Christ-Centered Timeouts (Rest)

In Luke 10:38–42, Jesus enters the home of Mary and Martha. Martha faithfully serves, honoring the cultural and biblical importance of hospitality and hard work. Mary, however, chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen. When Martha complains, Jesus gently but firmly responds that while many things demand attention, “one thing is necessary”—and Mary has chosen the better portion.

The sermon emphasizes that work itself is good, biblical, and necessary, but when work becomes excessive it produces three spiritual dangers: distraction from Christ, resentment toward others, and anxiety within ourselves. Martha’s service was sincere, yet her perfectionism and overcommitment turned good work into pressure and peace into unrest.

Jesus does not condemn work, but He makes clear that Christ-centered rest is paramount. He Himself regularly withdrew to pray and invited His disciples to rest. True discipleship is not built by merely working for Jesus, but by communing with Jesus. Sitting at His feet through prayer, Scripture, and intentional rhythms of rest brings peace, shapes our hearts, and invests in what is eternal—what cannot be taken away.

The call of the sermon is practical and urgent: believers must reclaim the “timeouts” Christ freely offers. Daily time with Jesus, a rhythm of rest, and the courage to say no to unnecessary demands are not luxuries—they are essential to spiritual, emotional, and even physical health. Like Mary, we are invited to choose the better portion.

• why generosity teaching matters for faith and mission
• reading Luke 10:38–42 and its central claim
• work affirmed yet misordered work distracts
• how distraction turns into resentment and anxiety
• Jesus desires presence over performance
• learning, peace and eternal gain at Jesus’ feet
• practical steps for daily rhythms of prayer and scripture
• creating margin by saying no to the unnecessary
• a new year anchored in one necessary thing

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Talk About Giving
• 2:00 Conviction And Generosity In The Church
• 4:20 Reading Luke 10: Mary And Martha
• 6:40 The Case For Christ-Centered Rest
• 10:30 Work Is Biblical But Not Ultimate
• 14:30 When Service Becomes Distraction
• 18:00 Resentment And Anxiety From Overwork
• 22:00 Jesus Invites Presence Over Performance
• 26:00 Learning Peace At Jesus’ Feet
• 29:00 Eternal Rewards Of Communion With Christ
• 32:00 Practical Rhythms: Time, Place, Margin

