[1] Have a “Mary” Christmas, Sunday 12-02-2007, Pastor David McIntosh

Text: Luke 10:38-42

INTRODUCTION

1. Today we enter in to the most stressful four weeks of the year. Christmas time!
2. Depression (runs highest beginning now) cost the American economy 45-billion a year due to lost productivity & medical costs.
3. Let me share with you the nine factors one study claims are the reasons why Christmas has become one of the “worst” times of the year for Americans:
   1. Stress
   2. Fatigue
   3. Unrealistic Expectations
   4. Over commercialization
   5. Financial Constraints
   6. Inability to be with family & friends
   7. Demands of Parties
   8. Shopping
   9. House Guests
4. “It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags. Christmas can’t simply be bought from a store. Maybe Christmas means a little bit more.” (The Grinch who stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss)

TRANSITION

I would like to take the next few minutes and share with you how to have a “Mary” Christmas, but not the mother of Jesus, a different Mary. We will find her with her sister Martha in Luke 10: 38. (READ MARTHA & MARY CHILDREN’S BOOK)

READ LUKE 10:38-42

1. MARTHA
   1. Martha opened her home to Jesus!
   2. “Received” = to welcome in with hospitality and kindness
   3. Hospitality = cheerfully sharing food, shelter, or conversation to benefit others.
   4. Romans 12:13 –“Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
   5. Qualifications for being church elder; Titus 1 – “An elder must be…hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.”
   6. Martha was also kind: Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to everyone.”
2. MARY
   1. Mary sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.
   2. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His Word.
   3. “Heard” = understand, hear with the ear of the mind; hear with obedience.
   4. Mary was a great listener. Rom. 10:17- says faith comes by hearing.
   5. Mary heard the “Word” = God’s spoken intelligence; God’s specific message.
   6. John 10:27 – “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
3. MESSAGE

1. 1. Martha was hospitable and kind to Jesus.
   2. Mary was a good listener and obedient to Jesus.
   3. Both sisters had Christ like qualities, served the Lord, had a relationship with Jesus.
   4. Follow along as I read v. 40 – 42.
   5. “But Martha was distracted” = encumbered (lay to much upon; to clutter, handicap, burden)
   6. Martha was hospitable, kind…but encumbered
   7. Martha’s heart & mind were full, hampered, loaded, oppressed, taxed, weighed down.
   8. She needed to be the opposite of this; which = EMPTY
   9. Well what was she distracted with; “All the preparations that had to be made” or the KJV says, “About much serving.”
   10. SERVING = a ministry in the Christian community, viewed with reference to the work needed for others both in the case of individuals and community.
   11. Martha was weighed down because of ministry in the Christian community!
   12. Martha saw the activity of “getting empty” as failing God, because Martha placed greater priority on what she was doing instead of who she was becoming!
   13. Now, when she saw her sister Mary, she could only evaluate Mary’s response from her own weakness; Mary isn’t oppressed with all the preparations so she is failing me!
   14. Martha in V.40, turns to Jesus and says, “Don’t you care?”
   15. Martha complained, “My sister has left me.”
   16. Martha complained, “Do the work by myself.”
   17. Then Martha commands Jesus, “Tell her to help me!”
   18. This defined Martha’s relationship with Jesus has He visited her!

4. JESUS’ RESPONSE

1. Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things (troubled about many things)
2. Jesus’ response had nothing to do with hospitality, kindness or the motivational gift to serve others… IT WAS HER RESPONSE TO LIFE
3. Martha worried & got upset, that is a CHOICE she made
4. I know it was her choice because Jesus said…”Mary has chosen what is better…”
5. What “better” thing did Mary choose, the opposite of Martha, Mary chose to empty herself and sit at Jesus’ feet to listen to what He said.
6. Mary “wasted time” at the feet of Jesus! Martha will have none of that.
7. Martha is scared of who she is BECOMING, so she turns the Christian radio up and fills her day with what she is DOING.
8. Everything that Martha is doing is good, but not needful. This is hard to believe.
9. Jesus said that good is not what He is looking for, He desires better than good, the BEST!
10. Martha’s personal relationship with Jesus is don’t you care, everyone’s left me, I do all the work, change other people to be like me.

CHOICE

1. The great deception is that I don’t have a choice, I have to…
2. Jesus wants to say to you today, it is Christmas season, and only one thing is needed… but you have to choose it.

13 DAYS OF A MARTHA CHRISTMAS

12 – People to buy for
11 – Stores to shop in
10 – Yankee swap bible studies to go to
9 – Relatives to prepare for
8 – Rooms to clean
7 – Rooms to decorate
6 – Cookie swap Christmas parties to go to
5 – Christmas plays to get to
4 - Tree lightings to attend
3 - Christmas services to be at
2 - hours of sleep
1 - Huge credit debt
0 - Meaningful time meditating & praying about the birth of my personal Savior.

QUOTE: “But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

-Gabriel the Angel of the Lord-