[0:00] Let's hear God's word together. But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, have nothing to do with such people.
[0:45] They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
[0:58] Just as Janes and Jambres oppose Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
[1:15] You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings.
[1:27] What kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra? The persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
[1:46] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it. And how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
[2:01] All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
[2:17] Amen. Let's once again take some time to pray together. Let's pray. Father God, as we read that sobering account of life in the last days, we would begin our time of prayer confessing our sin before you, acknowledging that we have sinned against you in thought, in word, and in action, in the things that we have done and in the things we have left undone.
[2:54] Lord, we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Lord, as we stand under your word, under your law, we would confess and we would repent.
[3:16] And we would ask that for the sake of your son Jesus, you would have mercy on us. Lord, we thank you for the promise, for the assurance that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
[3:34] Lord, we pray for ourselves as a church and we pray for our wider community today. Lord, we pray for anybody here who feels a sense of loneliness, perhaps far from home, far from family and friends, those who are feeling a sense of isolation, perhaps because of the struggles of life.
[4:04] Lord, we thank you for that promise that in Jesus we have a friend who sticks closer than any brother, that we have the promise from Jesus, that he will never leave or forsake any of his people, that wherever we are we go with your spirit if we belong to you.
[4:24] And so we pray for comfort and encouragement and strength that comes from yourself. We also pray that this church would be a place of real community and family for many people, whether they're from Scotland or for people all around the world.
[4:44] Lord, we pray for any here today who have particular burdens that they are carrying, anxieties for themselves or for others, stress because of any number of factors.
[5:16] Lord, we thank you again for Jesus, the one who invites us to lay our burdens down, to find rest from him and to find rest in him.
[5:30] Lord, we thank you for the gift of prayer, that when we find ourselves anxious and perplexed and confused, and sorrowing, that we can turn our eyes to the God who made the heavens and the earth, the God who is higher than us, the God who promises to be a rock, a source of strength and refuge.
[5:54] And so we pray that for any who are particularly anxious, that they would know to turn to you, and that they would find comfort and strength from you, this day and this week.
[6:07] Lord, we pray for those who are suffering because of ill health. We think of those who are undergoing treatments of various kinds, for those who are awaiting results of tests and surgeries.
[6:25] Lord, again, in those moments of fear and those doubts and questions come, Lord, may your spirit come and draw near and give hope and give peace.
[6:42] Lord, that sometimes the waves seem to break over and over. We thank you that Jesus is the one who could speak to the storm and say, be still. Lord, we pray that you would quiet stormy hearts today because of your great grace and your goodness.
[6:59] Lord, we pray today for those who are here who may be searching to find you as the one true God. We pray that as we spend time together reading the Bible and thinking about it, as we pray, as we sing, Lord, that you would be revealing yourself, you'd be revealing Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, that you would be pleasing to draw people to faith and to know you as their God.
[7:31] We pray for your people as we seek to live for you in the world, as you call us to be salt and light. We thank you that you know each one of us.
[7:44] You know where we spend our time. You know the people that we spend time with. You know the opportunities that we have to speak about Jesus.
[7:56] You know the challenges we have to live for Jesus. And so we pray for each one of your people that we would be depending on you as our Father, that we would be looking to Jesus our Savior, that we'd be finding strength that comes from the Holy Spirit within us, so that we might bear witness to the hope that we have, and that you might be pleased to bring into our lives those who need that hope, those who need living truth, and that you might work salvation in their hearts also.
[8:32] Lord, we pray as we have thought from your word about the importance of your word, and we pray for your word as it goes into the world today, as people will be preaching it in churches all around the world, as people will be speaking truth together around the world, and may you cause faith to be strengthened, and may you cause faith to come to life all around this world.
[9:03] And what we pray for our world, we pray for our country. Lord, will you strengthen your church and your people? Will you renew and revive? And Lord, as we realize how important your word is, we pray for the work of a Bible translation, and we thank you for those who use their gifts to help to translate the Bible into different languages, so people can hear good news for themselves.
