Turn in your Bible, if you would. I'm going to come back to Job 39 at the end.
I just wanted to read it because it's such a great chapter.
But go to Luke chapter 10. We're going to come back to it in the sermon and tie it in.
Go to Luke chapter number 10.
Luke chapter number 10.
And I'm going to begin reading in verse number 38 down at the bottom of the chapter there.
Luke 10, 38. Matthew, Mark, Luke in the New Testament. The Bible reads,
Now it came to pass, as they went, and let's talk about Jesus Christ, of course,
that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him and said,
Lord, dost thou not care that my sister had left me to serve alone?
Better, therefore, that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful,
and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
This is a great story.
Of course, Jesus Christ is at the home of his dear friend, Mary and Martha.
Remember their brother Lazarus, of course, the one who is going to die and be raised back to life.
And these are people, the Bible clearly says Jesus loved them. These are close friends.
Well, he's over at their house, and Martha, she's really busy serving.
You know, she's in the kitchen, she's making food, she's making dessert,
and you can get the picture of having guests over,
and you're really busy to try to serve them and feed them and take care of them.
And, you know, whenever you're the one hosting the event or hosting the party or hosting the get-together,
it's a lot of work.
And that's what Martha is doing.
Well, Mary's not really helping her,
because Mary is just so interested in listening to what Jesus has to say.
Jesus is speaking, and he's teaching the Word of God.
She's so enthralled by that, she doesn't want to miss a minute of it.
So, she is not in the kitchen, she's not serving.
She's just sitting there at Jesus' feet, just hanging on every word that's coming out of his mouth.
So, Martha is frustrated by that, because she feels like,
hey, I'm doing everything myself here, I need some help.
And she comes to Jesus, and she wants Jesus to tell her sister,
hey, make her help me.
It says there in verse 40, it says,
But Martha was comfort about much serving, and came to him and said,
Lord, dost thou not care, like, don't you care,
that my sister has left me to serve alone?
Bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her,
and you can hear a little bit of frustration in his voice,
Martha, Martha, you know, he said it twice, like,
Martha, Martha, Martha,
thou art careful and troubled about many things,
but one thing is needful,
and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her.
Now, this passage is really about priorities, is what it's about.
Not that there's anything wrong with what Martha was doing.
What Martha was doing was a good thing.
It was work that needed to get done.
But at the time when Jesus Christ is speaking and teaching,
the most important place to be,
and really the best choice of what she could have been doing,
as it says in verse 42,
but one thing is needful,
and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken away from her.
He said Mary made the better choice
by sitting down and listening to what was being said.
You see, there's a physical need and there's a spiritual need.
The physical need was the service that was going on in the kitchen
and serving the guests and taking everything.
And then there was a spiritual need to hear God's word.
And Jesus said, give precedence and priority to the spiritual need.
No, I will not tell her to get up and go serve.
She needs to listen.
She needs to learn.
She needs the spiritual need that I'm giving her right now.
Now, there's so many different ways to apply this story.
I mean, this can be applied in so many different areas.
And I'm going to apply a few areas tonight
and show you some other scriptures.
But there are many, many...
I mean, I could go on for hours, I'm sure,
and I'm sure I could preach tons of sermons on this passage
because there are so many ways that this matters.
For example, church.
When it's time for church,
it's time to sit down and listen to God's word being preached.
I remember there was a guy in a church that my dad grew up in
and this guy literally, every service...
And my dad never understood why.
He just told me this. He explained this to me.
This guy would stand out in the parking lot and watch the cars.
And he said he was watching them to make sure nobody would break in.
But my dad's thinking to himself,
this guy's never in church.
I mean, the guy never was in the service.
He'd just be standing out in the parking lot.
He was faithful in church. He was there every time.
But he wasn't getting any of the preaching.
He wasn't getting any of the teaching.
You know, I've seen other people, too,
sometimes be really busy and they're doing everything else
and they're not really listening to the preaching sometimes.
And obviously, look, there are needs.
Obviously, children need to be cared for,
no question about that.
And sometimes there are other things that need to happen, you know,
like maybe turn off that hot water to that baptism.
But anyway, the bottom line is, though,
hey, it's really important to come to church
and listen to God's Word being preached.
That ought to be a priority. That ought to matter to you.
And you say, yeah, but I'm just sitting and listening.
I feel like I need to be doing something.
People have been known also, I don't think here at this church,
but in other churches I've been in,
to skip church and say, hey, let's just skip church and go soul-willing.
You know, and they're missing the point
that it's important to come to God's house.
It's important to hear God's Word preached.
It's not always just about how much activity we can do
and how much work we can put in.
That's all great and fine and dandy.
But if you don't know what you're doing,
if you don't know the doctrine,
if you haven't spent enough time reading the Bible
and listening to the Bible preached,
you might go out and work really hard
and spend a bunch of time on all the wrong things
and waste a lot of time.
It's always important to stop and listen
to what the Lord Jesus Christ has to say.
For example, here's another example.
You can think of the morning routine of many people.
Everybody has a morning routine, right?
You wake up and you go through a certain ritual.
You know, I guess some of us guys,
we just roll out of bed and just go, okay?
But most people have a ritual, especially ladies have a ritual,
and, you know, hopefully if you're a man,
your ritual's a little bit shorter.
But you get up and you go through a process
of, you know, let's say, you know, everybody's different,
but maybe you take a shower.
You know, maybe you brush your teeth or you shave
or you put on deodorant and you get dressed for the day.
You put on your clothes and, you know, you have breakfast
and you do all these things.
But you know what? One thing is needful.
