Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - With the Anxious

Episode Date: December 1, 2023

It’s not the whale events in your life that make you who you are. It’s all the guppies. Every morning you wake up and millions of them come at you. You have to eat. You have to sleep. You have appointments. The mundane, the hum-drum, the hustle and bustle.  The difference between Martha and Mary is that Martha is swept along by the mundane, but Mary has put her feet at the bottom of the stream. The stream is going one way, but Mary walks the direction she wants to walk. Mary sits at Jesus’ feet in spite of distractions, in spite of opposition.  Because we’re more like Martha than Mary, we’re sinking in a sea of mediocrity. So we ask, what does it mean to sit at Jesus’ feet? Let’s look at: 1) who Martha is, 2) what Martha needs, 3) what Mary does, and 4) why we should do like Mary. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 9, 1997. Series: The Real Jesus Part 2: His Life. Scripture: Luke 10:38-11:13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We like to help you prepare your heart for the Christmas season by sending you a free daily devotional during the Admin season. To sign up, just visit GospelInLife.com slash Admin to receive an email each day from December 3 through December 24. Again, to sign up, just go to GospelInLife.com slash Admin. Again, to sign up, just go to gospelandlife.com slash admin. Now here's today's teaching from Tim Keller. The passage on which the teaching is based is printed in your bulletin, and we're only going to read the first chapter, though I may make some comments about its context. Just the first paragraph, story of Mary and Martha,

Luke chapter 10, verse 38 to 42. As Jesus and His disciples were on their way, He came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,

Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, he were worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. This is God's word. Now, you know, we're doing a biography of Jesus essentially in these morning services. We're taking places, events in his life, and we're building a biography to get a picture of him.

And there's a great danger in doing that. It's a great danger that we gravitate, either in my selection or in your reading, is always a great danger of gravitating to the most dramatic of the events. And we have, to some degree, I realize that as I was looking at this passage, we have gone to the raising of Lazarus. You see, there's another Mary and Martha's story, much more dramatic. Their brother dies and Jesus raises them from the dead.

Or you last week, you, here's Jesus healing, exercising, a man filled with a legion of demonic powers. It's very exciting and natural to go to those big events. But how many, how many events are there like that in a person's life? How many events, how many raisings of Lazarus, how many events do you have like that? Memorable, dramatic, pivotal, you know,

you only have, I guess by definition, you can only have so many. Maybe a half a dozen. This is very different. It is an incredibly, incredibly normal and common kind of thing. Here you have a couple of people, and they're preparing for dinner, they're preparing guests.

And one of you is the kind of person that is kind of very conscientious about these things. And the other is one who says, give me a break. I mean, we'll do the basics. And so one is still in the kitchen, and one is already knocked off, and she's, who knows where. And the one in the kitchen, the temperature is's rising and it's not just the oven. And she's glaring and then she starts to snap

and the other person snaps back. Oh my, I mean, this is not dramatic, this is not a big event, this is so common, this is so mundane, and that's the point. That's the message. What do I mean? Well, the message is this. It is not in the big events of your life.

It's not in the pivotal events of your life that your character is forged. It's not in those places. Those places only reveal what you have become, but those things are too seldom to ever make you anything. Those things do not make you. Those things only reveal what other mundane, day in and day out situations have made you. In other words, think of it this way.

It's not the whale situations, the five or six that come along in your life that really make you who you are. It's all the guppies. Every morning you wake up and millions of them come at you. You've got to eat, you've got to sleep, you've got appointments, you've got phone calls, you've got errands, you've got exercise, you've got to work it all in. And there's a tremendous number of these things that come at you. The mundane, the humdrum, the hustle and bustle, all the things. And the difference between Mary and Martha is Mary and Martha is, Martha is swept along by them. She's swept along.

