This morning our sermon text is from the Gospel of Luke chapter 10 verses 38 to 42 verses 38 to 42. There's an old saying, at least in the United States, that goes, you can tell a lot about a man by his priorities. And of course, the saying sort of means that what a man prioritizes, the things that he puts emphasis on, indicate to you just what he thinks is important and what he thinks is of real and lasting value. And in the account before us, we get two sisters, with seemingly two different sets of priorities. And so I think it's good that we ask ourselves, what are our priorities? And I want you to think about that this morning, congregation. What is your main priority? What is the thing that you live for? What actually motivates you? Now, if you recall just for a moment, the first question and answer of our shorter catechism, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That's actually to be your number one priority, is the glorifying of God, bringing God glory. But do you live up to that, I suppose we could say, high, Do you live up to that main priority? What we hope to do this morning is we hope to use this interaction between three people, Mary, Martha, and the Lord Jesus, to inquire of ourselves where our priorities lie, to see just who we are more like, Mary or Martha, and then to ask ourselves really this key question. Have we taken stock? of our main priority, or as Jesus puts it here, have we considered the one thing needful? We're gonna do this in three points. We're gonna do this in three points, and our first point is Mary versus Martha, or probably actually better put, Martha versus Mary. Martha versus Mary. Our second point is Jesus' interaction. Jesus' interaction, and our third point is the one thing needful, the one thing needful. So beginning with Martha versus Mary, we find the Lord Jesus Christ in our gospel account here coming into a certain village. More than likely, it's Bethany. We later learn in John's gospel, that's where Mary and Martha lived. So probably Jesus has come into Bethany, and he comes into the house of a woman named Martha. And many have also thought that it's quite likely that Martha was a widow, right? And so here Jesus comes, he was accompanied by his disciples, and so Martha, this widow woman, the lady of the house, she probably would have felt that the priority was showing people hospitality, right? And in the Middle East at that time, and still today in the Middle East, there's a massive priority given on exercising hospitality. So Martha takes up this task of showing hospitality, and she welcomes Christ into her home, and we learn later that she wants, she's obviously preparing food and such, because she wants her sister Mary to come and to help her. So Martha's a woman that's really sort of taken up with the duties that we might find virtuous, I suppose we could say. She's taken up with doing what in her culture is deemed to be the common courtesies, the great kindnesses. of serving the Lord, right? So she's probably not thinking that she's distracted, and we'll come to that distraction a little later, but she's probably not thinking along those lines. She's probably thinking something like, I have a great duty to serve these guests. She might even be thinking, the Lord Jesus is here. He's in my home. It's Christ. I need to serve him well. I need to show him and his disciples excellent hospitality. I suppose we could say this, and I think this is very, very significant. Everything that Martha is doing here, we could sort of characterize it in two ways. It's lawful, that means she's not necessarily sinning by doing these things, and secondly, quite often these things are deemed as good things, right? So she has this sort of, she's doing all this, she's very busy, she's trying to exercise hospitality, and what she's doing is good and lawful. What she's doing is not inherently sinful, and probably many people would have looked up upon it as good. And so here she is, busy, trying, striving, we may even say, to serve her savior. And on the other hand, you have her sister Mary. Now, we don't know if Mary lived in the same house as Martha. There's much we really don't know about a lot of characters in the scriptures, but we know that whatever's happening here, Mary takes a very different tact from that of Martha. Martha is hurrying around the house, trying to get things prepared, and Mary, she comes, and she's sitting at the feet of Jesus. it seems that Jesus has actually entered into this home, and whoever is with him, his entourage, if you will, has gathered around him, and he's actually begun teaching, right? So he's really come into this village Bethany, he's been welcomed into this house, and he begins sort of preaching or teaching, explaining his doctrines, explaining who he is and what he's done, or what he's going to do, I should say. And so Mary comes and she's eager to hear this, right? She's eager to sit down and sort of, to take it all in. She wants to hear what the Lord is saying. Now we don't know, again, if there was a radical personality difference between Mary and Martha. We don't