We're in Luke chapter 10 and I'll begin reading in verse number 38. Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she helped me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Together in verse 42. But one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. So I say this, and I'm not trying to sound condescending at all, I'm just, this is, I think, the reality. I think this message is going to have two difficulties, and you're going to probably be in one or the other. The first difficulty is you're not going to understand, because to be honest with me, it took me probably until about 2005 really to grasp, I think, some things based on this passage here. Some things, so you're talking, you know, 20 plus years of my Christian life before I really, because I'll be honest, as I read this up to the end of verse 40 where it says, I bid her therefore that she help me, my expectation is for Jesus to say, Mary, Get off your lazy rear end and go in there and help your sister. But that's not what he says. And so for a long time I'm like, well, I believe what the Bible says, but I don't understand. I mean, it just seems like Martha is doing the better part, but yet it says Mary is. And so it is a difficulty to understand, so maybe you'll have to chew on it, mentally speaking, chew on it for a while. It may not, you may not grasp it tonight, you may not grasp it this year, you may not grasp it for a while. But I think it's an important truth that at least I can maybe implant in your thinking that hopefully somewhere along the line it will bear fruit. I think there's another group that will find this difficult, and that is for those who do understand it. because it goes against the grain. It's not how we want things to be. And I don't say this, please understand, I don't say this trying to be unkind or unnecessarily provocative, but we do have a tendency to put God second or third or fourth. We don't say that, but that's how we live our life. And I think the holidays expose it. Now we can kind of cover up the rest of the year. But when the holidays come, and it's family, and it's all these other things, all of a sudden it's exposed, really, where the Lord is. He's not first, as He should be. So it goes against what we think. We think that Martha has chosen the better thing. We have the big Thanksgiving meal, we have all the Christmas parties, we're doing all these things, I'm helping family, we're having big family fun, family picture, family this, family that, and obviously the Lord understands. But He didn't. He said, no, Mary chose the better part. She's sitting at my feet. So I think this is important for us and hopefully the Lord will help us in making some application. So let's pray and we'll get into it. Father, I do pray that you'd help us as we look at this text, this truth together. I pray you speak to our hearts. May through the preaching of your word draw the people of God's heart closer to you. May that be so. We ask in Christ's name, Amen. So I didn't tell you the title is, and this is not a subject we have preached on before, so it may strike some memories tonight. We're going to preach on this tonight, the danger hurriedness. The danger of hurriedness. That's what we're going to preach on. So let's begin with a familiar statement. It's familiar, but I'm not sure we always, again, understand these things. So let me just start and we'll just kind of work through it and see what the Lord does. Here's a familiar statement. Christianity is not about religion. Christianity is about relationships. Now, often we use religion as a panacea, almost like a pain pill. People use religion as a way to numb them from the real pain. The real pain is you don't have the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. That's the real pain. And so we use religion. We use the things of religion. We use religious talk and religious words and religious phrases as a way to numb us from the real pain. But it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't satisfy the yearning in our heart towards the Lord, or our yearning to know the Lord and to follow the Lord. Same thing as when you take a pain pill. Pain pill doesn't solve it. Pain pill simply numbs you of the pain. Physically speaking, maybe the pain will go away. Maybe it's a sprain or a bruise or something and it just naturally goes away. But if it doesn't, what do you do? You take another pain pill. And that's what people do with religion. They try religion and it doesn't work. They try a little bit more religion. Keep trying religion because they don't seek the Lord as they should. Now, let me give you a statement. This is not original to me, but I'll give you a quote here. I'm not really sure who said it, but it's a good quote. I have it written down and I've copied it here. The life that is pleasing to God is not a series of religious duties. We have only one thing to do, namely, to experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God. I'm going to say it again. The life that is pleasing to God is not a series of religious duties. It's not just we just go through certain things like, again, not to be unkind, but probably the best example is the Catholics. They have the prayers they chant and the things they do. It's just religious duty. That's not what is a life that pleases the Lord. The life that is pleasing God is not a series of religious duties. We have only