We continue this week’s sermon series, The Gospel of Luke, Part III: A Journey through Galilee, with the passage on Mary & Martha. The overarching theme today teaches us about the most necessary thing in life for a healthy heart. While conventional and worldly wisdom point towards the physical aspects of what helps to keep a heart healthy (diet, exercise, sleep, limited exposure to smoke and alcohol, etc.), they often leave out the key ingredient. While these physical aspects are worthy pursuits, there is a greater spiritual pursuit that remedies our hearts above all other things. Luke 10:38-42 helps us to see three different types of hearts, and the primary pursuit for a truly healthy heart. Everything else is secondary.

AJ’s Main Points

• Main theme: Focus on what is necessary to be heart healthy.
• The heart that says, “Jesus Needs Me.”
• The heart that says, “I need Jesus.”
• The heart of Jesus

Key Takeaways

• We should be focused on our individual walk with Jesus. (Not more focused on the walk of others).

• Distractions can easily replace what is truly necessary in all the things that need to be done.

• Serving is not a saving thing for us. We cannot earn God’s love or our salvation.

• We often neglect the primary and necessary thing for secondary and lesser things.

• Jesus doesn’t need us to make His Word find place, take root, and experience growth.

• It is very easy to have a distracted heart before the Lord. (Be disciplined and remove your known distractions for focused efforts and times.)

• Our tendencies can sometimes be, from all the busyness, to only give Jesus our leftovers.

• Busyness can keep us from seeing or knowing God very well. (C.S. Lewis – Made mention of the Screwtape Letters – This can be a strategy of our enemy to keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of the Lord.)

• God calls us to love Him with all of our hearts and not with what is just leftover.

• We cannot have a healthy heart if we are unwilling to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn from Him.

• Knowing Jesus and having a relationship with Him is the one thing that is most necessary and most important in life.

• We are to treasure Jesus above all other things in our heart.

• The greatest gift from God to us is Jesus.

• We are to fully give ourselves to Him daily. (Have regular conversations with Him through the Word and in prayer.)

• Jesus shares his gentle and kind heart with us in this passage and points us to what is most necessary. (Note His response to Martha.)

• The invitation to sit at Jesus’ feet is open and available to everyone.

• The heart of God is good and loving. See how He has provided a way for us to Himself through Jesus.

Discussion Questions/Application

Personal application:

• What does it look like for my heart to be healthy before the Lord? Do I need to reprioritize how I spend my time? Are secondary things my primary focus?

• Does my attitude, speech, and actions reflect a spiritually healthy heart? What Scriptures can I memorize for encouragement and prayer towards this godly pursuit of a healthy heart for myself and others?

Discuss with your community group:

• Take the time to verbally encourage one another with the ways we see each other pursuing Jesus. Explain how it is evident to others that you are sitting at Jesus’ feet and learning from Him (very much like Mary did).

• What are the things that consume your thinking and doing? Do these things distract you from sitting at His feet? If they are necessary things, how can you keep them from becoming the primary thing?

Passages Referenced

Luke 10:38-42; John 11 & 12; Matthew 22:36-38; Isaiah 65:1-2; Ephesians 6:23-24

Worship Set List

Worthy of More, You’ve Already Won, All Sufficient Merit, What He’s Done, No Other King