"Setting Right Priorities"

Hi there this is on Solomon and I like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God is given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward and I'm so glad you tuned in to listen and be part of that. Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio and now let's get to the word of God Verse 38 as Jesus and his disciples were on their way. He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

Now we know the name of this little town was Bethany Bethany's operate far from Jerusalem. Maybe a 40 minute walk 45 minute walk overtop the Mount of olives and come down the other side, you're right there, and Jesus and his disciples with the end of the day and they had shown up in town now Marco was somewhere I don't know where she was.

Martha was maybe in the village square, shopping, or maybe she was in the supermarket or maybe she just walking down the street and she ran into Jesus, and she ran into his disciples member. There were 12 of these big burly fishermen who been walking all day long and she invites him to come to supper now.

That was kind of a different ending of the day. I think the Martha had planned on market only plan to feed herself for sister whose name was Mary and her brother, whose name was Lazarus. There were three of that's all she planned to feed all the sudden she's got Jesus and 12 hungry guys walked all day and are ready to sit down and Chouteau. Now I think of this. I think of what it would be like if let's say after the Super Bowl last year they had interviewed Troy Aikman as he came running off the field and said to Troy Aikman where you going now Troy and he would've said, I'm not going to Disney World I'm going over Martha's house for dinner and I bring in a whole offensive team with me that, like which he was given. Now you think that was stressful for Martha, how is it when guests are coming your houses and stressful tell you what was stressful about health.

You know those things where they rate stress.

You know they have 200 points for this thing in 100 points for this thing I tell you if they rated us for guests coming to our house. We would be right up there with moving, losing your job and finding out you're pregnant at 39. That's where we would be with just coming out.

I have learned never, ever to tell Brenda any bad news within three days of just coming over to how did you learn that because I did it and after I did it I was sorry I did it I said hello man I'm never doing that again. I me. We are stressed three days in advance.

When we got guests coming over and we only got friends coming over. Can you imagine here's Jesus's name is on the front page of every newspaper in Israel, and 12 burly fishermen walked all day long and are starving in all common Martha's house for dinner. You think she was little stressed out. I think she was and that stress is about to blow all over the walls. Here are just second watch, and verse 39 for she had a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Jesus enters the house members of little cracker Jack box healthy list of the house and he comes in with all of his 12 disciples people plastered all over everywhere and Jesus sits down and begins to talk. He begins to talk about spiritual things. He begins to teach spiritual truth, and Martha is running around trying to get everything ready for dinner while Mary is just, plopped down, crossed her legs and sitting there listening to Jesus. Now Martha is just completely frantic. The Bible says here that if you look at it that she was distracted by all the preparations that she had to make. She's washing the dirty dishes from lunch if you set the table and she's put ice in the glasses and she was making sure the hors d'oeuvres were running and make sure she got them in there while they were hot was already sent Lazarus back down three times to get more food, for she was sure she would run out Joe to make sure the roles came out same time green beans. Everything was hollow table same time as she was just Iraq. She was and she blew into the living room to bring in a new plate of hors d'oeuvres and there she sees her sister Mary sit down crosslegged on the floor chomping down on hors d'oeuvres and listening to Jesus while she's on the kitchen working our heart out and it just did not go down well.

Martha was not a happy camper. Look what happened in it, for she went up to the Lord and she said the award don't you care that my sister is left me to do all the work by myself tell her to get up and get out there and help me when she walked in she said.

Now, Lord, I would take some I'm really upset.

I mean, I'm downright picked up on out there in our kitchen and I got sweat rolling out my Facebook is messing up my makeup to my mascara trying all over everywhere I went, like a pig in the kitchen know that I still had my sister sit down. The I love it down and relax. Yes I would love to David somebody's order. I would love to do it if I could but if I do it when I can get eating, eat, you know that when I can get the food.

If I sit down and eat my sister Mary sit right here just sit down to eat and I want around the kitchen watching apathetic into the work is hard work and watching that here you tell her to get up and get her lazy body out there and help me.