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Going your Bibles to the book of Luke. God willing, we'll get back on our Acts series next week. But I wanted to preach something else, kind of an end-of-the-year message today. Luke chapter 10. While they're continuing to take the offering, I just want to say a couple of things about um you've probably noticed a change in the way we're taking offering. And I love having Dr. Buskie up here because he's been in ministry 70-something years, 92 years old. He can say things that I and you clap and laugh. If I said those things, you would fire me. So I thank you. I love having you here. Um listen, the reason that we're doing this, um, Bob, you can attest to this. You've been here the whole time I have essentially. And every time you tell me you need to preach on giving more, you always say, I know it makes you uncomfortable. Um, if you've been here any amount of time, you know this is a topic that I mean, offering generally takes 30 seconds to a minute. Um, and so why are we doing this? Well, I got convicted about it. Listen, here's the thing. I know there's a lot of people who think the church is all about money. And I know that, and I know that there are churches that are. I don't know which ones, it's not my business. I don't know a pastor's heart. But I know there's a lot of preachers, that's all they talk about, right? Uh I get it. So I thought, well, I don't want to be seen as that. So I'm just never going to mention. And half the time, like before we started having the other elders do offering, I would forget. It'd get to the end. You remember this? Get to the end of service and say, Pastor, you forgot offering. So you can never accuse me of being all about money. That being said, um, I got really convicted because if I don't preach on giving, I'm doing you a great disservice. And um I'm I'm doing our church and the kingdom a great disservice as well because we are called to give, we're called to be generous and all of that. So just because there are some churches that might abuse this topic, that's no reason to throw the baby out with a bath water water, right? So we're just trying to give testimonies every week, um, along with taking the offering, so that um you might be encouraged to. And as Dr. Busky said, it's it's it's about faith, it's about trusting God. And uh we think the Lord has big things in store for this church, and we simply can't do it without faithful giving. Do you know the average Christian right now gives in America gives two to three percent of their annual income? And we're probably in this church, we did some some numbers, probably under that. Um, during the Great Depression, the average giving was 3.3%, if that just gives you a frame of reference. And so we know that we're not to give under compulsion. My aim is never to beat you down, but it is to challenge you and to give you opportunity and to encourage you to give. Um, I want to share a testimony this morning, but I'm gonna wait a couple of weeks to do that. All right, everybody so happy? Smile at me. All right, Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 38. And we haven't done this in a while because I've just been preaching the text throughout the message instead of at the beginning. So I want you, though, to stand in honor of the reading of God's word. Luke chapter 10, verse 38. Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 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. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. The word of God for the people of God. And church folks said, Amen. Sit, sit, be seated, please. Well, guys, I've got new good news for you this morning. I think I have figured out why kids are so misbehaved today. Oh, like you haven't noticed. It's because we discipline them with timeouts. Think about this. We send them to the room and make them sit there quietly doing nothing. And I've got to be honest, that doesn't really sound like a punishment. As a matter of fact, it sounds a bit like a luxury. Like, I mean, how many here would love to have a timeout? Like someone just looks at you and says, Hey, you know you've done enough. Go sit down, be quiet, don't talk to anybody, don't say anything, don't fix anything. Just exist. It's like sign me up. Like I want a timeout. Amen. Well, today I want to not only give you permission to take timeouts, but I want to compel you biblically to do so. Now, when I talk about a timeout, obviously I'm talking about these seasons of rest, moments of rest, but I'm not talking about sitting back and watching Netflix and chilling, all right? Nothing wrong with that. I believe in RR. We need uh to rest in those ways, but I am talking today about something more specific. I want to talk to you today about developing regular rhythms of Christ-centered rest. Developing regular rhythms of Christ-centered rest. What I mean by this is stepping away from the hustle and bustle of modern life and just spending time like Mary at the feet of Jesus, in his word and in prayer, just enjoying the life that he has given us, stopping to reflect on all that he has given and who he is. We're looking at this very familiar passage today about two sisters, Mary and Martha. You know the story. They host Jesus in their home. Jesus comes to the house, and Martha is working tediously to make sure everything is perfect. And uh Mary, when Jesus shows up, pauses and takes the time out and just sits at the feet of her Lord. Well, Martha doesn't much like this, and she says, Jesus, what are you gonna do about that? And we might think in this day and age that Jesus would just whip Mary in the shape, right? Mary, get in that kitchen and help your sister. But he says something shocking in verse 42. He responds like this He says, Martha, one thing is necessary. And Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her. You know, in our modern culture, I think we can often feel guilty for taking time outs. People like Martha who make us feel like if if we settle down at all, if we rest at all, then we're not doing what needs to be done. And you know, even more than that, I think within the church, we can even think that Jesus is impressed by our workaholic, what would you say, posture. And I think often we try to perform for Jesus, perhaps like Martha was doing. But let me say this to you today: Jesus is not looking for our performance, he is longing for our presence. And say that one more time. Jesus is not looking for our performance, he is longing for our presence. Now, today you're here, just a few of you, and you get the gold star. Because you know you've chosen the better portion today. How many of you, just to be honest, thought about man, it's sure be nice to just sleep in today after a busy week?