know that if Martha was inclined to busyness and Mary was more inclined to think about things and want to sit and to listen to different things or what have you. We don't know the different personalities, the different makeup of these two sisters. but Luke clearly records them as a contrast for us. He records them as a contrast, and you might say, well, if they're contrasted, you have Mary at the feet of Jesus, and you have Martha busy showing hospitality, what are we to see in this contrast? Well, here's what I think we're to see. Who's in the house? But you might think for a moment, well, Mary and Martha and whoever is with Jesus, but that's the priorities. Jesus has come into that home. Christ is there in their midst and he is teaching them, right? That they've come, or he's come into this home and he's teaching, he's instructing, and Mary, she goes and sits at his feet. She wants to listen. There's a different reaction that Mary has to Christ being in her midst. She wants to glean as much from the Lord Jesus as she can. And really, that's a question for you, isn't it, my friend? It's I think a very good question. You see, This contrast between Mary and Martha, many times we are taken up with doing things that we think are lawful and good. We look at things and we say they're not inherently sinful. We look at things and say that generally they're good, that these are helpful, they can be used to help people. I'm sure Martha would have said, if you would have asked her, I mean you can almost sort of see, if you will, I don't know how to describe it incredibly well, but I'm sure you've sort of been around an interaction with somebody, and they're very busy, and they need help, and there's somebody there just sort of sitting on the chair talking, and they sort of say, you know, can you help me? And that's what Martha does to Mary. She comes to Jesus, and she says, you know, basically, do you see what I'm doing? Can you have my sister help me? It's the sort of, and there's sort of a, dare I say, almost you can sort of see it in the account, a little indignation that Martha has. She's a little hurt, she's a little offended, and she feels almost, I guess we could say, self-righteous, seemingly, that here she is showing this hospitality, preparing all that Jesus and his disciples need, and there is Mary just sitting. Martha, though, was taken up with what was lawful, what was good. So I wanna ask you, how do you respond to Jesus being in your midst, right? And I'll drill down on that more in a moment, what I mean by Jesus in your midst, but I wanna ask you, if you really think about the life that you live, the Christian life, are you more like Martha, and everything is incredibly busy and you're trying to provide all of these lawful and good things? Or are you more like Mary and you prioritize sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning from the Lord Jesus Christ? And there are many things that are lawful and good. It's not just showing hospitality. I'm sure that's something that is a temptation of people is they might be tempted to sort of exercise too much hospitality and look after people too well to the, I guess we could say dereliction, that is the neglect of their own souls. But for many people, I think it kind of takes another subtle form. There are things. Family, children, work. When we look at these things and we say, these things are lawful and good. You say, I have to raise my children well. I have to love my family. I have to work. No dispute. No dispute, you do, you should. You should raise your children well. You should love your family. You should work. You should do all of these lawful things that you should be doing, you absolutely should be doing, but there has to come a point where those things do not consume you, where you're not so busy with everything else that you forget what it is to have Christ in your midst and to sit at his feet and to learn from him. You see, this contrast is all about priorities and I think Mary, the Lord Jesus Christ, confirms this. But Mary has the right priority. She sees the moment that Christ is there, that Christ is in their midst, that she can glean something from the Lord Jesus Christ and she is not going to be concerned. with how the food is gonna be prepared, where all these people are going to sit or how it's all going to look. She's not taken up with the hospitality, but rather she's taken up with the fact that there is the living, breathing Savior in the flesh. What does it mean, you might ask, to have Christ in your midst, right? In the account, it's very plain that Mary and Martha are both in the same building. They're in the same home as the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say, well, Christ, he's gone to the heavens, right? He's ascended to his father. He's not in our midst in the same way. So what does that mean? What does it look like? If I'm gonna prioritize when Christ is in my midst, Well, creation, I think there are a few good kind of markers, right? There's things that we can particularly, you know, rest assured that Christ is going to be in our