one thing to do, namely, to experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God. Now that is true when it comes to our salvation, to our Christian life. From the beginning to end, it's about a relationship, a life of intimacy with God. Jesus said He's the author and the finisher of our faith. It's all about Him. It's not just the things we're doing, it's all about Him. The Bible says, He which has begun a good work in us will perform it. He completes it, it's that relationship with Him. You go in the book of Revelation, you see the seven churches of Asia, and you see the church of Ephesus, which is highly, highly praised, all the good things, but you left your first love. And therefore I have something against you. And so there's this life of intimacy, this relationship the Lord wants with us. So then, how do we see ourselves in the story of Mary and Martha? You have Martha who's frantically busy doing many things. You have Mary desiring to sit and receive from the Lord. Martha is a picture of the person who's all about the religious exterior, who knows the religious phrases, the religious words, the religious behavior. You have Mary who's focused on the Lord himself. There's a big dichotomy, a big separation here of those two. How do we see ourselves in this story? Now let me hasten to say this. It is not Martha It's not that Martha is doing wrong. God is not saying, Martha, quit doing that. You're a sinist. Don't do that. He's not criticizing Martha. In fact, watch this. He doesn't initiate the conversation. He doesn't go to Martha and say, Martha, straighten up there. That's not what he does. He's doing what he's doing. Martha's coming to him with a complaint, and he's now explaining to Martha. Martha, we'll put it in these words, because I don't think we're doing any hurt to Scripture saying it this way. He's basically saying, Martha, what you're doing is good, but it's not best. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's something better you could be doing. Mary has chosen the good part, the better part, something that's even greater than what you're doing. You're busy, busy, busy, hurried, hurried, hurried. You're doing all these things, but there's something even more important, and that is this relationship that Mary is trying to have with me. So let's make some more application. Not the main application, but just getting us towards the main application. It is our hurried lifestyle that many times that prevents us from developing a deeper relationship with God. We're busy doing all the exteriors and all of the things that we're doing. Again, because I've got to hasten, because a message like this can be very offensive if you don't understand what I'm saying. I'm not criticizing the hurriedness. I'm not criticizing the busyness. I'm not criticizing all the things we do, and the dinners, and the parties, and the pictures, and the get-togethers, and going here and going there, and seeing the Christmas tree lit, you know. at that point in time, or going together to watch this Christmas show, or being a part of these Christmas carols, or coming to someone's house to celebrate. I'm not criticizing any of those things. What I'm saying is sometimes we get so focused on all of the busyness and the hurriness that we forget really what our Christian life is about. So it is our hurried lifestyle that many times prevents us from developing a deeper relationship with God. We're so busy doing things that we're not becoming what we need to become as a believer. People say something like this, Pastor, I would read my Bible if I had the time. Pastor, I would pray if I had the time. Pastor, I would go soul winning if I had the time. Pastor, I would come to church even Sunday night and Wednesday if I had the time. Can I tell you, you do have the time. The problem is you're doing other things with your time. Time is not the issue. The issue is you're doing all these other things which may not be bad. There's nothing wrong with family time. There's nothing wrong with having get togethers. None of those things are wrong things. Just like Martha was doing nothing wrong, but she wasn't doing what was even better. Nothing wrong with these things, but yet these things often prevent us from having the relationship with the Lord that the Lord really wants with us. So let me give you two quick observations, and then we'll get into the application. Now, these things I'm saying really applies to American Christians. I'm a missionary to America, did you know that? I preach to Americans. Now if I was in Nigeria, I may not say these things because it may not apply, but for our culture, for who we are as Americans living in America, these things are very true. Here's a first quick observation. Superficiality is the curse of our age. Everything's on the surface. We don't take time to be real about stuff. We live by the doctrine of instant gratification. No one wants to spend their time to develop either a deep relationship with people or with the Lord. We're just running to and fro, and we never take time to build relationships because we're so busy doing so much that we never stop and really develop relationships, especially with the Lord, because that's the main focus, but even in other relationships. We know people, but we really don't know people. Let me stop for a moment. People come to church, they say hi and bye, walk in, walk