The Mission || Luke 10 || Nick Rizzio || 6/1522 || 7:00p

Yeah. Oh, back up, Mike. Oh, I've actually been a private company. I'll tell you about it here in a little bit. Yeah. All right. Good evening. What's up, man? What up, George? Hey, it's good to see you guys. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with me real quick, we'll pray and we'll get started.

Heavenly Father, God, I thank you, Lord, for the beautiful day that you provided for us, Lord. I just thank you for this opportunity to gather together in your name. I just pray that you bless this time, Lord, and just prepare our hearts to receive from you, Lord, and just help us just to lavish praise on you, God, because, I mean, God, you're God. You're awesome, and you're on the throne, Lord, and you are worthy of all praise. So, Lord, just help us to set everything aside tonight,

all the distractions of life, and to just simply lavish praise on you, God. We love you, Lord, and we praise you, and we thank you, and pray all these things in your precious and holy name. Amen.

We worship the God who was. We worship the God who is. We worship the God who evermore will be. When the prison doors, he parted the raging sea. My God, he holds a victory.

There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. This place, we won't be quiet. We shout out, we shout out. We sing to the God, sing to the God who saves. We sing to the God who always makes a way. We shout out to the Lord today. We won't be quiet. We shout out. Amen. Amen. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like.

We're there, and shining through. He's watching you, nature, and me is your name. You know, I just, I gotta take a minute and just brag on God here just for a minute.

Just God is, God is just so awesome, and so good, and so faithful, even when we're not. I know that, there's been a lot of times when I've carried burdens that I didn't need to, because I didn't think God could handle it. But when I finally turned things over to him, he proves me wrong. I usually end up feeling a little bit foolish because I never did turn those things over to him, so. But God is good. He's always faithful, and he is more than enough

for whatever you're dealing with. Read a book for too long. I wasn't creating invitation to live. Let it all go. I've seen it down. I know that I run to the Father. I've fallen. I'm done with the hiding. No reason to wait. He's a surgeon. My soul needs a friend. So I'll run to the Father again and again. You saw my condition from the start. Your son for redemption. Christ for my heart. I don't have a

car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. I don't have a car. мои

i don't understand again and again and again long before my chest your mercy you put a need in my body see you just as i run to the father i fall into grace i'm done with the hiding no reason to wait my heart needs a surgeon my soul needs a friend so i'll run to the father again run to the father found a surgeon my soul found a friend so i'll run to the father again and again run to the father i fall into grace i'm done with my soul found a friend so i'll run to the father again oh heavenly father god forgive us if we've tried to handle things on our own lord forgive us if we've not thought that you could take care of whatever it is that we're dealing with lord god you are more than enough you are more than powerful

you are more than powerful you are more than powerful you're more than big enough to handle whatever it is that we are dealing with lord and that we are facing each and every day god lord tonight just pray that as uh as nick comes to bring the word let's pray that you would just uh bless him and overflow him with your gift of teaching god prepare our hearts to receive from you lord and let your word go out with power and not return to you void lord but accomplish the purpose for which you sent god we love you lord god we thank you we praise you and your precious and holy name all of god's people said amen all right good evening obviously you can see pastor ryan is not here so you have the b team

so i will do my best to fill in uh just pray for pastor ryan and his family they're on vacation they need that short sabbatical and just enjoy that time with their family and create those memories and just for him to sit back and relax it's important uh so just pray for his family pray for safe travels and i promise i will keep this short um i am used to preaching short sermons so i know that's a big fan favorite so i will do my best to keep it that way but uh tonight we're going to be in luke chapter 10 luke chapter 10 and i i titled this that's not a good start there it is i titled this the mission uh all through this entire scripture we're going to see that there's several people going through a mission and that mission how they approach it

during that mission how they handle it and at the end what are they going to do about it and what are they do with that mission i think many times as christians we go through valleys we go through trials and tribulations and it really depends what do we do with those tough times how do we how do we go about it who do we lean on where do we tend to to really seek out advice or help and so this is a great story um i'm really pumped because it actually has one of my favorite stories in the bible so we're going to get to that here in a little bit but to give you a little context what's going on here is i just had the miracle of feeding the 5 000. and so every time jesus is performing

miracles and he's giving speeches his his crowd is growing larger and larger so these are new followers these are by no means disciples that are um years into the making and truly understand what's going on they're still what i call greenhorns they're still learning what's happening what are they doing with this guy named jesus that they're following so they have questions themselves but it's pretty neat to experience what they're going to be doing kind of mission that they have and really how they're going to be put up against tests. But so Jesus, he has this group of 70 people. And so what he's going to do is he's going to send them out. And so if we go to verse one in Luke chapter 10, it says, now after this, the Lord appointed

70 others and sent them to pairs 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 labors are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out the labors into his harvest. Go behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes, and greet no one on the

way. Whatever house you enter, first say peace be to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him. But if not, it will return to you. Stay in the house eating and drinking what they give you. For the labor is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. Whatever city you are in, do not leave your house. Do not leave your house.

Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal those that who are sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near 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 your feet, we wipe off and protest against you. Yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near. I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to

you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the miracles have been performed in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred to you, then would have repented long ago, sitting in the sackcloth and ashes. But it would be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment for than you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven,

will you? Will you be brought down to Hades? The one who listens to you listens to me, and the one who rejects you rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects, uh, rejects me rejects the one who sent me. There's a lot to unpack, a lot. So we're going to go through it pretty quickly. Um, it's interesting what Jesus does here. He tells us 70 people, there's 70 disciples say, listen, I'm going to split you up into pairs. Now, if someone, if I'm in a group and

someone says, Hey, we're going to split you up in pairs. I'm like, why? I'm just a question person. No, I don't, I don't know about that. Why do I need to go in pairs? Well, because Jesus already knows what's going to happen. He can already see obviously what's going to happen to these 70 people and what's taking place. He knows where he's sending to them. So he's telling them, listen, I'm going to split you up

in pairs and I want you to be focused. And why? Because look at verse three, again, I send you out as lambs into the midst of wolves. So we can see that Jesus is preparing these disciples. He's protecting them. Well, why would he send them into pairs? I don't, I don't understand that. Well, if we look at first Thessalonians 5, 11 says, therefore encourage one another and build

one another up just as you were doing. These men are going to go in tough places where they're going to be tempted. They're going to be pushed to the limits. And so what does he do? Jesus wants them to have ministry together. Ministry was never meant to be alone. It was meant so that we can encourage each other. We can love each other. We can be there for each other,

not to suffer alone, not to have your struggles. And so Jesus says, hey, I want you to go from city to city, town to town, village to village. And I want you to talk to people. I want you to tell them more about me. But before you go, I need to split you up in pairs. And then what he does, obviously, if it was me in that group, I'm like, Jesus, what about food? Because he says,

don't bring food. Don't bring money belts, right? Don't bring shoes. I totally would have skipped the money. I would have skipped the shoes. I would have gone straight for, what about the food, Jesus? We need some food. Walking makes me hungry, as you can see. So Jesus is like, listen, I don't want you to bring anything, right? I mean, picture the 70 disciples. If they're going

from town to town, if they had money, do you think they'd go to the local mall? Maybe. If they had shoes, what would they do? Walk farther. So would they go to that town? Maybe not. What if they had bedding? Well, would they go to a local hotel? Maybe not. I mean, see, the problem is that Jesus said, listen, I don't want you to take anything. I don't want you to

talk to anyone going there. I don't want you to talk, even your best friend, Bob, that's walking down the path to city to city. I want you to take nothing. Go to the city and be ultimately focused

on what you want to do. I don't want you to take anything. I don't want you to take anything. I don't want you to take anything. I don't want you to take anything. Maybe it's a family issue. Maybe it's a work issue. And we're sitting there halfway through the sermon. We're listening to Pastor Ryan. We're like, I have no idea what he's been talking about because we're so distracted that we completely

lose sight of why we're even here. And so Jesus is telling, listen, I have a mission for you guys, but I need you guys to take all distractions away. And I want you to show up from, house to house, and talking to these people. I don't want you to get distracted. I don't want you to venture off. And then it's interesting because he tells them, I want you to spend time

with them. If they serve you food, sit down and stay there. Don't rush from house to house. It's not a competition. At the end of the race, you see all seven of them like, hey, how many houses did you hit? I hit 30. I hit 10. Right? No, Jesus is like, listen, I need you to go slow. Invest into the people you're talking to. Why? Because that's exactly what I want you to do. I want you to go

slow. That's exactly our relationship with Jesus. It's that Jesus is investing in us. It's a relationship. You know, many times I've had this conversation with teenagers that said, if you didn't communicate with your mom or dad where you're going for the entire day, do you think they'd be upset? Yeah. If you didn't communicate with them where you're going for two