midst. One of them is public worship, right? The Lord Jesus Christ tells his church that where two or three are gathered in his name, he will be in their midst. We have clear instruction in Hebrews not to neglect the assembling of God's people. We have other places throughout the scriptures. You can think of Psalm 87. God loves the gates of Zion more than the tents of Jacob. There's this priority on the public assembling and gathering of the church, and why? because the Lord Jesus Christ comes in a special way when his people gather in public worship. He comes and he communes with them and he visits with them and they hear his word by the mouth of a sinful, lacking vessel, the preacher, they hear Christ's word and Christ comes and Christ is in their midst. Okay, so one is public worship, and we could magnify this, I think, with the sacraments, particularly the Lord's Supper, the imagery, the idea that Christ is nourishing his people by the Lord's Supper. There's so much there, but understand this. There's a priority on public worship. We could jump into the private, right? So what is the priority to be in your private life? Well, I think it comes down to Are you seeking the Lord Jesus Christ daily? Are you doing the things that you can to have communion with him? Are you reading the word of God every day? Are you praying to him every day? Dear Christian, may I ask you, do you retreat into your closet daily and do you pray? Prayer. It's like the life, it's the breath, as it were, of the Christian. The Christian must be diligent and zealous in prayer, and yet we lack, we lack prayer. So much, do we not? But are you going and are you seeking Christ? Are you reading his word? Are you praying to him? I know, I understand. It's not as if Christ is coming in to the room. He's not coming into the building and saying, I'm here. but rather, if you will, you're seeking after him and the means that he has appointed. You're going and you're hearing of him from his word. You're going and you're crying out to him in prayer, and you're wanting him to come near to you. You know if you're a believer, you're in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the vine and you are the branches, and there's a longing there for that sweet communion with the Savior, now in grace, and you're looking forward to it obviously being in glory, but there's that longing, there's the desire, the believer's heart is the psalmist's Psalm 42 pants after the Lord Jesus. I think particularly, about this in relation to the Sabbath day, right? The Sabbath day, one day in seven, where we set aside all of our worldly employments and recreations, the language of our catechism, right? We set those things aside. We're not taken up with the world, but rather, what are we doing publicly and privately? We're to be spending the whole day seeking after Christ. You know, sometimes, There are Christians, and they neglect the Sabbath. They don't put a priority on it. There's many Christians that don't put a priority on it, but there are many Christians that just don't see the value of the Sabbath. I'm reminded of a story I heard years ago of a lady, I think she was in Scotland, and she used to stay up every night until midnight, and her dishes would sit in the sink, and then after midnight, she would wash her dishes because the Sabbath day was over. Finally, one day, her preacher comes over and visits her on Sabbath evening, and he leaves, and he sort of excuses himself, and he says, well, I better go. You're probably gonna want to get to bed soon. And she said, oh no, I'll stay up past midnight so I can do the dishes. And he said, what? And he started quizzing her about it, and he realized, all of a sudden, that she was just letting the minutes pass on the Lord's Day. She saw no value in the Lord's Day. She wouldn't dare break the Lord's Day. at least do what she thought was breaking the Lord's Day, but at the same time, she didn't see anything good in it. She was just sitting there like a bump in a log in a chair, waiting until midnight would come, and then, okay, I can do the dishes. That's how some Christians are about the Lord's Day, though that's really true. They don't realize that the Sabbath day is a weekly day of rest. We're there to be seeking Christ. It's a foretaste of heaven. And instead, all of a sudden, the Lord's Day becomes these dos and these don'ts. And there are do's and don'ts on the Sabbath. Don't get me wrong. You shouldn't be exercising commerce on the Lord's Day. You shouldn't be buying things on the Lord's Day. You shouldn't be forcing other people to work on the Lord's Day. No doubt in my mind those things are true, but if you really want to grasp the Lord's Day, you have to see it as a day where you sort of think of it like this. I have to set it all aside so that I can come and draw near Christ. You think it's not about the do or the don't of I don't want to go and spend money today. It's almost like this, you're thinking, if I go and spend money, that means I'm taken up with the cares of the world. Something worldly is intruding on my Sabbath day with Christ. And you