Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Sermon Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. The subject today is this sitting with God or serving for God.

Sitting with God versus serving for God. I want you to notice a very, very familiar passage to you and I've preached on it a couple of times in Luke chapter 10. I want you to look at verse 38. We're just going to read a few verses here and ask God to help us as he helped us in the first hour.

This is something that we need and will help us if we'll open our hearts. Look at verse 38 of Luke chapter 10, sitting with God versus serving for God. And then Jesus 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, does thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me. Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, I am not a man of the Lord, but I am a woman of the Lord. And she said, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. One thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Let's pray. Lord, I love you.

And we often go to this story to learn and Lord, I believe there's some new things for us to learn some different perspectives today. And Lord for a church that is busy and has a lot going on. Lord, I pray that you would help us. And Lord, we certainly want to do right and be right as we do right. And I pray that you'd help our people. Thank you for them.

They're the greatest people in the world. Lord, I pray you'd help me today. And Lord, keep my emotions in check. It's just emotional to me to go through this passage and the work you've done in my heart just in the past 24 hours. And we pray, amen.

Sitting with God or serving for God. I'm not going to reiterate the story. We just read it. But just in case maybe you don't understand everything going on here, let me explain it briefly. There are basically three characters in this story. You have Jesus and Jesus of the trio just saying, oh, what a change in my life when Jesus passed by. Jesus had been passing by. He'd been ministering.

He'd been helping people. And he enters here in the house. And he enters into a house as he kind of comes into this little village. Martha invites Jesus to her house.

Now, there weren't hotel expresses and Hampton ends and holiday ends and different things in these days. And so when a person invited you into their home, they basically took responsibility to take care of you, to feed you, to give you what you needed. And so she received Jesus into her house. So we have Jesus as he is ministering and he's tired and he's hungry and he's traveling and he is invited into their home and he comes into Martha's home. And then also we have Martha. And Martha obviously, as the Bible says, the one that received him.

She's the one that invited him. And so Martha was preparing everything. She was trying to fix the food. She was trying to make sure that she had the nice china out and had a tablecloth on the table and that things were cleaned up and that we had two or three choices for desserts and make sure we have something to drink that he'll like and have a couple choices of meats. And she just wanted to do the best that she could. And there's nothing wrong with serving. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to give God the best that you have. And then of course we have Mary. The Bible says that Jesus, literally the moment he walked into that house, Mary sat at his feet and listened to him talk.

And listened to the words that he said. Now, we have kind of formed an opinion over years in ministry and things and sometimes we do this in church that really there are those who sit and then there are those who serve. And it seems, you know, that we either you're a server or you're a sitter. And the servers are often the ones kind of involved in everything, doing a lot of things, always busy, always there, and kind of serving. And oftentimes the servers can begin to think, well, you know, those other people that don't ever help, they're just sitters. But we're servers.

And oftentimes you kind of look in the story and you think, or even some have a friend who's alluded to the fact that either you're gonna be a sitter or you're gonna be a server. And may I say this morning, my point to you is this, that you do not have to be one or the other. God wants us to be both. It is not enough just to sit at Jesus' feet. And it is not enough just to serve for God. We need to be sitting at his feet and we need to be serving him with our life. We need to be doing both. See, well, preacher, I don't, you know, fully understand this. Well, let me make some statements so that we can kind of more understand what we're talking about here. Martha comes to Jesus and she says, hey, would you tell my sister to help me?

I'm doing all this by myself. And, you know, she's just in there. And, you know, why did she come to Jesus? I mean, Jesus had just come to the house.

He just sat down. I mean, why was she kind of frustrated with him? Well, probably because Mary was sitting at his feet. She probably thought, you know, Jesus should tell her, hey, I appreciate you being here listening, but why don't you get up and help your sister? And so Martha, frustrated, comes to Jesus and Jesus says this. He said, Mary, now listen, you're troubled and you're burdened about a lot of things. But Mary has done the thing that is needful. She's chosen that. And Mary has chosen something that could never be taken away from her.

Now look at me today. As much of a meal as Martha could have put there on the table, she could have had three meats, five veggies, bread, muffins, cornbread, hush puppies, whatever. Yeah, I know, y'all are getting hungry, aren't you? She could have had some choices of desserts, maybe even one sugar free one in there somewhere, something like that.

Little low carb selection, a little I don't give a flip selection, you know, kind of a thing. That's what we like. And the nicest meal she could have put there. Guess what? Eventually that meal would be gone. That meal would have been eaten, that meal would have been digested, that meal would have been discarded. The tables would have been wiped and cleaned and the room would have been swept and before long the meal's over.

