Motivation for the Main Ministry, Part 3

We will shout the name that set us free throughout all eternity. Boy, what a joy that's going to be. I hope that you'll be there with us because you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. We have been looking at the Gospel of Luke and we have found ourselves in the 10th chapter of Luke at the very end. And we're just about to embark on Luke chapter 11, but we have spent a few weeks talking about Mary, Martha, and what Jesus said to Martha about the one thing that is of most importance. And so we have used that to open the door for us to address how important it really is for each of us to listen to divine truth.

Our Lord told Martha there's only one thing that's necessary, one thing that's needful. You missed it, Mary got it. We can't afford to miss it. We need to be like Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus and to listen to divine truth. And so we've looked at the motivation for that main ministry. What motivates me to listen to divine truth? And we said, well, first of all, it helps us understand our Lord.

And then second of all, it helps us understand our own lives. Once I understand my master, then I can properly understand me. And so I need to listen to what the Bible says concerning divine truth.

And so in that motivation, we ask this question, why must I listen to what God has to say? And of course, Jesus said, it's the most important thing you can ever do is listen.

But we find ourselves not listening. Let me give you a couple of illustrations. Imagine being a part of Christ Community Church for, let's just say the last 10 years. And if you were here the last 10 years, you would have heard a series on God's hope for your home. You would have heard a series about the remedies for a rocky marriage. You would have heard a series about marriage matters. You might've even gone on our couples retreats. There were four of them over the last six years. Let's say you went to all those retreats and you heard all those sermons, but your marriage is no better now than it was 10 years ago.

Why is that? You were here, but you didn't hear. Big difference, right? Or let's say you come and you're unsaved. You don't know the Lord. And we have a number of people in our church that come every week and they don't know the Lord, but they come. They hear messages about salvation and what it means to follow the Lord. They're here, but they don't hear. That's why Jesus said, take care how you hear. Or you've heard sermons and you've heard many times at our church, and we take a lot of mission trips about how it is to share your faith and how it is to talk to people about Christ.

And you hear a lot of sermons about evangelism. And yet you never share your faith with anybody. You're here, but you don't hear. Or you've been to our church and you've heard on many occasions the importance of what it means to forgive a sinning brother, but yet you live unwilling to forgive. Oh, you're here, H-E-R-E, but you don't hear H-E-A-R. You don't get it. It doesn't sink in. And Jesus said, it's imperative that you do one thing only, just one, and that's listen.

But people just don't listen. They leave church the same way they arrived, because they don't listen.

And that's why the Bible speaks so much about listening. That's why Jesus said to the disciples in Mark chapter six, we talked about last week on Resurrection Sunday, you didn't learn anything from the incident of the loaves. Oh, were they at the feeding of the 5,000? Yes, they were. Did they hear what Jesus said? Yes, they did. Or did they? They were there, but the text says in Mark six, they didn't learn anything from the incident of the loaves. And so when the next crisis came, and the Bible tells us that Jesus immediately put them in a crisis situation to see if they were listening to him or not, and they weren't listening, and they immediately began to fear when the crisis came, because they did not learn anything from the incident of the loaves.

And then we told you last week as well, that when you come to Mark chapter 16, and they're all fearful in the upper room, and Christ rebukes them because of their unbelief and their hardness of heart, the exact same rebuke he gave them in Mark six, that they had a hard heart because they didn't learn anything from the incident of the loaves. Jesus says, you live in unbelief, you have a hard heart, even after the resurrection, because you didn't listen to what I said.

I mean, that's it. It's not rocket science, folks. It's just learning to listen to all that Jesus says.

And so the warning is given in Psalm 95. It's given again in Hebrews three and Hebrews four. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the day of provocation in the wilderness. Don't do that. In other words, how is it someone becomes calloused and cold in their hearts? They hear, but they do not heed what Jesus says.

They listen, but they do not learn from what he has said. And so when you hear the word, and you don't respond, listen carefully, to the instruction of the Lord at that moment, a layer of, of hardness goes across the heart. And if you come and you hear it again, another layer develops across the heart, so that your heart becomes calloused and cold to the things of God. And that's what Jesus rebuked his disciples for. They had heard it so often, yet they did not respond to what he said. And so all he could do was rebuke them for their hardness of heart and their unwillingness to listen and obey.

That's what happens. And I was thinking, I was talking to somebody this past week, and I was thinking, can you imagine being in our church for all these years, hearing all those sermons about marriage and God's over your home and still have a bad marriage? How can that possibly be? Unless you have a hard heart, a cold heart, because you refuse to listen to what God says.