It's sort of like a stream and she's just being taken with them. But Mary has put her feet at the bottom of the stream and in spite of this fact, the stream is going that way. Mary walks in the direction she wants to walk. Mary finds time for focused attention and sitting at the Lord's feet in spite of distractions, in spite of opposition, and she does it. And she does it in the mundane. She does it in the day to day.

She knows when to get away. And that's what makes her great. It's not the whale events that make you great. The whale events reveal what you've become. It's these events. It's your ability to set your priorities, to find focus attention at the feet of Christ, and to not let all of the things that happen,

all the guppies they come at you, you see, every day. The little events sweep you away from doing that. And look, listen to me. I know this is New York City, and therefore some of the most ambitious people in the world come here. And a lot of you, I suppose, pound for pound, is probably more City and therefore some of the most ambitious people in the world come here. And a lot of you, I'd suppose, pound for pound is probably more dreams and aspirations in this room than most congregations in the world. You've got high hopes for yourself, you've got aspirations for yourself, but I challenge you with this.

Is there anybody that has the audacity to consciously hope and aim for. Such a level of greatness that 20 centuries from now people will still be admiring and talking about you. Anybody even think about that? Anybody who said 2000 years from now, I want people to still know who I am. I want people to still get together and think about it. Admire. I want to inspire people for centuries. Most of you say, I just like to make partner.

I just like to get one part in one Broadway show. Just once. Just once. And you know, you have high aspirations. Mary didn't have aspirations, like that she didn't have aspirations like that. She said her priorities in the guppies, in the stream of the mundane.

She decided what was important, and she did not let the day-to-day get her away from that. And as a result, she was drawn into a greatness that we don't even dream of. And because we're more like Martha than Mary, we're sinking in a sea of mediocrity. That's the message. Now, what does it mean to sit at Jesus' feet?

Right away, everybody says, oh, well, what does that mean? What does it mean to sit at Jesus' feet? Right away, everybody says, oh, well, what does that mean? What does it mean to sit at Jesus' feet? And the best way to answer that question is let's look at Martha. Let's look at the one who's not sitting at Jesus' feet. Let's look at what she's doing and the results in her life. And then let's look at Mary and what she's doing and the results in her life. So let's look at who is not sitting at Jesus' feet and let's look at who is sitting at Jesus' feet and then we'll have some idea about what it means to sit at Jesus' feet. It's the secret to everything.

And not just sitting at Jesus' feet five or six times in your life. Not doing some heroic thing. You know, in other words, Jesus does not come to you and say, get me the broom of the wicked witch of the West. He doesn't do that. Instead, he comes to you and he says, sit at my feet in the humdrum of daily life and that'll make you great. Now, let's look at Martha for a second.

Who's Martha? I'll tell you who Martha is. Number one, Martha is someone that Jesus loves. If you look at verse 38, you'll notice that there's a change in the plural, from the plural to the singular. It says, they were moving along, which meant Jesus and His disciples were going on their way, but He came aside to a village.

And what the commentators say, this means is that Jesus Christ was on a trip with everybody, and He went aside, He made a special trip for this home. This was the home of Mary Martha and Lazarus. Lazarus isn't mentioned here, but we know that Mary Martha and Lazarus lived together, and Jesus had a tremendous love for that family. So that when Lazarus died or when he was about to die, they sent him a message in John chapter 11,

and all they said was, him whom now love us is sick. And just shows Jesus love for this family, but in particular for Martha, because when Jesus talks to Martha, and you know, I felt this when I was reading it, I'm just not a particularly good reader, interpretive reader of the scripture. When Jesus says Martha Martha, do you know what he's doing? In Semitic language, the doubling means magnification.