And I'm sure that they would have been appreciative and I'm sure they would remember the fact that she fed them, but it would eventually be gone. But you know what? Jesus said that what Mary was doing, sitting at his feet, was something that nobody could ever take away from her. So I want to make some statements to you.

Number one statement is this. Sitting with God and serving for God are both necessary. Sitting with God and serving for God are both necessary. Listen to me, you do not have to just be one or the other. God wants us to be both. If you were cooking, if she had not been preparing, then there would have been nothing for anybody to eat.

Both were needful. Statement number two. If you only sit, you can become pharisaical. If all you do is sit at the feet of Jesus, you can turn into a Pharisee. And there's a whole lot of Christians just like this. If your life never involves serving, but it's always sitting at the feet of Jesus in a sense, you say, what's wrong with that?

Oh, listen to me, different. Nothing wrong with sitting at the feet of Jesus. But if all you ever do is sit there and we don't ever take what God gives us when we're sitting at his feet and go and serve him with it, we're going to become pharisaical. We're going to become hypocritical.

We're going to become the people that just kind of sit there and analyze and scrutinize everyone else. We're going to be the ones sitting there as like, well, I think I've heard better songs than that. When was the last time you got up here? And sang? Well, preacher did okay today. It wasn't his best. Oh, really?

When was the last time you got up here and preached? Well, the trio, you know, they did all right today. But, you know, there was one that didn't necessarily blend real good. I'm not going to say who that was.

But I will say it kind of is like ixnay kind of a thing that maybe didn't blend very well. First crowd got that a little better than the second crowd. That's Pig Latin for Nick, by the way.

I was just picking on Nick. You see, when all we do is sit and take in, we can become a Pharisee. Point number three, when all you do is serve, you can become frustrated. You see, if all we do is sit at the feet of Jesus and all we do is sit at church and receive the word and all we do is listen to the radio and all we do is listen to this and listen to that, but we never serve, we're going to turn into a bunch of Pharisees.

We're going to turn into people that are so puffed up, the Bible says, with knowledge that we don't have any wisdom. But if all you do is serve and there's never a sitting at Jesus' feet and all you're doing is serving and doing and doing and doing, guess what? That is a sure recipe for frustration.

Before long, you're going to be frustrated at everybody, everything. Before long, you'll get frustrated with God, you'll get frustrated with church, you'll get frustrated with people and if all we do is sit, then we're going to turn into Pharisees and if all we do is serve, we're going to be nothing but frustrated. Point number four is this, correctly sitting with God should always create a desire to serve for God.

Now listen to me. If all you do is serve and you're never sitting at Jesus' feet, you're not going to last long. You're going to get bitter, you're going to resent people and you're not going to last long. And if all you ever do is sit at the feet of Jesus taking in and you never take it out and use it and serve, then you're just going to become judgmental. That's a dangerous thing to preach because your passion to church, we're trying to grow and we're trying to do more things. You preach something like this and you're just telling everybody, hey, maybe it's time, maybe you need to just sit a little bit.

Maybe they'll just stop, maybe you'll lose workers and all that and listen to me, dear friend. That's always a fear but I'd rather preach God's word and let God take care of that. Because I know this, if you're listening to everything I'm saying, correctly sitting at Jesus' feet always creates a desire to serve. You see, I'm not saying you need to sit. I'm saying that maybe we need to sit at Jesus' feet a little more. Always creates a desire to serve.

Listen to me, I want you to get this. Sitting with Jesus does not give you the desire to be lazy. Sitting at Jesus' feet does not make you want to quit serving. There's a lot of people that want to sit but there's not many people that want to sit at Jesus' feet. And there's a big difference in the two.

Someone asked you a question today. You say, alright preacher, what's your point? My point is this, you don't have to be one or the other. God wants us to be both. God wants us to sit at his feet and God wants us to serve him.

But if you only do one or the other, you're gonna be missing something. And so my question is this this morning, alright, well then how do you know when you need to sit? How do you know when it's time for you to spend a little more time at the feet of Jesus? How do you know when you've gotten to the Martha point? How do you know when you've gotten so busy serving that you're cumbered and you're always worn out and you're becoming resentful and you're becoming frustrated and all these things. How is it that we know when we need to sit more at Jesus' feet? How do you know that?

