First Things First
By Tim C. Moore
"Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving and came to him, and said Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, "Martha, Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful; and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 10: 38-42
Just a few years ago there was a flight of one of the major airlines from New York to Miami. The crew began to make preparations for landing when they noticed that the light, which indicates that the landing gear was down, did not come on.
The Captain instructed the Engineer to get a new bulb, and he began to work on the light trying to get it to come on. The Co-pilot who was supposed to be landing the plane, also got pre-occupied with this little light and he and the captain together began to thump and to pound on the light trying to get it to come on. Well, in the meantime, no one thought to abort the landing or to manually lower the landing gear.
While that crew was focusing in on a faulty light bulb that plane crashed into the Everglades and over one hundred people lost their lives.
Now that plane crashed for one reason. The crew had the wrong priority. They were doing the right thing, but they were doing it at the wrong time. They failed to put first things first.
The Lord Jesus was extremely sensitive to "first things." Over and over He taught the PRINCIPLE OF PROPER PRIORITIES. He emphasized continuously putting first things first.
For example, He pointed out that the key to handling conflicts is to put first things first.
"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. FIRST be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Mt. 5:23-24) He taught that the way you get what you need in life is to put first things first. "But seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Mt. 6:33)
He illustrated that the way to avoid hypocrisy is to put first things first. "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck out of your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite!
FIRST remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye." (Mt. 7:4-5)
This principle of "first things first" even affects the second coming of Jesus. For the Lord said that before He returned "the gospel must FIRST be preached to all the nations." (Mark 13:10)
An incident took place with a small family, in a small home, in a small town, that allowed Jesus to
teach one of the biggest lessons of his entire ministry. The entire incident didn't take more than
sixty seconds, and if it were not for Dr. Luke we would never have known about it. Yet, in this passage Jesus tells us unmistakably what ought to be the first priority of every life. He not only tells us to put first things first, He tells us what that first thing ought to be.
There are three characters in this story - two sisters and one Savior. There's Martha, Mary and the Master. Now all three teach us how to put first things first.
I. Martha: The Problem Of Frustration
Here we have two sisters - "Meatloaf Martha" and "Meditating Mary." They were as different as night and day.
The name Martha means "Mistress." That is exactly what she was, the mistress of the house. Martha was the one who kept the fires burning and the food cooking. She was a wonderful homemaker.
She was a hospitable woman. She was the one who welcomed Jesus into her home and she never turned a guest away. She was a hard working woman. She didn't mind rolling up her sleeves and fixing a meal on the spur of the moment for anybody. She was a holy woman. There was no outstanding sin in her life. She was a morally pure, clean living, wholesome woman. But in this story she's not a happy woman. Indeed she is extremely bitter and resentful. She was frustrated with everybody and everything. Here was Martha sweating and serving while Mary was sitting and soaking. She was wet with sweat, beat with heat, stuck in the muck, and she didn't like it.
Finally, she had all she could take, and I can see her now as she burst into that room, sweat pouring down her brow, tapping her foot, a platter in one hand and pitcher in the other, and ready to throw them both at anything that moves.
She is so angry she won't even talk to Mary. Rather she talks to the Lord. She said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." (v.40)
Now that statement also tells us she was upset with the Savior. She accuses Jesus of being
indifferent and insensitive.
But Martha was really upset with herself. First of all she was distracted. Verse 40 tells us that
"Martha was distracted with much serving." The word there literally means "to be drawn away" or "to be dragged about." Mary was letting the tail wag the dog. She had substituted busyness for blessing. She was so pre-occupied with giving physical food to Jesus that she had neglected getting spiritual food from Jesus.
She was also distressed. Jesus said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried." The word there
literally means to be "drawn in different directions." In other words, she was uptight. She was so consumed with the temporal she had forgotten the eternal.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:31 that we should not worry about what we should eat or what we should drink, and that is exactly what Mary was worried about.
She was distraught. Jesus also observed that she was "troubled." (v.41) That word literally means "to be thrown into an uproar." She had had all she could take and her frustrations finally floated to the top and she exploded. Now I want you to notice carefully that Martha's problem was not with her sister, and it was not with her Savior, it was with herself.
Do you know what Martha's problem was. She had allowed what was urgent to the world to crowd out of her life what was important to the Lord.
Years ago Charles Hummel wrote a very important article entitled, "The Tyranny of the Urgent." He made this statement: "We all think we need a thirty-hour day to cope with life. But would a thirty-hour day really solve the problem?
Wouldn't we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four hour allotment? Our dilemma goes deeper than shortage of time. It is basically the problem of priorities."
Martha was under the tyranny of the urgent. She had failed to put first things first. You see, all work and no worship makes Jack a frustrated Christian. If there's no fellowship in the den there will be frustration in the kitchen. The greatest barrier to blessing is the burden of busyness.
We mutter and sputter,
We fume and we spurt;
We mumble and grumble,
And our feelings get hurt.
We can't understand things,
Our vision grows dim;
When all that we need,
Is a moment with Him.
There is not a frustration you have in your life, as a Christian, but what it cannot be traced back to misplaced priorities, failing to put first things first and failing to spend quality quiet time with the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. Mary: The Priority Of Fellowship
There was a big difference between those two sisters that day. Martha welcomed Jesus, then went
off to work. Mary welcomed Jesus, then sat down to worship. Three times we read about Mary in the New Testament and every time she is always in the same place - at the feet of Jesus.