unknown: 8:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 8:19

None of you, all right. Well, good. Uh, one of you, all right. Thank you for your honesty, Terry. Um, Lord, forgive the rest for lying. Um, listen, listen, you there are many things you could have chosen to do today, but here you are, in a metaphorical sense, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his word, worshiping with like-minded people. But let me say this: this resting in Christ, these moments of God-centered, Christ-centered rest are not just for Sundays. We we need to rest in Christ and take these moments of focusing on his word and prayer and his glory. We need to do this every day. Every day we need to take these timeouts, as it were. I think there's there, well, I know all of you know this, right? It's not this is not rocket science, but yet few of us do it on a regular basis. As a matter of fact, you know, as a pastor, I often talk to many of you one-on-one, and I just I always ask, or generally asked, how's your prayer life? How's your how's your study time going, you know, in the word? And almost it's a rare occasion that will somebody will say, Oh, it's wonderful, man, couldn't be better. It's almost always a dropping of the head going, you know, man, I'm really struggling in that area. If you'll learn today to be like Mary, to take time to just to sit at the feet of Jesus through prayer and his word, it will revolutionize your spiritual life. If you don't do this, if you don't make this a practice, it will hurt you spiritually. We know a science is very clear that regular failure to rest, it does more than make you tired. Like it erodes the body, the brain, and the emotional health. Like rest is important. But in our text today, what we're gonna see is that failure to take this time of Christ-centered rest will also affect you very deeply in a spiritual way. Now, in our text today, Jesus is by in or in no way diminishing the value of work. Here is what the Bible teaches: work is pivotal, it is pivotal. In chapter 10, verse 38, Luke, it says, Now, as they were on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. That the invitation for Jesus to come into this home is identified with Martha. This is a really good thing. In Jewish culture, hospitality was of the utmost importance. As a matter of fact, one commentator wrote that a woman's honor and reputation depended greatly on her ability to manage her uh household and to show hospitality. Martha's work, my point here, it's not frivolous, it's not unimportant. Understandably, Martha wants everything to be perfect. Like it's not every day the Son of God shows up to your house, right, for dinner. Like, let's just pretend for a moment you get a call from Jesus today, right? He's like, hey, I'm stopping by earth in the body, right? And uh, I'm gonna be there for dinner. I'll be there in three hours. Ladies, you would be frantic, right? And if Jesus came to the door and there's still clothes somewhere or some dust somewhere or whatever, I mean, you'd be just going crazy to try to make sure the house is perfect. And this is what Martha's doing. The Bible really elevates this idea of working hard and diligently. Colossians 3.23 says, whatever you do, so this is it, it's your job when you work at your job, when you work at home, when you serve in the church, he says, work heartily as unto the Lord and not for men. 2 Thessalonians 3:10, Paul again writes, For even when we were with you, we would give you this command if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. Proverbs 13:14, the soul of a sluggard, that's a lazy person, craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. My point here is that throughout the Bible we see the importance of work. The Bible never condones laziness. I love the story of the mother who asked her young son, son, what do you like, what do you want to do when you grow up? And he looked at her and he said, Mom, I'd really like to be a preacher. And a bit taken back, she said, Well, son, that's a noble calling, but why do you want to be a preacher? He said, Mom, they only work one day a week. You laugh because that's what some of you think. Listen, the goal is not to shirk responsibility and work as little as possible. The Bible demands a good work ethic. And it seems to me that Martha has that type of work ethic. So, what's the problem? Well, there's three issues with Martha's work that I'll quickly point out. Number one, her work has become a distraction. Look again at verse 40. Martha was distracted with much serving. I mean, Jesus is in her home. And she, of course, again wants it to be perfect. So she's, I mean, frantically running around the house, trying to get everything perfect, but she's missing time with Jesus. Some of you all experienced this this past week. You try to make your house, you know, perfect and the meal perfect. And you were, as your family came in, you were still in the kitchen, and then, you know, at the table, you're getting up and down, getting people refills and all that. And then afterwards, you want to get the kitchen cleaned and all of that. And they leave, and you think, man, it was a great meal, but I didn't get time with them, and your soul kind of sinks. Diligent work is good. Don't miss this. But an overemphasis on the good can distract us from the best. An over-emphasis on the good can distract us from the best. So, for instance, one reason as we just saw in Paul's teaching that we work is to provide for our families. But isn't it ironic that working too much robs our families from what they need most, and that is us. One of the other reasons we work is simply to glorify God, but an overemphasis in work means that often our schedules don't have room for time with God. Mary's problem, first and foremost, was that her work had become a distraction. Number two, Mary's work started causing her to be resentful. In the second part of verse 40, she walks up to Jesus and she says, This, Lord, do you not care? Can't you just hear the sats in her voice? Do you not even care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her, you know, you just imagine her arms on her hips. Tell her then to help me. Now, Mary is frustrated with Mary. For or excuse me, Martha is frustrated with Mary. Do I do I keep saying Martha instead of Mary or vice versa? Okay, thank you. Um, you know