think about it, I can't force others to work because I want those other people to have this day where they can go and draw near to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's to be that desire, right, that the whole world would come and would gather and would look forward to heaven. That's the desire the Christian is to have, I think. Jonathan Edwards had it, he used to meditate long and hard on what it would be like if every sinner on earth was converted. That's the thing here is going back to our text. Mary realizes that this, it's not a Sabbath, we don't know if it's a Sabbath, it doesn't appear that it's a Sabbath, but Mary realizes that this day is the day that she can draw near to her Savior, that he's presented himself to her, and so she's gonna take full advantage of it. And Martha is running around trying to do everything that the world says is good and lawful, but she's sort of missed the boat, she has missed the priority. Now how does Jesus address this situation? And this leads us into our second point. Martha comes, as Jesus is teaching, and we don't know exactly how it happened, but it almost seems perhaps she waited for a pause, perhaps she dared to interrupt him, but she says, you know, Lord, do you not care that my sister is here and she's sitting here and she's listening and look at me, I'm baking this food, I'm trying to get this sorted out, I'm trying to figure out where all these people that wanna come here, you teach, consider how we're gonna accommodate all these people. And again, as I said earlier, you can almost feel the sort of indignation that she has towards Mary, and you can almost feel it, right? It's like two children that are feuding, right? One goes to mom or dad and wants mom or dad to validate them and their sort of concern, right? So two kids are fighting and the child goes to mom or dad and they say, you know, mom, this is what happened, and they're wanting you to basically rebuke their brother or sister on their behalf so they feel validated, so they know that they're right. But Jesus is perceptive. Jesus is a perceptive Savior. And in this sense, you can almost think about it, the Japanese have this wonderful phrase, I don't remember the Japanese words nor would I try to repeat them. They are a culture that is not very direct, okay? So everything is done very indirectly. The Japanese have this phrase that you need to learn to read the air, and that is you read between the lines of communication. So Jesus here, if you will, is reading the air, and he realizes what's going on. And he answers Martha in two ways. He answers her in two ways. The first thing is he shows her her problem. He shows her that she's not really listening to him, that she's not focused on him. And then he gives her this example of her sister Mary, and he kind of, in doing that, he's kind of exhorting her to her duty. He's kind of telling her, this is how it should be. So Christ comes, and this is always how it is with repentance, right? I want you to understand this. In repentance, there's two parts to it. There's mortification and vivification. There's putting sin to death, and then there's the new life lived towards the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is basically giving her that roadmap here. He's saying, this is where you're wrong. This is how you are to be. This is how you're to live more towards me. This is how you are to draw near to your Savior. But before I get to the two sort of things that he says, I was meditating on this this morning, right? Martha comes and she really thinks that she's in the right and she comes to Christ and she's wanting sort of Christ to take her side and Christ does the total opposite. He does the total opposite. You might not think much of this, but Christ is being rather perceptive here, right? And Christ is still that perceptive. You may busy yourself with the things of this world and you may tell yourself that these things, They're lawful, they're good, they're useful. I am serving the Lord. But don't think for a moment that Jesus isn't as perceptive towards you as he was towards this interaction with Martha and Mary. And don't think for a moment that the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't know that your priorities are not in the right place. Do you understand this? Do you see what I'm getting at? That Jesus sort of, he exposes Martha. He sort of lays it out, what her problem is. And the Lord Jesus, he knows, right? We can do many things. in service of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can do many things that we claim are good, and again, lawful. We can do many things, and yet, we have this strange propensity. If you remember our sermon on the first commandment several weeks ago, I said that there's two types of idolatry, right? There's actual, if you will, literal idolatry. There's worshiping other gods. But I said, secondly, there's the more subtle and more common type of idolatry. And that is where you take a lawful and a good thing, something that should be, something that you spend a fair amount of time on a priority, you take that