In this sermon, the speaker focuses on Luke chapter 10 and highlights the theme of missions. He emphasizes that Jesus is the ultimate missionary and that all ministry is based on Him. The speaker discusses the sending out of the 70 disciples and the importance of relying on God to do the real work in people's hearts. He also mentions the parable of the Good Samaritan and the story of Mary and Martha in Bethany, relating them to the concept of mission. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the need for laborers in the harvest and the role of God in mission work.

Welcome again to our look in the Bible. I remind you of the principle that you know so well but it never hurts to review, and that is total reliance upon God's Holy Spirit. When we come to the Bible, God has taught us that though academic things are helpful, they're not indispensable. And the only indispensable thing is coming as a little child before the Lord and then having Him teach our spirits. And so He's been faithful, and even though this is our last week, let's trust the Lord to clinch it so that we'll have a good time and see Him. I'll ask you please to bow with me. Our Father, we do thank you that we could gather in this place and open your word and trust your Holy Spirit to enlighten our hearts and to instruct us in your heart. Thank you for the Bible teacher who searches the depths of God and reveals it unto the hungry. And so we wait now and we pray that our gathering this morning would be very edifying, that we lift one another up and encourage one another. We do pray that you would show yourself and minister to our heart. And so we give our Bible study unto you with thanksgiving, and we claim your presence in the all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. I'll ask you please to open to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10 is where we are. Let me just sort of give a little bit of a review. Last week we began our introduction to this second part of Luke. The first part we call the Galilean ministry of Christ. And that pretty much takes about two years out of the three and a half year ministry of the Lord. And the Galilean ministry of Christ is characterized by action. In other words, in that ministry we call him the friend of all mankind. It's filled with miracles. He's constantly reaching out to the needy, to the oppressed. Over against what we're looking at now called the Judean ministry covers about the last six months of Jesus' life. And this is more on teaching rather than doing. There's overlapping, of course, and we'll see some miracles. But in this section, for example, we'll look at 17 parables. Because this is the teaching section. And in the Judean ministry we get more and more focused. Now I tried to introduce that last time and call attention to the notable change in spirit between the Galilean and the Judean ministry. In chapter 951 where the Judean ministry begins we read that our Lord Jesus set his face resolutely, firmly, decidedly toward Jerusalem. Now we're not talking geography there. It's true, Jerusalem is a place, but in the next little while he'll go in and out again, and back in and out. Now when it says he set his face toward Jerusalem it means he set his face toward the cross. Toward the mission. Toward the work that he had. And I attempted to show you that change in spirit. Now I don't want to communicate the idea that the Judean ministry of Christ is gloomy, because it's not. But it is more focused on his mission. And where you were surprised in the Galilean ministry and you never knew what he was going to do. He would heal this person and that person and surprise people with his action. Now he's focused. And he kept bringing it up. And he's now firmly set himself. He's determined to go to the cross. In the Galilean ministry, his ministry was rather unpredictable day by day. But now it's very predictable. And it's very, very focused. The last time we looked at chapter 9, 51 to 62 where we saw the beginning of the Judean ministry. In other words, where he was rejected by the Samaritans and then those three men who came and he laid down principles. What does it mean to really follow him? This morning, I would like us to look at chapter 10 as a whole. Now if you just glance at it, you'll say that's awfully big. That's a lot of material to cover. And indeed, it is. And I'm sure on the content of this wonderful chapter we could spend many, many wonderful hours together. But what we're trying to do over and over again and in our survey study of the Gospel of Luke, we have to jump over many details in order to lay hold of what we consider to be of God. It would be a shame to know the Bible and miss the Lord. And that's a possibility. Many times people have studied in such a way that they know the facts. And if you could sit them down and query them, they'd give you all the answers. But they miss the Lord. And we don't want to do that. So we're going to look sort of as in a panorama on this entire chapter. Let me set it before you as far as the facts are concerned. There are four stories, we'll call them stories, in this chapter. The first 20 verses have to do with the sending out of the 70, two by two. Remember earlier we studied when he sent out the 12, two by two. And they were gone for over a year. But this is a little different because the 70 are being