Oh, you, you heard it. It went in one ear and out the other. But you didn't heed what was said. You didn't do what God said. So, so you're like James says, don't be hearers of the word without being doers. Because many people are hearers of the word and not doers. That, that, that means you've come to church over all these years and you've audited church. To audit a class in school means that you come and you listen, but you don't do any of the work. Wouldn't it be good to be able to audit your college courses and not do any work and still get credit for it?

That'd be great, but you can't do that. You have to go and you have to listen and you have to do the work or you don't get credit for it. But there are so many people who love to audit church. Well, they come and they hear, but they don't listen with an intent to obey the word of the Lord. That's why this is so important. That's what Jesus said to, to Martha, you missed the one thing you need to be doing. Oh, you're doing some good things because you're serving the Lord. You're doing some good things because you want things to be right in your house.

But the one thing you need to be doing, you're not doing, and therefore you've missed it all. Just one thing. Just one thing. That's it. Just one. To listen to divine truth and once heard, act it upon. What happens when you don't? Listen to these words. How long, O naive ones, will you love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge. Turn to my reproof. Behold, I will pour out my spirit upon you. I will make my words known to you. But because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention.

And you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof. I, the Lord God says, will laugh at your calamity.

I will mock when your dread comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come on you, then they will call on me, but I will not answer. I won't, God says.

They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me because they hated knowledge, did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all my reproof. So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive shall kill them and the complacency of fools shall destroy them. Could it be that there are people who call out to the Lord after years of being a part of something like the church, an evangelical church that preaches the truth?

They call out to him in the midst of their whirlwind and God says, I'm sorry, I don't hear you because when I reached out to you, you paid me no attention.

When I called for you, you did not listen. So when your whirlwind comes and your dread comes upon you, I will laugh at your calamity. Those are some hard words. I didn't make them up. It's not my idea. It's what God says.

And how many people do you know and I know that go through difficult times in their lives and they cry out to God, but it's as if God doesn't even hear a word they're saying, but the chapter ends this way, but I love that. But those, but all of Jesus scripture, man, are just the greatest things, but he who listens to me. Ooh, there's that word again. He who listens to me shall live, listen carefully, securely, securely, and shall be at ease from the dread of evil. That's good stuff. But he who listens, see it all comes down to listening to what God has to say over in that, by the way, that was Proverbs chapter one, Proverbs chapter six, it says this, verse number 32.

Now, therefore, O sons, listen to me. There it is again. Listen. For blessed are they who keep my ways, heed instruction and be wise and do not neglect it. See, he says, when you hear it, when you listen, you need to act upon it because if you don't act upon it, if you don't heed it, if you don't pay attention so as to live it out, you're in trouble. So as soon as you hear what God says you need to do immediately, you need to do it immediately.

Act upon it. Don't neglect it. Don't neglect it. People hear a sermon about forgiveness, but they are not too eager to go home and to forgive the one who sinned against them, are they? And they disobey the word by neglecting their responsibility. They need to respond positively to what God says.

And then Solomon goes on to say, blessed is the man who listens to me. I mean, that should say it all, right? The blessed man is the one who listens. The one who doesn't listen is not the blessed man. But blessed is the man who listens, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorpost. In other words, he is here at church before the doors are unlocked. Most people don't get to church until after 30 minutes that the service is in, too. You know, we've sung all our songs, taken all the offering, then they show up at church.

Blessed is the man who listens to me, who waits daily at my doorstep, who can't wait to get in to hear my words. That's the blessed man. That's the blessed man. And then it says this, for he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who sins against me injures himself, and all those who hate me love death. One more passage, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse number one.

Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments, which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen, listen, and be careful to do it, hear it, heed it, listen, learn, and live it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers has promised you, in the land flowing with milk and honey.

Then he goes in that great, the great Shema, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. But you got to listen.

That's, that's what it's all about, listening. And so we are here to, to, to walk through the open door that our Lord gave us in, in Luke chapter 10, in the encounter with Mary and Martha. There's one thing that's necessary, one thing that's needful, one thing that you have to do. The other things that you're doing you don't have to do, but this one thing you must do, because it will affect all the other things that you are presently doing. You need to listen to me. And so we have told you that we listen because it helps me understand my Lord.

That was the last two weeks. And now today we want to finish this aspect of our discussion and helps me understand my life, helps me understand myself. And I want to give you seven principles. Okay. Here they are in rapid succession. All right. Number one, when I listened to the Lord and all his word, it verifies my iniquity.