lawful and that good thing, and in some way, you put it before the Lord your God. Either you love it with too much affection, you devote too much of your time to it, You're too taken up in its honor and its glory and not God's honor and God's glory. We could go on, right? But this is really, Christian, the Lord Jesus knows if you're doing this or not. The Lord Jesus knows if your priorities are out of whack, he knows. or if you are very busy about many things that ultimately do not matter. Now we'll come to Jesus's first words. He tells Martha, he says, Martha, Martha, he says, you're worried and then, In the authorized version, he uses the word, I love it, cumbered. He says you're cumbered, troubled about many things, right? Cumbered is this idea of being burdened, something cumbersome, it's bulky, it's difficult to grasp, hold off. And Jesus is basically coming to her and he's saying, look, you're taken up with so many things that are so difficult to grasp, that are so troubling towards you, Right, he's sort of dealing with the problem that is before Martha. That she's taken up with things that she doesn't need to be taken up with, dear congregation. That she's troubled about many, many things. And I wanna ask you this morning, are you like Martha? If Christ came into our midst and he came to you and he was addressing you, would you be found like Mary, giving priority to learning of Christ, giving priority to communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, or would rather you be like Martha and Christ would come to you and he'd say, look, you're taken up with many things. You work many hours. I know you work diligently. but it troubles you, it cumbers you, it keeps you from me. Would Christ come to you and would he say, I see how much time you devote towards this hobby, and hobbies aren't bad, recreations aren't bad, but I see that it keeps you from me, and it's cumbersome to you, it burdens you. Would he come to you and would he say that the friends, the company that you keep inhibit you from coming to him, Would he come to you and would he say that your family dynamics, right, the way that you sort of put so much time into being able to spend time with family, being able to look after children, being able to make sure that the kids are at this sports practice and that sports practice, would he come to you and would he say that all of these things are inhibiting you from following after me? Would he come to you and would he say The way you spend recreational time is inhibiting you from following after me. You're sort of taken up in so many directions, but none of the directions that you're being pulled in bring you nearer to me. My friend, I'm asking you if your part, if you were to sort of, Compare and contrast yourself. Are you more like Mary or are you more like Martha? And I'll tell you, and I'll be honest with you, I think the world, and many in the church, they like Marthas because they perceive the Martha types as those that are getting stuff done, those that are able to do things, those that are doing what's lawful and good. And yet, they're lacking what Christ refers to as the one thing needful. I suppose the inverse of that question or the opposite is, or are you more like Mary? Christ comes. She has the opportunity to be with the Lord Jesus Christ to hear him instruct her, to hear his preaching, to hear him explain the doctrines that he's teaching, and so for her. Not to say that she doesn't prioritize what's lawful and good. Not to say that when Christ was done or when there was a time for convenience or when food needed to be had that she wouldn't have assisted in the exercise of hospitality. But she realized right then and there the priority was on the word of Christ. The priority was that Christ was here and that Christ was teaching and I think the gospels really capture this so beautifully, right? You think about union with Christ for a moment. Just think about this, that Christ, he is fully God and fully man. He is a person, right? When we speak about a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes that language, I think, has a lot of baggage and people abuse it, but it is personal. You can't have Christ apart from his work. You have to have the person of Christ. As our Catechism speaks, You have both his person as well as his benefits. And notice how sort of illustrative of this reality Mary and Martha, or Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus is, right? Jesus is there and Mary is coming to have communion with him. He's a living savior and she's coming to hear His teaching, and that's how it is in the Christian life. Dear Christian, if you are in Christ, you are in union with a living Savior, and it is your delight to come and to have communion with Him. to experience more of his grace, more of his love, to learn of his ways, right? That's what the Christian is to be longing for and panting for. So when Mary comes and sits at the feet of Jesus, she's showing us really a godly, a good, a pious example of what it means to be a Christian. Because ultimately, what does it mean to be a