out, but you don't know anything about them. You know nothing about them because you never sit down and actually talk to them. Well, I don't know them. Exactly. That's why you sit down and talk with them. Superficiality is the curse of our age. Second thing I would say is this, our schedules, and man, let me tell you, this is Americans and this is American Christianity. Schedules are filled with non-stop agendas. that often lead to diminishing intimacy with the Lord and with each other. We're just going, going, going, going, going, going, going. Now both of those can be very discouraging. You're like, well, that's kind of a downer of a sermon. But what can we now draw from text, from scripture, to make some application to our lives as we start thinking, okay, well, if I don't want to be that way, if I don't want to just be this shallow, superficial, busy, busy, busy, and have no deep relationship with people or with the Lord, then what can I draw by application? So I'm gonna give you three applications tonight as we consider this Mary Martha situation. Here's the first. Number one is this. Hurriness. is not the problem. Now that kind of makes sense. Well, that's why you're talking out both sides of your mouth, aren't you? Now watch, because I'm not done with the statement. Hurriness is not the problem. It is the symptom. It's the symptom of our problem. We all have things to do. We all have places to go. We all have people to see. That's just the way life is. I've got things to do. I've got places to go. I've got people to see. Go, go, go, go. It's a part of how we live our lives. I'm not criticizing that. That is the reality. We're all, hopefully, busy people because we're trying to do something. We're not just sitting around. under the shade tree, drinking our lemonade, just watching life go by. So we're busy, busy, and there's nothing wrong with being busy, busy. We have jobs, we have shopping, we have errands, we have children, we have family, we have favors we're doing maybe for people, we have appointments to go to, we've got to clean this, we've got to go here, we've got to be there, we've got to do that. We're busy, busy, and there's nothing wrong with that. But what the problem is, is that those become now the whole focus of our life. God is not calling us to a life of isolation in a monastery. God's not saying you've got to be a monk, and we all put robes on, and we go around like this. And we never spend time doing anything. That's not what He's calling us to. He's not calling us to a monastery. He's not calling us to isolation. The Bible says we are in this world, but yet we're not supposed to be of this world. So what am I saying? Let me give you an illustration and then build off the illustration. Think about our solar system. We have a sun in the middle. We have nine planets because I still count Pluto as a planet. So we have nine planets that circle the sun. They all go at different rates of speed. For us, for the Earth, the third planet from the Sun, it takes 365 days to make that revolution. The ones that are closer make it quicker, the ones that are further away take a lot longer. They're all moving around the Sun at different speeds, at different amounts of time of the revolution all the way around the Sun. They all spin, they're all different distances, but they all are are focused on the same center, the same hub. They all have the same center of gravity. It is the sun itself that is pulling each of these planets, that's keeping them rotating. So the hub, the center, is the same. The planets have some different movements, some different distances, but they all share the same center. So you have different planets with different size, different shape, different duration of orbit, but the one thing in common is that center, that center of gravity, that hub. And that is what keeps them all moving, because they're all focused on that center. So here's what I'm saying. When we think about our life and all the things we're doing, all the movement, all the going, all the partying, again, I don't mean these in negative ways. We've got an adult Christmas party coming up. We've got a Christmas program here. So none of these I'm criticizing, but all these things are happening in our life. The question is, what is the center of gravity? What is that hub of the wheel? What is everything focused on in your life? What does everything orbit around? You think of your job, you think of your family, you think of your holidays, you think of church, you think of your hobbies. All these different things we're involved in. What is the center? What is the center of gravity? What is the main thing in your life that everything else rotates around? That's what's the key. If it's not the Lord, you're doing all these things for the wrong reason, not the right purpose, and therefore it doesn't have the right rewards that the Lord wants you to have. The answer tonight is not to stop all these things. The answer is, let's do the right things for the right reason, the right purpose, and the right value. If the priorities are right and the focus is right, everything else will kind of fall in place. No one—Brother Howell said this years ago, it was such a good statement—no one has enough time to do everything they want to do. Therefore, you've got to figure out what is the most important thing and work your way down. Say, well, Pastor White, I can't