I want you to know that not all the hypocrites are in church this morning. You guys, well, what'd you bring that up for? Well, last year at this time, I told you about something that was taking place, you know, in spite of all the political correctness, in spite of the attitude that people have toward God and church and so forth, kicking God out of the schools and kicking God out of about everything that the government has any control over. Friday, a whole bunch of those hypocrites took the day off with pay. And that day is strictly a religious holiday and it doesn't have to do with Buddha or Muhammad or anybody else. It has to do with Jesus Christ. But they'll take the day off with pay. Why? Because not all the hypocrites are in church, that's why. Anyway, let's get back into this lesson now. We took a little detour from some of the other stuff on the glory of God, our timeless creator. and we're looking at some vows, but in the midst of that, the Lord said, hey, look at this, and look at this, and look at this. I'd apologize if it was my idea, but I'm not gonna apologize for God. He doesn't need me to apologize for him. All he needs is for me to just have my attention on him and trust him. I mean, it's easy to trust him when things are going good, right? He says, be thankful in all things. When was the last time you felt, now listen, you felt a sense of gratitude when something bad happened to you? Paul says, boy, I glory in my infirmities. How come? Because God was so real to that man that when things happened to him that he didn't understand, he really trusted perfection instead of his own opinion. When you get on that level and you begin to realize how magnificent your Creator is and what He is capable of, it gets a whole lot easier to trust perfection than your opinion, your desires. I mean, when your desires get crossways of His, you begin to pray against His will, you know that? What would have happened if Job would have started praying, God, give me my kids back, give me back all my lands, give me back my stuff? God would have had to do that in contradiction of His own will. because that wasn't the Lord's will. The Lord had something else going on. And we don't trust God too much. We don't take him real serious either. He says, your ways are not my ways, saith the Lord. Well, if we understood God like Paul did after being to the third heaven, which is a whole lot easier than being down here, and you know, blessed are them that have believed and yet not seen. But if we'd believed like Paul, that when he says, your ways are not my ways, the minute you see things starting to happen in your life, you say, it's he that worketh in me both to will and do of his good pleasure. I don't understand this, Lord, but how in the world can I argue with perfection? Besides that, what can I do to stop you? Not a whole lot. And by the way, how many of your prayers like that get answered? You ever wonder a lot of times why your prayers don't get answered? When they're important, when they're serious, when they look like you're praying in God's will? Wouldn't you think it had been God's will to take care of a man as righteous as Job? You'd think so. But like I said, his ways are not our ways. Anyway, we're gonna look this morning at a little bit about Martha and Mary. And it has to do with an attitude. Look over in Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Now, that's going to turn off a lot of Laodicean Christians. You say, who's that? Well, I believe we're living in the last days. I believe that the last church listed is Laodicean church. And I believe those things coincide with each other. But it's more than that. And the reason it's more than that is because since the Lord began to awaken us around here, the Great Awakening, But when you begin to see these things, you start to understand who God is and his magnificence and his power, and you begin to realize that he's not there for us. We're here for him, we're created for his pleasure. This is about him, it's not about us. When you start to see those things, and then you look over there and it says, you know, I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot, so then because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Thus sayest thou, I am enriched and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but knowest not that thou art poor, wretched, miserable, naked, and blind. you begin to actually take some of that stuff serious and you say, he's talking about somebody. What if it's me? You're not gonna hear that stuff. You're not gonna hear that stuff preached in a church where they start talking about being in church and every time the doors are open, you know, and so winning and passing out trash and witnessing, driving in buses, you know, and getting your kids to the youth department and the meetings and come to our golf classes, you know, and come out to the gym and fellowship with us and come out from the world and be separate and it's just about us and let's isolate ourselves from the world except for when you witness. I know thy works. He's talking about people that are working. You ever put