It went on like that Martha was having a bad day. Not a good day. Looking Martha, I think of OC people oversee obsessive compulsive people does not strike you as Martha said, I don't know a lot. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not sure I understand what is an obsessive-compulsive person will only tell you because some of you are one and is soon as I describe them. You know the person sit next usual punch you and go catch you okay you know if your obsessive-compulsive wellness your excessive compulsive when you go on vacation you still sit down every morning and make a list of things to do your obsessive-compulsive your pheasant compulsive you're always doing a whole bunch of things at once, like dictating letters in your micro cassette is your drive home in rush hour traffic eating a big Mac you obsessive-compulsive.

If you like to take psychological tests every single year just to see if you become more obsessive-compulsive you got it bad folks you obsessive-compulsive. If you take all your children in order from oldest to youngest and name them in alphabetical order.

That's obsessive-compulsive behavior. Obsessive-compulsive people are people who thrive on doing not being doing. That's where they get their jollies. That's where they get their self-esteem strokes is from doing doing doing doing doing now is also when you punch somebody you sound sit right next to one of those people.

Well, you probably are obsessive-compulsive people are usually perfectionist there consumed with making sure every little detail is right.

They can't just sit, relax your face and relax idea fit relaxers I just sit down and talk talk or do some was nothing to do while constantly due projects are more important people. These obsessive-compulsive people are critical of themselves, which wouldn't be so bad except the critical her body out, which is that they have a need to control everything they want to control every body and everything in their process with control and all of this put together means that there always in the middle of interpersonal conflict are always in the middle of power struggles. These are obsessive-compulsive people got a good handle on Martha now okay if Martha was living today, we would say that she's a prime candidate for OCA obsessive compulsive. What anonymous right you got it and that here she blows into this room and she got steamrolling out of her ears. She's completely lost her blood pressure is running 200/150 and she is so upset because things are just not going the way they're supposed to go when I look what Jesus said verse 41 he says Martha can't you just hear him saying that Martha Gooch you calm down what you relax, you can blow a gasket dear column down, calm down.

Martha, you let your priorities get all scrambled up. You lost side was really important here tonight eating supper is not the most important thing happening tonight here dear Eve lost perspective, you are worried about so many things Martha, but there's really only one thing happening here tonight. That's really critical. It's really needed. Mary's chosen that to sit and listen to me to sit and concentrate on me to drink my words in her soul to feed her spiritual nature more than worrying about feeding her physical nature.

That's what's really important.

She's chosen, what's better and it's something that won't be taken away from her. Jesus said the same thing earlier. He said in Matthew chapter 4 man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's what Mary chose. Now did Jesus condemn Martha for trying to put on a great supper now. Was he angry at her know was he mad that she ran in the room like that know was he upset that she was out there working so hard trying to get dinner on no what she was doing was good and what he was trying to get her to see.

There was something better. She was missing, which was sitting and listening to him and he said to her, Martha looked at the right time to work for me. Yes, but there's also a right time to just sit and listen to me and feed your soul and commune with me and of the two. Martha sitting is more important than serving need to sit down will get to dinner later if we don't get to dinner.

It is not perfect and it's no big deal just that's where the pastor stopped abruptly and it leads us to ask the question.

So why anymore Don then answer the question now what Lester so what first okay when you look at Mary and Martha, which one of these two do you, most identify with condo raise your hand a skeptical pole but only Jan I one bearish how many of you done about Mary and how many of you identify with Martha while tell you without any attempt to explain Obama Martha I mean I Mean I Don't Have Probably 1% of Mary and Me Me on Martha All the Way.

Maybe You Are to, and I Suspect That A Lot Of Us Here Are Martha's Because Washington DC Attracts Obsessive Compulsive People. In Fact, If You Are Obsessive-Compulsive.

Washington DC Is Kinda like Mecca.

You Know What I'm Saying.

This Is Where Everybody Wants to Make Their Pilgrimage to If You Obsessive-Compulsive. The Adrenaline Is in the Air. It's in the Water, You Know. Testosterone Just, Floats around This Place. It's an Incredible Place. I'm Not Saying It's Good. I'm Just Saying That's the Way It Is.

And Even If You're Not Naturally This Way Even If You Don't Want to Be This Way. Even If You Don't Want to Live in This Rat Race Obsessive-Compulsive Pace.