sent out to go before him and prepare the way. In other words, everywhere they go, Jesus will then follow up. They're sort of setting the program and setting the stage. Good morning. And so the first part is the sending out of the 70. And then chapter 10, 21 to 24, is the second part of this chapter. And it's the great rejoicing of the Lord Jesus. I call attention to this because only several times in the Bible do we see a passage that says, Jesus rejoiced. Never have we seen a passage that used the particular Greek word that's being used here. He is exulting. He is thrilled. It says that he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. I was told that the actual meaning of the word carries the idea of spinning around with delight. Well, I can't picture Jesus spinning around with delight, but in his spirit he was. So we need to look at that. And then chapter 10, 25 to 37. You remember when the lawyer came to the Lord and asked what good thing he could do to inherit eternal life. And in the answer to that question, Jesus gave the great parable which we know as the Good Samaritan. And so that section. And then finally the chapter ends with verse 38 to 42, the story of Mary and Martha in Bethany. Now that's a lot of ground to cover. To talk about the sending out of the 70 and the rejoicing of the Lord and the lawyer coming to him and Mary and Martha in Bethany. But there's not many ideas. And so we're going to home in on the chief ideas. Four stories, four wonderful truths. And so though we'll fly over some of the stories, we're going to pick up these great truths. Let me begin, please, by relating Luke chapter 10 to the Judean ministry of our Lord Jesus. If you could put one word over this entire chapter, all four stories, and summarize the content, I believe the word would be mission. That's what this is all about, mission. And so we're going to look at chapter 10 and relate each of the stories to the wonderful truth of mission. Glance, if you would, at the first verse, first two verses. And after this, the Lord appointed 70 others, sent them two and two ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was going to come. And he was saying to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest that he might send out laborers into his harvest. I don't think you have to have graduated from a seminary to know and pray the Lord of the harvest. Jesus in the Judean ministry has not only set you resolutely to go to the cross, but don't ever forget this great truth that the path of the king is the path of the king's subject. The path of the king is the path of the king's servant. And he not only sets himself toward the mission and toward the cross and toward the hour and toward the cup, but he also must now inculturate his followers, his disciples, into the truth of what it means to live a sacrificial life and to go to the cross. And so he's going to the cross, but he's teaching them what it means. If you follow me, you're going to the cross too. And that becomes a great Bible principle. The principle, of course, is redemptive living. And so he begins to teach them in these last six months, redemptive living. He's going to the cross, mission. You're going to the cross. He ties it in together. And that's why this is so important to understand in the light of the Judean ministry. Now what he does in this chapter is he sort of takes skin of mission. In other words, if you went to the average missionary conference, you probably wouldn't hear the principles that Jesus lays out in Luke chapter 10. Because we sometimes, we like to look at things in a surface way. And even when we deal with problems, we just sort of chop the weeds off at the top. And then there they come back again in some other form. But Jesus always goes down to the bottom. And he always gets to the heart. And he always is profound and sublime as he deals with these things. Chapter 10 is probably one of the greatest chapters in the New Testament on the truth of mission. And the way I'm going to look at it is, I think he sort of drops several secrets to real missionary enterprise. I'm going to ask you to follow along please. Sort of glance at those first 20 verses as he sends out the 70. Now I'm going to bypass the chief principle which we had talked on in another connection when we discussed John the baptizer. And that is that there's no such thing as a missionary. There are missionary channels. But there's only one missionary. And his name is Jesus. And so every ministry is based on John the baptizer. We're forerunners. We go before, we prepare the way, we remove obstacles. But if the Lord doesn't come after and follow up, we have no ministry. Whatever we do, we can present, we can hold him forth. But then God must come. We'll see that in another connection. But these 70 were exactly that. They went first to prepare the way. And then Jesus came. John said, I baptize with water. One comes after. And if we just have water, quite honestly, we just get wet. And we miss the great spiritual side of it. Follow along as we read these verses. Begin at three. Go your ways. I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no shoes. Greet no one on the way. And whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house. And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. If not, he'll return to you. Stay in that house eating and