[9:31] And we thank you for the work of Bible societies all around the world, as they look to make the Bible available to people who long to read it, who need to read it.
[9:44] And so Lord, we pray that your word, which is living and active, would be living and active around the world today, and it be living and active in our hearts today, that you would speak, and that we would listen, and that we would be changed.
[10:02] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now we're going to sing a section of Psalm 119 together, sometimes described as the great love song to the Bible that we have in the Bible.
[10:18] We're going to sing the section from Psalm, from verse 105. And again, as we're able, let's stand together so we can sing. Your word's a lamp that shines before my feet.
[10:36] It is a light that guides me on my way. The oath that I have taken, I've confirmed, that all your righteous laws I will obey.
[11:02] Oh, Lord, you know that I have suffered much. Preserve my life according to your words.
[11:18] Accept the willing praises of my mouth. Instruct me in your righteous laws, O Lord.
[11:35] I will not disregard your holy law, though constantly my life is in my hands.
[11:54] Although the wicked set a snare for me, I have not left the path of your commands.
[12:13] Your statutes are my heritage always, grace. And every day they make my heart rejoice.
[12:29] My heart is set on keeping your decrees. And to the very end they are my choice.
[12:48] Now, can you turn with me to Luke's gospel and chapter 10.
[12:59] Again, if you're using your church Bibles, you'll find on page 1042. And we're going to read this short section at the end of chapter 10, where Jesus enters the home of Martha and Mary.
[13:14] And we'll think together about listening to God's words. So let's hear God's word. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
[13:28] 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.
[13:39] 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, you are worried and upset about many things, but a few things are needed, or indeed only one.
[13:58] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Amen. So there's a wonderful little section here, which we'll get to.
[14:10] But before we get to it, I want to talk just for a couple of minutes about a chap by the name of Carl Newport. Now, some of you maybe have heard of him. He writes and speaks about deep working and about digital minimalism.
[14:26] So this is a key guy for thinking about deep working, thinking about making space to have uninterrupted time to read, to think, to research, to write.
[14:40] He examined his own life, probably recognizes the challenges that belong to many of us, the challenge of disruptive and distracting social media, the problem of constant interruptions, because of technology, and also the pull of shallow work, those other tasks that are not the main tasks that can pull us away from deep working, deep thinking.
[15:06] And so the answer for Carl Newport was to begin to practice digital minimalism, to maximize focus by minimizing the time spent with technology and on social media.
[15:20] And he writes and speaks about that process of retraining one's brain to be able to focus deeply on whatever is being read and researched.
[15:31] Now, why talk about this? Well, we talk about it because probably it's an experience many of us recognize. But there is something in this for us as disciples, as followers of Jesus too.
[15:46] As we get into this text, we understand that Mary and Martha and we too are being called to deep listening, to be devoted to Jesus' words.
[16:00] That in this text, we find the challenge of distractions, that even good things in our lives can take us away from Jesus' words. And we hear the call from Jesus himself to refocus, to choose the one necessary thing, to sit at Jesus' feet.
[16:21] So we're going to see that today. Again, before we get into the text directly, there's something we need to recognize that Luke has done in his gospel. He's pulled this meeting with Mary and Martha out of its expected sequence.
[16:38] So Mary and Martha live in a place called Bethany. We know Jesus is on a journey to Jerusalem, but by this stage in Luke 10, he hasn't actually reached Bethany yet. So what Luke is doing is he's taking a later story and he's pulling it back in time to place it here.
[16:54] And so we need to ask ourselves, why is he placing it here? I want to give us two suggestions and we'll come back to these. One suggestion. So last week, if you remember, Jesus has a discussion about keeping the two great commandments about love for God and love for our neighbor.
[17:10] And last week, we thought about the Good Samaritan. What does it look like to love our neighbor? It looks like showing mercy, being sacrificial, with our time, with our energy, with our resources. This week, and next time we come back to Luke chapter 11, the focus is going to be, how do we grow in our love for God?
[17:30] The focus this week, listening to the words of God, listening to the words of Jesus. Next week, next time, it's going to be about prayer. So there's a nice balance here that's created.