The doubling of a word means magnification. One of the most humorous versions of that, of course, is if you go back to Genesis 14, there's a place where it talks about some kings who were fleeing from a battle and they fell into some very great pits, it will say in that chapter, but if you go into Hebrew, you'll see it doesn't say very great pits, it says they fell into some very great pits, it will say in that chapter, but if you go into Hebrew, you'll see it doesn't say

very great pits, it says they fell into the pit pits. And you see, that was just a very picturesque way in Semitic language that you talked about magnification. You didn't talk about the big pits, you talked about they weren't just pits, they were pit pits bigger. But when it comes to the doubling of a name, it means not just, it means tremendous intensity

and magnification of feeling. And you never ever ever see Jesus or anybody hardly, using the doubling of a name without weeping. So you know, you don't have David mourning and grieving over his dead son, Absalom, by saying, Absalom, my son. Rather, he says Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son. And when Jesus is looking at Jerusalem, you know, in Jerusalem, in Luke 22, he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. He says, how I've longed to take you under my wings as a

mother hand takes her chicks under her wings, and how I've longed to tell you the things which pertain to your peace, peace, but now they're hid from my eyes. He's weeping. He's weeping and he says Jerusalem. No, he says Jerusalem Jerusalem and of course the most famous on the cross when he doesn't say my god why has to offer sake in me but he says my god my god now when he talks to Martha he is counseling her out of deep love and tremendous compassion. He's not just saying Martha, Martha. You don't understand if you don't understand the usage, he loves her. He never uses that doubling without weeping. He loves her.

Now, the thing we know about Martha, besides the fact that he loves her, is that she's a leader. Her character is drawn everywhere, very, very quickly. If you go back to John 11 and they're at the funeral and last versus dead and Jesus is on the way, Martha comes out to greet and Martha questions Jesus. And when Jesus tries to get the stone rolled away from the tomb, Martha is the one that says, but Lord, he stinks.

Martha is the practical one. Martha is the no nonsense one. Martha is the impatient one. Martha is the no nonsense one. Martha is the impatient one. Martha is the leader. Martha is the kind of person that in any situation she ends up taking charge. She knows what to do before anybody else does. She's very decisive and she's very quick to tell other people what they should be doing as well. She's ambitious. She's a leader. And you notice if you look carefully,

it says Martha invited Jesus into her house. What's it, why is it Martha's house? Why isn't it Mary's house? Why isn't it Lazarus's house? That's Martha. Martha evidently has got the finances under her control. Martha's the one who basically has figured out how the family is gonna live.

It's Martha's house. But Martha's not just someone that Jesus loves and a leader. Martha is extremely busy. It says she is distracted by much serving, which means she has laid out a feast. She has all kinds of things on the oven and on the stove, all over the place.

And people have looked at Martha over the years and seen the contrast with Mary. And especially back in the Middle Ages, the church said, ah, the difference between Mary and Martha is the difference between the contemplative life, full-time Christian ministry, and the secular life. And this was used many, many times to get people to leave their secular job and go into ministry. And you can see how they could do it. They would say, look at this.

Here's Martha, and she is distracted, but Mary is in full-time Christian service. Mary is doing nothing but concentrating on the word of the Lord. And isn't that what you want to do? Leave the secular. Leave the distraction of a regular job and just concentrate on Jesus.

And here's the problem with that. If Martha represents anything, she represents a person very much in full-time ministry because what is she distracted with? She's not distracted with secular work. She's distracted with what? Ministry to Jesus. Everything she's doing is for him.

She's incredibly busy. She's running around like a chicken with a head cut off, and it's all for him. And here's what you've got. And this is something that we're going to have to come to grips with. In almost every one of these stories we've been looking at, have you ever noticed that Jesus not only welcomes one party, but he rebukes another? Have you noticed that?

There's not only one party that he welcomes, but there's one that he rebukes. And so you have Zacchaeus and then you have the crowd. Unrespectable Zacchaeus, but the respectable crowd in Jesus rejects them. And then you have the prostitute, remember the powerless one, and you have powerful Simon and Jesus accepts the prostitute and rejects Simon. And then even last week you have the demonaniac and then you have the crowd. The abnormal one is received, and the normal ones are sent away. In this situation, here you have Mary being welcome, but now this is the thing that should bring us up short.

