Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Worship- Part 2



The story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42 is a very intriguing story. You have two sisters that are out to please Jesus. According to verse 39, after inviting Jesus into their home, they both start out at the feet of Jesus’ worshipping Him. But according to the scripture, Martha became distracted serving. Now, Martha was doing the noble thing by serving, but it had become a distraction. She began to complain about the things that Mary was doing, which is what Jesus considered the thing that was needed (worshipping God).
Often times, we get caught up doing noble things that are not necessarily needed and lose focus on the one thing that we should always be doing and that is worshipping God.  This same Mary got caught up worshipping Jesus and anointing His feet with oil and washing them with her hair.
Now when Lazarus was sick, Martha and Mary’s brother, the bible says in John 11 that Jesus loved them. When Martha saw Jesus again, the first thing she did was question Him as to why He delayed coming. To her credit, Martha did acknowledge that God was still able to raise Lazarus even after he’d died.
Now, the next time that Mary had an encounter with Jesus, her response was very different. The bible says in John 11:32, that Mary fell down at Jesus feet, and essentially said the same thing. But Jesus’ response to Mary (worshipper) was much different from that of His response to Martha (noble servant). The bible says in verse 33 that Jesus groaned in His spirit and was troubled. Jesus moved immediately to see Lazarus. Now, when the Jews had taken Jesus to see Lazarus, the bible says, “Jesus wept”. This is a clear indication of the love and affection that Jesus had for Lazarus.
The bible says in verse 38 that Jesus groaned again as he approached the tomb. By this time, doubt had set into Martha’s mind because Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus then asked, did I not say that “if you would believe, you would see the Glory of God" ( Worship helps us to keep focused and continue believing in spite of circumstance).
Then Jesus, before he even raised Lazarus from the dead said, “Father, I thank you”. Sometimes, we have to just thank God in advance for what we need for Him to do in our lives. If we would just thank Him for the situation, He is more apt to deliver us out of the situation.
The moral of the story is this: do not get so caught up in the things that need to be done that we forget to do the one thing that is needed. And that one thing is to WORSHIP God Almighty. I know in my role in ministry, I would be considered a Martha more than a Mary. Where do you see yourself? Are you the noble servant or are you the Worshipper?

Melvin Stigler
Associate Pastor
www.nbcornerstone.com



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