It verifies my iniquity. And that point right there alone tells you why people don't want to listen to what God has to say, because he exposes their sin. When God speaks and his words are holy, because he himself is holy. If you live an unholy life, you don't want to hear him speak. You don't want to hear what he has to say. It verifies my iniquity, all of sin and falling short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. It verifies my iniquity.

When God speaks, when his word is opened, it exposes everything on the inside of me. And all that ugliness is right in front of me. And I see it for what it is. I see me for who I am. And when I look at it and I see it, and I don't like it, and I don't want to be confronted with it, what do I do?

I don't listen to the voice of the Lord any longer. I don't want to change. I want to stay in my sinful condition. And one of the saddest things that has happened over the 15 years of ministry at Christ Community Church is that we've had a slew of people, I'm talking about a slew of people, who have been a part of our church for six months, a year, two years, whatever. And finally, they just leave because they are absolutely tired of having their sin exposed to them, and they do not want to change.

They want to live in their sin. So they go to a church that will not confront them on their sin, where the Word of God is not preached, so they have to hear about their iniquity and the consequences of their sin, and settle in, and be at ease, and continue to live in their sin. To me, that's just the saddest state a person could ever be in. Rather than saying, you know what, I've sinned against the Lord, I've sinned against my family, I've sinned against my church, and say, these things got to change.

And so I confess my sin. Oh, by the way, I confess my sin to God, not because I need forgiveness. I already got that. And we'll talk about that in our story, in our study in Luke 11, verses 1 and following, about the Lord's prayer. I don't confess my sins because I need forgiveness from God. All my sins have been forgiven from eternity past into the future. All my sins are forgiven. I confess my sins so that fellowship can be restored between me and my God. I've already experienced forgiveness. All my sins have been forgiven.

But in order for me to have a vital communion and a relationship with the living God, I need to confess my sins before Him. Say the same thing about my sin that He says about my sin, and then that relationship can be restored. You see, when I listen to what God says in His Word, it verifies that I'm a sinner, and that I need cleansing daily, and that I need to be in right communion with my God.

That's the first step. Number two, it identifies my adversary. When I listen to the Lord, it identifies my adversary. You think that your adversary is your spouse. They are not. You think your adversary is your boss at work. He or she is not. You think your adversary sits across from you in the classroom. No, that's not your adversary. Your adversary wants you to think that that's your adversary, but it's not. Your adversary is the devil himself and all of his emissaries. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, Paul says in Ephesians 6, but against the spiritual forces of darkness.

See, you need to remember that, and we've said this to you a hundred times at least, Adam was okay until he got married. Satan left him alone, right? Once he got married, literally all hell broke loose in his home. Why? Satan doesn't want you to have a good marriage. He doesn't. He wants to divide your home. He wants to split your home. He wants to divorce your home. He wants to wreck your home. Why? Because God designed marriage. God designed that institution. He, it's all a purpose of the mind of God.

And so Satan can destroy your home. He effectually, listen, destroys your testimony, not only at home, but in the community. If he destroys your home, your marriage, your testimony in the community does not exist. It does not. And Satan wants to destroy you. So you realize that in the midst of your difficulties in your home, with your family, the Scriptures identify your adversary. It's not your children. It's not your parents or your grandparents, your husband or your wife. It's the spiritual forces of darkness that seek to divide and conquer your family.

I need to know that. So when I listened to the Lord, the Lord said to Peter, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. And Peter said, okay, but you didn't give me to him or anything, did you, like that? The Lord said, yeah, I did. But I prayed for you, Peter, that your faith would not fail. And when you return to your brethren, you'll strengthen them. You see, Peter, if he would have known that and listened to the words of the Lord, if he would have known that his battle was not with the 600 soldiers that came across the Kidron Valley with the 200 different temple police, with the Sanhedrin or the Sadducees and the Pharisees, if he'd have known that that wasn't the enemy, he would have never drawn his sword and cut off Malchus' ear in the garden.

He would have realized that what the Lord said was true, that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat, but the Lord had prayed for him, that his faith would not fail, and that he would know that his enemy was not those soldiers, but Satan himself. But he didn't listen.

