Good morning everybody. This morning, God is sending us the rains to feed the growth of our faith here at Hanmaum Church. This sermon is the last sermon God put on my heart to preach at this church. It’s been an exciting 12 years here at Hanmaum Baptist Church. It has been a wonderful time of learning, growing, and loving people in a community of faith. I want to thank each and everyone of you here for adding a distinct and prayerful thread to my life, and to the life of my wife, Michelle. You will always be in our prayers, and in forefronts of our thoughts. With that said, I’m not going to waste anymore time and get to the important business of the hour. The important time we spend together here on Sunday we will talk about how God is stretching our lives and our faith through the circumstances in our lives. The great exercise of stretching our faith in God, and living beyond what we see and do on a daily basis lies in how we spend our time.
What you need to understand is that time is the most expensive commodity in this world. You cannot buy time even if you wanted to, nor can you make time. How we spend our time and where we spend our time will determine what happens in lifetimes.
How many of us, when we’re working, have missed out on some important life events because we were busy taking care of the urgent things that stand before us? I know I have. I know there have been times, when I am at the office where I have to stop the important work that I was doing, to take care of something urgent. Unfortunately, because I had to take care of what was urgent, I missed the opportunity of doing what was important. Maybe, you had something urgent to do at work or for your business, so you missed the important event in your life, an anniversary, a birthday, church on Sunday! It happens. I know, I’m a pastor, there are some urgent things that keep us from important things.
What is that feeling we get deep down in the pit of our stomachs every time we have to deal with the urgent things in life and miss out on the important things in life? Isn’t that feeling guilt, sadness, depression, loss. Most of us, will write that off as life pains, part of the experience of life, but I believe that God didn’t save us by the blood of his son Jesus Christ so that we would have that in our lives. We weren’t saved so that we can lose out on the important things in life. No, he saved us so that we can see how much more important those things can be because Jesus manifests His power in those things.
I want you to understand this morning that urgent and important aren’t the same thing. There are a lot of urgent things, but very few important things. And because the pace of life we are living, we sometimes confuse what is urgent with what’s important. When we confuse those two things and situations, we give up the important for something urgent, but unimportant. The title of today’s sermon is “Important Time.”
Let’s open up our Bibles to Luke 10:38-42. This is a story that all of you may have heard but may not have given much thought to.
38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
I want you to understand the context by which Luke places this story in this Gospel. It is in between the parable of the Good Samaritan and where Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray. This passage is in between two very powerful passages that we can easily miss the importance of what we’re being taught here when we read this passage: to live the life God has created you to live, you need to faithfully chose to spend your time with the important things in life and not just take your time dealing with the urgent things in your life.
In fact, when we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we find that a lawyer, who should know the important things in life had to ask Jesus, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” You would think a smart lawyer would know the answer of such an important question. Jesus answered him: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. But the lawyer wasn’t that smart, so he had to ask who is my neighbor? You understand that the lawyer in this story did not see the importance of the people in his life, so he had to ask, “who is my neighbor.” I want you to know that every pain and nuisance of a person in your life is in your life so that you can show them the love of God and the glory of Jesus Christ to them. This is something important we need to do.
You know this story, right? There was a guy who was going from one city to another, and he got robbed and left for dead, and a priest and a Levite both passed by him on the other side. We don’t know why they did that, but I assume they had other urgent business in Jericho and they couldn’t stop to do something for somebody who was in their life that was important. It was a Samaritan, a sworn enemy of the Jewish people, that did the important job of loving people in life and thereby illustrating the shame of people who claim to follow Christ, miss the opportunity to encounter the love of Christ because they are so busy taking care of what is urgent that they miss the important.
It was after this happened that Jesus came to the house of Mary and Martha, the sisters of his close friend, Lazarus. I don’t know what Jesus was teaching when he was at their house, but I’m sure it was pretty good. Martha and Mary were having a big party. If you ever hosted a party in your house, you know that there is a lot that go on to host a party. You have to clean, you have cook, you have to clean again, you have to cook some more, you have to give people food, you have to show people the bathroom. Then you actually have to entertain, you need things to talk about. When people come it’s so urgent you get lots of things done. Martha was urgently getting the serving done. She was distracted by the urgent that she didn’t see what was important: what Jesus was teaching.
Have you ever thought why there is no detailed teaching here? I do. I believe it was because when Luke went to write this book, he didn’t get a chance to speak to Mary, who was there listening to the teaching of Jesus, but he spoke with Martha, who told Luke this story about how this had happened. Look at the story carefully, in the story, Luke expertly recalls what Martha said to Jesus and what Jesus replied to her. Nobody has this type of memory unless it was a fond memory or a scarring one. Am I right? You don’t have to answer. I know I’m right. But this illustrates the point: when we are caught up dealing with the urgent things in life, we forget to stop and think about importance of those urgent things, and when we do, we miss out on the important things, like Martha.
What if you and I stopped mis-prioritizing urgent things over important things. What if we took the time to work on the important things in life and ignore some of the urgent things in our lives. Wouldn’t you get so much more back from life? Moreover, what if taking the time to do those important things, and actually solved the things that were once urgent? Isn’t that an economic opportunity? Wouldn’t we have more impact that way? Wouldn’t we be able to do so much more than we could have? In fact, I believe that we would live closer to the version of our lives that God created for us, if we prioritized our lives that way. I want to go to verse 41 and 42.
