i was told make sure that's on so i i have made sure it is it is on um i just want to say a great thank you a hearty thank you and thank you to this church for taking uh myself and emily in um as we were shy and awkward um in september and down in the glen court center where you were meeting uh before you relocated to this m center here just thank you for taking us up on your hearts and into your homes we just want to thank you for that and we want to thank you um for the just feeding us and uh just helping us every step way we just thank you and each one of you and for that um keep a thumb in worry we have read in luke 18 but i also want us to look at luke 10 verse 38 to 42. but before i um before i read that scripture i just want to set the scene and i want to set the scene by talking about priorities i want to talk about priorities it was mentioned in our prayer time earlier today and i want to talk about priorities what comes into your mind when you think about priorities maybe you loathe them you hate them you just have you can't wait to be rid of priorities you just want to do what you want to do what you love doing and to pot with those priorities but we realize they're a necessity in our life don't we if we don't have priorities if we don't prioritize certain things they'll never ever get done we have to prioritize the big things in life the most important things in life so that way once they're done we can get on to what we really enjoy doing so i wonder what comes at the top of your list of priorities i i i give a bit of thought to this you know for some people family comes first that's at the top of your list of priorities family is first you want to spend good quality time with them you make sure that you're on all the sports days there's a few parents here and maybe online family comes first year make sure you're at all the sports stage you make sure that you're at all the maybe dance recitals if you're there you make sure that you're all the matches i know there's sports people here in the room tonight you make sure that you're at all the everything or maybe you look after an elderly relative maybe children are all grown and flown and now you look after an elderly relative and that's a huge commitment that is done out of love you spend every waking moment thinking about them even when you're not actually physically with them in the room you just can't help but think about them at that moment but maybe that's not you maybe family's not at the top of your list of priorities maybe work is at the top of your list of priorities you're one of those people who live to work as opposed to everyone else who just works to live you love it you you're the first to clock in at the start of your shift and you stay until everything's done even though everyone else has clocked out you take over time if it's offered you love the banter in the workplace in the office you love the work you're doing you just love your craft or your trade and you get home and that's all you can talk about it's just eat work eat sleep and repeat you just love it that's at the top of your list of priorities maybe none of those things maybe it's not family maybe it's not work but maybe pleasure as it is at the top of your list of priorities me time having a chill day you can't wait till all the kids are away to school and your spice is a way to work and you can't wait to just click on the tally watch the netflix carry on with your netflix series you're one of those people who spends all their time looking at fights and holidays when you should be really working and if you're not looking at holidays maybe you're looking at cars to buy clothes to buy or some part for your project that simultaneously become your labor of love but also the being of your existence or maybe you follow sports i know there's a few people in here that follow sports and you're a sporting person you're all about the golf or the rugby or the football or soccer for the irish and you're searching your team you've got your team and you search all this if you're not at the matches you're then searching up all the statistics to make sure your team is on the winning side and if they're on the winning side you'll you'll rub it into the potential losing side that's that's what you're all about you're all about leisure me time relaxing taking it handy as we say in north of ireland but tonight i wanna we've just heard about one young man and we're gonna read about two other women and they all had different sets of priorities my question to you all is this can we identify ourselves with either one of these three people that we're going to read about because i believe we can and i'm going to show you by god's word what what i mean so let's read luke 10 verses 38 to 42. so luke 10 38 through to the end of the chapter luke 10 38-42 this is god's word we're reading not a fairy book not a story book this is god's word luke 10 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 now that him is jesus jesus christ verse 39 and she had a sister called mary which sat at jesus feet and heard his word but mary was cumbered about much serving and came to him and said lord thou s dost do i not care that my sister has left me to serve alone bid her therefore that she helped me and jesus answered and said unto her martha martha thy art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful and mary have chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her let's