But he would say, in 1 Peter 5, verse number 8, your adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He learned. He understood. He got it. Took him a while. He's a little slow learner, but he got it. And once he got it, he wrote about it and said, beware, be on your guard, be vigilant, because Satan is on the prowl. He is your adversary. And so not only does listening to the Lord verify my iniquity, but it identifies my adversary. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verse number 2, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to the one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. That's why he would say earlier in 2 Corinthians 2, not to be ignorant of Satan's schemes. We pretty much are. We shouldn't be, but we are. But if I listen to what the Lord says, it will verify my iniquity. Yes, it will. Why does it do that? Because our Lord wants to have a pure, unadulterated relationship with His people. That can't happen unless I know that I have sinned against my God, and I need to confess my sins so that my relationship with Him is restored.

It identifies for me my true adversary. Helps me look at those that I perceive as my enemies a little different, a lot different, because really they're not the big, ugly monster that wants to hurt me.

They are people created in the image of God, just like you are, who live in sin at times, who need the cleansing of the Lord, who need to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. But it identifies my adversary. Number three, it fortifies my spirituality.

Why do I listen to the Lord? Because it fortifies my spirituality. Paul said, I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, Acts chapter 20, verse number 32. God's word is that which is going to build you and fortify you and make you strong. John 17, 17, Christ said, sanctify them in truth for thy word is truth. Peter would say, as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, hunger for the word of the Lord. Listen to the word of the Lord, that you can grow and be fortified.

You see, the Bible says, yes, Satan is my adversary, but it also says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world, right?

So I understand the greatness of my God. Yes, the Bible says at first John 5, 19, that the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one.

The Lord has allowed the evil one to run his course in this world, but my God is greater than he is. And I need to listen to his voice. I need to follow what he says. I need to grow in my walk with the Lord. Oh, my favorite, my favorite verse in the psalm, Psalm 94, 19, when my anxious thoughts well up within me, thy consolations are my delight. I just love that verse because all of us go through anxious thoughts, right? Worrisome thoughts, fearful thoughts. And when they well up within me, the psalmist says, I go right to your word, your consolations, because they delight my soul.

Listen to what the Lord God said to the pen of Isaiah the prophet, Isaiah 30, verse number 15. For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said, in repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you were not willing. He says, listen, I want you to be quiet and I want you to listen because unless you are quiet to hear my voice, you won't trust in the voice you've just heard. You'll trust in another voice. And I need you quiet enough and long enough so that you'll trust me and rest me.

But he says, you're not willing to do that. You're just not willing to do that. And that just speaks to us, doesn't it? We're just unwilling to do that. We want to get busy. And he goes on to say this in verse number 18. Therefore, the Lord longs to be gracious to you and therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you for the Lord is the God of justice. How blessed are all those who long for him. Oh, he wants to be compassionate to you. He wants to, he really does. That's why he says in quietness, quietness.

But you know what we do? We do what Isaiah 31, one says, this is what we do. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. What is Egypt? Egypt's the world. Who went down to Egypt for help back in Genesis chapter 12? Abraham. God never told him to go to Egypt. There was a famine in the land of promise. So Abraham thought, well, there's a famine in the land of promise. I better get out of here, take care of my wife and do what needs to be done. And, and, and all my maidservants. So I'm going down to Egypt because there there's, there's food in Egypt.

I'm going to Egypt. And he got Hagar and the rest is history. In quietness, he didn't listen. And that's why the Bible says, woe to all those who go to the world for help and rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in the horsemen because they are very strong.

In other words, you have gone to the way of the world to trust what the world has because you've seen the beauty of their horses. You've seen the beauty of their chariots and the world has so much to offer. You're going to go there instead of going in quietness to your God and waiting upon him. And the Lord God says to the pen of Isaiah, but they do not look to the Holy one of Israel nor seek the Lord.

They're not looking to me, God says. I'm the creator. I'm the everlasting God. I'm the Lord of the universe. They're not looking to me. No, they're going to what they see. Oh, they, they, they see what the world has and they have to have it because the, the world offers a semblance of a remedy and boy, they, they want that quick fix. They want that remedy now.

And God says, oh, in quietness and in rest, you'll trust me, but you are unwilling. They don't want to do that. If you just listen to me, wait upon me, do what I say. Oh, I long to have compassion on you. I long to restore you, God says.

I want to do those things for you, but, but you need to do it by listening in quietness to the still small voice of the living God of the universe. Why do I listen? It verifies my iniquity. It identifies my adversary. It fortifies my spirituality. Number four, it satisfies my poverty. It satisfies my poverty. There was the church at Laodicea and they thought they were rich. They thought they had it all. And the Lord God said to them, you know what? You're blind. You're poor. You're naked. And you're neither hot nor you're cold.