any effort into God's business, trying to serve God? Then he might be talking about you. Anyway, Martha and Mary are one of the perfect examples. Luke chapter 10, verse 38. Now it came to pass as they went that they 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 comforted 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 help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her. Now for 33 years, well, almost 34 now I've been saved, And for at least 30 of those years, every time I read that, I'd just shake my head. I didn't have a clue what was going on there. Somebody has got to sit over there in that nursery to keep the screaming kids out of the sanctuary. Either that or the devil used those little rascals to disrupt everybody and especially the lost. You say, well, how important is that? Well, how important is it to have somebody sitting up there in a sound booth taking care of that stuff? How important is it for somebody to be over there teaching your kids in Sunday school this morning? Somebody's got to do it, right? Well, if somebody's got to do it, what's going on here? Because somebody's got to do it. I'm missing something. It's kind of like when I'd read the book of Job. And I get over there and I'm reading about Job, you know, and I'm all enthralled with the first couple of verses about this man retaineth his integrity and there's not a just man like him in all the earth, which fears God and escheweth evil and sinneth not. Wham! I said, oh my. Aren't you doing the best you can if you're really trying? I'd read that stuff and it'd just kind of leave me cold. But then the Lord opened my understanding to it. That was the greatest man in the whole Bible. There ain't another guy like him anywhere. You know how come? Because God, in front of Satan and all of the hosts of heaven and hell up there, put his reputation on the flesh of one man and didn't help him. He never did that with nobody else. And you know how that came out at the end? At the end of that thing, God said, See there, I told you so, in front of everybody. You think God could put his reputation on you? He said, oh, that my words were described with the point of a diamond, you know? God says, you got it. How come? There was a special place in God's heart for that man. After that, come, we'll give you back everything you got double. but you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait till you get up here with me. If there's any kind of respecter of persons up there with God, like sitting on the right hand of God and so forth, when you meet Job, you're gonna find out that that guy's in the penthouse. He'll be down in a basement someplace, rumbling around. How come? Because when somebody does that for you, you appreciate him and God appreciates Job. And you say, well, he messed up in the middle of that thing because his friends distracted him. You know where Job's attention was at the beginning? It was on God. You know where it was in the middle? It was on himself. Oh, curse the day that I was born. And then God says, okay, at the end of that thing, hey, Job, you forgot who I am. Well, you know, I've been having a hard time of it, God. You've been treating me kind of bad around here. And you know, these guys and my wife and everybody else. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me about that. Yeah, but I lost all my cattle and everything else. Do you have any idea what it's like scraping yourself, you know? God says, I see you're gonna be a hard case. He would go back through that thing, back through that thing, get his attention in the right place. Anyway, so what's God showing us here? He's showing us some things that we don't understand, and he's showing it to us for a reason, just like Job. Years and years, God left me without understanding of Job. And when I finally got a hold of that thing, and I love the book of Job, I get weeping over that stuff. Why? Because I envision God standing up there saying, see there, hey you guys, I told you so. We're created for his pleasure. You think the Lord enjoyed that? Oh, you better believe it. And you know what it was based on too? It was based on a man's response to God. Why? His affection for him, his desire for him, the fact that he was in awe of his creator the whole time. That's why he's given all those sacrifices. He wasn't worried about his kids, he was worried about what God thought. That's where the attention was. Anyway, I didn't understand that stuff. Look over at Galatians for a minute. This is kind of interesting. When you start to read these things, you put your own understanding, your experiences, into these scriptures and you reach a conclusion. For example, Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty which Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Now you put your own understanding into that. You come up with some kind of an idea, a concept of what he's talking about. But you know what? As long as our attention is on ourselves, we reach the wrong conclusion almost every single time. When our attention's on him, trying to understand, Lord, what is it you desire here? How do you benefit from