41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
One thing is necessary. Can we repeat that? One thing is necessary. It’s true. You only need one thing. There is only one thing that we must choose, that is the most important thing we can choose as saved followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus was telling Martha that there is one thing that is most important in our lives and we can’t allow anything else in our lives take away from that one thing. I am telling you right now now that if you want to be stretched by God in your life and actually do greater things than what you read in the Bible. If you want coming to church and believing in Jesus as your Savior to mean more to you than what the pastor says on Sunday, you have to pursue that one thing without fail. Martha knew what Jesus was talking about. Jesus doesn’t have to explain what that one thing is to Martha. He knew she knew. I know you know. You’ve heard what that one thing is.
Whenever you’re swamped with more urgent things to tend to than you have time for. Whenever you feel like God is distant. Whenever you feel like your life is not going in the direction that you know you were born to head in, then you have to stop everything and evaluate where you are and what your circumstances are. You have to look at what and where you’re spending your time, and ask yourself, “have I allowed the urgent to over take the important” in my life? If you have then you know for sure that you are like Martha, who is worried about everything and anxious over small things. We need to stop pursuing those things.
Do you want to know what that one thing is? I’m going to tell you. Let’s open our Bibles to Matthew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The one thing Jesus was telling Martha was necessary, the only thing that is important is this: The Kingdom of God and His righteousness. When was the last time you took the time to seek the kingdom of God? Honestly? When was the last time we stopped whatever urgent thing we were doing in the busy morning before work or before dinner, or before church service, to pursue the one important thing in life?
You know, we have to brush our teeth because we have to get to work before traffic. I have to catch a plane to the airport. I have to make breakfast or lunch for my husband or wife. I have to do grocery shopping. I have to go wash my underwear. I have to pay the bills. I have to watch my TV dramas. I have to walk my dogs. There are so many urgent things that in the middle of it all, we didn’t seek first, the kingdom of God. That important thing got lost in the midst of the urgent things in life.
I’m not different because I’m a pastor, I’m a human being just like you. I just happen to have the responsibility of teaching everybody here what’s most important one hour a week every Sunday. Sometimes, I get wrapped up in doing the urgent life things that I lose sight of the important things, the kingdom things and when I look back in hindsight I realize that God gave me an opportunity to experience and witness and do something for his Kingdom, and I missed out on that important time in my life. But the good news is that the last time we got fooled into losing sight of the important things in life, won’t be the last time God does something important in our lives. We just need to make time for Him to do them in our lives. I want you to leave here today, knowing that we are going to stop getting distracted by some of the urgent things in life, so that we can focus on the important things in life that we need to reserve our time for.
And if we actually took the time to do what was important and seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, then maybe, all those urgent things, well, I wouldn’t be so anxious about it. I wouldn’t have to spend so much time worrying about them. Too often we’re pressed for time because we’re dealing with what’s urgent. But the problem with living that way is that because we’re dealing with the urgent, we miss out on taking care of things that are important.
So, here’s the real question: how do we spend our time with the important task of seeking first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness? How do we do that one thing in our lifetimes? Remember at the beginning of this sermon, I was telling you that this story is right in the middle of the story about the Good Samaritan that illustrated what happens when believers get distracted with the urgent. Well, the other side of this story was when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray. The one thing, the seeking the kingdom of God, is to spend our time praying to God. We need to spend time with Him.
Are we spending time praying to God? Are we seeking God in our lives? I don’t just mean when we have to eat, but also when we have no time because we’re late or busy? Have you prayed? Have you gotten your daily bread – the Bible? Do you just dust that off on Sunday morning? That is the one thing. That is the most important thing. That is the first thing we need to be doing. That is the only thing that matters.
We need to prioritize our lives to take care of what’s important and then there wouldn’t be as many urgent things to do. Moreover, we’d be living where God wanted us to live. I’m not saying that urgent things aren’t important, but what I am saying is that we get too caught up in urgent things that we forget that there are things that are more important in life. When we leave here today, after this service ends and when I’m not here to remind you of what’s important, I want you to find the time for what’s important: time with God. Time to be with Him. Time to see how the people in your lives need God’s love even when you have much more urgent things going on.
This is why Hanmaum Church exists—so people who are busy, can find the time to do what’s important: love God, and love people that don’t deserve it. I am proud to say that I served the most gracious and loving group of people. People who realize that the important thing in life is seeking God and loving people where they are, for all their faults, their bumps, their brusies, scars and problems. You love the way God loves. Now I want you to live your lifetimes seeking the important things of God—the important things God created you for. You were born to inherit God’s Kingdom as His child. Go seek it. It is the most important thing you will ever do in your life. More important than your jobs, your kids, your possessions. When you seek God, He will never fail you. He will never abandon you. He will help you and nothing can stop the love of God in your life, so live without fear. Jesus died for us so that we can become set apart and made holy, so that our home in God’s kingdom can be established. Let’s live our lives knowing that is the most important thing. Let us pray.
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