You're, you're, you're in the middle. You're lukewarm. And with that lukewarmness, I, I spew you out of my mouth. You see, God satisfies the poverty stricken. That's why the Bible says, blessed are the poor in spirit, those who are, who are in poverty, spiritually speaking, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

He goes on to say, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be the satisfied ones. Who are the truly satisfied people in life? They're the ones who hunger and thirst for the things that God has to offer. If you don't hunger and thirst for those things, listen carefully, you'll never be satisfied. You're always looking for the next best thing that comes down the pike. You'll never be satisfied unless you learn to hunger and thirst after the things of the living God.

So important. Over in Psalm 90, verse number 14, says these words, Oh, satisfy us in the morning with thy loving kindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Psalmists would, would hunger for the things of God, his loving kindness. That he might be glad all his days. Over in Psalm 145, Psalm 145, it reads this way, verse number 14, the Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to thee and thou dost give them their food in due time. Thou dost open thy hand and doth satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth. And he will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He will also hear their cry and he will save them. The Lord is the one who satisfies our poverty. That's why I listened to him. The beautiful, the beautiful sermon of our, of our Lord in, in Luke chapter 12, as he, as he speaks to a, to a crowd of people, he talks to them specifically about their anxious spirits and their worrisome souls and talks to them specifically about why it's wrong to be anxious.

He says this in verse number 32, do not be afraid little flock for your father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom. He hasn't chosen gladly to give you some of the kingdom. He hasn't chosen gladly to give you some things out of the kingdom. He's chosen gladly to give you his kingdom. Can you imagine that? And he doesn't do it begrudgingly. He does it joyfully and gladly. And we know that the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

We know that. So what he gives, he gives gladly of his joy, because God is joy, of his peace, because God is peace, of his righteousness, because God is righteous. We not only get the kingdom, we get to sit on the throne of God in that kingdom. That's the promise that God's given to us, because he wants to satisfy the poverty stricken, those who are poor in spirit. That's why when Jesus came to preach, he came to preach to the poor, because he was going to satisfy the poor. He was going to give them himself.

And we not only are heirs of God, but joint heirs with Christ, the Bible says. So why do I listen? I listen specifically because the voice of God verifies my iniquity. The voice of God identifies my adversary, fortifies my spirituality, satisfies my poverty, and number five, qualifies my victory, qualifies my victory. The Bible says in 1 John 5 verses 3 and 4 that we are the overcomers.

We are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and we are the ones who have overcome the world, the world by our faith, our belief in the living God, we have overcome the world. And therefore, what listening to the voice of God does is qualify my victory. I'm not a loser, I'm a victorious warrior. In fact, Romans 8 says that I am an overwhelming conqueror. I'm not just a conqueror, I'm an overwhelming conqueror. I go above and beyond, so much so that Romans 16 says that the Lord is about to crush Satan under my feet and your feet.

And that's pretty authoritative, but it qualifies my victory today over Satan, today over sin, today over the world, tomorrow over all things. For if you read the book of Revelation, the letter to the seven churches, there's always a promise given to the victorious warrior, the one who is the overcomer, whether it's the bread of life, whether it's the tree of life, whether it's the throne, which is life, whether it's the crown of life, they're all his, because God has promised gladly to give him the kingdom and all that's there.

And therefore, I don't lose, I win, I win. And so the scriptures qualify my victory. Sixth, I listen to the Lord because He certifies my destiny. He certifies my destiny. I know where I'm going. These things are written, 1 John 5, that you may know that you have eternal life. Can you imagine being a part of a religious system for your entire life, being the icon leader of that religious system and have no idea about the certainty of your destiny? That's the Pope, my friend. He has no certainty as to his destiny, none, because the Catholic religion doesn't give you that certainty.

It can't. It can't give you that, but Jesus Christ can. Jesus Christ can give you the certainty of where you will spend eternity. So I listen to what God says, because I want to know where I'm going when I die.

I want to know how to get to heaven. And if I listen to the Lord, He's going to tell me exactly how to get there. He's going to tell me it's by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. He's going to tell me that. He's going to tell me that He is the only way to the Father in heaven. There is no other way. There is no other name in heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. It's the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. And I want to know where I'm going when I die. In fact, you know what? Everybody wants to know where they're going when they die.

They might not readily admit it, but down deep in their soul, they want to know where they're going. And Jesus is the only one who will assure them of their eternal destiny, either with Him or without Him. So why do I listen to the Lord? Because it certifies my destiny. It certifies the destiny of Israel, right? We've been looking on Wednesday nights about what the Bible says concerning Israel and what God's going to do with them.