Washington Makes You Live This Way with You Want to Live This Way Are Not Just to Survive. I Mean, at Your Office. You Got Proposals and Hearings in All Kinds of Time Sensitive Documents That Have To Be Done to Drive You to Bring Work Home at Night to Go Back to the Office like to Work on Saturday to Work on Sunday to Work All the Time You've Got Financial Strain of Living in One of the Most Expensive Areas of the World Were You Almost Need Two Incomes Just to Survive.

You Got Eternal Gridlock Everywhere You Go.

It's Gridlock. The Cars Everywhere and You Got Children and Got on Top of It and You Got School Meetings in Basketball and Baseball and Ballet and Piano in Soccer. No Doctor Ever Makes House Calls You Think the Pediatrician so Far Away from You, but You Gotta Drive All the Distance.

I Mean It Is Unbelievable What This Place Does to People. You Know What I Found about People Who Are Obsessive-Compulsive. They Have a Very Hard Time Setting Good Spiritual Priorities Just like Martha Had a Heart You Know What I Find about People Who Are Being Forced to Live like Obsessive-Compulsive.

They Have a Very Hard Time Setting Good Spiritual Priorities Just like Martha Had Trouble to Obsessive-Compulsive People. They Get Their Strokes by Doing Things That Was Martha's Problem. Martha Want to Do Things She Want to Put on a Dinner That Was so Good That the Apostles Will Get up, Peter Would Say Best Meal I Ever Had. Mars Is Always a Fisherman and Jesus Would Even Get up and Come over and Go Martha. That Was That Was Exquisite Best Meal I've Had a Long Time Man.

Her Self-Esteem Would've Gone through the Roof but to Sit and Listen While the Roles Burned Know That Is Not a Self-Esteem Builder If You Obsessive-Compulsive and yet Do You Understand What Was Happening. Martha Was Running around like a Crazy Woman Feeding Her Self-Esteem While Her Soul Was Starving.

That's the Problem. Obsessive-Compulsive People. If You're Living in Excessive Compulsive Society like Washington DC You Would Be Pushed into Trying to Live Just like That, Whether You Consider Yourself Obsessive-Compulsive Are Not Jesus Christ Is Challenging Us Here to Examine Our Priorities When It Comes to Feeding Our Soul. Everybody Knows. Psalm 23, Right Just about the Lord Is My Shepherd, I Shall Not Want. He Makes Me Lie down in Green. What Pastures He Leads Me beside Still. He Restores My He Leads Me in the Paths of Righteousness for His Namesake Yay Though I Walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I Will Fear No Way You Guys Know It Is Great That You Know What, in This Song David Is Using Some Metaphors to Describe What Happens When We Set Aside Time for Our Souls to Be with God's Know What He Said.

He Said When You Set Aside Time for Your Soul to Be with God. It's like You Are. She Who Doesn't Have Any Needs. All You Needs Are Met. It's like Curing Green Pastures. It's like You're in Still Waters. It's like You Can Walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death with Everybody around You, Terrified in Your Columns Can Be Summed It up by Saying Your Soul Is Restored. Save A Lot in This Crazy World We Live in.

With All the Turmoil of the Upheaval in the Confusion. This Is a Pipe Dream. This Is a Fantasy. Nobody Can Have That, Life in This World.

Wait a Minute. Yes, You Can. I Believe That What David Is Describing Is Available to Every Single Genuine Christian. You Can Have It If You Know Christ, but Folks Listen, It Doesn't Come to Martha's Were Scurrying around in the Kitchen Spending All Their Time Just Trying to Do Do Do Do Do Know It Comes to Mary's Who Have Dedicated with Carved out Some Time to Sit Quietly at Jesus's Feet and Feed Their Soul. That's Why Jesus Said Mary Has Chosen the Better Is on the Christians and Talk to Christians Everywhere. What I Find Is There Very Few of Us Were Experiencing with David Talk to. And the Reason Is There Very Few of Us Who Are Really Carving out the Kind of Time That It Takes to Get There and the Reason Is That We Live in a Society. The Quickfix Will Want the Quickfix. Not Only Do We Want to Physically We Wanted Spiritually. If I Want to Quickfix You Know We Want God to Stop Us with Some Burning Bush Experience. We Want to Be Walking along One Day and All Of A Sudden the Boxwood in Our Front Yard on Fire and God Talks to Us from the Boxwood and Then for Six Months.