days or where you're at, do you think they'd be upset? Yeah. Do you think they'd call the cops? You'd be amazed how many said no. That's concerning. That's concerning. But Jesus is like, I want you to go there and give everything you have to these people. I want you to tell them who I am. No distractions. Invest into these people. Love these people. Have relationships

with these people. It's not about a race. It's not trying to hit every single house, every single city as quick as you can. You don't need anything, just hospitality. And then look at verse nine. We can see, and he heals and heal those in who are sick and say, say to them, say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. So we can see if we go back to Luke chapter nine, verse one, Jesus gives the power of healing to the 12 disciples. He gives

them that power. And so what do they do? They go from house to house and they heal them in the name of Jesus. And I think it's interesting that we can see that Jesus is fully equipping these people to go do the mission that we're called to do even today. It's amazing that the same principles still apply. Don't be distracted. Just love on people. Do life with people. But how many times are we so worried about,

man, my bank account? Oh, I got plans. I'm rushing through work. I can't really focus on these people. I can't have a relationship with these people. Why? Because we're so distracted that we missed the opportunity. You wonder if those 70 people went from village to village and Jesus didn't give them any direction as far as, hey, bring as much money as you want.

Bring your sweet looking Nikes. Cool with that. Walk wherever you want to go. How many people would have been missed because they rushed through the process? They rushed through investing and loving on those people, talking to them about who Jesus is. Let's keep going. Verse 17. And so this is when the 70s coming back to Jesus. The 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and all. Over all the power of the enemy and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that the names are recorded in heaven. At that very time, he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O Father,

Lord of heaven and earth, and that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and 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.

Turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings wish to see the things which you see and did not see them to hear the things which you hear and did not hear them. A lot going on in those passages. Man, so we can look at, we can look at verse 17, and I love this. Because if we go back over, the 70 returned with joy, saying, the Lord, even the demons are subject

to your name. How many times do we put ourselves in front of the gospel? How many times do we put ourselves in front of God? We have an opportunity to serve God. We have an opportunity to put the spotlight on God. And instead, we step in front. It was me. I remember when I was early on in coming to know Jesus, we took a trip down to the old part of Springfield, Missouri.

And we were. Sharing the gospel with some, some of the folks down there. And I remember because I was sharing the gospel and I totally like botched it. I got it so wrong. I was so nervous. I was shaking. I was sweating. And you know, you're like legs are trembling and everything. I was so scared. And, and then I remember I went back and I was giving the report to my youth pastor.

I said, yeah, I talked to this one guy. He really wants to know Jesus. And I saved him. And my youth pastor was like, huh? I was like, I saved him. I walked them through the Romans road. He accepted Jesus. In fact, he's going to. Come to our church on Sunday. I saved him. He's like, no, no, you didn't. I was like, yes, I did. Bible told me. So if I walk right through here and he said, yes, the Bible said so.

He's like, no, you didn't save him. Jesus did. Dying on the cross. You're a facilitator. You helped him get there. But then they the only person that can save someone is Jesus Christ. And so I, whether it was intentional or not, I put myself in front of the gospel. I totally took the the glory away from God. How many times do? We do that. Where we just give the glory to ourselves.

And I think sometimes that can put a bad name on Christianity because we serve ourselves rather than God. Something we have to be careful about. But look how Jesus rewards him in verse 20. He says, your name is in the book of life. Wow. Think about this. 70 people had no idea what they're about to do. They didn't know where they're going. They took no supplies.

And they said, okay. Jesus will go. And they went from town to town, from village to village, and they shared information about who Jesus is. And at the very end, they came back and Jesus said, you know what? Because your faithfulness, because you're good steward. Your name is in the book of life. And I will see you someday. I mean, I love that. They were probably thinking like, so Jesus, can we get paid for a time?

Do we do we get put up in a hotel? Can I can I get some food? You don't see them complaining at all. You don't see them asking for anything. And Jesus says, hey, you know what? You're going to see me in heaven because of what you did, because how faithful you were because you were such a good steward. I don't know how many times or how many people would be willing to go to the streets of Arc

City and go share the gospel and go sit down for several hours or maybe an entire night and talk to people, invest into them, have a meal with them. Some of us say, well, Arc City is not a problem. I know most of everyone. I'm new, so I don't know too many people. So that'd be intimidating for me. But what if you went to the streets of St. Louis, Chicago, California, New York, anywhere?

How many of us would feel comfortable going from house to house? I mean, I remember when Pastor Ryan was last year, he said, all right, we're going to break up in teams. It's VBS. We want to hand out candy to all the kids in the neighborhood and tell them about VBS. I'm like, OK. And he broke us up into groups. I'm like, OK, we're going to break up into teams.