And so if I'm a Jew, I want to know what's going to happen in my future. And so when you study the 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy, you begin to understand that God has a particular plan for the Jewish people. We know that. We know that at the end that God will save one-third of Israel and the two-thirds remnant He will cause to perish because of their rebelliousness and sin.

But in the end, all Israel will be saved. That one-third is the all qualified in Romans 11. We know the destiny of Israel. We know the destiny of the unbeliever, right? The book of Revelation tells us that about those who dwell upon the earth. We know that all those who believe in the name of Jesus will go to heaven. Those who don't won't go there. It certifies my destiny. Because it does, I want to listen to what God says so I can help other people know where they will spend eternity.

And lastly, I listen because it edifies the body. It edifies the body. It builds the body. I come to church to listen to what God has to say in His word. I want to know what God has to say. And whatever God has to say that day, then that's the word for me on that day. That's what God wants me to do on that day. Not tomorrow, today. And that's why in the book of Ephesians, it says very simply these words in Ephesians 4, verse number 11, and He gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints.

Why did God give gifted men to the church? Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers. Why did God give gifted men to the church? So that through the preaching of the word, He would be able to mend the church. The word for equip is to put back together. It's used of mending broken bones. It's used in the economic world of mending the fishermen's nets. It's putting them back together again so that they'll be effective. A broken bone's ineffective. If it's set properly and mended properly, then it can become effective again.

So God gives gifted men to the church to preach the word of God to them. Why? Because we know from 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, right? And it's profitable. For what purpose? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for putting them back together, for perfecting them. And so pastors and teachers and evangelists and apostles, they take the word of God and they teach the word of God because it is the word of the living God. It is His inspired truth.

It is what He wants us to listen to. And as you speak forth that word of God and you preach the word of God in its purity, you are automatically mending the lives of people that listen.

You're not going to mend the lives of people who don't listen. You go to the doctor, he says, okay, you need to do this. And you say, well, I don't want to do that. So then you're going to remain in your broken state. Okay, sounds good to me. I'll just remain broken. No, you go to the doctor, he says, you've got to do this to get it right. You say, okay, doc, do it, get it right. Same is true when you go to church. Something's broken. How's it going to be put back together again? Through the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry.

See, a mended saint is a ministering saint. And mended saints that minister mature the body of Christ. And that's what Ephesians 4 says. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, the maturing of the body of Christ. So that's why it's so important to listen to what God has to say on this day. Folks, you have no guarantee you got tomorrow. All you have is today. That's all you got. Really, all you have is this moment right now, right now.

And God has used His Word today to speak to you. Have you heard? You're here, but have you heard as you sit here? How do you know you've heard? You have marching orders. You know exactly what you're going to do. You're going to get up from your seat and you're going to do it. Because if you don't, what happens is that light layer of rebellion just glosses over your heart. You say, I'll do it tomorrow. Oh, you know what? I'll do it next week. I'll do what God says, not today, but tomorrow.

That's exactly what your adversary wants you to do. He doesn't want you to leave and to get it right with the Lord right now.

He wants you to leave and get it right with the Lord tomorrow, because He knows by the time tomorrow rolls around, you would have forgotten everything you heard today. And He knows that when you wake up tomorrow, you got school agenda, you got work agenda, you got places you got to go, and He knows He will put you in distraction mode and you'll forget everything you heard today. That's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation, not tomorrow.

Today is, because you have no guarantee of tomorrow. So today, if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts. Listen to what He says. Obey what He says. Don't just be a hearer of the Word, be a doer of the Word. So that when you look into the mirror and you see the blemish, none of you got up this morning, looked in the mirror and said, look at that.

That zit is huge. And then, ah, I'll pop it tomorrow. Turn around and walk away and come to church with a big white head on the side of your face. Who does that? People who go to church and don't respond to what God's Word says, that's who does that. See? Have you listened? If you've listened, it'll be translated in how you live from this moment onward. Let's pray. Father, thank You for today. Thank You, Lord, for the story of Martha and Mary that speaks to us, speaks to us so clearly about today.

We know, Lord, that there are so many distractions in our lives, oh, so many distractions. And for a brief moment that we gathered together on Sunday mornings, and brief it really is, we listened to the Word of the Lord, Your words, what You have to say. And we need to be doers of that Word, responders to the revelation, people who want to live what they have just heard. Lord, make us a church that does that. Don't make us the kind of church that just kind of comes and sits and is here but never hears, so as to heed that which has been said.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our soon-coming King. Amen.