do all these other things and do all the other things that's going on in the church. I can't be in every service. I can't go soul winning. I can't read my Bible. I can't pray. I can't do all those things and do these things. Exactly. Do those things first, and then whatever's left, you do those things. The truth is, we like those things better. That's the problem. So again, hurriness is not the problem. It's the symptom. The problem is our lives are not focused. It does not orbit. Our lives do not orbit around Jesus. What does your life orbit around? What is the center of gravity of your life? What's the main focus? Is it your job? That's for some people. Everything has to fit your job schedule. Then your job is your son. Everything has to fit your family schedule. Then your family's your son. He's supposed to be the Lord, he's supposed to be the Son. He's supposed to be the center, he's the hub. And everything has to fit that. So the question I would ask you is, again, does your life revolve around eternal values, eternal purposes? Or is it really just about us? Again, the answer isn't to stop doing these things, but to do these things with the right reason, the right purpose, the right value. Now I gotta hasten, because sometimes when you preach something like this, you know, don't be busy, busy, busy. Then people are like, okay, I'll be lazy, lazy, lazy. Okay, that's not the answer. Notice what Jesus said. Jesus did not say, now watch, he did not say, lay around, do nothing. He said, lay up treasures in heaven. The answer isn't do nothing. The answer is just do the right things for the right reason, the right purpose. Let's make sure He's the center of all these things. If we're going to be busy, busy, busy, let us have something to show for when it's all over. What are we going to show for? What is the end of all these things? You think about the Lord. You read the Gospel accounts, you'll find Jesus was pretty busy, was He not? but he always had time for the right things. His priority was always right. His schedule was set by eternal values, not temporal goals. So again, the question isn't, are you busy? The question is this tonight, why are you busy? Is it for you or is it for the Lord? So that's number one. Hurriness is not the problem, it's the symptom. Here's number two. Now let's dig a little deeper. Again, I'm speaking to Americans who have an American mindset, we're based in American culture, and we kind of live this way because this is how it is. Here's number two. Don't be seduced by much activity. This is a big problem, especially if you're a highly driven person. I would say I lean towards that direction. I like to be busy. I like to do things. I have goals. I have plans. When I was a kid, I never thought about just, what are you going to do in life? I know no one pumps gas now unless you pump it for yourself, but back when I was a kid, they still had full service, and I thought, I never want a job at a gas station. If this was you, I'm not criticizing. I'm just saying this is not what I wanted to do growing up. I said, I don't want to spend all my life at a gas station going, When we check your oil, how about the air in your tires? Okay, whatever. That's whatever much money, which is a whole lot less than it is now. I'm not against that, but that's not how I want to spend my life, just sitting in a gas station pumping gas. I never want to spend the rest of my life just working at McDonald's. I'm not against working at McDonald's. If you work at McDonald's, And our vice president shared the same thing, supposedly. So I'm not against working at McDonald's. But I said, that's not how I want to spend the rest of my life, working at McDonald's. I mean, by the way, McDonald's isn't how you're supposed to make a living wage. It's not a living wage. It's not supposed to. It's for teenagers trying to work their way through high school or whatever. But anyway, I digress. I wanted to do something. I always thought big. I thought bigger than anything I could do. I had big dreams because I always wanted to do something. There's nothing wrong with that. We ought to dream big. We ought to try to do the most we can do. But the danger is we get seduced, we get attracted by all of the activity, and we start liking the busyness, and we forget the main focus, the main purpose. Now watch this statement. Here's what's crazy about this hurriedness. As much as we complain about busyness. So let me, let me, let me bother you for a moment. Everyone complains about being busy. I'm just so busy, I'm just so busy. Let me say this, okay. Do not throw psalm books. They hurt, okay. But I'm gonna tell you this. You're as busy as you choose to be. Unless, I could be wrong, maybe there's someone with a gun put in your head saying, you must do all these things. Well, if I don't do all those things, then I can't. You're right, then you can't do some other things. But you have made some choices. I'm not trying to attack you, I'm not trying to be unkind, I'm not trying to be unnecessarily mean towards you. I'm just saying, we complain about busyness, but one of the reasons, and this is not the only reason, I'm not saying this is true for you, but this is true for a lot of people, one of the reasons we're busy because we like it. We're seduced by it. It makes us feel important because we're so busy. We're doing so many different things. We're seduced by