what I mean. So um, Martha is frustrated with Mary, very, very much so. And she thinks, man, here I am, just in the kitchen, cleaning house, doing whatever. And there Mary is, just in there lollygagging, sitting with Jesus, shooting the bull. And she just gets resentful. But not only does she get frustrated with Mary, Martha gets uh frustrated with Jesus. She becomes kind of resentful towards Jesus. Look what she says. Do you not care? Jesus, do you not care? Well, she's resentful. And you know, when you are a workaholic and when you are a perfectionist, if you notice when other people don't rise to your standard, and some of you are looking at me because I can be like this. I get it. I I'm a perfectionist. But if others don't rise to that standard, you become impatient with them, frustrated with them, and resentful. Overwork. And when you don't take time to sit at Jesus' feet, man, it can really mess you up and it can really hurt those around you. I mean, I learned as a listen, as a kid, I remember when we would have holiday dinners, my dad would uh take us out that day, like we wouldn't go into the house. I never knew why he would do that until I got married. And I realized that when you're trying to, ladies, when you're trying to prepare for a meal, a big family gathering, it's best just to stay away. Can I get an amen? All right. Some of you men are too uh scared to say amen because your wife's next to you. But you know, overwork and overcommitment, it can cause this resentment. That's what's happening. But there's a third issue here. Martha's overwork is causing her anxiety. The Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. Is that not the mantra of our culture? I mean, everybody, they're troubled about many things. And listen, the holidays, can I get a witness, had become so stressful because there's so much to do, so many gifts to buy, so many places to visit. And in this time, there's supposed to be a time of peace and joy and rest. Oh my goodness. Our hearts can be full of so much trouble and anxiety. Martha believes that if things are perfect, she will be at peace. But ironically, her compulsive need for perfection is causing extreme anxiety. And here's what here's the issue. For many of us, it's not that we just want to serve a good meal, we just want a Pinterest-worthy meal. Right? Like we've raised the standard because there's this false notion that if everything looks perfect on the outside, we'll have peace on the inside, but it doesn't work that way. Watch this. Martha's desire to serve is not wrong, but her does her desire to do so perfectly turns her service into pressure and her pressure into anxiety. That's what happens. And what's the motivation behind perfectionism? Sometimes it's insecurity. We need to prove ourselves, other times it's pride. In perfectionism, when we we want to Impress others and often in in ministry, like in perfectionism, we want to impress Jesus, but we're not called to impress Jesus. My goodness, we can't impress him. We're just called to love him. I get this every week when I'm crafting my sermon. I want it to be as eloquent and as well thought out as it can be. As a matter of fact, just full disclosure, I was gonna preach Acts again this week, but I was this idea of Christ-centered rest was on my mind. Generally, I work most of the day on Christmas Eve. I take Christmas Day off, and then I work a full day on the day after Christmas. And I just told Nikki, I'm taking a day off and we're gonna spend the day together. Which meant I didn't get all day Friday, which is a big study day for me, in the uh, you know, uh to prepare my sermon. Now, if you're here and you're new, just come back next week. It'll be better, I promise. But here's the point is I was on on Friday, I was thinking, man, I really need to be in study because this really needs to be good, you know. And it does need to be good and it does need to be well thought out, and hopefully it is. But listen, I've got to remind myself every week, I'm not here to impress you, and I'm not here to impress Jesus. I'm here to faithfully preach God's word, which will never come back void. And that's not an excuse to be lazy. No, we we are to study to show ourselves approved, but I think you get the point. We've got to realize that we don't have to perform for the Lord. He wants to commune with us. So hard work is pivotal, but here's what we see in the text Christ-centered rest is paramount. The second part of verse 38, a woman named Martha welcomed her into the house. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. Now, verse 42 tells us, Jesus says this, that Martha has chosen the one thing that is what necessary. Jesus does not say that everything else is bad. What Martha's doing again, it's good, but there is one thing at the end of the day that is necessary, and it is that we sit at the feet of Jesus. The text doesn't say this, but I seriously doubt that Mary has been watching Netflix all day. Like I think she has helped Martha. But when Jesus shows up, she lays everything else aside. Not that it's unimportant, but it's not the most important. And she says, No matter what, I'm not going to let work distract me. I'm sitting at the feet of Jesus. Do you know Jesus Himself made God-centered rest a priority? Luke 5, 16, it says that Jesus would withdraw to desolate places and pray. I mean, think of this. Jesus, everywhere he goes, uh everywhere he goes, throngs of people come to him, want to be healed, want to be taught, so on and so forth. And Jesus is always doing the will of God and serving people, and that's a great thing. But even Jesus knew that I've got to get away on a regular basis to a desolate place and seek the Lord. Jesus commanded his disciples to do the same thing. Mark 6 31, he said to them, Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while. For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. If Jesus made God-centered rest a priority, why would we not? Let me just talk about a few benefits of prioritizing communion with Jesus. Number one, we learn from him. Mary, what is she doing? She's sitting at his feet. This is a posture of a disciple, which is unbelievable in the first century because if you had a rabbi come in or or some teacher, a woman would not be invited to take this posture of discipleship. But Jesus welcomes the, you know, men and women, boys