We Go on the Strength of That Experience Would Have To Do Anything but Folks Don't Work That Way. We Want Some Kind of Dramatic Spiritual Moment That Fixes Us for Months, but the Truth Is That David Had a Spiritual Life That Came from Regular Spiritual Discipline in Many Senses. He Was like an Olympic Gold Medalist Who Got That Gold Medal Because of Years of Regular Athletic Discipline.

It Didn't Just Happen Because the Speed Skater of the Ice Skater Walked on the Ice and Set All This Is, I Think I'll Do It in the Olympics Know Know Know Their Years and Years and Years of Training and Preparation and Hard Work behind the Scenes before They Ever Get out There and Perform like That and That Was True of David Spiritual Life. I Work Out Of the Gym Here Locally.

I Try to Work out Three Days a Week.

I Usually Make It Sometimes Less, but I Ride the Lifecycle Right up by the Front Desk Were New People Come in. I Will Listen to New People Come in They Come in and They Look around at All the People Working out There and You Know I Mean I'm Telling Alma Shrimp Compared Most People Who Work out This June, Not the Gals.

The Guys on the Shrimp Compared Most of the Guys Some of the Gals Actually but Anyway There Are Some Incredible Specimens the Workout at This June and I Watched People and They Walk in and They Look around and They Look around and You Send Some Say I Want to Be like Mike.

I Mean Here They Look around and Going.

While This Is What I Want to Look like and Then They Ask This Kind of Question, How Many Weeks Am I Going to Have To Work before I Begin Getting in Shape like These People and You Watch the Instructors Try Not to Giggle Because These People Didn't Get in That Kind of Shape in a Matter of Weeks and Say What I'm Saying You These People Are and Therefore Days a Week and Five Days a Week, Year after Year after Year. And That's Why They Look like They Get to Look like That Three Weeks Where People Walk in the General Want a Three Week Fix.

Now There Are Some of Those People Who after Year and Year near near near to Look like Some of Those People Will Better Develop Better and the Point I'm Trying to Make to You Is Folks, There Is No Quick Fix to Looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. It Takes Time and Discipline and Hard Work and Consistency and Regularity and That's the Way It Is in the Spiritual Realm.

We Watch People Get Our Football for All of You Enjoy Enjoy Watching Football Games This Weekend.

I Mean This Is, like, This Is the Best Time of the Year, You Know, This Is like Heaven.

If Your Sports Fan and the Football Games, Basketball Games, This Is Awesome Time. But Anyway, We Watch As God That Will Appeal All Of A Sudden Listen My Kids Comment That Path. Get out There to Pass a Really You Can Get out There and Catch up As Absolutely after Lawrence Taylor Hit You Twice You Could Catch a Path You Bet If You Ever Sent Home and Said That God Bless You. But You Know You Need to Go Home and Confess That You Live You Can Get out There and Do That and You Cannot We Watch These People Go out on the Football Field and Doing.

And We Say All Feel to Be Just like Them but We Don't See Is the Years and Years and Years. Those Guys Spin off the Field in the Weight Room in the Training Room on the Practice Field Getting Themselves Prepared so They Can Go on the Field and Do What They Do Not the Same Thing Is True in the Spiritual Life. We Look at the Apostle Paul, We Look at Moses We Look at Ruth We Look at Debra We Look at Some of These Great Men and Women of the Bible and down to Church History.

Can We Go Oh I Want to Be like Can I Get to Be like Them in Three Weeks. You Can't See These People Had Years and Years and Years of Spiritual Discipline That Made Them the Men and Women of God That They Were and There Is No Shortcut. They Had Their Priorities Right. And When It Finally Came. Their Opportunity to Go on the Field They Were Ready and They Were Able to Perform Correctly Because of All the Time.

They Had Spent off the Field before That, Preparing Themselves Spiritually.

For That Moment. We Want to Prepare Ourselves We Were Going to Feel Do What They Do, Can't Do It on Half Salon Was a Point.

