(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, so Luke chapter 10, we're going to focus on, there's a lot going on in Luke chapter 10, it's a long chapter, but we're going to focus on the story that we see right at the end of Luke chapter 10, of course, you know, the difference between stories and parables is that this is just historically what happened to Jesus in Luke chapter 10, and also at the end, we see the story between him and these two ladies that are commonly referenced in the gospels, we're going to look down in Luke chapter 10, in verse number 38, and let's just reread this couple of verses here, and then we'll look at what we're going to talk about this morning. The Bible says in verse 38, it says, Now it came to pass as they went, that they entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 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, does not now care that my sister hath left me to serve alone, bid her therefore that she help me. So the situation is, Jesus is in this house, and he is speaking as he, you know, speaks and he talks, he's giving, you know, doctrine, he's giving the word of God, and here you have these two ladies, one of the ladies is preparing things, getting things ready, you know, being hospitable, and the other lady is just sitting there and listening to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said on her in verse 41, it says, 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. So this could be a little bit of a confusing story if you don't really put in context who Jesus is, but basically you have one lady that's working really hard, and what is she doing? She's working hard to be hospitable, and you know, this could be a sermon in itself, right? Hospitality is hard work. When somebody has you over to their house, they are, they're working hard for you. I always think about that when, you know, my wife has a Thanksgiving meal or something like that. It's like the ladies are busy, they're working, they're being hospitable, they're making things in and out of the oven, and they're keeping things clean, and they're cleaning things off the table, and serving other courses. It's hard work to be hospitable, and you know, people, they put a lot of labor into that. They put a lot of, you know, people, they invite you over to their house to put labor and money into you, so you should appreciate that, first of all, but second of all, here you have Martha being hospitable, and the Bible says that we should be hospitable. You know, that's something that's a qualification of a pastor, is to be given to hospitality, that you know, you can't have a, want to be a pastor, and you just like, you just don't like people. You just don't like, you don't like being hospitable to people, you would rather people just leave you alone. Well, hey, that's fine, but you know, it's not, probably the ministry is not for you, okay? But, she's doing a good thing, and Jesus kind of rebukes her here a little bit, and we're going to look at the details of why he does that, because her sister's not helping, she's being hospitable, and Jesus says that Mary, the one that is not helping, has chosen the good part. So we're going to look at why this is, and why, you know, Martha was so stressed out. The title of the sermon this morning is Becoming Weary in the Christian Life. You know, this can, what's happening to Martha here is a risk and a danger to all of us in our Christian lives, of just becoming weary in the Christian life. So we're going to look at what Jesus says to Martha, and apply that to our own lives, and make sure we don't ever find ourselves in the situation or with the heart that Martha has here, and if we do, we can quickly recognize it and correct it, alright? So let's look at why Jesus, I'm going to give you four points this morning on why Jesus said that Mary was doing the good thing, and Martha was not doing the good thing, alright? Turn to Philippians chapter 4, or just look at the front of your bulletin, it's actually the verse of the week. So the first thing that Jesus says to Martha after she says, you know, Jesus, why aren't you rebuking my sister for not doing anything, look how much work I'm doing, the first thing Jesus says, you're turning to Philippians 4, 6, I'm going to read for you verse number 41 of Luke chapter 10. Jesus said, he answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. So he says that she's being careful about many things. Now the careful in the Bible, and the careful in Philippians chapter 4 is not really the careful that we would think about, it's kind of used in a different context. Look down at Philippians chapter 4 in verse number 6, where the Bible says this. So the first point is this, Martha was careful about too many things, that's the first point. Look at Philippians 4, 6, the Bible says be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. This is not talking about like don't stand on top of a ladder, on the top step. This is not talking about like don't, you know, don't forget gun safety at the range or whatever. That's not what this is saying. This is talking about, you just have to look at the actual word itself. It's saying be careful for nothing. It's saying, I don't want to use careful to define careful, so I'm trying to like think, you know, verbally here, but it's saying don't care too much about things. Be careful about what you care about, about the things that you're putting your attention into. So the Bible in Philippians 4, 6 is saying you shouldn't be all stressed out and worried about all these different things, instead just rely on the Lord. That's what the Bible was saying in Philippians 4, 6. And so what was Martha doing? She was worried. She was troubled, Jesus says. She was hurrying about and she was being hospitable. And again, hospitality is hard work. Everybody knows this. I'm not dismissing that, but what Jesus is saying to her is, Martha, some things are more