drinking what they give you. For the laborer is worthy of his hire. Do not keep moving from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal those in it who are sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet be sure of this, the kingdom of God has come near. And then drop down please to Luke 10, 16. The one who listens to you listens to me. The one who rejects you rejects me. He who rejects me rejects the one who sent me. Now I say we're going to look at missions, but I'm really wanting to look at the heart of God in terms of mission. If we were looking topically, in other words if we just said, let's study the topic called mission, then we could spend a lot of time on so many principles in these verses. For example, the importance of praying that God would send forth laborers. You see that's something you could dwell on. Or in verses 4 to 7, God's promise to provide all the needs of the missionary channel and make them content with whatever is set before that. Or we could call attention to the passage that tells how to react when you're rejected. How to react when you're received. There's a lot of missionary truths here. They weren't to argue when they were rejected. They were to leave that to the Lord and move on. And when they were received, they were to bring a blessing to that place and so on. There's a section in here that we didn't read, but a couple of verses, that show that judgment is based on the light that we have received. In other words, God is fair. And if some society, some people, they're not responsible for those privileges. God will only judge us based on the light that we have. And so you see there are many missionary truths or more. It's always wise to have somebody... Ecclesiastes said if there's two in one fall, the other one's there to pick them up. Especially in the things of God, there's so many temptations. If you went alone, there'd be the temptation here. We had, this was amazing, we had between five and six hundred. Now see, that's true, between five and six hundred. And so that would... You're not going to be tempted. There would be the temptation to pilfer from the provisions that are made. There'd be the temptation... It's good to have... And to supplement your ministry. And so there's many, many missionary principles. The importance in this chapter from verse three and verse sixteen. I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. If they reject you, they reject me. You know, missionaries can get so involved that... And they forget that they're representing the Lord. You could share from this on missions. But that's not what Luke emphasized. He cuts right to the chase and he gets right into the heart of God. Now, Luke mentions those other things, but he doesn't... Here's what he emphasizes. After they went out, two by two, and experienced God's miracles and God's provision and rejection and acceptance, they came back and their hearts were full. And they dumped it on Jesus. They had to tell Him. What was it like? Let us tell you. Verse seventeen. The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. They couldn't get over the success they had on the mission field as missionary channel. When the seventy returned, they reflected on all that happened, but mostly they were blown away by the power, the authority, the dominion they were able to exercise over the unclean spirits, over demons. Even the demons are subject to us in your name. Luke tells us they were rejoicing in the wrong thing. Imagine they come back. It was great. You should have seen the power we had. Jesus, let us share. And He said, don't rejoice about that. Look please, if you would, at verse twenty. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. What? I'll tell you. You read something like that and say, that's a great verse. Somewhere else. That's not a great verse in the missionary chapter. In the missionary chapter, let's talk about missions, and soul winning, and how to reach the lost. When they come back and rejoice, Jesus said, look, I know all about power over Satan. I was there when he fell. I know the power over him, and I know what's coming. I know what's in his future. But don't get so wrapped up, He says, in your mission, in what you're doing, in your success, in your victory, that you forget this basic thing. You know God. Your name is written in heaven. You belong to Him. I'll tell you, some missionary, I've met them, some missionaries, they need to hear that again. You know, they get so swallowed up in the Word. Can I help you? Oh. Oh, oh, welcome, welcome. I just wanted to, I didn't know if the car was blocked and some of this. We can get so wrapped up in the calling, in the mission, in the work, in the needs of people, that we forget the great privilege. Jesus said, rejoice in this. You belong to me. In other words, if I were to write one sentence for those first 20 verses, I would put this. Don't rejoice in what you do. Rejoice in who you know. And I think that's the point that he's making here. You belong to the Lord. And whatever successes or failures you have in the work of the Lord, doesn't change the bottom line. You still have the Lord. You still know the Lord. Your name's still written in heaven. And you can get snowed. You can get wiped out with all of the pressures of what's connected with mission. And so Jesus brings them back and he just