The Point Is, My Dear Friend, How about You and Your Priorities Are You Setting Aside Regular Time to Read Your Bible, and to Spend Time with God in Prayer and to Listen to God Talk to You Back or You so Busy Feeding Your Ego in Your Career and Your Ministry and Your Personal Ambition to Starving Your Soul You Know It Is so Sad. I See People Everywhere Who Have All the Money They Want All the Fame They Want All the Procedure Could Ever Get All the Power You Could Ever Want All the Material Possessions the Careers at the Top, but Their Souls Were Starving to Death and Their Lives Are Falling Apart. See, They Neglected the Best Thing Maybe for Some Good Things, but They Missed This.

If I Ask Your Best Friend or Your Wife or Your Husband or Your Children Are You or Martha or Mary, What Would They Tell Me Where Mary Chose the Best Thing. I Hope You Will Too. It's Never Too Late. I Don't Care How Bad You've Neglected Your Spiritual Disciplines Is Never Too Late Starts to Blot on the How to Do It. Hey, Can You Formula One Would You Stop with the Quickfix Uniform Guiding Formula Very Well. I Do Know Know Know Is Not like That.

Just Get Your Bible out and Read It and Let God Talk to You and Get on Your Knees and Tell Them about What You're Facing and Talk to Them and Then While You're on Your Knees, Shut up for A While and Let Them Talk to You. Simple God Do the Rest. The Reason Most of Us Don't Have That Kind of Time with God Is Not Because It's Hard, but Because We Don't Discipline Our Lives to Carve It out and Make a Priority Well in a Close with. Now What My Question Is, What You Gonna Do with What We Talked about Today We Go to Do with You so Well Walk out and Say Long Was Right yet What He Could Do about All on the Get the Card Away Home and I Must Say, Long Was on the Day Know What He Could Do about It. Want to Go to Sears by Tape and Give It to My Best Friend. They Need This Known in the Limit. What Are You Going to Do about to Do about It Here Tomorrow Morning at 6 AM. What Are You Going to Do about All Know Folks. It Is Not Going to Change What You Do Tomorrow in Your Daily Schedule on One on This to Do You Get a Good Gotta Change Your Life. What Are You Going to Do about God Will Help You but You Gotta Make the Commitment and Do Something, Let Me Say Now Enclosing One of the Thing. If You're Here, You're like Howard Rutledge to Know the Fellow I Read about That Pilot and You, like Too Busy and Too Preoccupied. You Have a Time for God in Your Life and You Pretty Much Going along Just, Put Right along with the Rest of the World Cannot Reach of the Last Sentence I Skipped the Last Sentence in His Quote. Let Me Read the Very Last Sentence He Went on to Say It Took Prison in North Vietnam to Show Me How Empty Life Is without God You're Here.

I Hope It Doesn't Take Prison in North Vietnam or Something like That in Your Life to Show You How Much You Need God in Your Life. If Your Target Try to Struggle It out Yourself. If You Try to Do with the Way the World Tells You to Do It and It Just Hasn't Satisfied before Takes Tragedy to Wake You up This Morning Would Be a Great Time for You to Say God, Let's Try to Know the Way, Let's Try with You in My Life. I Hope You Think about That and I Hope Even This Morning to Say God It's Time for You to Become a Part of My Life I've Been Too Busy to Preoccupied but That's Can Change Closer Our Eyes and Our Heads. And Let's Pray Lord I Pray That You Would Help Us Give Us the Discipline We Need. Give Us the Sense of Priority That We Need Give Us the Sense of Stick to It of This That We Need to Make This Valuable Time Lord. So Much so That That in the Days and Months and Years Ahead As We Begin Seeing Change from Us Feeding Our Soul Every Day. That Is, People Watch Us. Be Calm in the Middle of the Storm out in That World They'll Be Coming to Us and Say What If You God What's Different about You, Lord, I Pray That That Would Be True of Our Lives Because We Been with Jesus Christ before We Entered the Store.

Thank You for Speaking to Our Hearts This Morning and I Pray That Our Lives Would Be Different Because of What We've Heard Here Today We Pray in Jesus Name Amen Been Listening to Sam Levin, Dr. Lon Solomon Is an Outrage of Lon Solomon Ministry to Listen to Today's Message More. For More Information Visit Our Website.

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