important. Jesus is pointing out that Martha was simply allowing non-spiritual things to trouble the spiritual things. And that is what He is calling her out on. Look, you have to understand that worrying about too many non-spiritual things in your life will sap your spirituality. It will take away your spiritual life. I mean, look, you have to worry about non-spiritual things. You have to go out in the world, but they should not take precedent over the spiritual things. This is what Jesus is saying. I mean, look, a simple example is just going to work. Like men have a job and they go to work. This is something that is good that they do. They are supposed to provide for their family. This is a command from the Bible. But, you know, it's impossible. It would be impossible if you just got completely wrapped up in your work life and your job and all these different things to have a spiritual life. This is a big challenge for men, by the way. And I guarantee you every single man in this room or even hearing my voice, whether it's on the internet or whatever it is, will have this challenge in their life where their work life or their job out in the world tries to take away their spiritual life or threatens your spiritual life. I was driving with my family. I got called out on this one just driving in the car the other day. We were driving. I don't know where we were driving. We were driving around Fresno somewhere and I had the family in the car and a firetruck drove by us. And I just made some comment, you know, you're kind of thinking things and sometimes you say it out loud, you know, when it's just your family. And some firetruck drove by and all the guys, they got their arms hanging out the windows and they got their headphones on and stuff. And I kind of said, I just said, that would be a fun job, you know, driving a firetruck around, you know, going to grocery stores, working out all the time. You know, I kind of made that comment, right? And right away, like the kids, the kids in the backseat were like, yeah, but dad, you couldn't go to church if you had that job. And I'm like, okay, it was just a general comment, you know, it wasn't like going to go be a fireman. And I was just saying, the point that they were saying is right away they realized, look, there's a lot of jobs out there where you will not be able to have a spiritual life. And here, I guarantee this will happen to every single man in this room at one point in their life. There will be times, there will be times when you are presented with opportunities that will make you more money. I promise you, but it will sap and take away your spiritual life. Every single man will have that presented to him at some point. It snares a lot of people. Oh, but I could make more, what in the world are you talking about? This is what Jesus is saying to Martha. He's saying the things in the world, hey, these are good things that you're doing, but the things in the world can't rob your spiritual life. Don't get to the point where you're like, oh, I need to work for my family, I need to support my family, and the only way I can do that is by not having a spiritual life. Jesus is like, no, you're ignoring the good things. You can't ignore the good things to pick up the things that are not important, or not as important. Yes, you have duties, but you must fulfill those duties. And look, God will provide a way for you to fulfill those duties while not ignoring Him, not sacrificing Him. There are many jobs out there where it would be impossible to have a spiritual life. And just some general comments I made, I'm glad my kids realized that, because my boys, whether they're working now or not, one is, one is not. Every single one of them, both of them, will have that presented to them as well. And I want them to recognize it. Oh, man, look at all that money I could make there. Oh, look at that career path I could have there. But I can't have a spiritual life done even thinking about it. That's how it needs to be. Is this God's will for my life, that I would go into this field or whatever, but I can't go to church, and I can't bring my family to church, and I can't lead my family the way? Then no, it's not God's will. This is not rocket surgery. That's what Jesus is saying. You gotta pay the bills. You gotta pay the bills. God will provide a way to do it where you don't have to sacrifice Him, where you don't have to sacrifice your spiritual leadership in your family. I mean, it's the same thing. Look, this is the same thing for ladies. Yes, you have to keep the home. That's not, and look, everyone thinks that's such a small thing today. No, it's a real thing. It's a real job. You have to keep, somebody has to keep the home, somebody has to take care of and teach the kids. That's a real thing. Turn to Matthew chapter 6. Somebody has to take care of things, but you can't let those things overwhelm you as Martha did to the point where you forget about the best thing, the spiritual things. You just can't be too careful about the things in this world. Look at Matthew chapter 6. Look at verse number 24. The Bible talks a lot about this. We can spend a lot of time on just this one point. Look at verse number 24 of Matthew chapter 6. You just can't be too careful. You can't care too much about the things in the world. You have to keep things in perspective. Look at Matthew 6, 24. No man can serve two masters, for he'll either hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You can not serve God and mammon. The Bible here is saying, look, you should be able to recognize when this happens. You should be able to recognize where, oh, you know what, I'm caring a little bit too much about this. I'm caring a little bit too much about this new thing that I'm into. This is the point of Sundays, by the way. This is the point of Sundays. This is the point of midweek service. Why do Baptists have midweek service? So you know, you can just have a little