says, remember this. You've seen a lot of things. You've tasted a lot of things. You've seen me provide. You've been rejected. You've been accepted. You've seen wonderful things. I hope you know. Jesus loves me. This I know. For the Bible tells me so. You know, you get so swallowed up in theology, we forget that he still loves us. He's still in our heart. That our names are written in heaven. And whatever happens, ultimately, we have that privilege, that relationship with him. So that's the first thing he does. He says, you want to understand missions? Let's focus. It's who you know. All right, hold that a moment, please. And glance at verse 21. At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, said, I praise thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent, and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in thy sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Father, who the Son is. No one knows who the Son is, except the Father. And who the Father is, except the Son. And anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. And turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are your eyes, which see the things you see. I say unto you, many prophets and kings wished to see the things which you see, and did not see them. To hear the things you hear, and did not hear them. I call attention to verse 21, that this strong Greek word, Jesus rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit. It's a big deal because it's the only time in the Bible that we ever have a peek at this inner life of Jesus on the joy side. No place is it recorded that he rejoiced like this. And so you've got to ask the question, what is he so happy about? If he's rejoicing like this, and as I said, the original is spinning around with delight. If he's spinning around with delight, what is this sublime wonder in his heart that's making him rejoice? And it's just this, he's excited about the fact that the truth is hidden from the worldly wise, and it's revealed to babe. That's what excited him. He got so excited, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and unveiled, manifest to babe. Say, how does that tie into missions? I'll tell you, it ties in in a big way. Because when you think of missions and ministry, you get this idea, and when I was at Bible school, how they stressed this. Now remember, you're going out with the message. Make it simple, make it bold, make it clear. A, audible. B, breathe. C, Christ-centered. And we got the idea, I got the idea, that someone's understanding, that somehow I'd have to communicate the gospel. So I'd have to use simple illustration. It's not your job, missionary channel, to communicate the truth. The bottom line, again, he takes us back to the bottom. When it's all done, when you've said your little piece, and you gave three points in a poem, and you have your little outline, the Lord himself must come to the heart. That's what thrilled Jesus, and that's what'll thrill missionaries. Boy, that'll take the burden off. If they really believed that it's not their job to ramrod something down somebody's throat. It's not their job to communicate. It's their job to present it. And then God himself comes, and he unveils it. It's a wonderful, liberating truth. Did you notice verse 22? Don't forget now, in his revelation of himself to men, God has made Christ central in the Godhead. And what that means is, the only way you'll ever know God is through Jesus, and the only way I'll ever know God is through Jesus. I used to feel so guilty. I felt like, oh, I'm neglecting God the Father. I'm spending too much time with Jesus. I'm neglecting the Holy Spirit. Here's the Bible truth. Every time you take your eyes off Jesus, every time you take your eyes off Jesus, you neglect the Holy Spirit. The only way not to neglect the Father and the Spirit is to look to Christ. Because in his revelation of himself to men, he has made Christ central in the Godhead. And do you see what Jesus is saying here? This is quite a statement. This is no man. He said, nobody knows the Father except the Son. Jesus claimed everything there was to know about God, he knew. Isn't that an amazing statement? And he said, nobody knows the Son except the Father. He said, the only one that knows me completely is God the Father. And aren't you glad for the end of the verse? And whomsoever the Son wills to reveal him. Boy, I tell you, that's tremendous. Jesus is God. And he knows everything there is to know. And my only shock at knowing God is that Jesus will reveal himself. And so that's the second truth about mission. It's not what you do, it's who you know. It's not what... Without taking time to read all of the verses, it goes from chapter 10, 25 to verse 37. This lawyer came, verse 25. A certain lawyer stood up and put him to the test, saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And to explain his point, the Lord Jesus gave him that great parable of the good Samaritan. Now, both ends of that story have often been misunderstood. And I think if we can straighten out the ends, we might get the middle. The first part has been misunderstood because it looks like Jesus was saying someone can inherit eternal life if he keeps the law. And you know that will contradict other places in the Bible. Verse 28, Jesus said, You've answered correctly. This do and you'll live. In other