It's VBS. We want to hand out candy to all the kids in the neighborhood and tell them about VBS. I'm like, OK. And he broke us up into groups. I'm like, OK.

And he broke us up into groups. I'm like, OK. You guys lead. You know the neighborhood. And you know the people. And I'm just not comfortable doing this. That was just handing out candy. And I didn't have to go in their house. Jesus is saying, listen, I want you guys to stay in the house. In fact, I want you to take one step farther. I want you to tell them about who I am.

I mean, that takes such dedication, heart. And he rewards them by saying, you're in the book of life now. I love that. See, while we may get excited about visible miracles and demonstrations of supernatural power, but the greatest miracle of all is the fact that unworthy sinners can become children of God. You look at John 1, 12. It says, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to

become children of God. It's that simple. I love that our religion, what we believe in, it's so easy to come to know Jesus and have a relationship with him. You look at many other religions, it's so difficult at times. So many. So many hoops you have to jump through, but with Jesus and knowing who God is, it's just a relationship. But sometimes we make it harder than what it really is.

It's a good reminder that since their names are unimportant, ours are too. It's the name of Jesus Christ alone who deserves all the attention and glory. Look at Philippians 2, 9 through 11, I'll give you time to turn there. It says, therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him. The name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in

heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God and the Father. And this is exactly what the 70 did. They were sent on a mission. They had no idea what they're doing or where they're going. They had no supplies and they were given direction to say, hey, go from house to house. People you don't know.

Sit down. Sit down. Have a conversation with them. Get to know them. And at the end, come back and tell me what happened. It blows my mind of just how faithful they were. And they were such new Christians. They had very little knowledge of what's taking place. Look at verse 21. This is something that, right before we read, this is something that I have struggled with

for many, many years. A lot of people tend to look at the Bible as just a rule book or guidelines. A lot of people look at it like, man, this is all do's and don'ts. I don't like that. But the problem is when you don't get into the word of God and you don't study it, you miss Jesus' personality. And we see it right here in verse 21. Look at this. And at the very time he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit and said, I praise you, O

God, Father, Lord of heaven and on earth, you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent. You have revealed them to infants. We can see that Jesus is filled with so much joy that he rejoices with the Holy Spirit. But then what does he do? He gives the glory back to God. But Jesus is the one who is there talking to the 70. Jesus also went from town to town.

But once again, he didn't take the spotlight away from God. He gave it right back to him. Hey, because of what you guys did through the power of the Holy Spirit, your name is in the book of life. And you know who did that? God. And so we can see right here, we can see Jesus' personality as he's just abundantly filled with excitement and joy that he is so happy, it's flowing out of him that you can see the

author right here is seeing it. Because Jesus is giving the glory back to God where it all deserves. It's not about us. It's never been about us. But sometimes we can do that to the gospel. We put ourselves in front of it. I love that. I just... Verse 21, I think is so powerful. But then look at verse 23, turning to disciples, he privately, blessed are the eyes which see

the things to you. We can see the commitment that he's about to give. We can see what's happening, that Jesus is having a private conversation. And then what happened? I'm sorry if there's a lawyer here in service, but a lawyer just has to mess it up. It's a great story. Jesus said he sends 70 people out. He gets a good report back. Jesus is sitting there giving glory to God.

And then a lawyer. A lawyer shows up, just has to ruin this sweet story. I'm just kidding. Nothing wrong with lawyers. Look at verse 25. And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, teacher, which, okay, I find that interesting. Why does a lawyer think he can put Jesus to the test? I wonder how often do we put Jesus to the test? Do we use a title, a degree?

How many years we've studied the Bible? But I just think it's funny. The lawyer is like, you know what? I'm going to put this Jesus guy up to the test. I'm going to see what he's made of. Just go. He just cracks me up. He has no idea what he's getting himself into. Verse 25. And a lawyer stood up and put him to the test saying, teacher, what shall I do to inherit

eternal life? And he said to him, what is written in the law? Now, this is great. This is like smack talk, kind of going back and forth. Jesus is like going to one up him. And I love this. We used to call back back in the day, Jesus juke. Any time you'd sit there and you try to one up somebody and you bring Jesus into the equation, you Jesus juked him. This is what he did.

What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Great question. He said to him, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? And the lawyer said, you shall love your love, your love, the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you have answered correctly.