The big thing that you should be doing
is starting out your day with Bible reading and prayer.
That's the big thing that matters.
And literally, some ladies will spend a really long time
on this routine when it comes to, like,
putting on a bunch of makeup and everything.
I mean, this can take hours.
I remember, you know, just...
Well, I don't want to go into that.
Anyway, you know, I've seen...
And no, that was not an illustration about my wife,
because they got... My wife wore makeup.
We got married. My wife put on makeup one time
and I said, she never put that on again.
She never put it on again.
So anyway, we didn't have that routine.
But a lot of ladies will spend a ton of time, you know,
dolling themselves up in the morning.
But here's the thing.
That's just the outside.
I mean, it's not as important as what's on the inside.
Imagine if you just took a fraction of that time
that you're spending on the outside
and you spent it on the inside.
I mean, what about if your hour or hour and a half
that you're spending going through this routine of hygiene
and, you know, decorating yourself up with jewelry
or makeup or clothing?
What if you just took a fraction of that
and just read the Bible and just prayed?
How much more it would do for you?
And if you're a young... Maybe you're a young lady
and you say, oh, I got to do that because, you know,
I want guys to think I'm good.
You know what? You're going to attract a spiritual guy
with what's on the inside.
Because the spiritual guy is not just looking at the outside.
And when you're doing that Bible reading and prayer,
he's going to see the ornament of godliness
and good works and righteousness.
That is so much more important.
I mean, you'd never think of leaving the house
without... Think about this now.
You'd never think of leaving the house
without brushing your teeth, would you?
You'd get to work if you're like,
oh, man, you know I didn't brush my teeth.
You know, you wouldn't think of leaving without deodorant,
without a shower.
You'd be so embarrassed.
But then you just leave without reading your Bible,
without praying, without putting on the new man,
without even stopping to think about the things of God.
Hey, what is needful?
The one thing that's needful is to get with God in the morning.
You know, and I'm not saying to skip the shower
and the toothbrush, okay?
I'm not saying that at all.
But look, I'd much rather...
And, you know, my life is a testimony of this.
I'd much rather go to the house
without brushing my teeth or showering
than to not even pray or not even, you know,
quote some scripture, read the Bible,
do something spiritual.
That's the one thing that's needful.
What's more important?
What's the priority?
And there's so many applications to this.
I think of solany.
I think of evangelism.
So many churches are spending so much time
with so many elaborate programs.
And they're like Martha,
just busy and working and putting in long hours,
you know, preparing skits and dramas
and handing out leaflets and flyers and tracts
and standing on corners with megaphones
and putting on elaborate sporting events
because it's an outreach, you know,
and they're going to reach out.
But wait a minute.
One thing is needful.
Solany.
Walk up to somebody and give them the gospel.
And, you know, people are spinning their wheels
with a lot of physical activity.
They're burning a lot of calories out there,
you know, working, and they say,
man, I'm doing a lot of work for God.
But wait a minute.
One thing is needful.
Just give the gospel.
Just preach.
Open your mouth boldly.
The Bible says,
and for me the utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel.
The Bible says,
and daily in the temple and in every house,
they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Look, we have opportunities all the time in our daily life.
People that we run into,
friends that we make,
and, you know, maybe through political events
or maybe through a sporting event
or maybe through, you know,
my wife has all these food things going on, you know.
Like semi-trucks pull up to my house all the time
and there's all these people coming over
and there's a lot of milk changing hands
and a lot of fruits and vegetables
and grain bags and stuff stacked on my driveway.
I don't know what's going on,
but it's, you know,
there's some kind of a food warehouse
being run on my house.
Well, there's all kinds of people coming and going.
Those are people that should get the gospel.
Those are people,
that could be a solely opportunity in many cases,
you know, over a bag of grain or whatever.
You know, you run into people,
you work with people.
You're in the work truck,
just you and another person.
You know, just giving the,
that's what works.
That's what gets it done.
Just opening your Bible
and just telling people how to be saved.
It's not complicated.
It's simple,
but it's the one thing that works.
Just opening your Bible
and just giving somebody the gospel.
But, oh, if we could just get on TV
and just get on the radio
and just hand out these tracts
and if we could just put on this drama presentation
and this big sporting tournament,
it's gonna bring them in.
It's gonna get them saved.
Look, you're really covered with a lot of serving,
but one thing's needful.
Just get out there and just give the good.
Just open your Bible and just give the gospel.
Just do it the way God said.
You know, one thing is needful, church.
One thing is needful, giving the gospel.
One thing's needful, read your Bible, pray.
Do the things that are the most important.
And I'm not saying don't do other things.
I'm saying prioritize the one thing
that's the most needful.
When it comes to evangelizing,
one thing is the most needful.
Just basic soul-willing like they did in the Bible.
Just knock a door, give the gospel,
walk up to somebody, give the gospel.
That's the one thing that's needful.
Look, it's the most important thing.
It's the main thing. Do it.
When it comes to your morning routine,
great, do all that crazy stuff.
But one thing is needful.
Get it done.
Get the new man on in the morning
with prayer, Bible reading, and so forth.
Look, if you would, at 1 Timothy 5.
1 Timothy 5.
You see, a lot of times we can be really busy,
but we're busy with the wrong things.
We're very busy.
There's a lot of motion and a lot of activity,
but we're not doing the one thing that's needful.
We're not doing the one thing that's the most important thing.
We're doing everything else. We're spending everything.
Think about, for example, me as a preacher.
If I tried to preach what I felt like people in the church
needed to hear or wanted to hear,
and I tried to, you know, tailor my sermon to everybody,
man, that'd be pretty difficult to do,
because there's so many different people.