this? What are you trying to accomplish? Why was this man born blind? Who sinned, him or his parents? Neither one. That guy got a whole chapter in the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. He got a whole chapter. Because he wasn't born blind because of sin, but that the works of God may be manifest and that God may be glorified. That's why he was born blind. So when you read that stuff, you say, man, somebody must have sinned. Why? Because you're not thinking like God thinks. He says, stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. I'd read that and I'd think, well, that means, you know, getting some kind of weird doctrine or something or going off, you know, and just backsliding like the devil, you know, or some crazy nonsense. But it's simpler than that. Now, I feel kind of sorry for people that get saved at an early age. You say, why do you say that? Listen, that kid comes along, he gets saved like my son did at such a young age, he doesn't even hardly remember the change, and there wasn't much of a change. There was a change. I mean, immediately he was concerned about his sister's soul, and not just in a flicker, I mean, for days afterward worried about it. You see the change. But the simple truth is, you don't see the change for yourself, You say, you think you ought to go out and sin like crazy before we get saved? What difference does it make? You're going to hell anyway. I mean, you're still sinning, aren't you? It's not about your sin. The only reason that sin is an issue is because it separated us from Him and the purpose He made us for. That's the problem. That salvation's just the starting point. That's not what the Christian life's all about. You're supposed to grow beyond that. Anyway, when I got saved, I felt something lift off of me. I felt a weight lift off. And I felt a sense of freedom I'd never felt in my whole life. You say, how come? Because I had a weight of sin on me. And I've taught you some of that stuff, my thoughts and philosophies about that weight of sin and how you get to hell and some other stuff. But I felt it, and I've heard that testimony from other people. I feel kind of light. Man, this is great. That's the freedom he's talking about. Wherewith Christ hath made you free. When he makes you free, you're free indeed. But he says, be not brought again under this yoke of bondage. Which one? There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. You know what that way is? That way is pure works. Treat your fellow man right, do the right things. For the Laodicean Christian church, quit your sinning, cut your hair, wear your dresses long, only date the people that are saved, don't cuss, get on anybody that does, start getting out there, passing out those tracts, and get all this other work done, get to serving. Get them standards up where they ought to be. That's Laodicean works. You think that's what God's worried about? What's God want? He wants your affections. He wants your appreciation. He wants your admiration. He wants you to be in awe of him. You know what that is? Once again, that's fear mingled with admiration. Noah Webster, 1828. That's what he wants. He can do anything he wants for himself better than any of us could. 5,000 people get saved. 3,000 people get saved because Peter's preaching. If he did it those two times, he could have kept doing it. It's not the preaching, it's God. He's the one that does it. It's he that worketh in us, both to will and do of his good pleasure. Anyway, he says, be not brought again under that yoke of bondage. Moving on down, look at verse seven to nine. Ye did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. Now, the interesting clue about that thing was that I got into some church problems a while back, many years now, and a preacher handed me a note with that verse on it. And the idea was, you used to do everything right, and now you've messed up. Who did hinder you that you did not run well? You know, tongue-in-cheek, I speak as a fool. I looked at that thing. It didn't bother me, because I know when God's telling me something when I'm coming up with it on my own. I mean, do you recognize the voice of God? Do you recognize God's hand? Do you know when it's Him or when it's you? Well, if you have any doubts, when in doubt, do nothing. But when you've got something from God and you say, thus saith the Lord, and a lot of people are saying that and they haven't got anything from God. They're just using Him as a big club. God'll get you. But when God's actually doing something and you tell somebody about it, and it's true and right, then it's for their edification. Mostly it was for you, because that's why He gave it to you, because you needed it more than they did. But this thing when it says, you did run well, who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion. This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. Well, what's he trying to tell you right there? This particular passage had to do with being circumcised and brought back under the Jewish law. But you know what? That don't make much difference whether you're a lost Christian in the church