Introduction:

In 1990 a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs ice-cream store in a Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. While she was ordering a customer entered the store. She placed her order, turned and found herself staring face to face with Actor Paul Newman. He was in town filming a movie. She was completely enameled and focused on his every move. Finally she made her way out of the ice cream shop when she realized she didn’t have her Haagen-Dazs ice cream cone; so she turned to go back. At the door she once again met Paul Newman who was coming out. He turned and said to her, “Ma Are you looking for your ice-cream cone?” She nodded yes. “You put it in your purse along with your change.” What happen to this dear lady is she focused on the person with “Paul Newman”. Ice cream you can get anytime but a visit with Paul Newman. I believe that is what happened here with Mary. She was focused on the person of Jesus.

This time of the year we get so busy because decorations need to be taken out of storage. They need to be arranged. There are decorations for the windows, the doors, and the outside shrubbery. And let’s not forget decorating the tree, with garland, lights, balls, and all types of other keepsakes we’ve gathered over the years. There is shopping to do, people to buy gifts for, folks coming to share holiday get-togethers with. The malls are crowded this time of year, and the traffic and parking are slow and we forget the reason for the season.

We can end up getting stressed out and burned out. At Christmas we need to be careful not to get distracted with business that will we leave God out. Business can take it toll on us spiritually. Matthew 13:22.

I Don’t be too Busy (Luke 10:38-40)

1. Martha is a classic example of how we undertake projects for family with good intentions and blow them out of proportion. Martha loved Jesus dearly and would have done anything for Him. Her struggle came in being too busy! Martha spend so much time serving Jesus that she had no time to enjoy His company or to get to know Him better. The harder Martha worked, the more frustrated she became with her sister Mary. The Bible said in vv. 38 she was cumbered. In English this conveys the idea of harass or burden but the (Grk. perispao means {per-ee-spah’-o} to be driven about mentally, to be distracted or to be over-occupied, all around too busy, about a thing.

Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet while Martha scurried around the house to make sure everything was in perfect order. Martha’s service, though it started out with gladness, deteriorated into resentment and envy. Take time to enjoy “Jesus”. The Lord wanted Martha to hear… listening to Him is the main event. Sometimes good things take us away from something better.

2. In verse [41] And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: “Notice Jesus said “MANY THINGS.” It wasn’t that she was just upset about the dinner and Mary helping her it was much more than one thing. That’s how stress affects us; things build and build until finally we explode.
“BUT ONE THING IS NEEDED.”

II. Keep your focus vv. 41-42

1. The one thing needed, the one thing God desires of us is to spent time with Him. That quiet time alone with God you can seek His wisdom in the matters that concern you. If we were ever to slow down long enough to reflect on our busyness, we might be hard-pressed to identify what it is we are really accomplishing in our lives. At times, serving God and carrying out His mission is the best way to know and experience God. At other times, it is more important to sit quietly at His feet and listen to what He is saying.

Ps 37:7 tells us, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him.” Ps 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God.” But we are too much like Martha. For we live in a Martha world.

2. When our activity consumes our time and energies so that you have no time for Him, you have become too busy! You might think, as Martha did, that if you don’t do the work it won’t get done. That may be true, but Jesus taught that your highest priority must be your relationship with Him. If anything detracts you from that relationship, that activity is not from God. God will not ask you to do something that hinders your relationship with Him.

Sometimes the things we set out to honor God with end up dishonoring God. God wants us to enjoy the best gift of all…Jesus. Third, we can make a conscious effort to…

Martha got so busy serving Jesus she forgot to spend time with Jesus. We can get so busy with our preparations for Christmas, and our participation in Christmas that we forget to spend time with Christ.

A Mary Christmas means being more concerned with what you have in heaven.
A Martha Christmas means only being concerned with building an earthly home.

A Mary Christmas means being concerned with the spiritual side of Christmas treasures.
A Martha Christmas means only being concerned with the material things of Christmas.

C.S. Lewis stated: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next world. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this world.” CITO –Christians in thought only.

Illustration:
A man came to the pastor one time and said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with my life, but that first Christian joy I knew is gone and I can’t get it back. I still live a moral life. I go to church. But how can I recover that aspect of my faith?” His pastor said, “this is what you should do: Go to the store and buy a couple of bags of groceries and go to this address of a poor family. Then when you have given your gift, you sit down with them to find out what they need. Let them know that you are interested in them and that you are their friend. Then lead them in the Lord’s Prayer before you leave, that joy will come back.”

3. The whole reason for the Christmas celebration is to remember and celebrate the incarnation and what that means to us. That is what we must make a conscious effort to remember at Christmas and it will keep us from the experience a joyless Christmas. Remember that a perfect God sent his perfect Son to save an imperfect world.

Hebrews 5: [9] And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

Conclusion:

When Christmas is over are you going to be spiritually enthused and recharged or emotionally exhausted and overcharged?

If we truly want to wish Jesus a Happy Birthday then let us give Him gifts of our heart, our, time, our ears, and our lives. Trees and trinkets do not interest Him. Won’t you have a Mary Christmas and find the needful things that will stay with you all year, all decade, and all eternity?