Lessons from Mary and Martha: Serving with the Right Heart

Introduction

If you've got your Bibles, open up there to the Gospel of Luke. We're going to look at chapter 10 there in the Gospel of Luke. I think that we can take away several things in this passage, and part of where we're going to hone in on today for this passage is a few things that I think we can take away as we read the word of God as it relates to us while we serve Jesus. Certainly not an exhaustive list, but I do think we get a few good nuggets.

I do invite anybody that's able and would like to stand with me in honor of the reading of the word of God. We're in Luke chapter 10, and we're going to read there in Luke 10, and we're going to begin in verse 38.

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:38-42

The word of God says, "Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus's feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.' And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled at many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.'"

God, thank you for your word, and thank you for the opportunity to worship you and to read from your word. God, as we have this message, I just pray that you speak to hearts. God, you speak to our hearts to mold us and to shape us more and more into your image so that we would be a people that better live for you and that better serve you, Lord Jesus. God, I pray, I pray, I pray, I pray, if there's anybody listening today in need of salvation, I pray they would not run anymore, and I pray today would be the day they place their full faith and trust in you, Jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior. God, I pray the Holy Spirit to continue to move in hearts in this place, and I pray that you use it for your purposes and your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.

Mary, Martha, and Lazarus: A Close Relationship with Jesus

You know, we read about two sisters in this passage, Mary and Martha, and we know from John's gospel, John 11, they also had a brother named Lazarus. Most of us are familiar with Lazarus, and we remember that in the Bible, also in John's gospel, we read about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead after 4 days. But we know this from reading from Luke, from reading in particular from John, we know that Mary and Martha and Lazarus were close to Jesus while Jesus walked this earth. They spent time together.

I love what it says in John 11:5. It says Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. These were, everything I can tell, these were dedicated Christians. They were people that believed in Jesus, that followed Jesus, that loved Jesus, and they had a relationship with Jesus where they spent time. They were from a town that was just about two miles, I believe, or so from Jerusalem.

Martha's Service and Bitterness

In this passage, we see that Martha is serving Jesus. She's doing a good thing to want to have a heart and to want to serve Jesus. But what we see in this passage is there's some things that I believe we could learn from as we're serving, and some of the things are kind of where we see maybe Martha is serving in a way that we ought to be on guard not to serve in that way. But as I share that, there's no question, everything I read about Martha, she was someone that loved Jesus, she was someone that was serving Jesus, but like all of us, we all have some room to grow in our walk with Jesus.

One thing I think I took away as I read this is the importance of, you know, when we serve, don't serve the Lord with bitterness. Make sure our heart is right. Don't serve the Lord with bitterness. Make sure our heart is right.

You know, we see in this text that Martha is busy serving Jesus, but we see she's also bitter. Why is she bitter? She's bitter because her sister Mary is just sitting there, or so she thinks. She thinks doing nothing, and she's like, "Why is my sister just sitting there not helping me?" Hey, does any ladies in here have a sister? Any of y'all ever kind of go at it with your sister? Raise them up if you do. Oh, well, it's kind of hard when you're sitting next to them, but sisters will go at it, won't they? Oh boy, they'll go at it.

You know, I grew up with five sisters, woo. I wish I had people praying for me back then. You know, we were in a house in the mountains. We lived in a town called Bethel, North Carolina, part of my childhood, which is near Waynesville, near Canton, North Carolina, western North Carolina, beautiful place. And we lived in this house, and there was my mom and my dad and seven kids and two bathrooms. And one of the bathrooms was my mom and dad's; it was in their room. So there was one other bathroom for seven kids, and five of those kids were girls.

I remember I had three older sisters, then there was my brother, then there was me, then I had two younger sisters. And I was probably 10 or 11 at this time, and man, I didn't care to go to the bathroom unless I had to. I didn't need to get in there much, but if I needed to get in there, I could get in there. They were always in there. I'm talking about my teenage sisters, the older ones, 'cause at this point, they were all teenagers. And I remember they had that long counter in there, and they would all be lined up at the counter, all looking in the mirror, all doing their makeup, all doing their hair, blowing their hair, and this and that, and we're trying to get ready for church. I'm just like, in for a minute.

Well, one day, I had a bright thought. I said, "Well, you know what, I'm going to go in there." I'm just going to say, so I went right in. I said, "Y'all, there's one cruller from Krispy Kreme left." And I'm going to tell you what, they all sprinted out of there at once, and I slammed that door, and I shut. I said, I finally got to the bathroom. But let me tell you, my sisters, they would go at it. Sisters have a way of, brothers can too, where they'll go at it.