just pray as we've read god's word let's just ask god for his help in this moment let's pray father we just thank you for the ability to meet in a place like this father we thank you lord to be able to read your by your word that you've kept and preserved over so many hundreds of thousands of years hundreds of years rather than thousands father we just thank you lord that we can read it in a language that we can understand and we realize lord that there are many of your children around the world and they don't have that privilege and if they do have that privilege they don't have the freedom that we have in this country to read it openly even to meet openly and so father we just ask and pray that you would help us to make good use of that liberty that we have here tonight that we would read god's word that we would on that we would think about it that we would hear you speak to us through it and father we be challenged if we need to be challenged father encouraged if we need to be encouraged rebuked if that's necessary as well lord we ask i ask i humbly pray you would have your way in this service tonight and father we pray that your presence would be felt tonight father we we thank you lord that in theology father we realized that god you're everywhere present oh but father we pray that we might be aware of your presence tonight father we just pray for that we long for that i i asked for help tonight father i don't i dare not do this in my own strength so father i'm asking for yours lord i just pray for wisdom and discernment and an unction father to be able to just share your word god i ask for it in jesus name amen amen so we've read about these three people we've read about mary martha and a young man so we're going to look at mary first let's see if these people prioritized correctly we're first introduced to martha at the front door of her house that she shared with mark mary and the brother lazarus you'll maybe that that name might twig something in the back of your mind the man who was dead and four days later jesus came and rules him from the death that's the very same lazarus they lived in a village that jesus was passing through in this village was bethany and we're told that martha was first on the scene we're introduced to her in the very first verse that we've read in luke chapter 10 and verse 30 yet and we read that she was welcoming she invited jesus and the disciples into her home knowing that they had traveled many miles on foot and were in need of a rest martha in her welcoming likely practice the jewish custom of washing the weary traveler's feet and anointing their head with oil because there were no it was all open sandals in those days and so the feet got understandably dirty and it was the middle east the sun was beating down on them they needed the cooling oil on their head and you could easily say knowingness that this woman was selfless she was putting all the others first what do you think of martha do you think she prioritized right putting others first well we're told that martha was preoccupied about making this feast for jesus and the disciples the bible uses the word cumbered here which means distracted she was distracted about all her service and serving that was all she could think about at the top of her list of priorities was service serving others doing all that she could do she was full of judy but not full of devotion she was full of doing something with her hands but she had no heart not really you see martha reminds me of someone who's accepted christ early in their life maybe as a child but then as life rules on as they grow up and try to make their way in the world well the world got in the way and jesus was knocked off that top place and pushed down that list of priorities if we look at verse 40 we can see how dangerous that place can be you see martha walks right up to jesus and accuses jesus of not caring what does she say she says lord dost do i not care that that my sister has left me to serve alone can you imagine that i want you to take that and actually take a moment read that again and realize what martha has done she has accused the son of god the living breathing son of god who was there before time began created the universe out of love and accused that very same jesus of not caring can you imagine that the one who would go on to to die on that cross for you and for me for love for god's who loved the world accused that very same jesus of not caring can you imagine doing that and i want to ask you a question tonight i'm going to ask you a lot of personal questions and if you're not comfortable with that well oh dear i'm wondering is that you tonight have you been thinking of god and the things of christianity have you been introduced to maybe at an early point in your life but things get in the way as things tend to do and maybe things become messy as they often happen to do and things drive you away from god and now you're at a point where you're just like god do you really care do you see the mess that i'm in do you not care that was martha martha was all about putting others first others was at the part the top of her priority at least let's let's move on to mary she wasn't the first on the scene she isn't mentioned until verse 39 she's the sister called mary and we read that she sat at the feet of jesus now i want you to point out that this woman just wasn't present a lot of us can come to church and we could sit in the meeting