and girls, suffer not the little children to come to me. Listen, Jesus welcomes us all to sit at his feet. And it's when we sit at his feet, it's a pot, it's a it's a um posture of discipleship, which means we are in a posture of learning. We're called to first and foremost be disciples of Jesus, and this is where it happens. When we're in his word, when we're in prayer, when we're together as believers. So we learn when we sit at his feet, but secondly, our hearts can be at peace. How does that sound, somebody? You know, Martha here in the story, troubled and filled with all anxiety. Mary, on the other hand, is at perfect peace. You know what I noticed here? Um, it seems to me that Mary never defends herself. She never defends herself. Martha is insecure and, you know, look, Jesus, look what I'm doing. Mary never responds because her heart is at peace, because she's chosen what is right. So our hearts can be at peace when we prioritize communion with Jesus. And thirdly, we acquire that which is eternal when we sit at his feet. Verse 42 one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will never be taken away from her. I love this. Full disclosure: this message is one of the most convicting ones to myself that I've ever preached. I'm very anal about my house. Nikki and I both are. And we want it to be perfect all the time, and that's just not realistic, especially when you have a German shepherd. So here's what happens. Uh, this last Tuesday, my younger son Connor and his wife, Nadia, and my little grandbaby Ivy, came over. She's 18 months old. And we we spent all day getting the house like ready for them, right? Like making sure everything was perfect. We were cooking and cleaning and all of that. We wanted to be really nice because they were leaving on Wednesday to go to Columbus. So we had our Christmas on Tuesday. So they show up, the house is pristine, the food looks beautiful, tastes good. But listen, I was still in the kitchen um when they arrived, and they arrived, the house is really clean. I said hi. 20 minutes later, I walk out, and it looked like a tornado had come through my house because my little 18-month-old granddaughter had been everywhere and pulled everything out. Can I get a witness? So listen, that's how it is when we work like this. We work and we work and we work. Christy, you work so hard to make this place incredibly beautiful. And we've said how many times it's going away already. Like it's gonna, all this is gonna be down in the next couple weeks. Somebody suggested we just keep it up year-round this morning. But listen, we work and we work and we work, you know, be it at our job or at home or here in the church, and so much of that is here today and gone tomorrow. But when we sit at the feet of Jesus, the benefits, the blessings, the payout of that will be eternal. They will not fade. So, how do we do this? How do we sit at Jesus' feet? You've got to be intentional. Like, this is not just going to happen. I'm gonna just be really cle um practical as as I close out here, but be intentional. Like you're not just gonna get healthy, you're not just gonna, you're you know, your finances are not just gonna happen to improve. And you're not just gonna take daily time to sit at the feet of Jesus. You've got to aim for something, and you've got to make a decision. It so here's my really practical advice to you. Take fifty, start with 15 minutes a day. Can you do that? And pick a consistent time. This is my time with Jesus. I don't have immediate advice. I'm gonna sit at his feet, I'm gonna be in his word, I'm gonna pray. I'm just gonna sit in his presence by myself. So pick a place, pick a time, and just say, starting tomorrow, this is going to happen. You've got to be intentional. The other thing you've got to do is this you've got to say no to the unnecessary. Our lives are so crammed with unnecessary things that we just we don't have any margin. You've got to create margin, just like in your budget, if you ever want to get ahead, you can't live paycheck to paycheck. You've got to have margin. How many weeks, how many hours do you have in a week? You don't even know. 168 hours in a week, all right? So you you've got to know that. And and you think, think about this. I I had people say to me all the time, I don't have time really to right now to pray and to spend time in the word and stuff. You you telling me out of 168 hours in a week, you cannot find 15 minutes a day to spend with Jesus. Create margin. Say no to the unnecessary. Now, husbands, hear me. I'm not telling you to go home and rip up your honeydew list. All right, don't do that because your time with Jesus will not help you there. Don't quit home responsibilities or your job or you know your ministry or any of that, but just protect the time with the Lord with everything in you. It is okay to say no to people. All right. So I don't know if you're into making New Year's resolutions or what, like that's an okay thing to do, but and all of your health goals, work goals, personal goals, that's all great. But one thing is necessary in 2026 that you sit at the feet of Jesus on a regular basis. If you're here today and you don't have a heart that is at peace, I just want to remind you of Jesus' words in Matthew 11. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'm gentle, lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. In uh the 1993 NCAA championship, North Carolina's faced uh Michigan's talented Fab Five. How many remember the Fab Five? With just seconds left on the crook the on the clock, Michigan down by two, had the ball. Chris uh Weber was double-teamed, panicked, and instinctively called a timeout. Anybody remember this? Well, that would have been a great move, except no timeouts left, which resulted in a technical foul, which resulted in losing the NCAA championship. The Fab Five try to use a timeout that they didn't have. But do you know what as Christians we have we do the opposite? We have the timeouts. Jesus beckons us to take these timeouts, times of rest with him, but we don't use them. And I'm telling you, if we don't get better at this, if we don't take these times with Jesus, we will shrivel up spiritually. So as you go into this new year, that's all I'll leave you with. Very practical message, I know. Just spend time with Jesus, prioritize time at his feet like Mary. Amen.