Typical lawyer and do this. Do this and you will live. But wishing to justify this is where the lawyer goes wrong. But wishing to justify. He said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? I would have been like, if I was Jesus, I would have lost my total cool right there. And I would have put a Thanos on the guy, but you're done. I can't deal with you anymore. Lost my patience.

What do you mean? Who's your neighbor? Who lives next to you? Do you not have someone down your block? Nobody in your cul-de-sac? I'm super confused. Do you not have anyone that lives near you? And so you can see the lawyers truly trying to test Jesus and Jesus. You can see once again, his personality patience. I could never have done that. I could never have done that.

I could have never filled his role. Obviously I can't, but I could, I couldn't, I would have lost my cool, but seriously, you don't know who your neighbor is. And so this is where it goes into a really special story. A story that I think that we can apply to ourselves every day. Go to verse 30, Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho

and fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And, and by chance, a priest was going down on the road. And when he saw him. He passed by on the other side, likewise, a Levi also, when he came to the place and saw him pass by another side, but as Samaritan, let's take a time off for a sec. Do we remember the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, right?

We do great. The whole backstory is that if you look at that story, when the Samaritan woman showed up at the well, she showed up in midday and middle East, it's extremely hot at noon. It's like Kansas weather right now. Why did they do that? Why did they do that? Because they were considered to be lower level people. They were not the same as your Levite as a priest.

They were looked down upon. They were lesser value. And so remember Jesus personally went out of his way to talk to this woman in the hottest part of the day. And then we look back at the story. Look what a Samaritan did verse 33 and Samaritan who was, who was on a journey, came upon him and saw him. He felt compassion, a lower level person, someone who has been disrespected, looked

down upon, took time out of his day to say, Hey, there's someone that they don't like my kind, but I'm willing to stop and I'm going to help them. And he came to him and bandaged him up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them and put them on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Now stereotyping most men. Usually when we get our first car.

We like to name the car, right? I remember from my, I had a, a black car, so I named the black night, dark night. It was pretty sweet. This guy has a beast. How cool would it be? Like, Hey, hop on my beast. Let's go to Jerusalem. I think that's pretty neat. That's a sweet name. I wish I thought of that, but I didn't. Growing up, I had a motorcycle and it was orange and black and obviously I'm a big guy.

So when you see a big guy in a motorcycle, it's not like nice ride. It's, Oh, that's a big guy. Big guy, little bike. And then I thought, Hey, it's a great idea. I don't have to sit in line forever. So I'm going to take my motorcycle and I'm gonna go through McDonald's drive-through promise. I didn't think what I was going to do with that food afterwards. Usually I can sit there and I can drive them.

Don't do this. All right. I can drive my knees, right? Steer with my knees and I can eat my cheeseburger and I'm driving. You can't do that with a bike. I totally forgot. So I had my food. I'm like, Hmm, this is not a good idea. And know what? Somebody yells out the window at me. Mac. Come on. I know I'm a big guy in a bike and I like McDonald's. Leave me alone.

But that was, that was my second vehicle I named, or I guess someone named it for me and it fit pretty well. But this guy has a beast. I think that's pretty sweet. First 35 and on the next day, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him. And whatever more you spend, when I return, I will pay you now denarii. You have to remember one denarii is worth one day's worth of wages.

So he gave him two days worth of wages. Doesn't know this guy dropped them off at some random innkeeper and say, Hey, take care of them. I need you to help him. He really needs help. And in fact, if he needs more time spent at the hotel, if he needs more care given to him, more banjos continue to put on my tab and I'll show up and I'll take care of that bill.

How many of us be willing to do that? I mean, think about it for 10 bucks an hour, $8 or eight hours a day. It's 80 bucks. How many of us could take 80 bucks and fill up our gas tank? Right now? A lot of us, unless you own a truck, you need double that. I'm learning. It's not fun. But how many of us would be willing to give up that amount of money for someone we don't

know? Someone that is higher value that we make fun of them or look down upon total stranger. And then you drop them off at an end that you don't know the gentleman there and you say, Hey, can you take care of him for me? And I'm going to pay you two days worth of my time. And if he needs more, continue to give them more help. How many people will be willing to give up that much money that much time?

Probably not too many. So verse 36, which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? And the lawyer said, the one who showed mercy toward him and Jesus said to him, go and do the same. It's that simple. That's why I call it Jesus. Joke. He didn't give him one level above that lawyer. He didn't give a lawyer some snazzy saying he didn't give him a one liner.