Christian? It means to be a little Christ. It means to be in union with Christ. It means to have fellowship with his death and with his sufferings. It means to bring forth fruit to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. It means to receive him and rest upon his work and to trust in him and to look to him as your dear and your heavenly husband, right? And that's how it is. See about the men later in the Gospel of Luke, in a few chapters, on the road to Emmaus, and what do they say after Christ departs from them? They say, how our hearts did burn within us. And here Christ is teaching Mary, and Mary undoubtedly is taken up with this, and she realizes that's to be where her priority is, and dear Christian, I am afraid, not only in this congregation, but in much of the church, that there is this lack of clinging to the word of Christ. I'm afraid that if we think about the example of the man on the road to Emmaus, that there is this sort of lack of Christ's word inflaming our heart. There's this lack of love, and I'm afraid that we are prone, I'm not afraid, I'm certain that we are prone to be more like Martha than we are like Mary. and I fear it, and I fear it for myself just as much as I do for you, my hearers. Because what is the Christian to be doing? What is the Christian's priority? The Christian's priority is to be hanging on and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, clinging to his word, desiring communion with him. And that is what Mary does, and that's why Jesus gives the example of Mary. He says there's one thing needful, I'll unpack that in just a moment. But he gives this example of Mary, he says, she's taken the good part. And what he means by that is she's got her priorities right. I'm here, I'm teaching, I'm in your midst. I'm in the same building as you are and she's coming and she's attentive to these things. Is that the way it is with you? Are you attentive when Christ comes? Are you choosing daily the good part? Now that doesn't mean that your whole day can be taken up with reading the Bible or with prayer or with reading theology, but it does mean that those things get priority, that you're a Christian. You want to hear Christ and his word. You wanna read his word. You want to pray to God. You wanna call out to God. You want to make your requests known before him. You wanna thank him for what he's done for you. If you're a Christian, if you're in Christ, you see those things, not only the word and prayer, they're not just something that you do, they're not rote, they're not just a habit that your parents inculcated in you, but you're coming and you're desiring to see Christ. Have you thought about that? You gather for family worship. Family worship, I'll be personal for a moment, family worship for me sometimes is the hardest thing because I'm there, and I'm reading the Bible, and I'm praying, and sometimes the kids are moving around, and they're loud, and they're tired, and they need to go to bed, or we need to get on with the day if we're doing it in the morning. We do it morning and evening, and so sometimes it can be just a very rote thing, and sometimes I think to myself, I say, Zach, you utter You should be drawing near to God in the reading of his word. You should be drawing near to the Lord in prayer. And you should be using your reading and your praying as a means to exhibit to your children what it is to draw near to Christ and the love that you have for Christ. And you should be hoping that they would pick up on these things. There's much truth in that, right? There's much need for God's people to really read If you will, to read the air and to realize that Christ is there, that Christ is coming in his word, that we have appointed times a day for the word and prayer, and we're looking to Christ, and we're coming with him, and we're saying, Lord, we have open mouths, fill us. We're saying, man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of thy mouth. Fill me, give me the hidden manna. That's what Mary is doing. Mary is looking to that hidden manna. But let's move on to our third point, and that is what Jesus says when he says there's one thing needful, and Mary has chosen this good part. I think it's sort of tempting to sort of ask the question, well, what is the one thing needful, right? And if you're looking at this text, you sort of are wondering, well, is it the gospel, right? Is Christ saying the gospel? Well, yes, the gospel is needed. Is Christ saying the one thing needed is for Martha to stop running around and to listen and to hear him? Well, yes, he's saying that, but ultimately, what is this one thing needful? Well, I think what Jesus is really getting to What he's really getting at is that Mary has this priority on Christ. Mary has this priority on Christ, and it encompasses the gospel. Don't get me wrong because Christ is never a priority to you if you haven't taken hold of him in the gospel. If you haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, if you haven't come to him at the end of yourself and cast your eyes upon him who was crucified and was raised again all for