Who is the one who's being rebuked? Not a Pharisee, not an unbeliever, not even a baby Christian. I'll tell you who Mary Martha is. We ought to know this. This is a bullet with a name on it of every very active Christian worker. In every church there's a lot of Martha's. They're the ones who do. They're the 20% of the people who do 80% of the work. They lead the Bible studies. They get on staff.

They become ministers. They become elders, deacons, and deaconesses. They're very, very, very, very busy. They're doing it all for Jesus. And yet, they've let it squeeze them. They've let all that ministry squeeze out actual focus attention on Jesus. And they're the ones who are getting rebuked. And Jesus is looking and saying, at Martha, with love, of course, but he's rebuking her.

She's the villain in a sense. She's the foil. And she is in the condition she's in because she's not doing what Mary's doing. She's not sitting at Jesus' feet. I want you to know what that means. It means being very active in church, being very active in Christian ministry, being very active in charities, being very active in doing many, many, many things for people. We're not

contrasting secular work with ministry. We're contrasting ministry with ministry, Christian with Christian. We'd like to help you prepare your heart for the Christmas season with our free Advent devotional series. Each day of Advent, you'll receive a devotional with a daily meditation on a Bible passage that points you to the meaning of Christmas, that Jesus came into this world to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. It's our prayer that these daily devotional will help you focus on the hope, joy, peace,

and love we have through our Savior's birth. To sign up, just visit GospelOnLife.com-advent to receive a daily email from December 3 through December 24. That's GospelOnLife.com-slashadvent. In addition to the daily emails, you'll also receive a previously recorded video every Sunday with an Advent Meditation from Tim Keller, followed by a brief discussion with Tim and Kathy. Again, to sign up, visit gospelandlife.com slash advent.

May the hope of Christ's birth be a source of joy and encouragement to you this Advent season. And before we actually look at what Mary is doing, let's take a look and see what the signs are. How do you know if you're not Martha? How do you know whether you're Martha or not? Well, let's look at the signs. Number one, there's three.

I'll just go through them very quickly. First of all, there's inner turmoil. Jesus says to Martha, you are worried and upset. And the word worried actually means to be torn into pieces into many directions. And the word upset means to be torn into pieces into many directions. And the word upset means to be tossed along like a capsized boat, which is being pushed along in the stream instead of being able to power itself. And here's what's going on. Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you have so many goals and they're non-negotiables.

Mary has chosen one thing, and you have 30 things that you've got to have in order to be happy, and as a result, you're being torn to pieces. You look like you're the proactive one, you look like you're the leader, you look like you're the initiator, you are under control, you are being taken, you're being moved along. There's this inner emptiness, and there's more than that.

It's an inner disharmony. There's so so many things she wants and because she wants them there she's continually unhappy You know in other words the point is she's got so many pots on she has so many goals She's very ambitious for Jesus of course. She's got so many lives. She's involved in and And those of you who have done any cooking know, if you have too many things on, you know, everything has to be flipped, everything has, at some point, they have to be removed at some point, it has to be stirred at some point. Next thing you know, your cakes are falling and your stew is burning at the bottom of the pot. And it's all coming together. And that's what's happening with her. She has got so many goals and every one of them is something she has to have

Because you see she's being contrasted with Mary. There's only one thing Mary needs Jesus actually comes right out and says the difference between you and Mary is Mary needs only one thing and she's right and you therefore by contrast need all these things The difference when you and Mary's you need all these things and The difference between you and Mary's, you need all these things and so you're always unhappy. You're always unhappy. But why Martha? Why? Because you've decided you need them. The reason you're so unhappy because this person isn't doing this and this isn't going right and this goal is made, because you have decided you need them. You've got to have them. They're non-negotiable. They're emotional non-negotiables and therefore you're being torn up.