and we're present at church and it's good to be there at church it's good to be here at church but sometimes that it can go in one ear and out the other we can be present but we're not actually here are we well this wasn't mary you see mary was actively listening she was listening to what she wasn't just half listening sometimes me and we can half listen can't we we have selective hearing you know we get the nudge in the shoulder have you listened to what i said and and you nod your head and go yep and then when it comes to do the thing we haven't a clue because we're half listen my grandfather had that selective hearing he was hard of hearing when you whispered something naughty from across the room you can be assured he heard it but he wouldn't be fit to hear you if you were talking right in front of his face he had selective hearing but that wasn't mary mary was actively listening you see mary was hanging on every word you see for mary jesus wasn't just any other preacher or teacher or religion jesus wasn't just a good prop upon me a good prophet as they called him in those times for jesus for mary was the son of god jesus for mary was the once for all substitute for the punishment that we are liable for for mary jesus was her rescuer her savior and maybe you think i'm making all this up i'm just pulling this off the top of my head well in mark 14 verses three to nine will read of a woman who sort of breaks into a feast for jesus that was held in bethany the same village and she carries this jar of incredibly expensive ointment or perfume this perfume would have cost her a year's wages and i'm sure you can imagine what a weird a year's wages looks like for those for those i was preaching this last and donny goal and see in donegal as of 2019 the average yearly wage was 24 000 euros 626 euro 24 000 euro that's a fair bit of dough you convert that into points what's that something like 26 thousand pounds something like that that's a lot of money and i'm sure we could all think of alternative uses for it well this woman she took that took that amount of money and broke it over jesus and anointed him from head to toe when the men saw this they were living they were jumping ma they were hopping mad they thought they saw this and his experience of avoidment and said you know what this could have been sold for a tidy sum this could have been given to the per but jesus rebukes them saying this woman's done well she had anointed his body for death you see this woman was none other than the mary we've just read about john 12 verses 1 to 7 mentions her by name in this particular scene mary listened so intently to what jesus was saying when he was in that room that he she knew jesus was going to the cross long before the disciples did she worked it out long before light years before the disciples ever dreamed of it you see jesus mary reminds me of someone who came to know jesus maybe later on in her life she wasn't introduced to god and christianity as a child maybe but later on they were introduced and they listened and they accepted it accepted their need of a savior they accepted that without christ and his dying for them on the cross they would be in a place of eternal separation called hell the bible talks about the flame of hell and the weeping and the gnashing because of the pain in hell but it also talks about places of separation from god forever and it's a place of utter outer darkness i don't like talking about hell but it's in the bible and so if i'm to tell the full council of god i have to talk about hell i have to talk about how it's our default destination spiritually the bible also calls it the second death and you die for eternity forever yet through accepting jesus christ as savior you you're truly and soundly living for him you're putting him first regardless of the cost regardless of what's going on around you according to verse 42 this is known as the good part the good part the words of jesus tells me that the good part won't be taken away from you i think that's amusing is this you tonight i wonder if this is you tonight does mary reflect your life are you listening to jesus intently are you reading the bible to see what how god wants you to live are you talking to him praying to him you see tonight i'm not offering religion not really not when you think about it i'm offering an invitation to be in a relationship with the living god through what jesus has done on the cross i wonder would you like to be a mary tonight would you like to be a christian from martha who prioritized others to mary who prioritized jesus now to your rich young man oh my father read about the rich young man i'm really really grateful and thankful i did and we're introduced to him in our first bible reading he had incredible wealth incredible wealth and yet he sensed that something wasn't quite right in his life he sensed the lack within his own enjoyment and could you imagine that he had all that wealth all that money and he still wanted something but you see that's the rub isn't it that's the rub you see we all have that need in us don't we that desire to have more and more until we're satisfied but that's the issue we aren't satisfied not for long anyway we all went for a graduation dinner there on saturday uh and we had so much that we could nearly been rolled out of the place we had a huge huge feed it was nearly gluttonous and yet and we said we'll not need anything else and yet by the time the