They have different needs.
They have different backgrounds.
They have different levels of spiritual growth.
But, you know, really, one thing is needful.
Just preach the Bible in a way that's pleasing to God.
Just care what he thinks.
Not worry too much about,
oh, what's this visitor going to think?
But, you know, if I preach too hard,
you know, the visitor is going to flip out and never come back.
But if I go too soft, then my main church members,
they're going to think that I'm, you know, a compromiser.
They're going to think I'm going liberal.
You know, you just can't worry about it.
You just got to preach.
The one person, you know,
we're so worried about pleasing everybody
and preaching what everybody wants.
I want to preach what God wants to hear.
I want to preach what he wants me to preach.
If I can only please one person, it better be God.
That's who I ought to please.
One thing is needful for a preacher.
Please God.
Preach God's word.
Preach the Bible as it's written.
That's the one thing that's needful.
Hey, great, meet the needs.
Hey, I love it when people say to me,
hey, that's what I needed to hear.
Or, hey, that's exactly what I was just talking about.
Or, hey, I was just thinking about that.
Or, man, that's never really helped me.
But you know what?
That's all just icing on the cake.
The main thing is, hey,
is this what God wants me to preach?
Am I faithfully preaching the Bible?
Is this what the Bible actually says?
That's the one thing that's needful.
That's the most important thing.
You see, you can get busy with the wrong things.
Look at 1 Timothy 5.
Here's a perfect example.
This is talking about widows and so forth.
Let's look at this.
It says in verse 11,
but the younger widows refused
for when they've begun to wax Watson against Christ,
they will marry, having damnation
because they've cast off their first faith.
And with all they learned to be idle,
wandering about from house to house,
and not only idle,
but toddlers also in busy bodies
speaking things which they ought not.
I will, therefore, that the younger women
marry, bear children, guide the house,
give none occasion to the adversary
to speak reproachfully,
for some are already turned aside after Satan.
So here's what the Bible is teaching here
in 1 Timothy 5.
The Bible is saying that, you know,
ladies who are married, okay,
and then their husband dies.
Their husband passes away,
so now they're a widow,
but they're still young.
He's saying that the best thing for them to do
is to get remarried and, you know,
guide the house, have children,
that they might not become a busy body
and become idle.
Now here's what's funny.
Notice he says in the same verse in verse 13,
and with all they learn to be what?
Now what does idle mean?
You're not doing anything.
Like if your car is idling,
you're not going anywhere.
Idle means you're doing nothing.
You're accomplishing nothing.
You're spinning your wheels, okay?
So he says they learn to be idle,
wandering about from house to house,
and not only idle.
So we're not talking about
two different groups of people.
The same people that are idle
are the ones who are toddlers also,
and what?
Busy bodies.
Speaking things which they ought not.
So think about this.
He's saying the same one that's idle
is the same one who's a busy body.
Now doesn't that seem like almost opposite,
idle and busy?
Do you see what I'm saying?
But here's the thing.
If you want to find the busiest people,
it's the people who aren't doing
the one thing they're supposed to be doing.
Like for example,
what's the primary role of a man in this world,
to go out and go to work?
I mean, that's the main thing that we do with our lives.
The Bible says, you know,
six days shalt thou labor, okay?
And so, you know, most of us men,
obviously when you're a small child
or you're older, not necessarily,
but when you're in, you know,
your prime of life, when you're a man,
the main thing you're doing is working.
You know, you're working six days a week,
you're providing,
you work by the sweat of your face like Adam,
you know, all the days of your life and so forth.
But if you want to find somebody who's really busy,
find a man who doesn't have a job.
And you'll try to get him to do stuff for you
or try to meet up with him and,
oh, man, I'm busy, I got all this going on.
It's weird.
And I've heard people say this,
if you really want to get something done,
find the busiest person you know,
and they'll get it done.
Find somebody who has two jobs, three jobs,
they'll get it done.
Which doesn't make sense.
The guy who has no job, he's not.
Now you say, what does it mean here?
They're busybodies.
Well, this is talking about women, by the way.
This is not talking about men.
I was just referring it to men
because, you know, it could kind of apply the same way
that, you know, there's one thing that's needful,
you know, get up and go to work.
That's kind of a big part of your life, okay?
That's kind of your major role in life,
go out and work.
And, you know, a man who's not working
is like a fish out of water.
I mean, when I've gone through just short,
real short periods when I didn't have a job
and I was just between jobs,
and man, it's a weird feeling, you know,
because you're just designed to just want to go work.
You know, they start doing weird projects
around the house and stuff.
But anyway, you got to work.
You got to get stuff done.
It's just the way men are.
But he's talking about ladies here,
and he's saying how they get idle
when they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing,
which, you know, being married, having children,
he talks about the fact
that they become busybodies and tattlers.
Now, what's a tattler?
What does it mean to tattle?
To tell on somebody, right?
So, isn't that kind of like,
I guess today we would call it maybe gossiping, like...
See something, say something.
Yeah.
Yeah, I guess Janet Apollo Tom was like the tattler and chief.
She needs to get married.
And then she wouldn't be such a tattler and busybody
about other men's matters.
You know, or he or she or what.
I don't know.
Is Janet Apollo Tom a man or a woman?
Can somebody help me out?
We don't know.
We don't know? Okay.
Mr. Apollo Tom.
But anyway...
That's, you know, if you don't know,
that's the head of the Department of Homeland Security.
He used to be the governor of Arizona
who needs to get married and bake cookies
and guide the house.
And quit being a tattler with your little
see something, say something.