He shared a story that the, that that lawyer could truly understand. See, it was about giving up ourselves for the glory of God, whether that's money, possession, fame, title, whatever it may be. It was never about us. It's always been about Jesus. And that lawyer finally understood that. And I think at that point. And I think at that point, the 70 disciples figure that out.

Wow. We went from town to town. I wonder how many people they talked to, how many people they were able to reach out. They weren't distracted. They were focused and they're on a mission. Guys, we have the exact same directions today. Exact same thing. Our life is not just so we can wake up, go to work, make a paycheck, come home, spend time with our family.

We have a mission. It's to take the name of Jesus, the gospel, and share it with the people that we come into interaction with, invest into them, do life. And now we get to the favorite part of the story. This is my all time, like best of the Bible, Martha and Mary. Like they're two ladies I would love to hang out with. We're gonna go ahead and get started.

Look at verse 38. Now, as they were traveling along and he entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister called Mary. Who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to his word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations. And she came up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?

Then tell her to help me. But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her. See? See? See? A lot of people sometimes look at the story that maybe Martha may have sinned or may have messed up. She wasn't doing necessarily anything wrong.

She was just distracted. She's being a really good housekeeper. She's preparing the house for Jesus. I'm sure she's trying to do the dishes. You know how someone comes to your house unexpectedly, like, oh my goodness, I gotta hurry up and clean up my kitchen. I gotta pick up my clothes. And you're yelling at your husband or your spouse and tell them, hurry up, pick up your

clothes, get them off the floor. Maybe I just do that. But I don't know. It's just interesting how you have Martha who's just so distracted, and you have Jesus Christ walking through the front door, and she's not even paying attention. And it comes back to, once again, how many times are we coming to church, and we're not even paying attention to what Jesus is trying to say to us.

Why? Because we're distracted. Jesus is saying, listen, I don't need you to dress the nicest. I don't need you to bring a whole bunch of luggage with you to church. I don't need you to have other things on your mind. I need you to come to church and be prepared to hear me. I want to talk to you. I want to spend time with you. Martha was missing the whole point why Jesus was there.

There's three things I want to share with you. This story shows us three types of Christians. One, there are people like Mary, those who know how to serve and sit at Jesus' feet. Number two, there are people like Martha. Those who diligently... With the best intention, serve God, but without adding one thing, a continued focus on Jesus and results in great frustration.

Martha. I mean, she has audacity to go up to Jesus after she's not even paying attention. Jesus, are you going to tell my sister to come help me? I'm a little busy. Jesus. You know? And Jesus is like, no. No, not at all. In fact, she's here spending time with me, and you're focused on dishes and cleaning? What are you doing? And number three, there are people just who aren't doing either.

They aren't even in the same house with Jesus. They're too busy with their own pursuits. Why? Because we're often distracted. Many times I think about, man, all the jobs that I've worked in the private sector and the people I've come across, was I too distracted to invest in them, to get to know them, tell them about Jesus because of my own desires? Because I was trying to make a paycheck, or I was trying to get home to my family.

I was trying to make money. Whatever it may have been. How often am I trying to rush away from people when I should be spending time with people and investing and loving them, doing life with them? And so I want to challenge you guys that if you're in a situation where you have people that don't know Jesus, I'm not asking you to take the Bible and slam it down their throat.

I'm asking you just to have a simple conversation with them. Ask them, how are they doing? Invest in them, show them that you love them. Take the characteristics of Jesus Christ and let's mirror that and show them who Jesus is by the way we act and the way we talk. Get to know people. Be like those 70 people who took so much time, not rushing from house to house, but spending

time with them from house to house and see what a difference we can make with the people around us. Show them that we can love people the same way that Jesus loves us. And so that is the challenge I want to give everyone. And so let's pray. And I told you I was going to end early. This is perfect. So let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we love you so much. God, thank you so much for this wonderful story that we can apply to ourselves, God,

that we can understand that distractions will come and go, but when we show up in the house of God. When we are in our devotions, that we put all of our distractions away. We focus on you. Because without you, we have nothing. We are nothing. Lord, I ask that we can just continue to stay focused on the gospel, on our mission, that we can continue to serve you faithfully and be good stewards.

Thank you for Calvary. Thank you for Pastor Ryan and his family as they continue to serve us, God, that you continue to use him as an instrument, as a facilitator, so we can come to know you. Amen. Be with Pastor Ryan and just relax his family. Let him have a great time, great memories, that he can come back recharged. We love you and thank you for your son dying on the cross in Jesus' name.

Amen. Have a good night.