The second thing we see about Martha is she's irritable. And she's irritable with uncompetent people. She's irritable with people who are not with the program. She's irritable with people who are getting in the way or not helping her get her life the way her life has got to be. And so she says, tell her to help me. She's irritable. She's an irritable person on the outside

because of the inner disarmony on the inside. But here's the worst thing. She's now suspicious of God. She says, Lord, don't you care. Now here's the telltale proof. She says the reason that she still upset is because she's doing everything for Jesus. But if she was doing everything for Jesus,

if it's really true that the number of courses that she was preparing and the timing and all that, if it was really for Jesus, then she shouldn't be upset. Why not? Well, because you see, Jesus is the one who could say, hey, I don't need it now. Jesus is the one who said, I only need three courses.

I don't need 10 courses. In other words, if she really was doing it for Jesus, she wouldn't be upset when he refuses to let things go the way she wants. He won't help her. He won't send Mary in to help her. And she says, she's all upset. Unanswered prayer proves that she's not doing it for Jesus.

She's doing it for herself. She's trying to prove herself with her Christian ministry. She's trying to prove herself to herself and to other people with her Christian ministry. In other words, it's not all about just, Lord, I'm doing it all for your glory and agenda, Lord. No, no. The Lord is for your glory and agenda, Lord. No, no. The Lord is for my glory and agenda, Lord. And this is what Jesus is saying to her.

He says, Martha, I'm a good manager of my people's time. I wouldn't give you 10 things to do if you can only do three in a day. If you have more things to do in a day, then a person can humanly do, I didn't give you that. Am I stupid? You gave it to yourself, and you made them all emotional non-negotiables, and now they're tearing you up on the inside, they're tearing up your relationships with other people,

and most of all, you're mad at me because I'm not giving you your way, but it's your fault. I didn't give you those things to do, and you have made them every one of them needful. No, no, no, no, Martha, get mad at yourself. I didn't give you those things. You see, is that true of you? Are you Martha? Are you experiencing these things? Don't you see? It doesn't even matter if you're an incredibly mature Christian, confident believer, everybody

thinks that you're a leader. If you know deep inside, you're mad at God, they don't know. You're irritable with other people, you're empty inside, in spite of all that, you're Martha. It doesn't matter whether you're a leader in the church, you're Martha. Now, let's look at Mary. What does Mary do? Here's what Mary does. She gets at Jesus' feet. What does Mary do? Here's what Mary does. She gets at Jesus' feet.

What does that mean? It means very something very important. She gets down at Jesus' feet and she listens. Now in the Bible, to get down to somebody's feet, meant something extremely interesting. It was almost a formal word, and it meant to be under someone's authority. You know, when it says, for example,

they sold their land and they took the money and they put it at the apostles' feet. What that meant was that money was no longer theirs. It was at the disposal of the apostles. Or what, there's many places where it says, I will, you know, see, I sit at my right hand until I make your foot stool, to be under feet means to be under authority. And notice, Mary does not simply listen to God's word.

She puts herself at the foot. And what she has done is she has found focused time to submit her mind intellectually to the Word of God. Now, these two things, it's a focused time and it's submissive time. That's what it means to be at the foot of Jesus. Focus time, what this means is, you have to make time to listen to the God's Word. I don't have time, but to just remind you of something one of the most formative experiences in my life

was the day in 1970 that a Bible teacher, she was teaching on the Bible, talking about the importance of the most formative experiences in my life was the day in 1970 that a Bible teacher, she was teaching on the Bible, talking about the importance of the Bible, and she sent us all out to sit down quietly for 30 minutes, and she says, I'll give you one verse, Mark 117. Jesus said, come follow me, and I will make you to become fissures of men. She says, I want you to study that verse, and not one more verse, just that one verse. And I want you to study for 30 minutes and not one minute less.

And I want you to write down 30 things that you see in there. And I want you to stop until you've got 30. At the end of 10 minutes, I felt like this is ridiculous. I've seen everything I could possibly see. But then after that, you began to come. And when she got us all together, she says, everybody shared the greatest thing you got from this person. We shared our great things.