But anyway, thank you for that commercial break.
Brother Gregory for giving us that.
But anyway, a tattler is somebody who's telling on,
you know, so that basically these women
are going from house to house
just talking and talking about other people
and just, you know, tattling.
And they're busybodies.
What is a busybody?
Well, a busybody is somebody who's really worried
about what other people are doing.
You know, they're not minding their own business.
The Bible talks about busybodies of other men's matters.
You know, getting real involved in other people's lives
instead of living their own life.
Now, this is what the whole reality TV
pretty much revolves around,
this nature of people wanting to live out
somebody else's life and look in
and see what it's like for people in their day-to-day life.
You know, live your own life.
And it's the same people that are idle
that become a tattler, that become a busybody,
and they become troubled about many things
as Martha was troubled about many things
but not doing the one thing that was needful.
And they get so worried about what everybody else is doing
and they get so busy worrying about all this stuff
because they're not worrying about the one thing
that they need to be worrying about the most.
Now, look, if you're a woman today
and you're listening to me preach and you're married,
okay, if you're a married woman,
okay, or if you're married and have children.
So if you're in either of those two categories,
if you're either married
or you're married and you have children,
let me tell you what your primary responsibility is in life.
It's to that home.
That's what the Bible teaches, okay?
It's not going out and getting a job and having a career.
It's not all your clubs and your hobbies
and your internet presence or whatever,
you know, your blogosphere and all this stuff.
Look, and I'm not saying that it's bad to be involved in hobbies
and to have friends and to do stuff,
but what's your primary responsibility?
What's the one thing that's needful for you?
It's to guide that house.
It's to keep the home.
That's the one thing that's needful.
Now, look, I have things that I do in my life
that are not necessarily the main thing for me,
you know, hobbies and things that I do for fun
or, you know, something that I do to stay in shape
or something that I do to just blow off some steam
or, you know, read a book or whatever.
But are those really the needful?
Is that the one thing that's needful?
No.
And when push comes to shove,
that's the stuff that takes a backseat in my life.
The one thing that's needful does not take a backseat.
Does everybody understand the sermon tonight?
Look, Bible reading is the one thing that's needful.
Listening to what Jesus had to say for Mary
would be the equivalent of you picking up the Bible and reading it.
That's the one thing that's needful.
That should be the last thing that gets sacrificed, the last thing.
Reading this book, reading your Bible,
everything else gets sacrificed.
Look, if you're a man,
before you sacrifice your soccer team or your, you know, your...
What do people do? Your political activism.
You know, your job needs to take precedence above those things.
That's your one main thing that you're doing.
You know, you're constantly missing work to go play everywhere.
You know, you need to get some work done.
That's the main thing.
You know, that's your main job in life.
That's the one thing that's needful.
And if you're a woman and you're married
or you're married and have children,
your one main thing that you need to focus on,
and I'm not saying, you know, don't have a hobby
or do something on the side,
your one main thing is the home.
That's what the Bible says.
The Bible is clear right here
where he said that they need to marry,
bear children, guide the house,
give them, on occasion, an adversary to speak reproachfully.
Go a few pages to the writing of your Bible to Titus.
He says in Titus chapter 2 verse 3,
this is just a few pages to the writing of your Bible,
the age of women likewise that they be in behavior
has become of holiness, not false accusers,
not given to much wine,
teachers of good things,
that they may teach the young women to be sober,
to love their husbands, to love their children,
to be discreet, chaste keepers at home,
good, obedient to their own husbands,
that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Look, God's real clear about the fact
that the home is the main job of a woman's,
you know, okay, to use the cliche,
a woman's place is in the home.
Amen, that's her main thing.
That's the one thing that's needful
as far as her main job in life.
Now look, other stuff she might do,
and she might have this, you know,
produce thing going on,
or she might have this blog going on,
or she might have a, you know, a knitting circle,
or she might have a coffee clatch, or whatever,
but the main thing is the home.
Just like my main thing,
and the main thing of men is to be out at work.
Working, okay, those are the main things, okay?
One thing is needful.
Go to 1 Corinthians 7, 1 Corinthians 7.
You say, well, why do you bring that up?
Because so many women today are concerned
about other things and giving other things priority
than their family, hence daycare.
Yep.
Hence marriages that have problems.
Hence the women in the workforce.
Hence, you know, women that are, you know,
all worried about education and career.
Okay, that's not the one thing that's needful for women.
I mean, look, if my wife has to let something suffer,
sometimes, because look, we all get too busy,
don't we, to get everything done?
I mean, all the stuff we do, and I don't know about you,
but I can never get everything done.
I mean, I always have piles of work.
I think every morning, I write out a to-do list.
Every morning, I write down, and I never get it done.
I write down a long to-do list every morning,
and I work down that list, and I never get it done.
And it spills over the next day.
It spills over the next day,
and it just gets longer and longer.
Every once in a while, I catch things up.
What's the one thing that's needful?
I mean, think about it.
Let's say you worked in a restaurant, okay?
And at that restaurant, let's say it got really busy,
and all of a sudden, there are customers coming in,
and there's customers lined out the door,
and people are waiting to be seated,
and everybody's lined up to get the food.
What's the one thing that's needful?
Serve, is it time to, you know,
I'm gonna do a major cleaning project
in the walk-in refrigerator.
No, man, you're there to sell food.
You're there to make money.
That's what the rest of us, you know,
you're there to serve people and give them a good experience.
You see what I mean about a priority
of what you're there to do?
Well, what are you there to do as a woman?
What is your job?
Is it to do all these other things
and to go out and have your career
and go out and take a class and do this?
