Mary at the feet of Jesus- PVPHS New Life Club

I was asked today to speak about Mary and Martha.
There aren’t too many stories in the Bible about these two sisters, but there are two that I want to share with you today.
The first story comes in Luke 10.
Jesus is coming through town as he’s traveling, and he comes to stay in the town of Bethany with Mary and Martha.
Martha is all over the place, making sure things are all taken care of. She’s cooking and cleaning, and making preparations for their special guest.
And guess where Mary was?
Sitting there, at the feet of Jesus. Just there learning from Jesus. Hearing from Jesus.
Well Martha comes and complains to Jesus.
Jesus! Tell my sister Mary to do something! She’s just sitting there while I’m here doing all the work!
What does Jesus say? He says “Martha, Mary has chosen to the better thing.”
I want to point something out. I think Martha gets a bad wrap in this story from most people.
We often read this story and give Martha beef for being so caught up in unimportant things, and we praise Mary for loving Jesus so much because she was at the feet of Jesus.
But do you guys realize that what Martha was doing wasn’t bad? Martha was actually ministering to Jesus. She was pouring herself out so that she could serve him. IS that so bad? Shouldn’t we serve God?
No, it’s not wrong. It’s just that Jesus says what Mary chose to do in that moment is “better”. It implies in it that Martha’s desire to serve Christ is a good thing, but Mary’s priority to be served by Christ was gooder. More good.
We should serve the Lord. In fact, we’re commanded to.
But remember when Jesus came to earth, he told his disciples that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for us.
And of course ultimately he’s talking about serving us by dying for us on the Cross.
But as much as we are expected to serve Christ, and as much as we are Commanded to serve him, we must first be ministered unto by him.
It is the better thing. For we can’t serve him unless we are first served.

Here’s what I mean:
I know many of you guys are caught up right now in busyness. I’m sure there’s so many things that consume you.
You have SAT’s to take.
You have college applications
You have projects to work on
You’ve got piano. You’ve got homework.
And I know for many of you, this is honestly your service to God. You really have good intentions of wanting to serve God with your life, to please him with your grades and academics. To go to a good school so that you can please him with your career.
And that’s a GOOD thing. We should make it a priority to serve God with our lives.

But listen to what the Master said, “Mary has chosen to do what is better.” To allow Christ to pour into her first. To Mary, this was a GREATER priority.
Guys, we could keep pouring ourselves out, trying to serve God. Giving everything we have.
We can give and give and give, in our school work, in our youth group, in our new life club, in our community service.
But I’m telling you, you’ll pour yourself out so much, you’ll eventually RUN DRY. You’ll burn out.
It happens to the greatest servants all the time. You don’t know how many stories I hear about Pastors and Youth leaders running dry and burning out. Because all they do is pour themselves out.
Ex: Spiritual dryness. And as I speak, I’m learning from Mary’s example too. These past months for me have been relatively dry for me spiritually. Why? Cuz I’ve gotten caught up trying to serve the Lord. I’ve been busy preparing sermons, and messages, and teaching at church and getting ready for retreats, and studying for my seminary classes, all so that I can live for the Lord.
But recently I’ve hit a wall and realized that man, I haven’t been spending time with the Master.
My quiet times have never suffered so severely in my entire life as a Christian than these past three months.
Why? Because I’ve never had to serve the Lord so intensely.

But Let us learn from Mary, who was found sitting at the feet of Jesus.
If we want to continually be able to pour ourselves out for Jesus and for others, then we have to be willing to be poured into. We have to be willing to be refilled and replenished if we want to excel in our service to God.
And this happens when a priority in our lives is a constant devotion to Jesus, so that He can be the everlasting Water that pours into our lives.
Where can we go to find this everlasting source of living water?
Well, how about at the feet of Jesus? In the quiet times of devotion?
Where we can learn from him.
Where we can hear from him.
Where we can experience his love.
Where we can be filled with faith?
EX: Post it notes. Look, even I had to recommit myself to spend time at the feet of Jesus. Less than two weeks ago, I started the Bible reading plan because I realized how out of touch I was with a regular reading of His word.