We're very excited. And she says, how many of you got them in the first five minutes? Nobody raised their hand. How many got it in the first 10 minutes? Nobody raised their hand. How many got in the first 15 minutes? One or two hands. She says, finally, you've listened.

Your problem is you don't take time. You can't just run by your Bible for five minutes in the morning for inspiration. That's not sitting at his feet and listening. That's a selfish approach. It's an emotional approach. That's not listening. But not only that, here's what's so amazing. After Lazarus died, Mary anoints Jesus' feet with perfume anointment.

Do you remember that? In John chapter 12, and Jesus says an incredible thing. The people say, why is she doing that? Why is she putting all that on you? Why is she spending all that money? He turns and says, do not bother her. She's preparing me for burial. Now, what he is saying is that Mary knew that he was going to die.

And you know what that means? Mary was the only person on the face of the earth that knew that, because all the apostles had been listening to Jesus. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you'll see that Jesus continually told the apostles that he was going to die, that he was going to suffer. And they didn't get it.

When you get to John 13, 14, and 15, the very night before, the very night before the crucifixion, they still don't get it. When you get to John 13, 14, and 15, the very night before, you know, the very night before the crucifixion, they still don't get it. When they actually see them dying, they are absolutely demolished, they don't get it. Mary alone in the world, Jesus says, knew that I was going to die. How come? She listened. And why didn't they know? Why is it that they listened to the teaching, but here's the difference, she was at his feet. They had a first century grid, and the first century grid said,

well, the Messiah has to be like that, and they ran his teaching through the grid, and they didn't listen. You and I have a 1997 grid, and if anybody here says, well, I like the Bible, but there's some things that we now can't accept. Is there anybody here that says that? Is there anybody that says, well, I like the Bible, but there's some things we now can't accept. You've taken your 1997 grid and you're rushing it right through and you're not Jesus' feet either. And who knows what you're missing? either. And who knows what you're missing? After she anoints his feet, Jesus says in Mark 149, she says, he says, till the end of time what she has done will not be

forgotten. Now that's greatness. Why? Because she did this great act. Why? Because she alone knew what was going on. Why? Because she listened. She took the Word of God and just didn't spend focus time studying it, but she submitted intellectually to it. She didn't run it through the grid. And why? Why do you think we should do that? I'll give you two reasons. Well, I'll give you three reasons and then we have to close. Number one, logically, does it make sense that you should run with a Bible through your 1997 grid? Are you telling me we've reached the ultimate year?

This is the ultimate year. See, because in 1897, the things that today, you find, 1997 people find obnoxious about, the Bible was not obnoxious in 1897, and my guess is that in 2097, things are gonna be different. But if we found the ultimate, we now know what parts of the Bible we don't have to listen to. This is the ultimate year. Please.

But secondly, Jesus Himself submitted to the Word of God. She knew that. Go back to Exodus chapter 17. Someday and look in a place where God sees that the children of Israel are dying out there for lack of water and he says, I will go and stand on the rock before the people. Hit the rock Moses with the rod. The instrument of judgment and water will flow. And if you read that Moses must have been absolutely shocked, then you should be shocked too.

Because if you read the Bible, you'll see that over and over and over again, people stand at God's feet, people stand at Jesus' feet. There's only one place in the whole Bible that it ever says that the Lord stood at our feet. In Exodus 17, where it says that he stands at the feet on the rock and then he's smitten by the rock. You know what this means? This is a reference. This is a prophecy. This is a picture of the fact that someday the Lord himself was going to come and he

himself was going to bind himself to the word. And if you look at the life of Jesus Christ, you will see that he made himself utterly and completely submitted to the Word of God. In the desert, what does he say to the Satan when Satan comes at him three times? He doesn't say be gone. He says it is written. And when he deals with the Pharisees, he doesn't say, well, I think now he says, you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. And when he's in the garden and Peter gets his sword out, Jesus says, I know I'm going to die, but don't you see? I could call 12 legions of angels,

but then, oh, Peter, how will the scripture be fulfilled? And when he's got the cross and he's suffering and he's dying, he's got the cross on his back, and he sees the women weeping on the road, he quotes Ozea to them. And when he's actually on the cross and he's at the point where God is taking everything away and he's turning his back on him, he quotes Psalm 22.