Hey, look, go take a sewing class
or whatever you wanna take,
but is that really like the one main thing,
the most important thing in your life?
Is that the one thing that's gonna get sacrificed last?
No, the one thing that should get sacrificed last
is your main job, the one thing that's needful,
which is your role in the home.
And this kind of preaching is not in tune
with the world that we live in today.
The world that we live in today,
I mean, it's rare today that we have a stay-at-home mom
or a stay-at-home, and look,
I'm for a stay-at-home wife, I'm for it.
You know, because a lot of people say,
well, just, you know, if you're married,
but you don't have to, and look,
I'm not telling you what to do.
Do whatever you want.
You do what you wanna do.
I would never tell you what to do.
And then I'm not giving you commandments here.
That's between you and God.
I'm just preaching you what the Bible teaches, okay?
You do what you wanna do.
But even if a woman doesn't have children,
you know what, I think it's great
if she's a stay-at-home wife.
And I thank God, when I got married,
I got married when I was 19, okay?
And again, I'm not telling you what to do.
Do whatever you want.
I got married when I was 19,
and when I got married,
my wife was not legal to work in this country, okay?
She wasn't an illegal alien, no, that's not it at all.
She just did not have the paperwork
and everything to be working here, okay?
Now here's the thing, when I was 19,
I was young and immature.
I was mature about some things,
but I was a little immature
and a little bit not knowledgeable about certain things.
Now I guarantee you, if we would've been able,
because we were so poor and we had no money,
if we would've had the ability legally,
I probably would've had her get a job
just because hey, we need the money, let's do this.
But thank God it was not legal and she couldn't get a job.
So just from day one, she was a stay-at-home wife.
And then she got pregnant, and then she was so sick
that she didn't want to go off the couch.
But anyway, because my wife gets really sick sometimes
when she's pregnant, but then we had children
and by the time she could've legally worked in this country,
and today she's a citizen, but by the time
she could've legally worked in this country,
we already had little children and stuff,
so we weren't gonna do that, obviously,
because she needed to be home caring for those children.
But I tell you, that's the best thing
that ever happened to me.
I mean, that was God blessing me,
just by keeping my wife at home
in those early days of our marriage.
Now let me explain something to you,
and I'm mainly, and I'm speaking to the young people here.
Let me, and maybe you're single, you're not yet married,
maybe you're newly married, listen to what I'm saying.
And tell me if this logic makes sense to you, okay?
If you can't afford to support husband and wife
on one income, are you listening?
If you can't afford to support husband and wife
on one income, it takes two incomes
for you to support husband and wife.
How in the world are you gonna support
three people on one income?
If you can't support two people on two,
it takes two incomes to support two people,
but suddenly you're gonna support three people
on one income?
How does that work?
It doesn't work.
And I've had so many people tell me,
I don't tell people what to do.
I'm just giving you some advice.
Take it or leave it for what it's worth.
I'm thinking of a person in particular.
He told me, he said, oh, you know, we just got married,
my wife's gonna work until the baby's born.
And as soon as that baby's born,
she's not gonna work anymore.
And guess what?
That baby was born a long time ago
and she's still working that same job.
Why?
Because you get used to that money coming in,
you gotta have it.
It's just like the government, you know what I mean?
They got that money, they gotta keep spending it,
they're like a coke addict.
You know, and it's the same thing with your life.
You know, you found, I mean, thank God,
because it was not legal for my wife to work,
we found a way to do it on one income.
It wasn't easy.
We were poor.
We did without a lot of things.
It was tough, but we were young and in love,
so you know, it worked out.
But it's true.
But anyway, here's the thing.
We made it work and God was able to provide our needs
and we got by.
It worked out.
And so I just encourage you to think that through.
That's the way I would recommend.
And you don't have to take my advice, do whatever you want.
I'm just saying, that's what I would recommend
and I think it's biblical.
Look what the Bible says in First Corinthians chapter seven.
The Bible says in verse 34,
there is a difference also between a wife and a virgin.
And by the way, if you're not a wife,
you're supposed to be a virgin, by the way.
It says there's a difference also
between a wife and a virgin.
The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord
that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.
But she that is married careth for the things of the world
how she may please her husband.
Now look, what is the primary job of an unmarried woman?
Who is her primary responsibility?
To please the Lord.
And a woman that's married is to please her husband
and to raise her children.
These are the two main jobs that God has laid out for women.
You say, oh, that sounds really male chauvinist,
a pig or whatever.
Hey, it's biblical.
I just read to you a verse from the Bible, okay?
This is the way that God is giving us advice
how to order our marriage and how to order our family.
It would be wise to take that advice.
I may not have been wise enough
to take that advice when I was 19.
I don't know.
It's hard to say what I would have done.
I'm looking back, guessing what I would have done.
But I thank God that God kind of made the decision for me.
And it was the best thing that ever happened.
And let me give you a little advice.
And I'm not trying to be rude tonight or anything.
I want to be clear on this.
So let me give you a little advice.
Whoever's making the money is the one who's in charge.
The one who's paying the bills is the one who's in charge.
Now who does the Bible say is supposed to be in charge?
The man.
The husband's the head of the wife
as Christ's the head of the church.
And again, we're not being down on women here.
Women are just as important.
They have just as much value as men.
They are equal with men in God's eyes.
But they have different roles.
And the man is the boss in the home.
That's biblical.
The Bible teaches the husband's the head of the wife.
There's an authority structure there.
I have three boys and three girls.
My three girls are just as valuable to me as three boys.
But they're going to grow up and have different roles.
