The One Thing Necessary

Welcome to this edition of Power Point with Jack Graham.

A little later in the program we'll tell you how you can get a copy of Dr. Graham's evangelism bundle. But first, here's the message, the one thing necessary. That's what I want to talk to you about today, the one thing necessary. We all know what it is to rush through life, high adrenaline, frantic, frenzied, frazzled, stressed-out. And all the while finding our lives seemingly empty or maybe feeling overworked and overwhelmed, living without focus. The fact is we're all speeding through life and the pace of life, the pressure, the dangers of life, the problems of life are putting undue strain upon each one of us. And that is why the one thing necessary, what we are going to see in the message, the one thing necessary is vital.

Not just incidental, but vital to our physical health, our emotional well-being and certainly our spiritual relationship with God. Our story that is found in Luke's Gospel chapter 10 is a story that concerns two women. One by the name of Martha, another by the name of Mary.

One who lost focus and balance in her life and was therefore filled with anxiety and distraction and trouble and she lost her way. And yet another woman who found faith and chose to live in the power and yes, in the peace that Jesus gives. So beginning in verse 38 of Luke's Gospel and chapter 10. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus were good friends of the Lord Jesus. Jesus had certain friends that were intimates among those that knew Him and heard Him. And Mary and Martha, their brother Lazarus, were among the inner circle of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus enjoyed their home and their hospitality. But in this case, Martha, who was a woman given to activity, no doubt talented and devoted to Christ herself, yet she chose activity and work over worship. And as a result, she became frustrated and stressed out, critical and angry. On the other hand, her sister Mary who sat at the feet of Jesus chose the one thing necessary and in this conversation with our Lord, Jesus commended her commitment to Him. She had learned that being comes before doing. Mary quietly sat at the feet of Jesus, listened to Him speak, soaked in His words and nourished her soul.

Interesting isn't it that Martha invited Jesus into her home and then proceeded to neglect Him with activity. And while she no doubt loved the Lord and was seeking to bless the Lord in His presence there with her activity, she failed to remember the one thing that is necessary. That doing good things is never a substitute for our soul's worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so often in the rush and in the push of our daily lives we need to slow down and to be still and to be refueled and refilled with the fullness and the freshness of His presence. To enjoy His love and to experience His peace. And as you meet Christ each day in the light of the morning and when you turn to Him in the adrenaline rush of the day as you sit at His feet and be still and know that He is God you will discover there His joy and His presence. The Psalm is said in Psalm 16 11, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And your bowed head and your humbled heart and your attentive spirit to the Lord opens the windows of heaven to bless you. And in the pace of our lives we need to slow down, really folks.

We need to slow down and to sit at His feet. And I pray that after you hear this message you will have a deeper desire to personally, devotionally spend time getting to know your Lord even better, listening to Him, loving Him, longing for Him. That you will spend time retreating into the presence of God because at His feet you will find joy in the wonder of His presence. You will discover an inner peace that you never thought possible. You will be more devoted to Christ than ever and more connected to your family and friends than you thought possible. You will be more focused and determined and more effective in your work.

You will be energized by the power of faith and you will share Christ as never before in the joy of His love. You will make a bigger difference in the world when you understand this one thing necessary in your life. Now have you discovered that the way you start your day often determines how your day goes? Now if you get up in the morning and you're hustling around and you're in a bad mood and you're stressed out, you'll spend the rest of the day on a mental edge. But if you start rather than focusing on your problems and your situations, rather than complaining and dwelling on what's wrong in your life, if you will start rather looking to the Lord and finding His grace, finding His peace, you will discover that your day is going to go according to God's way.

And what we do at the beginning of the day certainly impacts and influences how we spend the rest of the day. And if you are going to live an abundant life, I mean an abundant life rather than an overwhelmed life, an overloaded life, but rather an overflowing life, then you need to seek God the first thing in the morning. The psalmist said early, will I seek you? To give God the first part of your day before the stress and the busyness of life comes.

You need to take time to spend alone with God. To be quiet and be still and know His presence. Thanking Him for His goodness in your life. Thinking about His love and His grace. Meditating upon His Word and building your faith. And when you do that, you are doing what Mary did and that is choosing the good part of life, the good portion of life.

You are doing the one thing that is necessary and the one thing of all the things in your world, the one thing that's really going to last. Isaiah 40 and verse 31 is an important verse to me. It's been hanging in my study for a long time in a Scripture portrait. They that wait upon the Lord. In other words, those who hope in the Lord. Those who look to the Lord.

Those who sit at the Lord's feet. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, which literally means shall exchange their weakness for His strength. Shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not be weary.

They will walk and not faint. And just as the physical body needs rest, your spiritual person, the inner man, the inner woman needs to be restored. And remember Jesus said, come to me. All you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. So the way to refresh your spirit and to restore your body and to restrengthen your life is to spend time with God.

I mean think about it. We spend time getting ready physically every morning. As much as 30, 40, 45 minutes getting dressed for the day. Getting prepared for the day. Blow drying our hair and all the rest.