[17:41] There's balance for the follower of Jesus. Last week, good works, activity, caring for God's world. This week, good listening, and reflection, and spending time in God's word.
[17:56] And as followers of Jesus, we need both. And we need that balance. But our focus, this time, is going to be on listening to God's word. And there's three portraits that we have here in this chapter, in this little section, that will help us to see that since Jesus is Lord, we must listen to him.
[18:14] Okay, first portrait is that of a stressed out servant. Let's look at Martha for a few moments. Verse 38, As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.
[18:32] Okay, so, Martha, we're being presented to someone who is most likely the elder sister in this family. She's being presented as the hostess. And she's being presented positively, because what does she do?
[18:43] She welcomes Jesus in. When Jesus sent out his 72 disciples, he spoke about the importance of welcoming Jesus and his people in. She is a follower.
[18:55] She's enjoying the peace of God. She receives him well. But it doesn't take long before stress begins to develop. Verse 40, Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.
[19:11] Here is a picture of someone who has become crazy busy, looking to do a good thing, to show hospitality to Jesus, to serve Jesus a nice meal.
[19:22] She has now become distracted. She is over busy. She's going round in circles. And with that comes frustration.
[19:34] She came to Jesus and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister's left me to do the work by myself? She's frustrated with Jesus. She's judging her sister.
[19:46] Maybe just sitting there doing nothing while I'm busy getting the meal ready. And her solution, get Mary to come help me in the kitchen. Now, how does Jesus respond to Martha?
[19:58] Notice, first of all, that he responds tenderly and kindly. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You're worried and upset about many things.
[20:10] Martha, you're being disturbed and distracted. Why? Because you've lost focus. Few things are needed or indeed, only one.
[20:23] Jesus didn't come needing a fancy meal. Martha does need to listen to Jesus. And in all her busyness, she's lost that focus.
[20:35] So, Jesus has been welcomed in, but at the same time, Martha is in danger in this moment of missing out on fellowship and friendship with her Lord and her King.
[20:51] And so, Jesus kindly, wisely says to her, Martha, it's time to put the pans down. It's time to put the to-do list away. It's time to come and listen and learn and to receive and to receive my love.
[21:08] Jesus speaks to Martha, this stressed out servant, and says, you know what? It's time for you in this moment to stop serving. Instead, it's time to be served.
[21:19] Receive grace from me and from my words. So, as we come into Luke's portrait gallery and as we examine Martha, as we stop and look at her life, do we see something of ourselves there?
[21:36] In our busyness, maybe we feel that we're chasing ourselves in circles, pulled away, distracted from the best thing, time with Jesus and his word, by the many things, by the many good things that we're doing.
[21:52] Perhaps it's easy to see ourselves here. Where do distractions come from? For Martha, it was cooking, it was hospitality, I was looking to serve Jesus there.
[22:05] Where do distractions come from for us? Maybe first and foremost, they come from our culture. People say we live in the age of distraction because of technology, because we're always connected, because we're surrounded by entertainment and by noise.
[22:25] Do we find that that distracts us from time spent with Jesus? Maybe it's because of career. Like Martha, she was a homemaker, she was a hostess, she took that really seriously, but that distracted her in that moment from the best thing, time with Jesus.
[22:45] Maybe that's the challenge for us, high pressure, long hours, the need to always be available where we find it hard to switch off. Maybe it's concerns. That word in verse 41 that Jesus uses, you are worried and upset about many things.
[23:01] That word worried comes up again in chapter 12. The worries that can come. Chapter 12, verse 11. When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you'll defend yourselves or what you'll say.
[23:18] So we can be concerned about spiritual opposition. or further on in the chapter, chapter 12, verse 22. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or about your body, what you'll wear.
[23:34] Our daily needs, what we need for each day, those concerns can distract us from our time with Jesus. Without care and protection, as Martha shows us, time with Jesus, time in God's word, can get swallowed up.
[23:52] And we can miss that wonderful truth of a quiet heart still before our God. How do we fight distraction so we can hear God's word?