bit of a spiritual dose in the middle of the week so you don't start caring too much about the world. You can have that reminder at midweek to be like, oh yeah, this is what we're doing. This is the point of everything. Just have that spiritual reminder. I even have this issue writing sermons, and my family can testify to this, but where I write sermons, the computer where I write sermons is kind of in our living room, if you've ever seen where my computer is. It's not like off in some corner of the house or whatever. It's kind of out in the living room. I write most of my sermons very early in the morning. The reason I do that is because if there's anything going on around me, it is very hard for me to just really focus in on the sermon. This is a small example of this. My wife will tell you, if the washing machine or the dryer, which is right behind me in the room behind us, is ever running, it's just so distracting. I'm just like, well, I'm done writing sermons now. The dryer turns on, and there's a bearing going on in the dryer or something like that. It's like, I'm done. I'm done. But the point is that this is the world in our spiritual life. You have to remember that the noise around us in the world that we have to be in, that is not the point. That is not the big picture. So you just have to protect yourself from letting that noise overtake your spiritual life. You know what? This is why you should read your Bible during the week. You know, you're not just relying on Sundays and Wednesdays. You should be in your Bible all week listening to what? The voice of God. You should be listening to the voice of God during the week. That will help silence the noise. And then, you know what? Apply that to your life. You should look at things. Jeff and I were talking about this yesterday at Soul Winning. It's one of the cool things about being in your Bible and understanding the Bible and just having a spiritual life is that when you see things in the world and you see things going around, going on in the world, and you're in the word of God and you're listening to the voice of God, you know what you do? You look at it. You look at everything through the lens of the voice of God. It's really cool. I mean, we don't have to like what's going on, but at least I know, at least I can look at it through that lens. That's why I like this book that we're reading and that we're studying through on Sunday nights. It's not a religious book, but it's really neat when you start applying the Bible on top of it. It's really neat. What makes it super interesting is when you read something like that through the lens of somebody that knows what the Bible says. And you can take biblical lessons from it, always using the Bible as our guide, of course, but look, if you can stay in God's word, you'll start to see the things in the world not as noise, but you'll start to see them through the lens of the Bible. The last thing you want to start doing is looking at having your life. The Bible gets smaller and looking at life through like the lens of what everybody else is looking through. That's a disaster. That's why you have to stay in the word of God. You have to stay, keep that spiritual life on top. You just keep that spiritual perspective in your life and it's just, it would drive you nuts otherwise. I don't know how other people do it, but it is driving people nuts. Let's go back to Martha. Actually go to, go to Mark chapter 4. Go to Mark chapter 4. Let's look at one more verse related to that. Mark chapter 4. This is what the Bible is talking about in Mark chapter 4 in the parable of the sower where it says, this is exactly what can happen. So I have like an arrow in Mark chapter 4 and verse number 19 to Philippians chapter 4 and verse number 6, but this just kind of rounds it out right here. It says, and these are they which are sown among thorns such as hear the word. So they hear the word of God. There's people that hear the word of God. But the what? The cares. You see that? The cares. These people are too careful about what? They're too, they care too much about the cares of this world. And the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in, choke the word and it becometh unfruitful. So this is the danger. If you become too careful, if you're not looking at the world through the spirit, the lens of the Bible, and instead you're starting to actually care too much about that, about, you know, just getting more money or just having more success out in, you know, whether it be a career or whatever it is. The cares of the world. If they become too loud in your life, it will choke out the spiritual. That is what the Bible is saying. And that is what Martha was dealing with here. She was letting the little tedious things choke out the literal word of God. I mean the Bible's being written in her living room. And she's like, well, who's going to cook the turkey? But the same thing is a danger to us. Go back to Luke chapter 10. Actually go to John chapter 11. Let's go to John chapter 11. So let's go back to Martha. Let's go back to Martha. So that's the first thing. The first thing is the cares of the world will choke your spiritual life. Here's the second one. She was too used to Jesus. She was too used to Jesus. She was too comfortable being around Jesus. And to understand this, you have to understand who Mary and Martha actually were. If you're in John chapter 11, who were Mary and Martha? So you had these two sisters. And there's actually a family here. There's a family here that Jesus was very close to. So Jesus was very friendly and had a good relationship with this entire family. Look at John chapter 11, verse number 1. Who were Mary and Martha? So Martha, Martha at the point of Luke chapter 10 when she's doing all the cooking and all these things, she had kind of lost the whole Jesus Christ is in my house whole thing. Mary still had that. Mary is down at Jesus' feet just hanging on every word. But Martha, she was kind of, she was too used to Jesus. She was taking Jesus for granted at this point. Who were Mary and Martha? Look at John 11, verse number 1. Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, very famous story in the Bible. The town of Mary and her sister, Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick. So here we see that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, they're all, they're brother and his two sisters is what you have here. In John chapter 12, of course, verse number 2 is talking about a story, you know, in John chapter 12 where Mary, you know, this happens later where Mary anoints Jesus. And then, of course, this is where Judas is like, we could have sold that or like I could have took the money is what he was really trying to say. Look at verse number 3. Therefore, so Lazarus is sick, therefore his sister sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Look at verse number 17 for sake of time. So Jesus kind of waits around. He hears that Lazarus is sick and he doesn't really rush there right away, all right. And when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. So he had already died. So Lazarus was sick. Jesus didn't really rush to get there and he said, you know, kind of get there when I get there. Lazarus dies. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Mary and Martha to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. So she's saying, you know, he's dead now. You know, and Jesus, he didn't rush there. But look at verse number 35, the shortest verse in the whole Bible right here, by the way. The Bible says Jesus wept. So what does this show you? First of all, this shows you the humanity of Christ. But it shows you that Jesus was very close to these people. Jesus was, had a good relationship with Lazarus and Mary and Martha. Jesus said to the Jews, behold how he loved him. So the point is this, they were friendly with each other and Martha was just, she had gotten too used to being around Jesus at this point. Look at, go to 2 Peter chapter 3, go to 2 Peter chapter 3. They were close friends. She was used to seeing Jesus. She was used to hearing Jesus. So the point is, you can't get too comfortable in this Christian life. You can't get used to this Christian life. And here's a problem that many people have in the Christian life. There's no cruise control in the Christian life. You know, everyone's like, oh, you know, self-driving cars. There's no self-driving Christian life where you just, you're like, I'm good now, I'm just going to hit self-driving mode and everything's just going to take care of itself. There is no point like that in the Christian life. Growth in the Christian life can't stop. Because if growth in the Christian life stops, this backsliding will begin right away. You have to always be growing. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3, look at verse number 18. The Bible says this, it says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now and forever, amen. So Peter is, you know, closing his letter and he's saying grow. He's like, make sure you're growing. That's his, that's his final, you know, closing in, you know, this chapter here. He says, look, don't get used to this, keep growing. Keep growing in your Christian life. Keep growing in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because if you get used to your Christian life, if you get sick of the routine of your Christian life, look, you have to understand that everything is riding on your Christian life remaining stable and the only way to have it remain stable is to keep growing, is to continually grow. Your family's growth depends on you continuing growing. Just think of the world, the world out there. The salvation of the individuals in the world depends on you as an individual keeping growing and not getting used to your Christian life, not getting tired of your Christian life. The only way to keep it stable is to keep it growing. That's the trick of the Christian life. It's never going to be this thing where you can just take the hands off the wheel and just say, I don't care what song you heard, you know, you have to keep growing in this Christian life. You have to keep reading. And look, James chapter 1 verse number 8 says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You can't be one of these people that just wants a new thing every year or every two years. They just, they have to change. I mean, this is a terrible disease to have as a person, that you just have to have something new and something different and, you know, you just have to change everything every year and a half. You know, this is the people that have the friend of the month or friend of the year, whatever it is. They cannot just remain stable. But your Christian life will not work if this is you. So if you have this problem and you just can't keep in this Christian life, this is why you see people that are in the Christian life for a year or two and then they just have to go into something else. Does that mean that they're not saved? No. There's plenty of saved people who aren't living the Christian life, folks. Salvation doesn't have anything to do with how you're living. It has to do with what you believe, what you've trusted in. Go back to Luke chapter 10. Don't take this Christian life for granted. You have to keep growing. Everyone depends on it. Everyone in your life, in your family, in your church is depending on you continually growing in the Christian life. Go back to Luke chapter 10. Let's look at the third one. Luke chapter 10. Let's look at the third one. Look at verse number 39. The Bible says, And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was comered about with much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. So here you have Jesus speaking the word. You have the word speaking the word. And she's not focused on it. It shows you that Martha, the third one says she lost sight of