words, life comes from doing. That was the question. Don't forget, the man asked it to test him. And he comes and said, what good thing should I do? Jesus said, you want to know what to do? How do you read the Bible? And the man said, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul, and all thy strength, and all thy mind, and love thy neighbor as thyself. Jesus said, that's good. Do it. See, there's the hang up. Did you ever try to do that? That's the point. He said, if you really want eternal life, do that. Have you ever? Don't answer, just think. I already know the answer, but just think. Have you ever loved the Lord with all of your heart, and all of your soul, and all of your strength, and all of your mind? Now, not only have you ever, have you always, without failure, every day, 24 hours of every day, love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, all your mind. I won't develop this now. In fact, I can't develop it, but it's interesting. Love the Lord with all your mind. You wouldn't think about loving the Lord with your mind, but there's a way to love him with all of your mind. And then your neighbor, as yourself. The point Jesus was making is, yeah, you want to go to heaven by works? Then do that. Except, no shot at it. No hope for ever doing that. But some people have misunderstood, and they think you can do something. The second part has been misunderstood, because they think the point of the Good Samaritan is, help one another. Help your neighbor. When he's hurt, when he's down, when he's in need, help your neighbor. That is not the point of the story of the Good Samaritan. You know, you read that story, that parable Jesus told, and this man was beaten, and certain ones run right on by, but then the Samaritan comes and beat him. Let me try to give you what I think is the heart of this section. Missions. Not what you do, it's who you know. Mission. It's not only who you know, it's how you know. By the revelation of God. Mission. Now, in verse 25, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? The answer is, be perfect. And that's not possible. Notice verse 29, wishing to justify himself, he said, who is my neighbor? This guy was convicted. He knew if Jesus were to query him, now have you loved the Lord with all your heart and all your soul? I don't want to deal with that. So, he jumps to the second part, and he says, love me a neighbor. Let's discuss that one. Because he don't want to get in there in his relationship with the Lord. Let's discuss, who is my neighbor? Now, don't forget the question. Jesus did not answer his question. That parable, and that's what people think, the parable answers the question. He did not answer the question. He changed the question. The man said, who is my neighbor? And here's how Jesus answers. Who was neighbor to that person? Not who is my neighbor, but to whom am I a neighbor? And Jesus moves from his question, who is my neighbor? He moves from conduct, help your brother, to character. Who are you? Because what you do, comes out of who you are. I love that in John 10. It gives us this great truth. A thief steals, because, can you finish? He's the thief. A thief steals, because he's a thief. You do what you do, because of who you are. A Christian, lives for the Lord, because he's a Christian. The sun shines, because it's the sun. Fire burns, because it's fire. The wind blows, because if it didn't blow, it's not wind. Perfume smells, because it's perfume. And so, the nature of the heart, the nature of faith. Faith works. If it doesn't work, it's not faith. It's the nature of faith, to work. And so this priest, and this Levite, went right on by. The Samaritan stopped to help, and Jesus said, you know why he did that? He did that, because of who he was. Let's take the whole chapter. It's not what you do, it's who you know. It's not only who you know, it's how you know. God must reveal it. Only God can reveal God. It's not only, who you know, and how you know, it's who you are, because of who you know, and how you know. And the more I know him, the more he changes me, and then I become neighbor. I'm going to ask you, to look at the last part, before we wrap it up. Verses 38 to 42. It's not an accident, that this chapter ends, with this wonderful missionary story. As they were traveling along, he entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha, welcomed him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover, was listening to the Lord's word, seated at his feet. But Martha was distracted, with all her preparation. She came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care? My sister has left me, to do all the serving alone. Tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you're worried and bothered, about so many things. Only a few things are necessary, really only one. Mary's chosen the good part, which shall never be taken. This is a tough story, because our natural heart, wants to rescue Martha. I don't know if you feel that way, but I do. You know, Jesus was invited to her house, and she sort of had responsibilities there. She wants to prepare for her guests, and she wants to make a nice meal, and so on. And while she's stuck in the kitchen, her sister's there, at the feet of Jesus, hearing Bible stories. And Martha got a little bit frustrated, with Mary, and finally came to Jesus, and said, you know, could