Martha's Frustration and Jesus' Response

Well, in this passage, kind of all jokes aside, get back to the text, Martha was not happy with her sister. Martha was serving the Lord, she was welcoming him into her home, and she wasn't happy that she was having to do all the work. And she looked at the Lord, and she said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." She was angry, she was bitter.

Hey, have you ever served the Lord and been bitter? Have you ever had times where you've been serving, and your heart was not right? What about, have you ever seen somebody that, while they're serving the Lord, they're bitter? I tell you, we've got to be on guard because the enemy, the enemy wants to get us bitter. And there's all kinds of ways that people can serve and serve with the wrong heart. And if we're getting to where we're serving, and we got the wrong heart, instead of being a blessing, it ends up not, and our focus isn't on Jesus.

You know, the body of Christ, those members that are a part of the body, they are to serve the Lord. It takes every member. You know, just like our human body has many members, each member is vital and important and does something to help the body function. And it's the same way with the body of Christ. It's the same way with this church family. Every one of you as members of this body are important, and God can work through you. And when some members aren't serving, it affects the body. There's no question, it hurts the body, and it puts more on other people.

But does that mean that for those that are serving, does that mean that we have the right to go off and get bitter and, while we're serving, start talking, gossiping, and start slandering? No. And it won't do us any good. And it can happen so easy in church life that someone can kind of get into a moment like Martha was here, where she was bitter. Martha was, everything I can tell, someone that loved Jesus and lived for the Lord and was probably a great example. The Lord loved her, and he loved Mary, and he loved Lazarus. But she was, her heart and her mind, it was getting overwhelmed with bitterness 'cause her sister wasn't helping her.

Hey, let's remember that as we serve, it might be this week when we're serving for VBS, and we're a little overwhelmed with all that we're doing, or it might be some other time. Let's not let bitterness take over. You know, let's not let it take over. Well, why isn't this person serving, or why isn't that person serving? Sure, we would encourage people to serve, and every member should serve. But when we're serving the Lord, we're serving Jesus, and when we get overwhelmed in that bitterness, it's no good for us. And we got to be on guard against that.

Don't Let Serving Distract from Worship

I tell you what else, don't let serving distract you from worshiping the Lord. Don't let serving distract you from worshiping the Lord. Verse 40, it says Martha was distracted with much serving. She was doing a good thing. She was trying to serve Jesus, but it says she was distracted with much serving. We've got to make sure that when we serve, we're not letting it distract us to the point that we're not worshiping Jesus. We've got to make sure that there's a balance to where we still got to make sure we're worshiping the Lord.

The Lord says to Martha, "Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen that part which will not be taken away from her." What was Mary doing? Luke 10:39 says she sat at Jesus's feet and heard his word. All I think Martha, I don't know, but in my mind, I think what she saw in Mary, she's like, look at my sister just sitting there doing nothing, and I'm working my tail off trying to get this meal together, and my sister's just sitting over there doing nothing. But meanwhile, Mary wasn't doing nothing. Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus. She knew the Lord was present, and I get the feeling what we see in Mary is she was worshiping the Lord. She was feeling the presence of God.

John 12, we get a description of Mary. In John 12, it says, "Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil, she anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair." And I think in Mark or Matthew's gospel, it also says she anointed his head. Of course, in John 12, it wasn't long before Jesus was about to suffer and die, and so Mary came there, and she anointed him before he suffered and before he died. So we get another picture there in John 12 of Mary just being at the feet of Jesus, worshiping Jesus.

You know, Martha was doing a very good thing, and something that we should all as believers be doing. She was serving the Lord. But she got so overwhelmed in the details of serving and so overwhelmed with why her sister wasn't helping and so overwhelmed with all these things that get done that Jesus was right in front of her, and she was just worried and overwhelmed, and she was missing out on worshiping Jesus.

Balancing Service and Worship

We need to serve. We are to serve. We are to serve the Lord. Even the Lord came down to serve us. But we want to be on guard to make sure we don't get so distracted in all the details of serving that we miss out on worshiping Jesus. You know, I think there's times when we need to make sure, maybe you are someone here that's busy, busy serving. That's a blessing. That's needed. We've got to make time. We got to make sure we make times to just worship Jesus, just you and God. And we've got to make sure, I believe we want to do that daily.