Trying to be presentable to the world. We spend all of that time getting ready physically for the day. But how much time are you spending to get ready for the day spiritually?

We spend all of this time getting ready on the outside and spend very little if any time getting ready on the inside. And therefore that's why we're running on empty and we're tired and we're often irritable and cynical and frustrated and vulnerable to mistakes in our lives. Like Martha who was so anxious and upset she according to Jesus was distracted by many things. It was a whirlwind of activity around her and yet because she wasn't doing the one thing necessary she missed an opportunity to grow in her faith. It's no wonder with all the pressures of life, the stress of life. You know stress is when the demands of our day and even the desires of our lives exceed our ability to respond.

We're just overwhelmed with the demands of the desires, the things we have to do, the things we must do, the things that we want to do. So if we are going to respond to all the challenges of life and the opportunities of life as well as the responsibilities of life, we need to take time to sit at Jesus' feet, to listen to Him. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, the one thing necessary. You have a God-given calling to take the Gospel to the world. That's why we've put together a special bundle of resources to help you grow in your love of the Gospel and share it with others. This evangelism bundle includes three of Pastor Jack Graham's books, The Hope of Easter, Life Book, and God's Promises for Doubt-filled Days. This evangelism bundle is our thanks for your gift today.

And thanks to a generous matching grant, your gift today will be doubled. So call now to request your evangelism bundle when you give. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, the one thing necessary. All through the Scriptures we are reminded of the principle of first things first. For example, if you give the first part of your income to God as the Bible commands us, if you give off the top the first tenth of your income, you will discover that the rest of your income will last longer and go farther. It's God's principle.

It's God's plan for economy in your life. If you honor God with the first fruits of your substance, then He will honor you in return. If you give God the first part of the week in worship, God blesses us when we give Him the first. And if you honor Him by showing up and worshiping Him and truly not just out of rote or routine but truly to honor Him and worship Him by attending church and investing your life, then you will find the rest of your week will be impacted and influenced and empowered to live a better life. And it's certainly true that if you will give God the first part of your day, then the rest of your day is going to be blessed. When you take time to honor Him, to worship Him, to tell Him that you love Him, to sing a song of praise, to open the Word, to build your faith, to contemplate and meditate upon His principles and promises in His Word, you will find that your schedule will go better, that your relationships will grow stronger, that you will be more effective, your mind, your body is going to be relaxed, you're going to get more done, you're going to be more creative, you're going to enjoy your life, doors are going to open all because you put Jesus first in your life.

Jesus Himself said in Matthew 6-33, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all of these things will be added unto you. This is the one thing necessary and when you begin your day by saying, Lord, I love you. Lord, I worship you. Lord, I praise you. Lord, I thank you. Thank you for being a gracious God to me. Thank you for being such a good God and for all of the blessings of life. Lord, I give you my life today. Lord, I love you.

Lord, I need you. When you begin your day like that, before anything else gets started, I promise you, you will experience life more abundant. You know, there really is something special about the morning, isn't there?

The stillness of the morning. Before the day rushes in, to be still and to know that I am God, you say, well Jack, this really isn't all that practical for me. My life is too hectic. My life is too stressful. I don't have time to be still. Well, if that's your attitude, you're only hurting yourself and you're only holding yourself back because I assure you, just like a pressure cooker, some of us remember the old days of our mothers cooking with pressure cookers. And when the pressure is on and the heat rises, I was in my bedroom one day and studying, I think I probably was studying, I'm sure I was kids, I studied real hard every afternoon.

And my mother was cooking dinner and the next thing I know I heard this explosion and my mother screamed and I walked into the kitchen and there were green beans all over the ceiling because that pressure cooker had just literally exploded in the kitchen. Too much pressure. That is why you need to take time and make time to replenish your soul and to do it every day. You can't do this by just coming to church once a week.

Any more than you could survive on one meal a week physically. But rather you should feed your soul and nourish your inner life every day, preferably in the morning. It's the one thing necessary. You say, well how do I do this?

What are you actually talking about? Sometimes it's simply being still and quiet before the Lord. For me, it's taking the Scripture and reading the Word of God and digesting it and ingesting it or just underlining it or reading a passage of Scripture, not typically long links or passages of Scripture at this particular time, but just to let God speak to me. I pray, I meditate upon His promise. I don't always feel like doing this.

There are times when we all wake up tired and depressed in the mornings. We don't always feel like spending time with God. But I've learned over the years, especially at those times when I don't feel like it, that I need to faith it out and live it out and that's when I can renew my faith and restore my joy and rest and relax my body and replenish my soul all at the feet of Jesus. Doing what Mary did, but choosing the good portion. And before the activity starts, before the action begins of my day, to spend time listening to Him, just loving Him. I often read God's promises and claim those promises and confess those promises for my life. Promises like Proverbs 4-18, the path of the righteous is as the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

That means every step we take it gets more beautiful and brighter each step of the way. Psalm 84-11, for the Lord our God is a son and a shield. He gives favor and honor and no good thing will be withheld from them who walk uprightly. I may just take that promise and say, Lord you are my son. You are my shield. You have given me grace, you have given me favor, you have given honor and I know that you want to give every good thing into my life this day.

