Jesus: Know Him and Live, Part 1

Dr. Michael Yusef with pointed questions to begin today's Leading the Way. Do you feel that you've been pulled in too many different directions today? Do you feel confused and uncertain and stressed out today?

Do you feel that you're spinning your wheels and going nowhere? I've got good news for you today. Know Jesus and live.

Fraternity and feelings of stress are everywhere. Up next, pastor and Bible teacher Dr. Michael Yusef begins a relevant and encouraging series on Leading the Way that he's called Jesus, Know Him and Live. You'll be challenged to embrace his biblical teaching to see how you can move your walk with Christ to greater heights to experience peace amid the chaos. Now before Dr. Yusef begins, a quick invitation to speak with one of Leading the Way's pastors or counselors if you would like to explore faith or life questions. The place to start is ltw.org slash Jesus. Ltw.org slash Jesus.

Listen with me now to today's Bible teaching from Dr. Michael Yusef. Stress. It really is a huge problem in our culture, in our society, in our world.

I talk to people all over the world. Stress is phenomenal. In fact, all you need to do is you look at the books and the seminars about stress management to realize the enormity of the problem. Most social scientists tell us that we live frantic, disjointed and disconnected lives. As a matter of fact, we are in constant battle just trying to live a focused life and a well ordered life.

It's a battle. And most people have their priorities as sideways and that's really the cause of most stress. Every study had shown that at least 60% of us are living in a continuous state of stress, constantly stressed out. I know that the medical scientists have been warning us and very few people are heeding that warning that a continuous stress, a persistent stress is very dangerous for our physical well being. In fact, continuous stress can suppress the immune system. It opens the way to cancer and infectious diseases and even strokes. The University of Wisconsin has a very extensive stress management institute and they found that 90% of all the stress is brought about by worrying. Worrying about things that have already happened or worrying about things that are going to happen or worrying about things that could happen.

None of which you have any control. And I want you to hear me right because this is really important. Most of the advice of the so called experts on stress management, most of the advice is very helpful and I'm not against that at all.

It's very helpful but I want to tell you about the permanent cure for stress. And the Bible gives us lots of examples. I mean you go from the Old Testament and the New Testament and lots of examples of people who either allowed stress to put a barrier between them and God or allowed the stress of life to press him closer to the heart of God.

Lots of examples. But I want to zero in on two sisters. One chose Jesus. She chose to know Jesus and she experienced joy and contentment. And the other sister stressed herself out so much that she did not only resent her sister's contentment, she actually blamed Jesus for her stress. I'm going to take you back into this time capsule in history and illustrate what I'm trying to tell you by looking at those two sisters, Martha and Mary. The story is recorded in the Gospel of Luke chapter 10. Jesus was a close friend of this family. He often came for times of refreshment with this family. And this family was made up of two sisters and a brother. He's not mentioned here but his name is Lazarus.

We find out about him later. In fact, in another incident later on, this was early in Jesus' ministry, but later on, Lazarus, the brother, the only brother, the only male in the family, became very sick and he died. And Jesus comes four days after Lazarus was buried and the corpse began to smell and with the power of his omnipotence he says, Lazarus, come out and he comes out of the tomb. Raised the dead. But this was earlier in Jesus' time, earlier visit. Look with me at verse 38 and 39. And Jesus and his disciples were on their way and he came to the village where a woman named Martha opened her home for him or to him.

So far so good, right? She and her sister called Mary, sat at Jesus' feet, listening to what he says. A beautiful picture. A beautiful picture.

I think you agree. Mary was the younger sister. You say, Michael, how do you know that?

In the Hebrew language, whoever the name comes first is the older in the family. Mary realized what an incredible privilege for Jesus to be in their house. What an incredible privilege for her to sit at Jesus' feet. What a blessing it is to fellowship with Jesus.

What a blessing it is to be able to sit at his feet and drink deeply from his words. Martha, on the other hand, she was a prototype of Martha Stewart of today. She absolutely was an intense lady. I mean, she was perfectionist. She was based on performance and give it your all type of person.

You know what I'm talking about? Instead of choosing Jesus to knowing Jesus and experiencing life that is worth the name, Martha chose performance and got herself into a frenzy. But that's not all. Look at verse 40. But Martha was distracted, I'm going to come back to that word, it's a very important word, with all preparation that had to be made. So she came up to Jesus.

When that happens, just watch out. Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha was distracted.