our hurriedness. I think that's what Martha, she was busy, busy. She's so busy, she's seduced by it. She wanted her sister, hey, you come and help me so I can even be busier. We'll be all busy together. And Jesus is like, well, wait a minute. Maybe you ought to sit at my feet and listen to some things I'm teaching you. I want you to notice what Jesus said to the Pharisees. This is in Matthew 23, 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you paid tithe, ament, and anise, and cummin, which none of that was wrong, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, in other words, the weightier matters, and not leave the other undone. The others are good, but you should have focused on the weightier matters. But you got so caught up in these other things you forgot the main important things. Matthew 5.20, for I say to you, and this is now he's speaking about the Pharisees, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. You shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. In other words, they were caught in the little things, but you need to see the big thing, and the big thing is the Lord himself. The Pharisees had numbed themselves from the important parts of the law by focusing on the more trivial parts. We do the same thing. We forget the important things, which is our time with the Lord, maybe our time with our spouse, maybe other things that are really important, and we're doing all these other things and forgetting the main things that need to happen in our life. Now, the focus is on the Lord, and that's how we're gonna keep focusing. the message. When the center of gravity, when the hub isn't the Lord, we always end up with a very shallow, superficial life. We acquire wealth, but fellow Christians go without. We acquire fame, yet the world crucified our Lord. We acquire rest and relaxation, and we have our vacations, but Jesus told us to bear a cross. This is why I think our modern culture is full of shallowness and superficiality. We've numb ourselves to the truth, to what's important by being busy, busy, busy, busy. We're addicted, we're seduced by this busyness, and it keeps us from the more important. Now watch, because we're almost done with point two. When we're busy, so again, I'm going to meddle a little. Why do we get so busy doing so many things? One of the reasons, again, this is a broad message that's not maybe specifically everything that everyone in this church is doing, but this is a broad message that includes all of us in some ways. Why do we get so busy, busy, busy? We are so busy doing all these things, doing this and doing that, and going here and going there, and trying to always, we always gotta be doing something, we always gotta be busy, busy. We stay busy so that we don't have to think about the important matters. This happens a lot of times. I saw this in Bible college. I experienced it firsthand in my own lack of spirituality, and I saw it in others. We get so busy running bus routes and doing this. None of those things are bad things. We're just busy, busy, busy. But somehow, this is the strangest thing. You know the easiest place to backslide is in a Bible college, because you're doing all these things. You're running this ministry, you're involved here, you're doing this, you're doing this, you're doing this, but you're not doing this. You're not going soul-winding like you should, you're not praying, you're really not following the Lord. And this is the superficiality, this is the danger of the hurriedness. So we're busy, so we don't have to think about the important matters. Okay, now let me insert an upset. So there are men, who get busy at work so they don't have to think about being busy serving God. Well, you know, you will volunteer for overtime, you'll extend yourself in being busy, busy, busy at work because that way you have an excuse for not serving the Lord. There are women who will Maybe focus on all of the exteriors outside of the house, all of the things they're doing beyond the house, so they don't have to think about what they're going to need to do inside the house. Raising their kids or taking care of the house, whatever it may be, whatever is in your situation. So we cannot be seduced by much activity. So then, what's the third? The third is kind of the solution. And number three is this. So, what did he tell Martha? Martha came to him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part. Well, what was the good part? Well, what was Mary doing? Verse 39, she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. That was the good part. That was the better part. So here's number three. Here's what we need to do. We need to change our view of God. Many suffer from a flawed image of God. We think that God's approval is directly proportionate to our level of activity. We think being busy pleases Him. Being busy is not pleasing to God. Serving Him with a humble heart pleases Him, but just because we're doing a bunch of things does not please Him. This is a mistake we make in our time at churches. We think, if I do a whole bunch of things, then God's happy. Doing a whole bunch of things may not make God happy. Again, I'm looking at this, I'm thinking, Martha's doing all this stuff. God should be more happy about Martha than Mary, but yet we read in our text that he's more happy with Mary than Martha. Is he saying, don't serve me? No. He's saying, she has