Thank you for that promise. Or I may quote Psalm 23 verse 6, surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Or I may quote the Apostle Paul at Philippians 4-13, as I get ready for some particular challenge in my life, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. You see, just taking time to listen to His Word, this fills my heart with peace and when I do this, my attitude changes, my body recharges, my faith is strengthened and I'm ready to take on anything that day with enthusiasm and power.

One translation, the Phillips translation of Philippians 4-13 says, I am ready for anything in the power of Jesus Christ who lives in me. It is in spending time with God that we meet Him, we find the fullness and freshness for each day. And if you will do this, you will have more life to live and more life to give. If you will take time out, you will discover early in the morning, if you will give your time to God, that ordinary days will become extraordinary days. Days that are filled with creativity, days that are filled with wonder, days that will be filled with productivity.

You will give yourself to others, including your family and your friends. And this is especially needed in our lives when we are particularly busy. If you don't take time to spend it with God, spend time with God before you take on the day, you will find your life barren. So especially if you've been working extra hours or working hard or traveling and giving out and working especially hard, you need to take time to take in.

Some of you are running on empty every single day. I think about some of you young mothers with small children. You have so many responsibilities to take care of those children or to take care of your responsibilities, take care of your family. And if you're not careful, you will spend time taking care of everyone but yourself.

And self-care, taking care of yourself before God should be not just a priority but a necessity in your life. I've discovered that if I try to be available all the time, soon I'm not available any of the time. Many of you are mentally fatigued and emotionally drained and physically exhausted.

Why? Because you're not choosing the better part. You're not putting Christ first in your day.

You're not getting up and meeting Him in the morning. Therefore you're running down. The Apostle Paul tells us that the inner person, the inner life can be renewed every single day. Even though the outward man is failing, physically it's a fact of life, we are deteriorating. But yet, he says that the inner man can be strengthened and renewed every day. 2 Corinthians 4 16, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

So you know what some of you need to do is to get your life back in balance. You're more like Martha than Mary. You're distracted with many things. Jesus looked at her and said, Martha, Martha.

I don't know about you, but if Jesus called my name a couple of times, I'm listening up. Martha, Martha, come on. You're bothered and distracted and now you're critical of your sister here. You're irritable. You're upset. You're agitated.

You're anxious. Come on. Martha, Martha, choose the better part.

Take time for me. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, The One Thing Necessary. 3.2 billion people in our world still have no access to the good news of Jesus, and we must do whatever it takes to reach the lost but the hope of Christ. That's why we're excited to tell you about a matching grant that will double whatever you give today to help reach more people through PowerPoint. Your support will help broadcast the gospel into some of the most spiritually dark corners of the earth. We'll say thanks for your gift by sending you three of Pastor Graham's books to help you share the gospel right where you are.

This evangelism bundle includes The Hope of Easter, Life Book and God's Promises for Doubt Filled Days. So call now to have your gift doubled by the match and request your evangelism bundle. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. That's PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit JackGraham.org where you can shop our e-store, give a gift online, or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is JackGraham.org. Pastor what is your PowerPoint for today? One of the very best ways you can start off your day is to spend time with God. With as much as you've got going on these days, work, school, kids, all the extracurricular activities, those few precious moments in the morning can mean all the difference in the world and set the tone and the temperature for the rest of your day. So I want to encourage you to begin each day with God. The first thing in the morning, open His word, speak to Him in prayer, sing songs of praise to Him. There are so many instances in the Bible where godly people awoke early to spend time with God. In fact, in the scripture we're told, Awake O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. One of the great benefits of coming to the Lord in the morning is that He prepares you for the challenges of the day and puts you in the right frame of mind for whatever you face.

By spending time in God's word, you refresh your spirit, you replenish your soul, and you refuel your body. You will be better prepared for whatever happens in your day. Now I don't know if you're a morning person or not, and I realize we all have various kinds of schedules, but I want to challenge you to get up earlier each day and spend time with God. Because as you do, you will begin living in the fullness and the freshness of His presence in your life each day. The best part is you will have more to give. Ordinary days will become extraordinary days, boring days will become exciting days, and you will be ready to give more of yourself to your family and to your friends. It's my prayer that you will become diligent about spending time with God each and every day, starting your morning at the feet of Jesus.

Make it your priority to spend time alone with Him and come into His presence, because I promise you there's no better place on earth. And that is today's Power Point. Remember when you give a gift to Power Point, your gift will be doubled by a matching grant. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word Power Point to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about three steps you must take to live in the power and presence of Jesus. That's next time on Power Point with Jack Graham. Power Point with Jack Graham is sponsored by Power Point Ministries.