the larger mission. She lost sight. Jesus was there and he was talking about what? What is Jesus always talking about to the disciples? He's talking about the kingdom of heaven, the larger mission. He's trying to prepare the disciples and everyone he talked to about the larger mission here. Yes, things need to be done. You know, it's the same thing here. There's lots of things that need to be done here constantly, week in, week out, day in, day out. The church needs to be cleaned like again and again and again and again. It's a tedious, difficult process that just keeps repeating again and again and again. There's no magic button on the wall. Clean church. Someone has to come and do those things. The bulletins need to be created. The bulletins need to be folded. The follow-ups need to be done. The maps need to be created. The ministry has all these tedious things that need to be done. And what? They're repetitive things. They're like, oh, it's the same thing I did last week. It's the same thing I did the week before that. But we have to remember that, and look, I have to remember this too, that while those things, while tedious, those are not the larger mission. They're in support of the larger mission. And we can never forget that. Go to Romans chapter 14. Actually you go to Romans chapter 10, I'll read for you Romans chapter 14. Romans 14 says this, it says, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God, it's not the things around us in this world. It's not the food that we're eating. You know, that's kind of what Martha needed to hear, kind of. You know, the kingdom of God, Martha, is not meat and drink. The word of God is being spoken in this house whether you're doing all those things in the kitchen or not. The important thing is the word of God. The important thing is the kingdom of God. So to let the larger mission be derailed, to let the larger mission be derailed by the tedious things is counterproductive. It's silly. That's what Jesus was telling you. Look at Romans chapter 10. See, here's what you have to realize. This church, notice how I didn't say the church. This church, it facilitates discipleship. That's what this church does. This church, Jesus Christ's church, it facilitates people doing what? Growing in grace as 2 Peter chapter 3 says we should do. That's the point of this church is to grow Christians through the word of God. Look at Romans chapter 10 in verse number 14. So we're here to facilitate Christians growing. Look at verse number 14. It says, how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of who they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? So the Bible here is telling us why we need disciples. Why do we need disciples? Because we need people to preach the word of God. We need people to go out and preach the gospel to the world, to all nations. We need people to go out and do that and the people aren't going to be able to understand it if they just like look at it themselves. Because this is the design in verse number 14 that God has laid forth. He needs people to tell people. He needs disciples. This is why, this is the ultimate reason why we need disciples. Just because you're saved doesn't mean you're going to be a disciple. No, you have to get certain things out of your life and get certain things in your life in order to become a disciple. So not everybody is going to be a disciple. That's unfortunate but that's the truth. People need to call, people need to believe and call on the Lord. That's the goal. And they're not going to be able to do that, the Bible is telling us here, unless disciples go out and preach the word of God. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. You see, this Bible, this Bible right here, this Bible is not Pride and Prejudice. This Bible is not a novel. It is not a book that somebody can just pick up and read and understand. It is a spiritual book that can only be understood by the spiritual. This is the problem. This is why we are necessary. This is why you need to continue growing. One of the reasons. Other people besides yourself are depending on you continuing to grow. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse number 12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God. So when you are saved, something literally happens. When you get saved, when you trust on Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is put inside you. You are indwelled with the Holy Spirit. You are sealed by that Holy Spirit. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, it doesn't mean you're filled with the Holy Spirit but you have just, you have that down payment, that earnest put inside you the minute you get saved, the moment you get saved, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you. That is how someone who is saved can understand this book. Let's keep reading. The things which also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. If you did not have the Holy Ghost in you, you could not understand the Bible. Verse 14, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things and yet himself is judged of no man. Because he's saved. For who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. How do we have the mind of Christ? Because we have the Holy Spirit inside us. So this is how, this is the mechanics of it, folks. This is why we have to go out and explain the Gospel to people. Using what? Using the Word of God. But we have to go out and explain the Gospel to people because on their own they can't understand it. This is the mechanics of it. Somebody can't sit down. I mean, look, I, there are many people out there that you will go and you will knock on their door and they're not saved and they'll be like, oh, the Bible, I've read it. I don't believe a single one of them. Not one. It is one of the biggest lies that is told out there. Oh, I've read the Bible. Now, because you know what? I used to be unsaved and I like to read and I could never get