My boys are going to grow up and be leaders.
And my daughters are going to grow up
and be godly wives and godly mothers.
That's what I desire for my children to be when they grow up.
And that's what God desires for them to be.
There's a difference in roles.
Now look, if God says that the man's supposed to be in charge,
I'm just giving you some advice.
If she's bringing home the money,
she is going to start to think that she's in charge,
even though the Bible says she's not.
And I'm not down on women.
I'm not criticizing women.
I'm not saying every woman is like this.
I'm just saying, in general, this
is the way the world works, OK?
The person who's paying the bill is the one who's in charge.
And it's that way in every area of life, not just in a marriage.
At your job, it's that way.
Whoever is putting down the money is the boss.
That's the way the world works.
Right or wrong, I'm just telling you that's the way it works.
And so when a woman is the one bringing in money,
and if she's bringing in half the money,
she thinks that she's got half the authority.
And if she's bringing in all the money,
she's going to think she's got all the authority.
A lot of people are in a situation
literally stay-at-home dads today.
It's out there.
I've known a lot of them.
It is out there.
Stay-at-home dad.
I promise you, that guy does not rule his castle.
It's just not going to happen.
It's just not going to work.
Now, maybe in a situation where you just
have a really strong leader of a guy
and just a really naked, submissive wife,
but I'd like to see that.
Because the one who's bringing home the money
seems to be the one who has the same.
So look, if you want to start out your marriage
with the wrong authority structure,
if you want to start out your marriage in a worldly fashion,
probably the best way to do it is where you both work, OK?
And then that both people think they're in charge,
and then she's got her own money,
and she's got her own thing going on.
You know, I signed up for Afghanistan.
Shut up.
It's the Bible.
Get over it.
I'm going to stand up here and apologize
for what the Bible says.
And you know what?
My wife has so much freedom.
Anybody who knows my wife, anybody who knows me,
knows that I am not just policing my wife
and not telling her what to do all the time.
I give my wife a ton of freedom.
But we know who's in charge.
At the end of the day, we know who's in charge,
and it's going to be my wife.
Because I'm the boss, not because I'm better than her,
but because I'm just born.
I've been born this way, the boss, as a man, OK?
So 1 Corinthians 734 is a key verse.
1 Timothy 5 is a key passage.
Go to Lamentations chapter 4.
And like I said, there's so many different avenues
we could go with this sermon.
I'm kind of focusing on this thing of men's roles
and women's roles a little bit.
But I could really go so many different directions
with this sermon about one thing is needful.
And really, in every area of your life,
you just need to decide, hey, what's the one thing I need?
You know, if you're at your job and you're a salesman,
the one thing that's needful is for you to sell something.
If you succeed at every other part of the job
but you're not selling anything, you're
not going to last that job.
Because one thing is needful is selling, OK?
If you're a plumber, one thing is needful.
Run those pipes, get it done.
Not just you're washing the truck all day,
and you're organizing your tools and organizing your part.
You've got to get something done, OK?
If you're a pastor, one thing is needful.
Know the Bible and preach it the way it's been.
Know the Bible and preach it the way
it's supposed to be preached.
That's the main thing and the way God wants to hear it.
Not trying to please everybody, not
getting so busy with a bunch of activities.
And we do activities, and we do stuff.
But I don't want to get so busy waiting tables,
as the Bible says, that I leave the word of God in prayer
to go wait tables.
One thing was needful in that early church in Acts chapter
6, the ministry of the word and prayer.
Giving out the word, studying the word
and preaching it to the lost and preaching it to the saved.
That was the one thing that was needful.
Prayer, spirituality, reading the Bible, not waiting tables.
And they said, hey, we need to do the one thing
that we need to do.
And they had to hire deacons.
They hired seven deacons and said,
you guys need to take care of some of this other stuff
because one thing's needful for us.
It's the word.
It's prayer.
It's preaching.
It's soul winning.
It's reading.
That's what we need to be focused on, the spiritual, not
the physical, as apostles.
And that's what they chose to do because they
knew one thing was needful.
You've got to prioritize the main thing in your life.
And right now, we'll talk a little bit
about men's and women's roles.
Men, your main goal is to bring home the bacon.
That's what God created you to do in Genesis.
Bring home the bacon.
I would rather work two jobs than me work one
and my wife works another.
That's why the Bible says in Proverbs 31,
give her of the fruit of her hands
and let her own works craze her in the gates.
Because the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31,
she's making things.
And she's selling stuff to the merchant.
He's just like, give that stuff to her because you know what?
It comes with strings attached when
you start taking it from her.
He's saying, look, and honestly, if my wife went out
and made a bunch of money or something on some little venture
that she did on set, I'll just say, here, you take it.
You know what I mean?
Spend it.
Because you know what?
I'd rather be the main provider and the primary provider
and the sole provider because I want to be the boss.
Oh, that's horrible.
Whatever.
I don't care what you think about that.
I'm glad I'm not married to you then.
If you're a woman and you don't like
what I'm preaching right now, then why don't I
just drop to my knees right now and thank God
I'm not married to you?
And I pick somebody who actually cares what the Bible says.
And you're probably thinking, God,
you're not married to me.
So I feel like I'm probably neutral.
Look at the Lamentations chapter 4.
This is a cool verse.
It says, even the sea monsters draw out the breast.
You say, what is that about?
This is about whales because whales are mammals.
Whales actually nurse their young.
They actually give milk.
Isn't that interesting?
And the Bible's really scientifically accurate here,
as always, as the Bible's always
very scientifically accurate.
He says, they draw out the breast.
They give suck to their young ones.