you please ask her, to let her know, that there's some responsibility here. I don't doubt that Martha, would have loved to sit there, and have a Bible study too, sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus, but she had a guest, and she had responsibilities, and she felt like, this is her honored guest, and she wants to do the bad. Now it would be wrong, to make the contrast, between Martha and Mary, love. To say Mary loved Jesus, and Martha didn't love Jesus. That's not what the Bible teaches at all. In fact, Martha loved the Lord Jesus every bit, as much as Mary loved Jesus, and it went the other way. In John chapter 11, verse 5, it says, now Jesus loved Mary and Martha, and Lazarus their brother. It was a real relationship, with this family in Bethany. Love is not the issue. They both loved. They both had favor. They were both trusting in the Lord. And the point is also, not contrast, between work, over against laziness. That's not the point either. It looks like that, a little bit to these eyes. Mary's just sort of, sitting there, in her devotional spirit. If you had a choice, you want to help with dishes, or hear Jesus tell a Bible story? What are you going to choose? Martha would have chosen the same thing. That's not a hard choice. It's no fun being stuck in the kitchen. I often left my wife stuck in the kitchen. That's not fun for her. You know, to stuff the turkey, and to stand at the stove, and do the dishes, and set the table, and do all of that kind of thing, while I'm fellowshipping with the brothers. I remember one time, it didn't work, but one of our children woke up, and I could just hear Lillian moaning, and she saw that I was awake, and she just looked sympathetically at me, and I said, the man of God needs his rest. Jesus never praised anyone for being lazy, and Jesus never rebuked anyone for being industrious. The issue here is not that she was a worker, and that Mary was lazy. Let me bring it into the whole chapter. Missions is not what you do, it's who you know. It's not only who you know, it's how you know who you know. It's not only knowing who you know, how you know him, by God's life, but it's who you become, because of who you know, how you know him. You following all that? All right. The difference between Mary and Martha is the direction. This is a reversal of human nature. It goes against everything. When man fell into sin, of everything that turned upside down, this was the most upside downest. I couldn't think of the word. This is the thing that man, God created man to be a receiver. When God made man, he was a receiver, and God dumped on him everything. When man fell into sin, somehow it got into his mind that he is now a giver, and he had to give, and he had to do, and man became a doer and a giver. And one of the great works of the gospel is to bring back man back to the place again where he understands this truth that God created him to be a receiver. Martha in this chapter, bless her heart, was a giver. Now later on in chapter 12 of John, it says she's preparing again. But this time she did it with the right spirit. There's nothing wrong with what Martha did. He had no quarrel with what she did. But it was this spirit in her heart, Mary is a receiver, and Martha is a giver. To Martha, Jesus is the honored guest. Anything wrong with that? To Mary, Jesus was the host. This is the same principle that he taught in the foot washing. Peter said, never will you wash my feet. It's not right. You're God. I wash your feet. I serve you. I minister to you. Jesus said, if you don't let me wash your feet, you'll have no part with me. You'll have no intimate fellowship. It's a humbling thing to see God don himself with the slave apron. It just doesn't seem right. Why should he serve me? Why should he wash my feet? Why should he minister to me? But Mary had that knowledge in her heart that she was a receiver and God had come to give. And the whole chapter, it's who you know, it's how you know, it's who you become because Mary is concerned with who he is and how to know him and who she will become. And so God clinches this missionary chapter with this wonderful story. My heart's especially moved by this truth since I consider myself a pastor casualty, a missionary casualty. I think in the past, I've shared some of my testimony with you, but I was a victim of burnout and I crashed as a minister of the Lord. Everything I see in Martha, I saw in my own heart and in my own life. I love Jesus like Martha loved Jesus and I wanted to serve him like Martha served him. And I couldn't do two months and so I neglected my family and I gave myself into the work. I threw myself into the work and I worked around the clock and what the Lord said of Martha, he said to me in verse 41, Martha, Martha, you're worried about many things and bothered about many things. Like Martha, I also was a nervous wreck. You know, I said, it's better to go two by two because then the truth of what you say can be verified. There's my witness. There's my witness. It was a nightmare as I tried to serve the Lord with all my strength. We used to pull the shades down in our house and hide with all the lights out. In the same town, we would have to leave and get a motel just to get away. It was an awful thing and you get so frustrated and you get so distracted with all of these preparations. Now the Greek word here is very powerful. It says Martha was harassed. She was just overwhelmed, fretting and anxious. And the worst part is you get so frustrated because no one helps you and you think you're doing the right thing and you're all involved in this and then you use Jesus as Martha tried to use Jesus to high pressure others into doing the same thing. And oh my, with blood in my face, I tell you that I pulled many people into my stream because I was convincing them how important the work was. Martha was not focused on one thing. 