sinners, if you haven't looked to that savior, you need that one thing needful. You this morning need Christ, my friend. And for the Christian, by the way, it's the same. There's this constant need in the Christian life. I've become convinced of it because I live a life every week from Lord's Day to Lord's Day, and I see how it is. It's like I go off into the world and I have very good priorities at the beginning of the week, but by the end of the week, I'm sort of, I'm losing my priorities, and then I come back to the Sabbath day, and what does God do? He gives me that foretaste of heaven, and it's almost like you become realigned. But what does the Christian get out of this text? What do we just see here? What is this one thing needful? Well, the one thing needful is in your life, my friend, to resolve to follow Christ, to serve Christ, to have communion with Christ, and to make Christ to be the overall priority in your life. It's to see yourself as a sinner, totally helpless, and totally undone. It's to be, as Bunyan calls it, in the midst of that valley of humiliation, where all you see are your sins and miseries. Oh, do you know the valley of humiliation? It makes God's people like green trees and it helps them to bring forth much fruit because they look to Christ in it. They see that of themselves, in and of themselves, there is no good and they need Christ. Mary is like we read of in Isaiah 55. She comes and inclines, Isaiah 55 verse three, she comes and she inclines her ear to the Lord Jesus. He says, you know, here in your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. And that's the same today as it was when that book was written. Christ is coming to you and he's saying, incline your ear to me. Look to me and be saved. Christ comes to you in his gospel. He comes and says, come all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Christ comes to you, dear Christian. He comes to you, and you can think about the words in Revelation 3, and I'll just close by reading these words and speaking about them briefly, but you can think about what he says in Revelation chapter 3. to the church at Laodicea and he says to them, he's speaking to a church, he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in with him and sup with him and he with me. What is Christ saying there? He's coming to his people who are lukewarm, who have lost their priorities and he's saying, I'm here, I'm coming in the gospel. I'm offering myself. I'm offering to heal your backslidings and renew fellowship with you. I'm standing at the door and knocking. And you know what, friend? I hate to say it, but it's true. If today you don't come, if you're outside of Christ today in this fellowship, if you don't know Jesus and you don't come to Christ at the preaching of the gospel, the fault's not on Christ, it's on you because you're unwilling to receive him. If you're a Christian and you're backslidden and you hear this, that the Lord Jesus stands at the door and knocks and he wants to come in and he wants to have fellowship with you and you don't receive him and you carry on and you're backsliding, the fault's on you. but Christ is a willing savior. He's willing to save. There's one thing needful. There's one thing that you need, and that is this great priority in your life that you are going to live your life in Christ and gain strength out of the spiritual benefits that flow from that union. That is what the Christian needs, and that's what each one of us needs this morning. We need that one thing needful. So consider it. Consider whether you have prioritized the Lord Jesus Christ or if you're like Martha and you're distracted and you're busy and you're cumbered and you've lost sight of the one thing needful. And secondly, be reminded that the Lord Jesus, he stands at the door and knocks. And He does come in and He has communion with those that will receive Him. And He's a kind and a gracious Savior, and He's a long-suffering Savior. So will you come to Him? Will you come to Him? Come to Him and be saved. Come to Him and have your backslidings healed. Let's pray. O Most High and Sovereign God, we do approach, O Lord, Your throne of grace. and we plead, O God, that we would be like Mary, that, O Lord, we would prioritize communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would prioritize being with Christ, that we would focus on the one thing needful, and, Lord, we pray and plead that as we look at the example of Martha, that we would get our priorities straight, that we would not be burdened, annoyed, cumbered, taken up with anything Christ and Him crucified, and we would live our lives out of union with Him, and the glory of God would be our priority. And we pray this all, O Lord, confessing that we are sinners, and that we daily live our lives out of priority. Lord, so often we become full of pride, full of our own knowledge, full of our own will. And we need to fall back upon Your sovereign grace, upon your sovereignty, oh Lord. And we need to sit at the feet of Jesus, so may it be so with us. And we confess our sins and ask pardon in Christ's name, amen.