food tick wine tick cushions tick lay the table tick but maybe she was making she was doing it all a bit loudly to attract attention to the fact that she was doing it and to get other people to come and help whenever i do domestic chores i like to do them loudly i like everyone to notice if i'm doing the washing up i pile everything on the whatever it is the thing to dry but i make a big clatter and i pile the saucepans high and i quite hope that one of the saucepans might fall off and make a big noise and then people will come and help because i like to draw attention during lockdown i even managed to get a photo of me on my hands and knees cleaning the floor that was yes that was attention to the fact that i'm doing the domestic chores and martha wanted help and she she thought you know my sister's being lazy so she goes to jesus and says says tell tell my sister to come and help me don't you care she says don't you care that's the thing a lot of people are saying right now doesn't god care don't you care that i'm doing this all by myself tell my sisters to stop being lazy and to come and help me and jesus's response he's not cross what he does is he defends mary and he diagnoses martha he says look martha very tenderly very lovingly because he loves her he says mother my mouth you're stressed out and he says look actually your sister mary has the remedy for your stress so what is the remedy look at what mary was doing mary was sitting at the feet of jesus listening to what he had to say and the greek word is ton logon listening to the word jesus is described as the logos so he's it's like she's hearing the voice of of god she's sitting at jesus's feet and she is in an unprecedented role for a woman in the ancient world women in the ancient world were left to do the domestic chores it was the men who sat at the rabbi's feet learning and being trained that was not a place for a woman what what mary was doing was scandalous in the ancient world it would have been shocking but here's jesus he breaks the social norms and without any fuss or publicity he treats men and women as equals with equal respect you know jesus is the founder of true women's liberation jesus jesus repeatedly liberated and affirmed women not just here but but women were the last of the cross they were the first at the tomb they were the first to be entrusted with the good news of jesus so here is mary sitting at jesus's feet what does that mean she was right by him close to him in the place that uh someone would come who wanted to learn from the lord the teacher and jesus says she's chosen the better thing she has made this jesus said one thing is needed this is this is your number one priority he doesn't say serving him is a bad thing serving jesus could never be a bad thing it's a good thing but there is something even more important than our service of jesus that's our relationship with him being is even more important than doing and what jesus is saying is make this the thing that undergirds everything that you do make your relationship with jesus the number one priority in life make it the thing that undergirds all the activity that you do in your life because that is the most important thing and in that you find the remedy for all the stress this is the place where you find in the presence of jesus where we find peace and joy and rest for our souls where we're refreshed renewed revived and this is the place where we get wisdom for our decisions so jesus says this one thing is the most important thing that you can do relationship with jesus and you know there's a huge hunger for that in our world i saw a survey in a national newspaper which said that over half of young people aged between 18 and 24 have been praying during this time of pandemic they're searching they're searching for some kind of higher power the actress halle berry said this i believe in god but i just don't know who god is and the higher power has a name the name is jesus and three times in this passage jesus is referred to as lord so when you're listening to jesus you're listening to god and the good news is that god loves you absolutely loves you just like he loved mary and martha and lazarus god loves you and he wants you to walk in a close intimate relationship with him and here's the thing you you don't need to do anything to achieve that it's all been done for you because the son of man came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many he died for you he died so that we're forgiven god is the cross means that god is not cross with us it means that you can come into god's presence just as you are and when you pray you don't have to kind of justify yourself you don't have to do anything because you are forgiven loved cleansed righteous you're a child of god you can come into god's presence and talk to him just talk just have a conversation all relationships involve communication and that involves conversation my girlfriend pastor agu i asked him how would you teach someone who'd just become a christian to pray and he said i'd do this he said i'd have a conversation with them for about three minutes and then i say to them now go and have a conversation like that with god that's all it is it's a conversation with god but conversations are about talking and listening and we all know in human relationships it's much more important to listen than to talk and it is the same in our relationship with god what god says to us is even more important than what we say to god and that's why i would encourage you to make listening the number one priority in your life what was mary doing she was sitting at jesus feet listening to what he had to say that's the key it's listening to jesus and that's why personally that's the first thing i want to do in the morning is to listen to jesus and that's why i try to make this the first thing that i do in the morning well the first thing i do actually is make a cup of coffee and i try to resist the temptation while i'm making the coffee to look at my phone and about one day and every 100 i succeed in doing that but usually i get distracted and i usually often regret it but as soon as i possibly can i want to be saying jesus what are you saying to me through your logos through your word i want to hear you speak to me and you you can posture is not important you can you can pray i i pray walking you're outside you can pray running you can pray anyway anywhere and anyhow you like but when i'm listening to jesus personally and this is just my personal habit i was asked this question by one of the hdb college students she said she said i hear that you read the bible when you're on your knees and i said i didn't know people but all my life i've done that all my christian life i've done that because i find that a really helpful posture it's very comfortable i've got a sofa in front of me like the bible on top of it i'm very comfortable but i'm i'm i'm like i want to i want to sit at your feet i want to kneel at your feet jesus and i want to hear what it is that you're saying to me through your word because i find every day there's something that strikes me in that's why i do the bible in one year i just love it because every day there's something in the passage where i sense this is god speaking to me and this is the thing that brings me peace in the midst of all these distractions and worries and anxieties and upsets and troubles so i want to encourage you to make that your priority life is about christian life is a balance between christian ministry and prayer but i would encourage you to prioritize your prayer prioritize the relationship because it's something the world won't understand the world understands our activities they understand love your neighbor which is a wonderful service of jesus and service of people but they don't understand our worship and jesus is saying our worship our relationship with him is even more important than our work and you know the question is what do we do in practice if you have a really busy day what do you cut john wesley said if he had a really busy day he'd spend an extra hour in prayer i love what joyce meyer says when you have a problem do you go to the phone or do you go to the throne to go and talk to jesus about it first and what jesus says to martha defending mary and diagnosing her martha martha the lord answered you are worried and upset about many things but only one thing is needed mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken from her we're in a season now where lots of things have been taken from us you may have lost loved ones you may have lost a job you may have lost money you may have lost holidays you may have lost i don't know what you've been some dream that you've been you feel robbed lots of things have been taken away but jesus says what mary has chosen will never ever be taken away your relationship with jesus will never be taken away from you and so many people invest their lives in things that will be taken away from them they invest their lives in making money or acquiring land or houses and all those things will be taken away or they invest their lives in in getting degrees or or or letters after their name or before their name and all those things will be taken away every palace will go every castle even the queen will lose every palace she has and every castle she has but she'll never lose her relationship with jesus even the poorest person can have something that will never ever be taken away from them and that is the ability to sit at jesus feet and to listen to what he has to say to you and that is the thing in the midst of all the undoubted distractions of the moment all the worries all the upsets that there are that is the place where you can find peace joy in the presence of jesus you can find refreshment you can find hope you can find wisdom you can find all the most important things which can never be taken away from you in jesus name amen

Channel: HTB Church

Views: 17,442

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Keywords: Church online, HTB, Faith, Prayer, Hope, Positivity, Good News, Nicky Gumbel

Id: ZtiOZD7nJW4

Length: 20min 18sec (1218 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 06 2020