chosen the better part. I don't think Mary never served, but Mary knew what was more important. She was sitting at Jesus' feet. So we think that God's approval is directly proportioned to our level of activity. Hence, then, we think this, the more I perform, the more He will love me. We have this mindset that we're earning God's love, that somehow we're earning His grace. Even though we don't believe in earning our salvation, we still have this idea that we earn His favor. You cannot earn God's favor. God does not love you because you're busy. God loves you because of Jesus Christ. That is how we have favor with the Lord. He doesn't show us favor because we show up for church. He shows us favor because we're in Jesus Christ. Works are not meant to impress God. Works are meant to express our love for Him. This is why we get busy, busy, busy, and don't have a relationship, because we think we're going to please the Lord by our busyness. I please the Lord by my relationship with Him. But that relationship then motivates me to do things for Him. I go so in Him because I love Him. I don't go so in Him to earn His love. I go so in Him because I love Him. I read my Bible because I love Him. I pray because I love Him. I come to church because I love Him. It's the love that motivates. The works are the expression. It does not gain you favor of the Lord. And so we have to change our view. There's nothing wrong with taking time. In fact, this is what the Lord is telling us. We need to take time and sit at Jesus' feet and have time with Him. Now the truth is this, and I'm not trying to be unkind, but a lot of people backslide over the holidays because you're so busy doing all these other things, you don't have time to do the main thing. You say, Pastor, if I keep up my prayer time on Bible time, I won't have time to go to all these different places. Then don't go to all these different places. The Lord should never be second. He should always be first. Again, this doesn't happen because of the holidays. The holidays expose really where he's at. Because if he was first, from January through the end of October, he'd still be first November, December. The reason he's not first in his right place in November, December is because he hasn't been in the right place most likely the other 10 months. We're accepted in the beloved. We don't serve God to get God's love. We serve him because we have his love. Maybe a couple more statements will be done. These are things that the Lord has helped me. Maybe it helps you. Think about this statement. God is more interested in healthy souls than in high-level achievement. I'm all for achievement. I admit, I trend, I tend towards a Martha behavior. That's me, that's the direction I'm pulled towards. But I know this, I need to make sure I take time and sit at Jesus' feet. When our works are an expression of Christ, there's a peace in the midst of a busy life. Just think for a moment. Whatever your Thanksgiving, Christmas plans, whatever it is, if you're doing it, if you've got to have the perfect, again, I'm meddling, I know, and I'm going to irritate you, but I've got five more minutes, so we're going to irritate you. There are some people who are going to be so stressed out over the holidays. because you want the picture-perfect social media setting for your party. You're going to stress out how your table is laid out, the decorations on the table, all the things so that when you... Again, I'm not against taking pictures. I'm not against social media. I'm against the attitude behind this. So when you look at your dinner table, and the turkey's just right, and the cranberry's just right, and the dressing's just right, and the mashed potato's just right, and the green beans are just right, and the cornbread stuffing is just right, and the buns are just right, and the butter's just right, whatever. Your whole table is set up. It's perfect. And you can get the picture, and you can put it on Facebook, and everyone go, wow, what a feast! And you go, yeah! Of course, you're humble, you're like, yeah, but inside you're going, yeah, yeah, that's right. And here's what happens. You get so stressed out to get it perfect that you don't enjoy the people who's eating the dinner with you. Isn't that us? You know what? Have a good feast, but you do it because you love those who are showing up and you want them to have the best they can have. Just do it out of love. And that's how we serve the Lord. We serve the Lord out of love. It may not always be perfect, but when it's done in love, that is the best way. When our works are an expression of Christ, there's a peace in the midst of a busy life. Here's what the Bible says. Here's what Jesus said to his disciples. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So again, come to the end, holidays do not necessarily cause this hurriedness. Rather often they expose, they add the fuel to the fire. Here's the sad thing. Many believers will be too busy during Thanksgiving doing all the things of Thanksgiving to ever give Thanksgiving. How often do we go to Thanksgiving and we never say anything to the Lord about thanks? We've got the turkey, we've got everything, but we never say, Lord, thank you. You're a good God. I'm all for being busy as Martha, as long as it starts with being a Mary, sitting at Jesus' feet. That relationship makes those works pleasing to the Lord. Let's pray.