morning comes we're hungry again we had to have breakfast and it's not just food either it's clothes and it's fashion it's cars and our tractors it's gadgets and technology we're not satisfied there's always the next best thing and we want it we need to break the cycle and this young fellow was hoping to try something new to do just that he was thinking that eternal life could satisfy him he was thinking that this man jesus had the answer and maybe maybe just maybe that's you tonight that this man jesus might have something that you're looking for so jesus so he comes to jesus and calls him a good teacher he he calls him good teacher we see that uh we see that in verse 18. he seems like a pleasant kind of fellow doesn't he you know it comes up to jesus calls him by a unacceptable fitting title he then inquires about what he must do to inherit eternal life i wonder does anybody see the problem here anybody see the issue that we have it wasn't what he was looking for in fact what he's looking for it's quite commendable in fact it's so commendable to be aware of eternity what comes after death to be making preparations for eternal life but this man was thinking about that getting into heaven was like getting to a foreign country he was thinking he could buy his way there book a ticket for heaven and off he would go and you know what jesus challenges this very idea jesus answers his question with a question that's a mark of a good teacher isn't it jesus asks him about his morality in verse 21. and in verse 20 uh sorry in verse 20 sorry he he let jesus list five of the ten commandments notice that these five are to do with how we live correctly alongside our fellow human beings and you see the young man's response in verse 21 he says all these i have kept from my youth up let me put this in a way maybe i know pastor ben will recognize i know i've recognized emily's recognized and maybe tommy's recognized if we've gone about the doors and we've challenged people about the idea of sin and they'll say i've never done anyone any harm and that's what we've all said and thought when we've been confronted with the issue of sin and guilt we've never done anyone any harm but let's take a step back here let's let's think this through in a court of law we aren't allowed to weigh out our own guilt and culpability we aren't allowed to to say we can definitely plead one way or the other we can definitely plead oh we're innocent i think we're innocent or i think we're guilty but it's up to the judge to make that determination it's up to judge to weigh up to the judge to weigh out all the evidence and say yeah you're guilty or no you're you're innocent whether we deserve punishment or not and you see this young man he looked at himself in the mirror and he and he said you know i'm not guilty of breaking any law i'm not deserving of any punishment in a word he was self-righteous you see the bible tells us in john 1 verse 1 you know if if we say we haven't sinned we deceive ourselves the truth isn't in us if we say we haven't sinned and we've told a lie and that's a sin and what's more is the bible tells us that if we're guilty of breaking one part of the law we're guilty of breaking the whole thing it's like a chain if you break one link in the chain that's it the chain's broke and maybe you can't remember the last time you've lied or just stole or looked at someone with lustful intentions but you see the bible tells us that god is all-knowing god is all seeing god is everywhere present with all that in mind do you think that god has forgotten about your sin that god is oblivious to your sin do you think he could take the chance when you meet him in eternity that he's turned the blind eye and missed something that's what the young man tried to do he hoped that jesus would just look to his good deeds and miss out all the bad deeds he hoped that that would have been enough and jesus gets right to the heart of the martyr what's on top of his list of priorities what comes out on top or let's cut right to the heart of the matter what's taking the rightful place of god in your life in his life you see jesus asked him to sail ask him to sell all his possessions and give all the money away to the purr and then he would have treasure in heaven now before you all think that this is the way to get to heaven just sell everything give it to the per and live as pearly as you can that's how you get to heaven let me just explain what jesus is getting at you see this young man went away sad because he couldn't do what jesus asked him to do this young man loved money way too much to ever think about giving it away he would rather give up on eternal home in heaven than give up on his possessions or the accumulation of wealth money was his god he couldn't give it up that's what he looked to to give his life meaning the status and the privilege of being wealthy of being a rich man he let status and privilege get in his way to jesus in heaven and maybe that's one of us tonight we desperately want to become a christian and you know of christians about you friends and family and and strangers on the street that you know that have something you don't and you want it badly so badly but there's something keeping you back and that something is stopping you from becoming a christian you can't overcome what's keeping you back you love something more than jesus you love something more than god whatever it is whatever it is it could be anything