[24:06] Let me make three suggestions for us. The first is about depending. Again, I suspect I'm not alone in this, recognizing that the temptation for busy Christians, if we have a lot on our plate, a lot of tasks to perform, the first thing that's likely to get dropped is either Bible reading or prayer or maybe both.
[24:33] We know what we're doing. God has resourced us so we work in our own strength and we're self-reliant. Maybe we need to learn from Martha that first, Jesus must serve us.
[24:47] In the word of God, we must receive grace from him if we are to serve well. We depend like children before our Father in heaven and so we are to come hungry knowing that Jesus promises to satisfy.
[25:06] How else to fight distraction? Let's think about dropping. First of all, dropping the pace of life so that we have time with God.
[25:22] Being crazy busy can almost seem like a badge of honour in our culture and society but it's not good for the people of God to live without margins, to live without time that we can give to unhurried time with our God and our Saviour.
[25:38] Maybe you've heard of John Wesley, famous preacher in the 18th century. He had a band of travelling preachers under his care and he gave them a wonderful piece of advice.
[25:49] He said to them, when you travel, travel with a slack rein. So they're riding horses, don't be going full pelt, slow down.
[26:00] Why did he tell them that? It was so that as they journeyed, they could be thinking about God's word of truth and they would have time to pray.
[26:11] In the 18th century, Wesley was thinking about how do we redeem our commute? How can we use our travelling time so that we can be fed by God's word so that we're not always hurried so that we can have a tranquil, peaceful heart?
[26:28] What will that look like for you and I today living in the 21st century to ride with slack reins so that we have time with God so that our hearts are not stirred up with so much noise?
[26:46] We need to drop the pace of life and we need to drop some of the noise out of our time, out of our lives so that we can hear the word of God.
[26:57] Maybe that will mean quite literally, I've been trying to do this this week, find it super helpful, if I'm reading my Bible in this room, I'm going to drop my phone and my laptop in that room over there.
[27:08] We need to think really carefully to make sure that we have undivided time with our God. Depending and dropping, if we want to fight distraction, we need to learn delighting as well.
[27:22] One and only time I tried scuba diving when we had family living in the Philippines was an absolute disaster. I discovered that I am freakishly buoyant. Everybody else was getting down to the bottom, no problemo.
[27:36] Even when they put weights on my wetsuit, I would still bubble up to the top. And so I found myself stuck paddling on the surface. I don't know why. But you know, that often describes my faith.
[27:50] And I wonder if that describes the faith of you as well. Where we find ourselves content with a little bit of paddling rather than really diving into the rich treasures that we have in God's Word.
[28:05] The world crowds in and disrupts. And we find that we're grabbing a minute or two minutes. We don't have quality time to really sink and settle into how wonderful God's Word is.
[28:20] We need to fight, discipline ourselves in order to find that delight of meeting with God in His Word.
[28:32] See, Martha had this amazing moment. Here is the King of the Universe sitting in her front room. Her teacher and her Lord who would share unhurried time with her and her family.
[28:46] this Savior who would speak words of love and truth and life into her heart and her mind but she almost missed it. Because she was caught up in preparing a fancy meal, caught up in the stress of serving.
[29:02] We also have an incredible privilege. Jesus meets with us today by His Spirit. God would speak to us today in His living Word of God.
[29:19] Jesus invites us into fellowship to be served by Him as we gather together in His presence. Let's not miss it.
[29:31] Let Jesus speak verse 41 and verse 42 directly to your heart today. James, James, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one.
[29:51] Don't miss it when Jesus offers us Himself. That's the first portrait. Second portrait is that of Mary. Here is a portrait of someone who is listening to the Lord.
[30:04] And as we look at this portrait that Luke draws of Mary, two details are in view. First of all, her posture.
[30:15] Look at verse 39. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He said.
[30:28] This is restful. This is quiet trust. This is sitting to listen and to learn. But it's also radical.
[30:39] And we shouldn't miss this. Because in the first century, it would have been a shocking thing that the model disciple being presented to us is a woman.