Now what does this mean? This means that Jesus Christ, you know, when you, when you stab a heart, what comes out as the blood, the very thing that gives you life, When you stab a heart, what comes out as the blood, the very thing that gives you life, when you go into the times of tremendous events, the dramatic moments we've been talking about, the dramatic moments where a person is tested, there's no time to think you have to act, you don't just act, you react.

And what is in your heart comes out, and whenever Jesus was tested, what came out was the Bible. When Jesus was beaten, when Jesus was tested, what came out was the Bible. When Jesus was beaten, when Jesus was stabbed, what came out was the Bible. He quoted the Bible everywhere. He dealt with the deepest, worst parts of his life, the most horrible things that he had at confront with the Bible. He submitted utterly to it at every point.

He stood at our feet, obeying the word of God to be our substitute, to be our advocate, to be the one who comes down and lives the life we should be living, and die the death we should be dying. And because he did that, and he submitted it every way to the Word of God, for us, he said, my will know, thy will be done. For us, we're supposed to sit at his feet and utterly submit to his word. And you know what, when he did it, look at the greatness. And when she did it, look at the greatness.

And what about us? Don't tell me, well, I don't like the Bible because there's parts in it, I don't like. I accept the Bible, except for these parts. If you accept the Bible, except for these parts, what you mean is the Bible because there's parts in it, I don't like. I accept the Bible except for these parts. If you accept the Bible except for these parts, what you mean is the Bible can never argue with you and you can't even have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Whoever heard of a personal relationship in which the person couldn't argue with you couldn't tell you something you didn't want to hear. And if you look at anything in the Bible say, I don't like that, I'm not going to accept that.

How in the world do you have a living relationship with God? You don't have a relationship with God. You have a relationship with yourself. You have a relationship with yourself. She sat at his feet. She was always at his feet. And because she sat at his feet, one day she was able to kiss his feet and annoy his feet. Because she listened to him, she became his closest, most intimate, confidant.

Same thing will happen to you. If you sit down and listen to him, if you take the time out of your humdrum and bustle to listen to him. Those of you who are Christians, those of you who are leaders, the reason for the emptiness in your life is because you think there's things that you need, and this is the only thing you need. Jesus comes right out and says, sitting at my feet is the only thing you need.

You're upset because you're saying, God, why aren't you giving me that? You need to look at it in the face this morning and say, I don't need you. Until you do that, you're going to be anxious like Martha. Those of you who say, I don't even know if I am a Christian, I don't know what I think. Sit at his feet. Read the Bible, study it, and if you sit at his feet someday you'll be kissing his feet and someday he'll be kissing you back. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this remarkable, remarkable story. It is so mundane, it is so undramatic and yet look,

look. Look what it tells us. We ask that you would make it possible for us to sit at Jesus' feet like Mary. This is not a contrast between unbelievers and believers, it's a contrast between people who are trying to serve you and trying to find you and one is filled with herself. One is trying to prove herself. One is really very self-righteous in many ways. One is not understood what it really, really means

ultimately to be a Christian and one has learned to sit at his feet would that we all help us to do that we pray in Jesus name amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. The Advent season helps us prepare our hearts to focus on the birth of our Savior. We'd like to send you a free daily devotional from December 3 through December 24. Each devotional has a daily meditation on a Bible passage that points you to the true meaning of Christ's birth.

To sign up, just visit gospelandlife.com slash advent. Again, that's gospelandLife.com slash advent.