This will be on the screen if you need it. And may I say this in humility. God's had to work on me this week. First statement is this, you know you need to sit when you don't have time for the Lord. You know you need to sit at Jesus' feet when you don't have time for the Lord. Verse 40, the Bible says this, but Martha was cumbered about much serving. And look what the Bible says. And came to him.

Did you get that? Jesus, the very son of God, look at me, walked through her front door and was in her house. What a privilege. Can you imagine having the creator of the universe the very son of God in your house? And yet from the moment he came into her house, she didn't have time for him. She had too much to do. She never came to Jesus until she got frustrated serving. Look at me.

But as soon as Jesus walked in that house, Mary was at his feet. You need to sit at Jesus' feet for a while when you don't have time for the Lord. Now listen to me.

We all struggle with this. But if your service for God has created a problem in your walk with God, then changes need to be made. You know when you need to sit when you haven't had time to spend with the Lord. Now I know there'll be something to say. They might give 30 minutes a week in service, but that's what they're going to take away.

Yeah, he's right. I've been so busy I haven't had time to have devotion, so I guess I'm just going to stop doing all the things I do at church. Oh, maybe it's not the church things that need to be eliminated. Maybe we're struggling having time for the Lord. Maybe we're struggling having time with the Lord because of some other reasons. Everybody's always anxious to quit the church thing when they're out of time. Statement number two, listen to this.

You know you need to sit when you are doing more than the Lord has asked you to do. Now don't get nervous. I know you think that's thunder. That's our new air conditioning.

Yeah, I know. Get used to it. We kind of eliminated the hamster running that cage that ran our other air conditioning, you know, that took it a while to crank up and it was very slow. This one just comes at you. At least we hope that's the air conditioning or we're going to have an invitation real soon.

Understand what I'm saying? We're going to put everybody up here on this side and I was up there getting some stuff ready and that thing came on. Holy cow. I asked God to forgive me for everything. I mean, I was I was getting right with God up there in the baptistry.

I'm going to tell you that. God never puts on us more than we could bear. Notice if you would verse 41, Jesus talks to Martha and he says this, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Now you look at me. All these things that Martha was cumbered and troubled about. Look at me.

Get this. Jesus never asked her to do. I'm going to tell you, if he came into her house and Martha just gave him a piece of bread and some water, Jesus would have been thankful for that. Whatever she had in the cupboards, whatever was already prepared, whatever was available, the fact that she invited him in, it didn't have to be a 10 course meal. It didn't have to be fancy. It didn't have to be perfect. Jesus didn't ask her to do all that.

She took that upon herself because she wanted it to be perfect. You say, preacher, what is wrong with wanting to give your best to the Lord? Absolutely nothing. But there are sometimes maybe it would be better to serve, maybe not as fancy a meal, but spend a little more time with the Lord. Are you all buying what I'm selling today or not really? Because I'm still going to keep selling it. But you know, it might be in your life, and I'm going to tell you this, I love people, but people can ask you to do it.

They can do a lot of things. But did the Lord tell you to do it? If you and I are not careful, we're going to get to the point that we're going to quit doing what God's asked us to do because we're so burdened with things that he never asked us to do. Let me tell you something, as a pastor, it's hard because people have expectations on you.

Now, the pastor can't really have expectations on people, but they all have expectations of what they think the pastor should do. He ought to visit here. He ought to visit there. He ought to be here.

He ought to be there, whatever the case might be. And there's no way you could possibly please everybody's expectation. Now, I happen to pastor a wonderful church. The people are great to me here. They understand my family obligations.

They understand my family has some special needs inside that. They've been great. Everybody's been wonderful.

I'm not saying that there aren't some of those things, but you know what? This church has been great, so don't get me wrong. But I am telling you, sometimes if you're not careful, I can be so burdened by the fact that I've disappointed this person and that person. I didn't do what they thought I should do, and I didn't do what they thought I should do.

I didn't do this, and I didn't do that. And everybody, for some reason, has their opinion of what they think the pastor should do, that before long, if I'm not careful, I'm going to get so discouraged pastoring because of all the pressure that I've allowed people or circumstances or my own expectations to put on me that I can get burned out, stressed out, and I'm going to quit doing what God's asked me to do because of all the things I'm doing that He didn't. Listen, I'm thrilled with all the things you can do. I'm thrilled with all the things you can do in your life and for your kids and all that, but if God didn't ask you to do it, don't let that get in the way of what He did ask you to do. When you're doing more than the Lord has asked you to do. Statement number three, you know you need to sit when your serving has made you resent others. It's time for you to spend a little more time at the feet of Jesus, when you have gotten to the point that you have begun to resent others in your serving. You say, preacher, what do you mean by that?