[30:53] Notice this wonderful truth that Jesus rejects the sexism of the first century just as He would reject the 21st century abuse of power that we are hearing about all too often.
[31:06] We have the wonderful, gracious, welcoming Savior who invites anyone to come and listen. There is humility in this posture, isn't there? Sitting at Jesus' feet like a servant before her master and her king.
[31:21] There's a tension in her posture. She's listening in like a student before her teacher, her master. The Lord of the universe, the eternal Son of God, the Savior of the world, has rung their doorbell and Mary takes full advantage.
[31:41] And there's this wonderful gift. Here is the Savior on his journey to save her, to go to Jerusalem, to die for her, and he sits to talk with her.
[31:55] And she gives full attention. She's listening to the Lord. So there's her posture there, but also we need to recognize that Jesus draws attention to her priority also.
[32:07] To read again, verse 42, few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.
[32:20] That one thing necessary was not a fancy meal, it was not frantic activity, it was to sit at Jesus' feet and to learn from him.
[32:32] The better portion that Mary has chosen, quality time with the Lord Jesus, listening to his word. Now again, think about those two details.
[32:45] Think about her posture, think about her priority. How would our portrait look? Honestly, as we sit here today, and how does God want our portrait to look?
[32:59] Think about our posture. I know some of us, we know pain, regularly or occasionally, of a body that gets out of alignment. And the truth is that the same thing can happen spiritually.
[33:14] And we need the word of God to do that spiritual physio work to realign us so that our posture is right. Think about what the Bible says about itself.
[33:29] So in Psalm 119, we read, your word is a lamp to my feet. Is God's word what directs our lives, what directs our decisions, our attitudes, our actions?
[33:48] God's word is described as sweeter than honey. It is supposed to give joy and delight. Do we approach it with that sense of joyful expectation and anticipation?
[34:00] Jesus said that him and his words are like a solid rock foundation. So when the storms of life come, when the storm of judgment would come, we would stand firm.
[34:17] Is God's word the foundation your life, my life, is built on? The Bible describes itself as the sword of the spirit.
[34:30] When we face spiritual battle and trial and temptation, do we take it up and read it and rely upon it? Do we have a posture of humility towards the Bible?
[34:46] Are we ready to submit to it, even when it challenges us, even when it exposes sin in our lives? Do we let it judge us rather than us seeking to stand in judgment over God's word?
[35:02] Is it our rule for a life of godliness? Do we have that posture of attention where we're letting it do its work?
[35:14] Remember what Paul wrote to Timothy, that God's word teaches and rebukes and corrects and trains in righteousness. Do we allow God's word to do its work? Do we do what it says?
[35:26] Are we meditating upon it day and night? Are we seeking to find Christ in all of scripture? And what about when it comes to our priority?
[35:39] We see clearly Mary's priority in our crazy busy world, with our busy lives, where does the word of God fit? Does the word of God fit?
[35:50] remember what we have when we pick up our Bibles. We have what so many people are looking for. They're looking to connect with God.
[36:03] They're looking to find where can I meet with God? We meet God in his word. This is the place where God would speak to us, where we can actually meet with Christ Jesus, to understand that we have the same privilege as Mary.
[36:18] Every time we open our Bible, that should help us to make it a priority, that we can sit at Jesus' feet every time we come to church or we open a Bible.
[36:34] Think about that. When we come to church, this is no ordinary thing. We have a standing weekly invitation to fellowship with the Lord Jesus, the King and Savior.
[36:49] that privilege that Mary enjoyed, we get to enjoy every week. We can listen to him every week. We can meet him together as we worship.
[37:02] So as we understand that, let's not let lesser things, even when like Martha they're good things, take us from the bigger and better joy of knowing Jesus in his word.
[37:19] Last portrait, and it's the portrait of Jesus himself. Jesus as he shows and brings the grace of God. Now remember this is all happening in the context of hospitality and of sharing a meal, and that kind of imagery is helpful for us as we consider Luke's portrait of Jesus.
[37:38] Think first of all about an open table. Recognize in this little section we're being reminded that there are no boundaries, there are no limits to God's grace.