1965 is when I really crashed and I praised the Lord for the mentor he brought into my life. But I'll never forget his finger. Never forget his index finger. That's engraved in my mind. That finger. He just did that. And I went to him and I was running in 10,000 directions and he said, Ed, one thing is needful. At that time, I couldn't think one thought in a row. I was just so confused and my life was so cluttered and complicated and he held up that finger. And I remember, I trusted this guy. He was almost, probably in an unhealthy way, he was almost like a God to me because he helped me so much. And I just sort of, in fact, I was married to poor Lillian. I asked this guy if I could move in with him. I was serious. I wanted to just follow her up. He was such a man of God, I'd just follow him. I wouldn't say anything. I'd just watch. But he held up that finger and he said, Ed, one thing. You need to look to the Lord. And I said, yeah, but there's stewardship and there's missions and there's discipleship. He said, one thing. I said, yeah, but my family and my priority. He said, one thing. And at the end, I wasn't teared. I was hysterical almost. And I'm begging. I said, tell me the truth. One thing. He says, never five, never four, never three, never two, one thing forever. And I said, you mean to tell me I can leave this office and for the rest of my life not be concerned with many things, one thing only? And he promised me. He promised me. And he said, well, actually he challenged me to do it for six months. He said, I challenge you for six months. Go after one thing. Just go after the Lord. Don't go after missions. Don't go after fellowship. Don't go after friends. Don't go after Bible study. Don't go after prayer. Don't go after stewardship. Don't go after anything. Just know the Lord. And for six months, I figured I'd fail the Lord anyway. I might as well give him six months. I went after one thing. It's been a long six months. It's been a long six months. I'm going into my grave with one thing. And I encourage you, friends in Christ, to set your heart. This is missions. Nothing else is. As you go after the Lord, one thing, you are going to become the missionary channel that he wants you to be. Everything else will fall into place. One thing is. Paul said, One thing have I chased after. David said, One thing have I desired to behold the beauty of the Lord, to meditate in his temple. Asaph said in Psalm 73, Whom have I in heaven but thee? On earth I desire nothing except thee. Go after the Lord and you'll be amazed. Mary never said a word this whole thing. There's not one word recorded of her. She appears three times in the Bible and every time she's at the feet of Jesus. She's at the feet of Jesus to know God. When she's got a problem and her brother dies, she's at the feet of Jesus to weep and to pour out her burdens to the Lord. She's at the feet of Jesus to pour out the ointment. This is Mary. And God said, She'll ever be the example of the gospel. Wherever the gospel is preached, Mary becomes the example. It's not condemning Martha. He's saying, Martha, you're running here. You're running there. You're busy. You're active. This is chapter 10. It's not what you do. It's who you know. It's not how you give it. It's how you receive it from him. It's not who they are. It's who you are. It's who you become as you lay hold of him. Martha. Martha. So distracted about many things. Always looking for volunteers to help. And looking for people. Martha. Mom. Set your heart. Well, we'll close there. I hope you see in the Judean ministry now as we get to the cross. He's got to lay out these principles. They're going to have to understand because when he leaves, it's on their shoulders. And they're going to go out this way. They're learning the cross missions redemptively. Well, comments or questions? Yes. By the grace of the Lord. My whole heart is set. Oh, I'm constantly paving a path back. As you know the Lord, everything else falls into place. I ran after ministry. Had no ministry. Now I'm beating it off with a firm hand on it. I ran after fellowship. I couldn't find any. Now I've got fellowship. Everything is a byproduct. If we run after the byproducts instead of the goal, you lose the byproduct. All these things work. Well, that's true. And she does. One of the wonders of the body. Whatever it takes, he'll do it. Well, let's bow. Father again, we thank you. Not because of what we think we know, but of everything you've inspired. We do thank you for Martha and for Mary. And we thank you how Martha was changed. Though she never stopped serving, yet her spirit was changed and she served as a byproduct of her knowledge of you. Give us that kind of a spirit that would just constantly live at your feet. Work it in our hearts, we pray. Well, thank you very much for the whole season.