The daughter of my people has become cruel
like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Go to Job 39.
Job 39, this is where God,
God only talks about the ostrich in two places in the Bible.
Now, I don't know about you,
but ostriches are one of my favorite animals.
Who loves ostriches?
Anybody?
Nobody else?
When I go to the zoo, that's the one thing I have to,
I always say, hey, let's go look at the ostriches.
Or emus, you know, I'll settle for those.
But honestly, I make a beeline for the ostriches.
One of my favorite animals.
They're fascinating.
They're huge.
And have you ever seen the crazy thing that's,
I don't know if all of them do this,
but the thing with their eyelids?
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
All right, I see that hand.
God bless you.
Next time you go to the zoo,
get a real close look at the ostriches.
And they're, I mean,
you wouldn't want to be in the cage with them.
I mean, they're pretty big.
They're pretty serious animals.
But if you get real close to them,
look at them, watch their eyes for a long time,
and they'll see what I'm talking about.
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
My favorite animals are ostriches and camels.
I love camels too.
But anyway, ostriches are a really interesting animal,
but they're a really stupid animal according to the Bible,
as far as their knowledge and wisdom.
Ostriches are mentioned in two places.
The one place is the one I showed you in Lamentations 4
where the Bible says,
even the sea monsters draw out the breast,
they give suck to their young ones.
He's saying, look, whales nurse their children.
Or whatever you call a whale baby.
He says, the daughter of my people
has become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness.
So he's contrasting a whale versus an otter,
saying a whale takes care of its children
and nurses it with the breast.
The ostrich, on the other hand, is cruel to its children.
Let's look at Job 39 for more details about the ostrich.
Verse 13, gave us thou, this is God speaking to Job,
gave us thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks,
or wings and feathers unto the ostrich,
which leaveth her eggs in the earth,
and warmeth them in the dust,
and forgetteth that the foot may crush them,
or that the wild beasts may break them.
She is hardened against her young ones,
as though they were not hers.
Her labor is in vain without fear,
because God hath deprived her of wisdom,
neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
So did God give the ostrich wisdom?
No.
Did he give it understanding?
No.
He purposely created it as a dumb animal
so that he could use it to teach us
what not to do as a parent.
And he said, this is what the ostrich does.
It lays the eggs, and then it buries them in the dirt,
and then it just forgets about it.
And it doesn't care if they get stepped on.
You notice it says that?
You know, the foot may crush them in verse 15.
It doesn't care that a wild beast might break them.
And it says she's hardened against her young ones,
as though they were not hers.
Sometimes it doesn't even realize that that's its kid.
It can't even recognize it.
It's a stupid animal.
And notice what it says.
Her labor is in vain without fear.
She's wasting her time.
She's doing all kinds of work.
She's covered about many things.
She's troubled about many things.
She's laboring.
Labor means hard work.
The ostrich labors, but it's wasting its time.
Its labor is in vain,
because it's not even taking care of its young child,
which is the one thing that's needful
for this ostrich that lays the egg.
It's like it's not even hers.
Her labor is in vain without fear.
Why?
Because God has deprived her wisdom.
Well, it seems that many women today
have been deprived of wisdom.
And they're hardened against their young ones,
as though they were not hers.
Now, it's interesting.
I was reading a book, and I have to read you this quote.
I printed this out in this book I was reading.
There is truly nothing new under the sun.
You know, we think that somehow,
hey, today, in 2011, all of a sudden,
women have to leave the home and work
and drop their kid off at daycare.
And by the way, public school is just an extended daycare
for kids that are a little older.
It's just daycare for five-year-olds.
It's daycare for seven-year-olds.
That's all it is.
The public fool system.
But you know, you think of this stuff as like a modern thing
like, yeah, in 2011, women have to work
and they gotta put the kid in daycare and so forth.
But you know, I'm gonna quote from you
from this book from 1762.
Now, this is pretty old.
This is going way back.
This is a book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
which is a French philosopher from the 1700s.
Listen to this quote.
And I'm not, obviously, this guy is an unbeliever.
He's not, you know, a Bible-believing Christian
or something, but I just wanna read this quote to you
to show you that daycare has always been around.
Okay, look at this.
I'm gonna read this for you.
It says, these gentle mothers,
having got rid of their babies,
devote themselves gaily to the pleasures of the town.
Now, does that sound like they're busybodies,
they're out, you know, going around from house to house?
Do they know how their children
are being treated in the villages?
Because it's talking about women
who are basically dropping their kid off in the villages
to have village women care for their children
like an in-home daycare while they go out gallivanting
throughout the town.
This is in the 1700s in France, okay?
Do they know how their children
are being treated in the villages?
If the nurse isn't all busy,
basically they would hire these daycares,
back then they didn't have formula,
these women would nurse their children, okay?
Because as long as a woman is nursing children,
the milk will keep flowing.
So a lot of times these women would hire themselves out
after they're done nursing their child,
or even concurrently, they'll nurse other people's children
as an occupation.
It says, if the nurse isn't all busy,
the child is hung up on a nail
like a bundle of clothes
while the nurse goes leisurely about her business.
So he explained, just to give you the context,
he explained a little bit earlier in the chapter
how these babies will be wrapped up and swaddled
in a lot of bands of fabric.
You know how you swaddle up a baby
and it's like a little mummy?
And so it's so swaddled up that he's saying
that in France at this time,
they would drop their kids off in the villages,
somebody else would nurse it,
somebody else would take care of their kid
while they're out gayly around the town,
having a gay old time, okay?
And these nurses, when they're not able
to care for the baby when they're busy or something,
they just hang it on a nail.