and has taken the rightful place of god well tonight i'm inviting you to push past to push whatever that is that's on top push it to the side and let jesus take the top spot in your life let jesus be your priority don't go away sad let me conclude by sharing a thought with you something i've pondered over the two years that i've spent studying god and his word over by a bible college i've studied uh uh maybe not sorry enough but i've studied some of the deep things of god and and to be honest i'll probably spend the rest of my life studying into the deep things of god and i've reflected on how that impacts us and when i've been out on the street and doing door-to-door work and inviting folk to think about jesus i wonder to myself how can people not come to a god who loves them and invites them to be in a relationship with himself and when i've realized on what i thought is the people hate to lose something and it's control that's what people hate to lose the most it's control the ability to choose to call the shots you see this rich young man being wealthy could call the shots money allowed him options if he was sick he could have a third and a fourth opinion never mind the first or second if he didn't like where he lived well then he had he could afford to move you see if you call the shots effectively you want to be god and this world is full of distractions it's full of noise so much so that it stops you from noticing this simple fact you aren't god and neither am i psalm 46 verses it um it sums this idea up a far so much better than i ever could i'll i'll just read a few verses from it or psalm 46 rather psalm 46 verses 8 3 to 11. come behold the works of the lord what desolations he hath made in the earth he make a force to cease to the end of the earth he breatheth the blue one cut off the spear and sunder he burneth the chariot in the fire verse 10 be still and know that i am god i will be exalted among the heathen i will be exalted in the earth the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our refuge selah that word that word seal at the end it's hebrew and it means stop there's a reason why it was preserved in the english translation it means stop it means think about it think about what just has been said i want to invite you to be still i want to invite you to be still and know that you aren't god and that you have a choice to make between putting god in his way of salvation as a priority in your life or something else it's as simple as that it's either god in heaven or it's not god and it's hell and tonight we've we've thought about being a martha and putting others first and being distracted with judy so much so that we've forgotten about the devotion forgotten about our first love we fought about marrying and putting jesus first and listening and hanging on to every word so much so we can make sense of the world around us and know our place in it and what we have to do for him and we thought about a rich young man and by putting ourselves first and how costly that is to choose something anything other than god so tonight i'm inviting you i'm pleading with you i'm praying for you don't go away sad let's pray father we just thank you we thank you for what we've just looked at tonight father we thank you that you you you came and you taught them you taught something to to murph about that one thing that one thing that was needful and mary has chosen it and father we thank you for the rest rich young man and father there was one thing that was needful in his life but he he missed out on it he went away sad exceedingly sorrowful father i pray we don't miss it tonight that one thing that is needful not one thing is making sure you are number one in our life father that you are number one and not joint number one either but number one and everything else has it falls into place after you oh god i pray we don't miss the mark and father as christians it's so easy for us father to to to sneak something up that list of priorities till it's joining a joint first place with you father help us to push that down to where it belongs oh god i pray we don't miss the mark tonight father i pray for whoever's been listening to it lord that you'll just really speak to them tonight father lord that you would call them to yourself father uh to start in this race that you have set father this martha and race of life that where jesus is the prize and heaven is the goal and the destination god i pray anyone tonight father who who wants to be a mary tonight who wants to sit at the feet of jesus oh god i pray that you would just call them right into your kingdom i pray for those who who are knowing maybe could identify with martha's father and and father lord they're they're under they've pushed you down that list of priorities they've they've let the thing go father they're no longer disciplined in their walk with you the bible reading has gone to the side father i i pray for them lord that oh god they realize how lovely it is how lovely is the dwelling place of god and father we i pray lord that would they would find that fresh zeal lord to come and just to get to know you again as the lord of their salvation and god i pray lord that there wouldn't be one either listening online or or in this room tonight who would go away sad realizing that there's something that is their god and it isn't you you god i pray lord against anyone who would go away sad tonight i ask that in your name oh man