through the Bible. Not even close. A novel is about 100,000 words, typically. Some are longer, you know, like Lord of the Rings or whatever. The Bible is 780,000 words, give or take, you know, 1,000 or whatever. You're telling me you're going to sit down and you're going to read something that is the length of 10 novels and you're not going to understand what you're reading? No way. I've tried to read it. I've read Genesis chapter 1 like 100 times before I was 15. Just trying to like, and one of the mysteries of my life, one of the biggest mysteries of my life, I remember being in my 20s, being unsaved, being like, I wonder if I'll ever know what the Bible says. I wonder if I'll ever know because this book was a mystery to me. And I tried to read it many times. I remember I had a New King James when I was growing up. It was my Bible and I had it for decades. And I had this Bible and I tried and tried and tried. So somebody that I knock on their door, they're not saved and they're like, oh, I've read the Bible. I don't believe it for a minute. I don't tell them that. I'm not trying to be rude to people. But I don't believe for a minute you're going to sit down and read a book that is 10 times longer than most novels and not understand what you're reading. I just don't believe it. No one would read a book that they can't make sense of. But the point is this. People need us to explain it to them. That's the mechanics of how God designed it. He wants us in this fight. I understand why He did it. He needs us to be disciples, to be growing, to be spiritual, to want to care about the lost. Look, you'll lose if you care, if you're too careful about the things in the world. Another thing you'll lose is you won't just lose the desire for the spiritual things. You won't just lose the desire for spiritual songs and hymns. That's why if you listen to a bunch of worldly garbage music, you won't want to listen to hymns. But if you quit, you get that garbage out of your life, then you'll start to enjoy the hymns. It's a perfect proof of what I'm talking about. You won't just lose the desire for the spiritual things like coming to church and fellowshipping with people at church. You will actually lose the desire. You will lose the heart for the lost. So that's a good test, too. That's a good measuring stick for a Christian. Are you growing in your Christian life? Are you losing that concern for the lost? Soul winning times come around and you're like, ugh, ugh, look, we've all had days like that. Give me a break. If you're being honest with yourself, we've all had days where soul winning seems like work, where soul winning seems tedious. But you know what? You need to do a check on yourself when that happens because you're like, why don't I have that concern for the lost in my heart? What's going on here? Am I being too careful about something? Am I missing something? Am I paying too much attention to something in my life that's choking this out? You've got to be measuring yourself on a weekly, daily basis if that's happening to you. Or you just wake up one day and your spiritual life is just dead. The mission, the design is for the saved to explain the gospel to people using God's word. That's what the design that God has laid forth is. To what? To be led to the kingdom of heaven, that's the mission. And that's how it works. To disciple people into church. So what? Here's the mission, folks, to go out and explain the word of God to people using the word of God and then get people saved, have them have that Holy Spirit so now they can learn the word of God, they can grow as a disciple and guess what? They can start learning and reading and applying the Bible to their life and guess what? They can become profitable, they can become fruitful, they can get other people saved. You see how this goes? It's supposed to be like a snowball. Did you know that two and a half percent of the United States adult population is an independent Baptist? Two and a half percent of the adult population should be, should be saved if they're in a good church. I mean I think it's probably more like one and a half percent, I mean that's saved from what I've seen out there but whatever. That's what the stats will say about how many independent Baptists are out there. Did you know that Baptists, just Baptists in general, is the second largest religion in the United States? A lot of people don't know that. There's a lot of Baptists in the United States. The only one that beats it out at that point is the Catholic Church. If every single saved person in the United States, you want to talk about how to fix the United States, news flash, it's not Trump. If every single saved person in the United States would go out and get one person a year saved and then those people would start growing in grace and growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and then they would go out the next year and get another person saved. You know the vast majority of the United States would be saved in like five years. You want to talk about how to fix the United States? Go soloing. But these independent Baptists are not soloing anymore. I went to an independent Baptist church website yesterday and it's in Clovis and I won't even mention the church's name. I'm sure, I mean I couldn't even find out the name of the pastor. I'm looking through the website and you get to all these different points on the website and it's just like you got to log in, got to log in, got to log in. Nothing on what they believe. No soul winning. This is the problem. Saved people are doing nothing. Saved people have lost sight of the mission. Saved people are cooking turkeys and having cookie dinners. Look, we're going to have cookies but we're also soul winning. We're also doing the first works. I like turkey. I like cookies but soul winning is the key because it is the design for the kingdom of heaven to grow. So you hear, I mean, you hear all this, oh, it's just like soul winning, soul winning, soul winning, soul winning. That's all you ever hear about because that's the point. That's the main mission, folks. And to let the tedious things like Martha was doing derail the main mission, she was losing sight of it and the same thing can happen to us. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, sorry, 2 Peter chapter 1, the Bible says in verse number 5, talking about just the importance of adding to your faith and your growth. Look at this, in verse number 5 it says, and beside this, giving all diligence, diligence, you know what diligence means? It means consistency over time. You can't be consistent for a week and call that diligence. Diligence means you are consistent all the time. You are not this, you know, thing of the year, thing of the month person. Add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance, to temperance, patience, to patience, godliness and to godliness, brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness, charity. Is this growth happening here? For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor what? If you're growing, you will be what? You will not be nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is saying if you grow, you will be fruitful. The Bible here is talking in 2 Peter chapter 1 about your mission will be fulfilled. You will be out there and you will be growing the kingdom of heaven on earth. That is the whole point. That is the mission. Go back to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Go back to Martha. Item number 4 is this. Item number 4 is this. Item number 4 is this. You say that, you know, the Christian life, the Christian life is, man, it's complicated. It's not complicated. It may not be easy, the Christian life, but it is not complicated. And Jesus explains that right here. He says one thing is needful. That's what he says. What he is talking about is the Word of God is that one thing. The Word of God is the one thing that is needful and from it flows everything. It's all we really need. All we really need is the Word of God and to follow the Word of God. That's it. In the Christian life, it may not be easy for people to do that and they may get hung up, but it is very simple. Just know the Word of God, learn the Word of God, grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then just apply those things, follow those things in our life. That's not salvation. That's the Christian life though. It's very simple. It's easy to get weary. It's easy to get worn out in the Christian life, which is why this lesson is in the Bible. It's easy to get used to things, but you have to keep the noise in perspective. You have to keep growing today. You know, I had a thought this morning when I was thinking, I was going through this sermon, I was just thinking about it and I was just thinking about not taking things for granted and I just had this overwhelming thought this morning when going over this sermon and I was just thinking that, you know, there's so much good is what I was thinking. There's so much good. I looked up at the screen in my office and I saw the church and I saw the kids. I saw the men. I saw the husbands. I saw the fathers. I saw the single guys too, don't worry. I saw the ladies. I saw these mothers that are raising their children in the Lord. I saw these men that are leading their families in the Lord and I thought, man, don't ever get used to this. I thought to myself. I thought about just, I always get, you know, really reflective in December and I just thought about the year and I just thought it's so good. It's so good. You know, don't ever, this is why the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 that it's better to go into the house of mourning than the house of feasting. Because when you're in the house of mourning, you look at the little things like small stupid little things, but when you're in the house of feasting and things are good, you have this tendency in your life to make a big thing out of small things and to focus too much on the small things. But when you're in the house of mourning, so you know what, I want to be in the good times. I'm thinking to myself this morning. I want to be in the good times and I want to not take for granted. I want to not focus on things that don't matter and I don't want to get used to the people in the church. And God forgive me if I've ever taken these people for granted, in my heart even. And I know I have and that just overwhelming feeling hit me this morning. Do not take your Christian life for granted. It is everything. Don't make God have to put you in the house of mourning for you to see the good things around you. I want to be in the house of feasting and I want to have the good things and I want to look at this church and the mission it is doing and the people that are in it and I want to just praise God and thank God for all the good all the time. Don't ever take it for granted. Don't you take these people for granted. Don't you take these kids for granted. John's always up here crawling on the pulpit all the time. He's probably going to be a pastor. I don't know. I'm just kidding. But I mean, my God, if we've ever taken it for granted is what I thought. Forgive me for that. We don't ever want to do it. Remember the Bible and applying the Bible, that's the one thing. Don't let the Bible upset you. That's the danger of your Christian life. Don't hear the Bible and let it upset you. Don't hear the Bible and get upset at me. But get upset at me before you get upset at what God wrote. Apply it. Whether you like it or not, apply it. It's God's words. It's not mine. Who am I? That's why we're turning to all these verses all the time. These aren't my words. All you have to do in this Christian life is know what God's words are and put them into application in your life. It's all we need to do to succeed in all of this. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.