Can you imagine that?
Hanging a baby up on a nail?
Who's ever heard of such a thing?
So he says, if the nurse isn't all busy,
the child is hung up on a nail like a bundle of clothes
and is left crucified
while the nurse goes leisurely about her business.
Children have been found in this position,
purple in the face,
their tightly bandaged chest forbade the circulation
of the blood and it went to the head.
So the sufferer was considered very quiet
because he had not strength to cry.
How long a child might survive
under such conditions I do not know,
but it could not be long.
That I fancy is one of the chief advantage
of swaddling clothes.
I mean, is that bizarre?
And so look, there's nothing new under the sun.
This was going on in Bible times.
This was going on hundreds of years ago.
Women just dropping their kids off
and going out and having fun.
Playing around, not having the natural affection.
And the Bible says in the last days,
people will be without natural affection.
Of understanding, hey, I need to love my child
and care for my child and nurse my child
and spend time with my child.
That's my job, I'm a mother.
That's the important thing.
And not only am I a mother, I'm a wife.
I need to take care of my husband and cook dinner
and feed him and be there for him
and spend time with him and spend time with the children
and love my husband and love my children
to be discreet, to be chaste, to be a keeper at home.
That's the one thing that's needful, the homemaker.
And it gets thrown in the backseat for everything else.
And many women today, they'll consider their husband
or their children a burden.
Like, oh man, if I didn't have these kids, you know,
and I just need to get these kids off my back
so I can, you know, go do this and I can go do that
and I can go travel here and I can go do this.
No, they're not a burden, they are your life.
They are your job.
That'd be like me saying, oh man, my job is such a burden.
You know, it's keeping me from backtracking across Europe
and going dirt biking and, you know,
going sailing all the time.
Man, I wish I didn't have this job,
I can actually go out and do things that are important.
Your job is your main thing in life.
You go to work, that's what God wants you to do.
And it's the same thing with ladies, they have a job.
It's an important job.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
It's a critical job, it's a respectable job,
it's an honorable job to be a wife, be a homemaker.
If you're a lady, that's the one thing that's needful.
I'm not saying not to do other stuff outside the home.
I'm not saying not to have a hobby
and to do some minor things outside the home.
But that's the one thing that's needful.
Don't neglect the house.
Your children, and when I say house,
I'm not talking about the building necessarily,
I'm talking about the people in it.
Their husband, your children, and men.
You know, don't neglect the one thing that's needful.
Be a provider.
Bring home the money necessary.
And I know it's hard, but you gotta do it.
You gotta do it.
You might have to work your fingers to the bone,
but you gotta do it.
One thing's needful for our church.
One thing's needful in our morning routine.
One thing's needful for men to do.
One thing's needful for women to do.
One thing's needful when it comes to the pastor
and his job and his role.
One thing is needful when you're in your workplace.
This is a principle that can be applied
to all areas of life.
Don't ever stop making the main thing be the main thing.
Keep the main thing the main thing.
Stay with the one thing that's needful.
Look, do I neglect things in my life?
I'm not perfect.
Everybody who knows me knows that there are things
that I neglect.
It's called my car, okay?
My dad said to me the other day, he said,
have you ever washed your car, ever?
So then he was coming to church,
because he lives in Sacramento,
so he was coming to church because he was passing
through Arizona, and I went out and I drove it
through the car wash.
I said, Dad, look at my car, it's really clean.
This is a rare thing.
My dad's car always looks like he just drove it
off the lot five minutes ago.
I didn't inherit that gene from him, apparently.
But one thing's needful.
You know what?
My car looks like garbage.
But you know what?
I'm up on my Bible reading.
I'm caught up on soul winning.
I'm caught up on the one thing that's needful.
And look, should my car be clean?
Yes.
I'm not making excuses for myself, okay?
I should have a clean car.
I should fix everything around the house.
You know, I should be better at this and that and that.
We all could do better in our lives.
Nobody's perfect.
Everybody fails in certain areas of their life.
And that's just one example.
But wait a minute, one thing is needful.
And if I have to sacrifice something, it's the car.
Okay?
It's not gonna be this.
It's not gonna be my relationship with my wife.
It's not gonna be my relationship with my children.
Something's got to give, you know?
And sometimes you gotta make a decision, you know?
Hey, is everything gonna be perfect about the way I look?
You know?
Or am I gonna have a sermon prepared that's biblical
and well thought out and well studied?
You know, I have to think about what's the most important.
And you know, in a perfect world, we'll all get it all done.
And we'd all be perfect.
But you know what?
You're gonna have to neglect things in your life.
It's a fact.
You will come to a point where you gotta
throw something under the bus.
If you're a woman, don't make it your husband.
Don't make it your children.
If you're a man, it better not be your job
that's going under the bus.
And no matter who you are, it better not be Bible reading
and prayer when you roll out of bed.
And throughout the day, and at night.
I mean, not saying that that's the only time.
One thing is needful.
Keep it the main thing.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this example
from the Bible of Mary.
She really had the right idea.
You only walked on this earth, Lord,
for just three and a half years.
Well, it was your ministry.
Obviously, you lived longer than that.
But your ministry lasted three and a half years.
And she was really smart to take advantage
of every moment that she could be there with you
and listen to what you had to say.
Help us to take the same advantage
of the book we hold in our hands.
Same thing she was listening to.
We've got it in our hands.
Help us to read it, study it.
Help us as men to keep the one thing that's needful.
Help ladies to keep it the main thing, the main thing.
Help all of us to keep the Bible
and soul winning the main thing.
And church, the main thing.
We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.