I'm going to come to explain that word, it's very important. But you notice that Martha was not doing anything wrong. She was doing good.

But beloved, I want you to listen to me. There are countless millions of people in our society who are busy doing good things. There are countless number of people who say I do good because it makes me feel good.

Countless number of people who see themselves as good people because they're doing good things. I'm not against good things, but listen, doing good things is better than doing nothing. But I'm here to tell you what God's word said, not what I think. God's word says doing good things that draws you away from Jesus and his salvation is not worth a half a hallelujah.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm telling you what God's word said. Well this Martha Stewart of the first century was a perfectionist and performance driven. Oh my goodness, people not just in Bethany will talk about Martha. There's a whole region, they will talk about Martha. Oh, about her dining room table, how exquisite it is, how beautiful it is, how perfect it is, how beautiful it looks and all the food, Martha's food just to die for. I mean her food is delectable.

No one can hold a candle to Martha's recipes. Everybody trying to get them. Everyone is buying her magazines, trying to imitate her excellent taste. First century Martha got herself into such a frenzy in preparation while her sister was sitting there worshiping Jesus.

I mean I just want you to get this picture okay. Her sister Mary chose to honor Jesus. Her sister Mary knew what the Bible said, the Old Testament, obedience better than sacrifice.

King Saul thought he can bribe God with a sacrifice and then live in disobedience and Prophet Samuel said to him, obedience is better than sacrifice. And so Martha's level of anxiety and stress had just begun to go through the roof. I mean you see the smoke coming out of her nostrils. Now let me tell you something, growing up in the Middle East and with a house full of women and I can imagine dear old Martha, I mean she was kneading the dough and while she's doing this she's looking at Mary and if looks would kill Mary would have been blown into smithereens. Look at her, look at her. What is she thinking?

What is she thinking? She got religious all of a sudden on me. Look at Mary, she doesn't care if the dining table looks nice or not.

She doesn't care if the food is ready on time or not. Look at her and she's pounding at the dough, I mean pounding at it. Bible open, fellowshiping with Jesus, listening to Jesus, worshiping Jesus and Martha's stress and self-pity and feeling sorry for herself just began to really blow up from the inside. Finally she blew up at Jesus.

Listen, the more air you put in the balloon, the easier it burst, right? Be very careful of bursting your balloon because there is an answer to your stress and so she basically says to Jesus, you don't care, don't you care? Martha assumed not only that Jesus didn't care but she also assumed that Mary is irresponsible. My sister has left me to do all the work myself. Feel sorry for me and she tried to enlist Jesus to do her bidding. Tell her to come and help me. Let me repeat myself just for a minute because it's important.

It was fine for Martha to be preparing food. It's admirable what she was doing but here's the absolute biblical truth my friend, listen to me very carefully. All of our human efforts to do good and do good work, all of our activism, all of the working our fingers to the bone without Jesus is not worth a half a hallelujah. I don't make the rules and I was thinking about this and I was thinking about how many false accusations have been thrown at Bible believing Christians by those who think that they can earn their salvation through good works, by those who think they can earn heaven by their efforts, by those who think they can earn eternal life by their own activism. You see we live in a time where society at large and many a church is preaching self-salvation.

That is the tragedy we're living in in this age. Millions of people are bought into this erroneous concept that if I try to be good and do good I can earn my way to heaven but there is one humongous problem with that. God said you can work yourself into a frenzy. You can organize humanitarian and charity events 24-7 but without knowing Jesus as your only savior and Lord of this life you cannot have eternal life. I don't make the rules but I'm thankful that somebody back yonder loved me enough to tell me the truth so I can come to Jesus. People who stress themselves out thinking that they can earn the favor of God or the favor of others they often blow up when things go wrong. Others develop this cold relationship with God. Martha blew up at Jesus and her sister. Did you know that most of the stressed out people are prone to blame others for their plight? Did you know that?

They really do. It is not fair with all the good that I'm doing and you're telling me what? I must know Jesus as my only savior and Lord and friend and only then can I be saved. That's what he said. That's what he said and he's inviting you. He's inviting you to come.

Find him. Know him and live forever. After you come to Jesus he's going to give you strength. He's going to give you supernatural strength to serve him and you're going to serve him with joy and delight not as a drudgery or something that you can earn.

No. It's gratitude and thanksgiving. Look at verses 41 and 42 because I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to take Jesus' word for it.