age or whether you're a Jew back there and you got saved because you were under the works and the law back there and you're under the works and the law here. What is this liberty that Christ has made us free? What's he talking about? Basically, quit worrying so much about your sin. You say, oh man, that's the worst thing I ever heard. Man, that's anti-God. Are you kidding me? What about he that saith he hath no sin? The truth is not in him. But, you confess your sins, he's faithful and just, forgives our sins, cleanses us from all unrighteousness. I was mentioning back there this morning, the notes that I'd written down. Our sin, with respect to God, is about like a kid that goes out, leaves home, gets so far into debt, man, he'll never get himself out. You know, $150,000 in debt, gambling, you know, buying drugs, about ready to get killed. Comes to his dad, said, Dad, help me, I'm gonna die. Dad says, okay, son. Pays off all his debts, hands him a credit card. Said, what's this for? You're gonna need it. You're gonna need some money and you don't have any. So the kid goes out, you know, he tries not to use a credit card, tries not to use a credit card, tries and tries, runs out of gas, and finally goes and buys $5 worth of gas on his dad's credit card. Comes back to dad apologizing. Man, dad, I'm sorry I spent that money. I'm sorry I spent that money. Dad says, you know what the limit on that credit card is? You can't max that out. Well, what's it about then if it's not about spending money, dad? It's about understanding who I am and appreciating me for what I did for you because you couldn't do it for yourself. You quit trying to pay those bills. You worry about spending that money. You start worrying about your sin. You are distracted from the one that made you in his glory because it's all about you again. That is so sad. Man, you got the hair growing over your ears. What is that? Attention's in the wrong place. Who is the one that speaks worlds into existence? Who is he? And our attention's in the wrong place. It's on our sin. It's on us. It's on the church. There's thousands and thousands of people in church this morning that come in there with brand new dresses, and they're all worried about what everybody else thinks about what they look like. You're not here for that. You're here to have your attention turned toward Him, to understand more about Him, have your affection stirred toward Him, to fall in love with Him more, to appreciate Him a little bit more. That's why you're here. Well, then get with the program. Don't worry about that vanity mirror. It's all vain anyway. You dress me all up and put a tuxedo on me. It don't matter. I still smell the same. I still treat my wife the same. I either love God or don't the same. Man looketh on the outward appearance. We just don't take him serious, we don't. We just read over that stuff and it's kind of like, oh yeah, I know that verse. What are you doing about it? What are you doing about it when he says, I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. You see that? You see those tears? Last three years when I get talking about him, I have fallen in love with him all over again. If I started talking about my wife to you and some of the stuff that she's done, it don't take much for me to start crying about her. Why? Because I love her. You know why you don't cry when you talk about your God? Because you're not in love with him enough yet. You think about him just speaking and breathing planets into existence. You're fearfully and wonderfully made. And he formed Adam from the dust of the ground. and then he breathed into his nostril. First CPR, by the way. The man became a living soul. God says, oh, I like this. Adam says, me too. You know, Adam didn't ask God who he was. You know why? For the same reason a honeybee don't ask how to make honey. God put it in there all at the beginning, started it from right there. Hey, Adam, what are you going to name these animals? Well, I don't know, God. What do you think I'm going to name them? I want to just see what you name them. Now, I don't know if the word hippopotamus is Hebrew. I don't even know if Adam was speaking Hebrew. I have no idea. What language was it before he confounded them? Beats me. He said, hippopotamus. The Lord starts laughing. I like that. How come? That's the craziest name you've come up with yet." He goes, well, I'm about to run out of names. You ever think like that about the one that made you? Do you ever think about how he felt as he made the things that he's told us about? What his responses are? What his emotions are? Do you realize that pleasure is a feeling of emotion? That's what God's all about. Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Man, I thought you were a mean God, angry God, just waiting to thump me every time I sin. Well, he could have done a lot better job than that if he wants to. I mean, he had a few chances this week, didn't he? It ain't about spending five bucks on a gallon of gas. It's about your attention, your affection, your desire, your emotion toward the one that deserves it, the only one that deserves it. And it's just between you and him. Am I out of time? I got five minutes? Our clock's busted. I told Brother Mark, I said, hey, time shall be no more. Anyway, what's God want us to understand from this thing with Martha and Mary? You know what the word cumbered means? Listen to this. It means perplexed, troubled, burdened, hindered, distracted. Distracted? Yeah, you're distracted. What was Martha distracted by? Listen, she was distracted by serving God. God manifested in the flesh. She was distracted by serving God. What? Yeah, it's exactly what happened to me. As soon as I got saved, they took that love and that freedom and that desire for God to know more about him, the desire to understand what was in this book, and they began to tell me what was in their heart. They began to tell me all the things that their desires were focused on. You know what a preacher's desires are focused on? Their desires are focused on the church, the ministries of that church, anything that's going on within those four walls. If it has to do with us, it's good. If it has to do with another church out there, it's okay. If it has to do with the world, it's horrible. And you wonder why the Christians these days live a different life Monday through Saturday? It's simply because God's not real to him out there. He's only real inside the doors. Where's God? This little kid's bebopping down the street, looking at the trees and the bugs, just having a good old time, and he sees this guy who's up on his porch, and the kid gets the guy's attention by what he's acting like. And he says, son, where you been? He said, I've been to Sunday school. I've been learning about God. The guy says, son, I'll give you a dime if you can tell me where God is. And the kid just grinned and he says, I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me where he ain't. He's out there. Without him was nothing made that was made. Why do you think God did the things that he's done? Don't you think he could have built the universe totally different? Don't you think he could have made everything on this planet totally different? And he will, gonna be a new heaven, new earth. And here this thing, New Jerusalem sitting above it. It's like heaven right there above earth and nice and close. He could have done anything he wants to do. So why does he do this the way he does it? Why did he put Adam and Eve in that garden and then say, don't touch that, it'll kill you? If Adam and Eve had any sense, they'd say, God, what are you doing putting poison in this nursery? God says, it'll kill you. Well, how will it kill you, God? Nevermind. Well, that just doesn't make any sense. And before they ever got a chance to eat of the tree of life, they're over there fooling with that thing they shouldn't have fooled with. Why'd God do that? Because this isn't about us, it's about Him. And the question is, will you take me serious or not? That's the question. And when you get down to what I'm talking about right here with the Laodicean church, they don't take him serious. They say that means them, those, they. That's what they think. And the simple truth is, he's talking to us. When he says, my ways are not your ways. It is I that worketh in you both the will and do of my good pleasure. Without me you can do nothing. When he says those things, we don't take that serious. We turn right around and think it all depends upon our prayers. You know why we don't get our prayers answered? Because we're praying against his will most of the time. You know why we're praying against his will most of the time? Because our ways are not his ways, so the things that we want are in contrast to God, so we end up praying for what we want. You know why he starts out the Lord's Prayer? Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because unless you start there, Your opinion toward that stuff's gonna be messed up. You're gonna look that lady to see in church and you're gonna say, that's not about us. And you know how many souls we got, Warren? I got some stuff coming up here real soon, I'll just touch this and we'll close. You know what's going on? He said, by their fruits you shall know them. What fruits? How many souls you led to the Lord? Couple weeks ago I told you that church I was in out there in California, we baptized 2,000 in one year. Church money increased by two or 3% that year. Well, where's the fruit? The laity see in church is like those trees up in Washington, D.C. with the cherry blossoms on them and no cherries. That thing's beautiful, it's trimmed well, it's manicured, it's taken care of, and all you get's blossoms. And everybody's saying, man, look at how pretty this thing is. Look at what we got going on. Man looketh on the outward appearance. Where's the fruit? Where's the real fruit? Well, so many souls got saved. Yeah, and how many of them fell in love with God? How many of them did the number one commandment or even tried? How many of them take Him serious when He says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength? How many of them actually fell in love with God? By their fruit you shall know them. Let's close in prayer.