And one time we get to come and worship Jesus, we get to come here Sunday and worship the Lord. What a blessing. What a blessing it is when God's people come together as one and come together in unity, eager to worship Jesus. And when we think about serving, so how do we get around this? Like, how do we serve and still worship? Well, yeah, there's the side of taking some time with just God, but there's also this. Chris and I were sitting on the porch reading this passage probably a few days ago, and she said this phrase, and I want to kind of close with this: let your service be worship.

Instead of getting so overwhelmed to the point that the enemy is having a field day with us while we're serving, let it be an act of worship. Did you know you can serve the Lord and, while you serve the Lord, worship? Let your service be worship. You know, that might be, you know, you might be teaching a class, teach a Bible study, and as you're teaching, you're worshiping Jesus. That might be you're up here leading music, and as you're leading music, you're worshiping Jesus. Let your service be worship.

Because I tell you, the enemy loves to get us overwhelmed in anxiety and bitterness. He loves to get us to the point where we get like Martha did in that moment, where she was bitter with her sister. The enemy loves it when you're serving, and he finds a way to make it something bad. The enemy loves it when you're serving, and he gets your mind off Jesus. The enemy loves it when you're serving, and he gets you overwhelmed in anxiety. The enemy loves it when you're serving, and he gets you overwhelmed and worrying about how will this work out and how will that work out.

And I'm not saying that's not somewhat normal, and sometimes that causes us to get things more together. But like, when we get overwhelmed, or we get mad because someone else isn't serving like Mary, Martha did to Mary, or we get so overwhelmed in all the things that have to get done to be perfect, guess what? We're not perfect. And guess what? It doesn't have to be perfect for God to use it.

Let Your Service Be Worship

Let your service be worship. When the enemy starts doing that to you, because I'm going to tell you what, have you ever been under attack when you're serving the Lord? I have. Man, the enemy will get all kinds. The enemy will try to discourage you. The enemy will try to make you think it's all bad. The enemy will try to say, "You can't do this, you can't do that, it's not possible, you're not good enough, you'll fail, nobody wants to hear it." The enemy will try to do all kinds of things to get your mind preoccupied and mind worried and, ultimately, to get your mind off Jesus.

When we see the enemy doing that, we got to pray. We got to fight back with prayer, with the word of God. We got to have on that armor, and we got to know that when we serve, instead of letting ourselves get overwhelmed in that, ask God to help us and ask God to help us worship him while we serve. Let your service be worship. Because if our mind is on bitterness or our mind is on anger or we're gossiping and all those other things, our heart, it isn't on Jesus, and the enemy loves that.

Guys, we got to serve with the right heart. And when we notice, 'cause I'm going to tell you what, the enemy has had a lot of times that people will be doing a thing that can be really used for the Lord, and then people will be serving with the wrong heart, bitterness, gossip, and before you know it, the enemy is dividing the church. We got to serve with the right heart. And what a blessing it is when we serve that it's an act of worship.

Let your service be worship. Serving is a joy. Yeah, it can be tiring. Serving, physically tiring. But do y'all know what I mean when you serve Jesus with all your heart, it's a joy. Like, and by the way, if you're here, we never should stop serving Jesus. There might be different ways we serve, but we should never stop. And you might be here, and you might have not served like you used to serve, and you remember how good it was. Maybe you used to serve a lot. It's a joy when you serve. Do you get tired and weary? Yeah. But you go home filled when your heart's right, and you're serving. It fills you, and you're doing the Lord's work.

It's a joy to serve the Lord, and serving the Lord is not meant to keep us from Jesus. Serving the Lord is meant to draw us closer to Jesus. Let your service be worship.

Closing Prayer

God, we love you, and I just thank you and I praise you for your word. And God, I thank you and I praise you that you give us the opportunity to serve you. What a privilege, what a blessing, God. And God, I do pray, we're coming up on a big week of service with Vacation Bible School, whether it's this week or other times. God, I pray that you help our hearts to be right as we serve. We're coming up on a busy week. Give us calmness, and let's, in the midst of the busyness, God, give us a calmness. And I pray that as we're coming up on this week of VBS, that we're worshiping you as serving.

God, right now, I just want to pray for anyone in this room. And I pray right now, during this time that we're going to have a time of response, a time of invitation for anybody that would like to respond. I pray for the Holy Spirit to move mightily. God, we love you, and I just pray right now, during this time, that you work in hearts and that as you work, your people are obedient and respond to you. I pray it in Jesus' name, amen.