As important as all these activities going on in our life are, we must make the greatest priority in our schedules to be a time to sit and sulk at the feet of Jesus.
And I’m telling you, it’s in the quiet place where our faith will grow strong, where we can be nurtured and nourish, so that we can keep going in our service to Christ.
Some of you are thinking. “Nah, that won’t happen to me. I won’t run dry. i don’t burn out. I’m super man, I’m wonder woman. No, my faith is strong. As long as I keep serving and giving all that I can for Jesus, then he’ll take care of me.”
EX: Losing faith. Well, there was few years ago, when I was serving the Lord, probably like I’ve never served him up to that point in my life.
I was in Seminary getting my Masters of Divinity degree. I was regularly preaching for the youth at my church and teaching Bible study for the college students. I was on core leadership for my church.
And even still there came a point when I began to struggle in my faith.
EX: Hearing God. I started to question God’s existence. God, are you really there?
I remember one night, I was literally on my knees praying for God to reveal himself to me.
EX: Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah, a servant of God, is running for his life. Many of the other prophets of God had been killed, and so Elijah, tired of being zealous for the Lord and pouring himself out all the time, ran away to the mountain of God and hid in a cave.
11 Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire.
And after the fire came a gentle whisper (still small voice, sound of sheer silence). 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
It was the Lord. The Lord wasn’t there speaking to him in the noise of the powerful wind, or the quaking of the earth, or the great fire.
The Lord was there in the silent, where he spoke his still, small voice to Elijah.
EX: Follow Up. One day I was driving to work at 7am, and for some reason, my stomach started to feel very sick. I got to work and I just hurled all over the place.
I hear “Get UP”. And it was God’s still small voice.
I realized that day was the day after asking the Lord to reveal himself to me.
And though sometimes that’s how he may choose to speak, sometimes it’s in the silent, where he uses his still small voice.
And unless we are willing to free ourselves form noise and distraction to just sit in the presence of Jesus, we might miss what God wants to say to us in the silence.
I hope God never has to be forceful in trying to get your attention or to get you to listen to him.
Instead, let’s do the better thing, and spend time at the feet of Jesus.

I want to share with you one more story that the Bible gives about Mary and Martha.
This comes in John 12. And here there is dinner party held in honor of Jesus. It’s in Bethany, where Mary and Martha lived, perhaps at their house.
It says in v. 2 that Martha was there, once again serving everybody like she always does. Running around, making sure everyone is taken care of.
But where is Mary?
At the feet of Jesus. Once again, the story makes it clear that Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.
But check it out, this time, she wasn’t there just to listen to him and be poured into by Jesus.
Now this time, she’s at the feet of Jesus pouring back out to Jesus.
Pouring what? Just about all that she had. It was an expensive perfume called nard, and she just anoints Jesus’ feet as an act of worship.
Even one of the disciples was freaking out because this stuff was worth a years wages! Can you imagine that?
For people at my church, that’s probably an average of about $50,000.
Now I have this is bottle of perfume, about $50.00. Can you imagine if I were to pour it out just for an occasion to honor you and wash your feet with?
Some of you guys are freaking out, cuz that’s $50 going to waste!
But can you imagine what people thought when $50,000 was going to waste?
But it wasn’t to Mary. Because it was her act of worship. It was worth it for her to pour out all that she owned as her worship to Jesus.
See, Mary was a person who had a priority of being at the feet of Jesus, and learning from him.
And I bet that she was so accustomed to receiving from Jesus, and being poured into by Jesus,
That this act of worship was something that came easily for her.
And I suspect that for any of us who are willing to make it a priority to be at the feet of Jesus, to receive and to be poured into by Jesus, that giving all that we have and pouring it out for Jesus in loving sacrifice will be something that we love to do.
Will you pause, and take time each day, to be at the Master’s feet?