Listen, I want you to look if you would at verse 40. The Bible says that Martha finally went to Jesus, and when she came to Jesus, look what she said. She came to Him and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me?

Look at that. Notice she had begun to resent her own sister. See, when all you're doing is serving, but you're never sitting at Jesus' feet, you're gonna begin to resent people that aren't serving as much as you think you are. Now she was resenting her sister. She's left me.

She's not helping me. And dear friend, I'm here to tell you, it's time to spend a little more time at the feet of Jesus, when your service has got to the point that you're analyzing and criticizing and upset at everybody that's not serving like you are. Can I go one further? Notice the passage. She not only had begun to resent her sister, guess who else she had begun to resent? Jesus.

What does she say in this phrase? Lord, dost thou not care? I mean, she had gotten to the point that she says, Jesus, why don't you care that she's not helping me?

Because she resents the Lord. Oh, I've watched many a Christians that all they do is serve, serve, serve, serve, serve, and they've never sitting at the feet of Jesus. I've watched so many of them resent people, get mad at people. They're always the victim. It's always, well, nobody's ever here to help me clean up. I'm always the one here doing it. I'm always the one showing up. I'm always the one here at the activity. I'm always the one cooking the most food. I'm always the one helping so and so do this and do that.

They don't ever show up and help me. Can I have an amen this morning in the second service? Yeah, I'm right, isn't I? I'm right about this.

And here's what happens before long. We begin to resent people. And then the next step is we resent God. Well, all I did was serve him at that church. Nobody ever appreciated me.

All I did is this. And, you know, God never brought anybody by that even appreciated me or thanked me. And then we kind of get mad at God. And it's all because we're serving. But we haven't spent any time sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Oftentimes you can get to the point, it's not fair. I'm the only one here again. I'm doing all the work again. Listen to me. It is time for you to sit when you think Jesus should make other people act like you. What did Martha say? Hey, Jesus, would you tell her to come help me? What is she saying, Jesus, you tell her to come start doing what I'm doing.

Let me tell you something. Church people can get this way. They can look around and think, you know what, everybody ought to work at this church like I do. If everybody did as much as I did around here, well, we would be packed out of the gills. No, we wouldn't have a church.

We'd have a bunch of judgmental Pharisees is what we'd have. If everybody just, listen to me, that's when you know that you've been so busy serving but you've not taken time to sit at the feet of Jesus. When you begin to feel that you're the example, when you begin to feel that your performance is the guideline, it's time for you to sit at the feet of Jesus.

We have been serving and we have been working, but when we serve so much that now we're analyzing and looking at everyone else and thinking of what they're not doing, then we've made it about us. I better get off this one. Next statement is this. Just have two more.

They're long, but I only have two more. No, I'm just joking. You know you need to sit when you have started feeling sorry for yourself. You know you need to sit when you've started feeling sorry for yourself. In your serving the Lord, when you begin to feel sorry for yourself, that's a sure sign that you need to stop and you need to get in a room and you need to get down at the feet of Jesus.

And you need to spend some time with him. Look if you would at verse 40. This is what Martha said. She came to Jesus and she said, hey, would you tell my sister, and this is what she said about her, that her sister, she said, she hath left me to serve alone.

Did you hear that? Martha felt like she was the only one working. Notice what she says next. Bid her therefore. That she help me.

Martha was more concerned about what she was doing. No, we don't. We want to do things around here like God wants things to done. Look at me.

Please get this. It's time to sit at the feet of Jesus when you're feeling sorry. Martha began to feel like she was all alone. She was the victim. Nobody was helping her. She was on this island called Service.

And it was only her and a volleyball player named Wilson. She didn't think anybody noticed how hard she was working. She didn't think anybody even saw how difficult it was to do what she was doing. She felt like no one was appreciating her work. No one was helping her. No one was thanking her.

No one was praising her. It's time for me to stop. It's time for me to get off myself and get out of my flesh and get into a room and spend some time at the feet of Jesus. It doesn't mean it's time to quit serving. It means it's time to spend some more time at the feet of Jesus. Let's get our attitude and our spirit right. I want you to notice this last statement. You know you need to sit when you're losing sight of what is most important. It's time to spend a little more time at the feet of Jesus when you cannot any longer tell what is most important.