[37:50] Just as we said a few moments ago, the model disciple would have shocked people in Jesus' day because it was Mary. All of the Gospels are telling us Jesus will teach anyone, Jesus will share friendship with anyone who will listen, who will follow, who will believe.
[38:10] Nothing has changed on that. Jesus is on his journey to the cross to extend the grace of forgiveness so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[38:25] Whoever we are, wherever we're from, Jesus invites us to meet with him, to receive God's love from him, to be welcomed into friendship and fellowship by him.
[38:41] He has an open table. Let's think also about a balanced diet to put those two stories together, the Good Samaritan and Martha and Mary, on the way of Jesus.
[38:54] These are stories taking place while Jesus is on a journey. While we are on the journey of following Jesus, there is to be service, like the Good Samaritan showing love for neighbor, and there is to be silence, quiet hearts, listening to Jesus, slowing down to listen in.
[39:13] We are called to love God's world, to meet people's needs, and to show mercy, and we're called to love God's word, to hear Jesus, to obey Jesus.
[39:27] This is the wonderful balance we see in Jesus' own life. To read the Gospels, we read there are some days where Jesus seems to spend all his time healing people, and teaching people, but we also discover he spends whole nights of quiet time, a prayer with his father.
[39:45] Jesus loved to bring in the kingdom through his miracles, and he loved to teach, and show that he is the king bringing the kingdom of God. So while the emphasis on our text today is on the priority of time with God in his word, we can understand that that's also of relevance as we think about going out into the world and of serving.
[40:06] as we meet with Jesus, as he would change our heart, as we would receive spiritual power, as we would know God's will for how to please him, that's going to help us as we look to help others.
[40:27] One last thing as we think about this portrait of Jesus, is to recognize that because Jesus is so gracious, we have an invitation to a feast.
[40:38] See, we could finish a sermon like this with a call to duty. Christians, you should read your Bible. Christians, you should be in church.
[40:51] And of course, those things are true, and we don't want to miss that. But there's a better way, by reminding ourselves of the privilege we have, that we're invited to a wonderful, joyful feast.
[41:08] As God's word says, taste and see that the Lord is good. Sunday by Sunday, recognize and enjoy the fact that Jesus comes to meet with us as his people, that he comes to feed us from his word, that he wants to satisfy our hearts' desires with himself and to increase our delight in him.
[41:33] And recognize again, every time you and I open our Bible, whenever we do that, we're invited to the joy of hearing from the living God, of meeting with our God and Savior.
[41:48] So together, will we slow down? Will we switch off so that we can spend time with Jesus and receive the bread of life from him?
[42:03] Let me pray for us. Let's pray. Lord, our God, we thank you for this little story which is so revealing of us and for us.
[42:22] Lord, so often we can find ourselves so busy, busy with necessary things, busy with good things, that time with you can be squeezed out.
[42:35] Now, that time reading the Bible, time to pray, time to worship with God's people, can seem like an optional extra, rather than being the air we need to breathe, the food and the water that we need in order to live well and to flourish.
[42:55] Lord, will you make us wise as we think about our own lives and situations, make us wise to see how we might make changes, how we might find the time to spend with you, to be served by you, to receive grace from you, and not just for a moment, but you might give us the privilege of unhurried time with Jesus our Savior.
[43:25] Lord, as we've heard Jesus say that listening to him is the better portion, it's the one thing that's necessary, will you help us to pay attention when we read the Bible and when we come to church, that we would be shaped by what we read, that we would be growing to be more like Jesus our Savior, that we would allow your word to do its work in our lives.
[43:55] And Lord, will you keep showing us more grace through Jesus our wonderful Savior. We thank you that he is so kind, that he would meet with us, to speak to us, to give us strength for our journey of faith.
[44:10] help us to choose wisely. Help us to choose for our ultimate good. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, we'll close singing the hymn, Speak, O Lord, reminding us again of what God would do for us in his word.
[44:33] So let's stand as we're able to sing, Speak, O Lord. or Be your