Choosing What Is Better // Worship as a Way of Life, Part 3

Some people are so busy doing stuff, they don’t have time for relationships. Other people are so relationship-focused that they never actually get anything done. So, which one is better?

Most of us understand the concept of smelling roses. We're so busy, so flat out running around doing stuff that we don't take the time to smell the roses, to stop and pause and wonder and think and enjoy God’s creation. How many husbands take the time to woo their wives? How many fathers these days take the time to go to their son’s football game or their daughters dance concert?

How many people take the time just to slow down and spend some quality time with God? Praying, reading, resting, letting the imagination roam, coming to grips with the wonder that is Jesus Christ. Well, when was the last time you took time to smell the roses?

We're talking today about making worship a way of life. Not just some ritual or a few songs that people sing on Sunday mornings. Worship isn't a ritual; worship isn't some thing that we do with incense and incantation, that's not what it's about.

Worshipping God is about having a relationship. It’s something that begins in the heart, a desire to be with Him, a desire to bow down our whole lives to Him, a besottedness where you just want to see God and to experience Him and to hear Him and worship.

Worshipping God through Jesus Christ is about sacrifice. It's always about sacrifice because when we bow down to worship God, we've got to get ourselves off our own little tin pot thrones and I don't know how it was for you but for much of my life I was worshipping me, I was my own little God.

Worship is about sacrifice and there are two aspects. There's what happens in our hearts and then how it's reflected in our lives. We're going to talk about that in a whole bunch more detail over the next few days but it's about connecting our faith with our day to day life realities.

I just want to introduce you today to two women from the Bible, Mary and Martha. If you've got a Bible grab it, you can look at it in Luke, chapter 10, verse 38. Here's the story:

Jesus and His disciples were on their way and He came to a village where there was this woman called Martha and she opened her home to Him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lords feet listening to what He said but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made, (I mean she was having the Son of God visiting).

And she came to Him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me." "Martha, Martha." The Lord answered, "You're worried and upset about so many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it won't be taken away from her."

I don't know what your life looks like but mine has more things in it than I have time to get through. Our ministry here at Christianityworks for me is not just about writing and producing radio programs, there's all sorts of things.

There's out seeing radio stations, producing material to go with messages, administration, fund raising, managing staff, lots of things. Not to mention home and the family and Church and friends and rest and relaxation and the danger for me and many other people is that we get so busy with the urgent things we don't have time for the important things.

And the important things that we tend to squeeze out of our schedule are relationships, spending time with people (that's why so many marriages fall apart) and spending time at the feet of Jesus (that's why so many people end up drifting away from God). We delude ourselves, "Well, well, you know, I'm busy out there serving God. That's what God wants from me, that's the most important thing, if I don't do what I'm doing the worlds going to cave in."

Now don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting that we should become spiritual coach potatoes but have a listen to what happens here in this story. Martha is rushing around and cleaning and cooking and doing all that stuff, I mean after all they have guests, the Son of God has arrived on their doorstep.

Her sister Mary is sitting at Jesus feet, listening, her heart being moved, being changed and strengthened and encouraged. She's worshipping Jesus. And Martha goes, "well that's not fair, she should be helping me," and what does Jesus answer, "Well absolutely! Mary, get off your backside, stop being so lazy and go and help." No, that's not where Jesus is coming from at all. He says:

Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about so many things but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what's better and it won't be taken away from her.

One thing! What is that one thing? It's a relationship with Jesus. One thing! To worship the Lord your God. You go to the Ten Commandments what’s the first commandment? Just worship God and no-one else. When someone asked Jesus, "What’s the most important commandment?"

Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.

You end up sometimes in life running around in ever decreasing circles just like Martha. I don't know what Martha was cooking that day but I bet you it wasn't kind of a sausage sizzle, I bet she didn't just throw a few snags on the barbeque and get a bread roll and some tomato ketchup.

No, my hunch is she was doing some "bigger than Ben Hur" cordon bleu thing because Jesus, the Son of God had walked through her front door. We complicate things so much, a lot of people don't have other people over because they couldn't be bothered with all the effort of preparing and cooking and stuff. What's wrong with throwing a few sausages on the barbecue?

You see, we make things so complicated and then we end up running around and we're worried and we're upset about so many things and the more we focus on those things and problems, the worse they become and like Martha, we blame Mary, we blame someone else.

We end up buried in a mountain of problems and hurts and issues and exhaustion and uncertainties and insecurities. I wonder whether maybe you relate to some of that, I know I can fall into this trap myself and that's why we're spending some time talking about worship because worship has real impact.

In my life at the moment there are pressures and issues that have to be addressed, all sorts of stuff and it doesn't go away. Walking with Jesus isn't entering into some super spiritual zone where every one of life’s problems evaporates.

In the middle of that, this morning, I had some time of prayer. I went through a few of the psalms, songs of praise and worship and I just spent some time at Jesus' feet, thanking Him and praising Him and worshipping Him because, you know amidst the pressures and concerns there are so many good things going on too. We end up focusing on all the bad things and we forget to thank God for the good things. You know, something happens when we spend time doing that, it's better than just running around doing stuff.

We have to do things too but pausing for a time, resting at Jesus' feet, hearing Him speak, adoring Him, telling Him how much we love Him, worshipping Him changes our lives.