Don't get the idea that Martha was a worker and Mary was a worshipper, and you've got to make a choice between the two. Look at verse 39 carefully: "And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word." (v.39) Do you see the word also.
You see, Mary had done her part in the kitchen. She was a worker as well as a worshipper. But Mary had learned that worship must come before work, and that true work flows out of worship.
Jesus was not condoning laziness, He was condemning busyness. Sometimes people quit working in the church under the pretext of spending more time with their family. When the real reason they're quitting is because they're just plain lazy. Now don't misunderstand me, I believe you ought to put your family before the church. But I do not believe you ought to put your family before God, and God wants every one of you personally involved in working in His church. You see, it is not a question of either/or, it is a question of both/and. It is not a question of which, it is a question of when. You are to worship and you are to work, but your worship is to come before your work. Worship is the root of work and work is the fruit of worship.
Charles Wesley said it perfectly in one of his hymns:
Faithful to my Lord's commands
I still would choose the better part;
Serve with careful Martha's hands,
And loving Mary's heart.
You see, the Lord wants us to imitate Mary in our worship, and Martha in our work. He would say, "How blessed are the balanced." But Mary had learned the priority of fellowship.
Jesus is more interested in relationships than He is in results. Jesus wants your worship before He wants your work. Time spent with God must come before time spent for God. We see this clearly as we bring Jesus into the picture.
III. The Master: The Principle Of Focus
The Lord Jesus makes one of the most startling, stunning, strongest statements in all of his ministry in verse 42, "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part."
If you were to ask Jesus today what is the single most important thing I can do with my life on a daily basis, He would tell you in two words, "SIT DOWN!"
The first priority of your life is to establish, cultivate, develop, and grow a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. May I give you a humbling thought. You need Jesus; Jesus doesn't need you. Jesus can do anything without you, but you can do nothing without Him. He said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
You see, the key to being right with God is not doing things for God. The key to doing things for God is being right with God. If you are so busy doing things for God that you are not spending time with God, you are too busy.
Peter Marshall, the former Chaplain of The United States Senate, once prayed, "Forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see that without prayer our work is a waste of time."
May I honestly tell you that I am preaching to me more than I am preaching to you. The Devil would much rather that I prepare a lesson than that I prepare me. Dr. Havner said, "There is no work more likely to crowd out the quiet hour than the very work that draws its strength from the quiet hour."
There is an old story of two men who were chopping trees in the forest. The first man set a steady pace and worked all day without stopping. The second man worked equally hard, but he took a few minutes every hour on the hour to sit down and rest. Well, at the end of the day the second man had cut and stacked twice as much wood as the first one.
Well the first man came to his co-worker and said, "I don't understand it. I've worked just as hard as you have and I haven't even stopped to rest. You have rested every hour during the day. How did you cut twice as much wood as I did?
The second man said, "Well you see, you're right, I have stopped to rest. But the thing you fail to notice is that each time I sat down I sharpened my axe." Too many times we get so busy chopping the wood that we forget to take time out to sharpen the axe.
The whole point of this passage is: If you'll sharpen the axe first you'll work better, you'll work smarter, and you'll work happier.
The Lord Jesus gives us in this statement the three principles that will help you to have proper
priorities and put first things first. First of all, there is the principle of decision. Jesus pointed out, "Mary has chosen that good part." If you're going to put first things first you have got to decide to, and you have got to decide what is going to be first. There are Martha's many things, and there is Mary's some thing. It requires discipline to choose the one good thing.
It's much easier at the end of the day to watch TV than it is to pray. It's much easier in the morning, by the time you're washed and dressed and had breakfast, to say, "Well, there's not much time for the Bible today." It is much easier to relax with a newspaper than it is to wrestle with the Word of God.
It is much easier to get up in the morning and tell the Lord what you're going to do, than to sit at His feet and ask Him what He wants you to do. But if you're going to put first things first, it begins with that decision.
But then there is the principle of discrimination. Notice that Mary chose "the good part." You see, the enemy to the best is not the bad, it is the good. I don't have to choose between the good and the bad. I've got to choose between the good and the best. That's why Paul prayed that the Philippians might "approve the things that are excellent." (Phil. 1:10)
Do you know why Jesus told Martha that only one thing is needed? Because Jesus will survive if Martha doesn't feed Him, but Martha won't survive if Jesus doesn't feed her.
I have seen so many successful Christians "die on the vine" because they were so busy spending time for God they had no time to spend time with God. If you don't abide in the vine, you will die on the vine.
Jesus would rather eat soup with fellowship than have steak without fellowship.
Finally, there is the principle of duration. Jesus goes on to say that the good part she chose will not be taken away from her. In other words, Jesus said you ought to set your priorities based on that which is eternal and will never pass away.
I don't know of anyone who has made more of an impact for the Lord Jesus Christ in the Twentieth Century than Dr. Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. Bill Bright once made this statement: "I try to prioritize everything I do in light of The Great Commission." That is the principle of duration. Spend your life on things that will outlast it.
If you are not a Christian, the first priority of your life at this very second ought to be to establish a personal relationship with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian your first priority in life every day ought to be to sit at the feet of Jesus, hear His word and learn more about Him that you might love Him more.
So sitting at Thy feet, my heart
would all its love outpour.
And pray that Thou wouldst teach me Lord
To love Thee more and more.
When every Christian learns to put first things first. When we better learn how to seek first the kingdom of God...here will be plenty of money for missions, plenty of manpower for service, and the work of the Lord will prosper. The sad truth is, not every Christian has yet learned how to put first things first.