So I want you to check me out here. The Lord answered Martha and said Martha, Martha. Now let me give you a secret about the Hebrew language. Whenever the term is repeated twice like when Jesus says truly, truly I say to you. Whenever the name is repeated twice it's a sign of an intensified emotions. Martha, Martha. You are worried. You're stressed out. You're upset about too many things but there's only one thing that is really needed and Mary has chosen Jesus.

She came to know me and that can never be taken away from her. They can take away your clothes. They can take away your liberty. They can take away your food.

They can take away your treasures. They can never take away Jesus from you. And that is why today there are millions of Christians throughout the world are gladly dying for Jesus. If you hear the stories that we hear every single day, people are tortured and they gladly die for Jesus because they know they can take everything but they can't take away Jesus. And that's what Jesus has said.

Mary found. The word that is used here by Dr. Luke, we call it stressed out. It really means to be pulled out in too many different directions.

Let me ask you this. Do you feel that you're being pulled in too many different directions today? Do you feel that you are being torn apart from the inside today? I mean do you feel confused and uncertain and stressed out today? Do you feel that you are spreading yourself so thinly? Do you feel that you are splitting yourself in two? Do you feel that you're on a treadmill in life and you don't know how to get off? Do you feel that you're spinning your wheels and going nowhere? I've got good news for you today. Good news for you today.

Know Jesus and live not only this life that is life that's stress free but for eternity with him in heaven. What are those many things that you are scattered about? What was for Martha may not be for you. The things that are scattering you may not be what scatters Martha.

For Martha of course was the bread and the meat and the napkins or the serviettes as they say in England or the timing or the setting. Oh my, all these things. But you have other things that are distracting you from Jesus. The most important thing in life. Ask yourself the question, what are the things that are distracting you from the one and only most important thing in life? Let me plead with you. Don't let the most important thing in life, namely Jesus, be lost in the shuffle. Don't let it.

Let not one thing distract you from the perspective and steal it away from you. There may be a person here today who would say, you know, I really believe in Jesus. I admire Jesus. I'm very moved by the love of Christ. I really like Jesus. It's the Christians that I don't like because they're hypocrites.

It's okay, welcome to the club. The question is not whether you believe in Jesus but whether you believe Jesus. And there's a world of difference between those two. Do you believe Jesus? And the difference between believing in Jesus and believing Jesus can be illustrated in this classic story that some of you may already know about a tight rope walker by the name of Blondin. Blondin was renowned of how he would stretch a cable and walk across it. One time he stretched this cable across a vast expanse of a section of Niagara Falls.

And he literally walked across and back without the aid of the pole that helped him balance himself. And the crowd just went wild. I mean, they applauded.

They shouted to their amazement and delight. He decided that this time he's going to walk across on a wheelbarrow. And sure enough, he came all the way from one end to the other on a wheelbarrow, rickety looking wheelbarrow.

And as he was looking at the crowd below and he noticed from all the masses of people there, there was a boy, wide eyed, jaw dropping and looking at him, transfixed. Blondin looks at this young boy and he says to him, he said, young man, do you believe that can walk back on this wheelbarrow? And the boy said, yes, sir, I sure believe that absolutely. He said, okay, jump up and get into the wheelbarrow. Well, it was a different story.

And the boy declined the invitation as I would too. See, believing Jesus is take him at his word. Believing Jesus, take him at his word. He said, when you come to me, I'm not going to let you out. I'm not going to let you out of my hand.

You're secure in his hand. And I'm not asking you to do a, what people call blind faith. And you hear that in the media all the time. Well, may be true, may not, but you just have faith, faith, faith.

They abuse the word. No, but I'm inviting you to have faith that is based on the historical evidence of who Jesus is. That is believing his words and that he and he alone is the one who lived every bit as right as what he taught. And Jesus said, I am the only way to salvation.

Only when you believe in me and you put your whole trust in me, not only will you lose the stress of life and you be assured of me walking with you day by day, moment by moment, but you can be assured that the moment you close your eyes in death, you'll be with me in heaven for heaven is all about Jesus. Encouragement to have faith unto salvation from Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading the Way audio. You know, in addition to a radio broadcast in this community, Leading the Way is privileged to minister across six continents in 28 of the world's most spoken and most understood churches. Lives are being touched daily with the truth of God's word. And if you would like to be a part of taking the gospel further, then allow me to invite you to join Dr. Youssef in the Open Door campaign.

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