Mary and Martha hosted Jesus in their home, but Martha started to get annoyed and she confronted Jesus.

What's matter with you? Why aren't you having my sister out here helping me?

Instead of having me do all the work, I want you to go tell her to give me a hand with these things.

So now she's telling her Lord what he's done wrong and then now tells her Lord what he needs to do to correct the matter.

You know when we read that story, we think, wow, that was pretty fool-hardy of Martha to do that.

But the story of Mary and Martha is also practical.

We look around us and see others who aren't working quite as hard as we are and we get annoyed just like Martha.

But the point of this story isn't division of labor. As Dr. R. C. Sproul points out, it's a division of priorities.

We're going to continue now our study of the gospel according to St. Luke and we're in the end of chapter 10.

And I will be reading beginning at verse 38 and reading through verse 42.

Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving.

And she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away from her.

Again, this is a very brief passage. The one that is filled with profound significance as it gives us a word from Jesus himself to his beloved friend, Martha, presumably there at Bethany.

Again, this comes to us through the superintendents and inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit, who is a God of total truth. And I ask you to receive it as such this morning.

Let's pray.

Again, our Father and our God, we look to you as the fountainhead of all that is true and all that is good and all that is beautiful. And we pray that that truth which is revealed to us this day in this Your Holy Word may grip our souls and influence profoundly the way we live out our faith before you.

But we ask it in your name. Amen.

This morning sermon is intended to be a very practical one, not one that's going to be heavy with theology or philosophy or that sort of thing.

But we'll deal with some of the fundamental principles by which we are to live out the Christian life.

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