Joseph Prince - Do This And You'll Rise Above Your Troubles
This is an excerpt from: The Kairos Year Of Right Time, Right Place - Part 2
"How do I come to the place, Pastor, that this year... is there one thing I can do?" Yes. Real quick, last part. Few verses only. Last part, let you go, okay? I must postpone for part three. I must postpone to part three. All right, Luke 10, real fast. Luke 10, "Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Jesus into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word".
All right, and the word "heard" is imperfect tense, which means she kept on hearing, kept on hearing, kept on hearing His Word. But the sister, "Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said", "Distracted" here means divided into many portions, like I gotta tend to this, I gotta do this, I gotta do this. It's a lot. The Greek word there means she's divided, divided, being pulled in different directions. Have you been distracted like that? That's what happens when you watch online at home, all right? Church, when you come down here, it's just that a corporate anointing helps you focus, amen. "Lord, do You not care"? She blamed the Lord and then blamed the sister, "that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me". Wow. Welcome, He met first, then now tell Him this.
Now watch this. I'm gonna end with this. You know this is a very short portion. "And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed,'" only one thing. You are troubled about what? Many things. You are careful, you are worried, you are troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. You are troubled about many things. My children's health, their studies, my husband's career, this and that, oh, my future, my this, my boss, a lot of areas.
And then there's a part, I need to spend time with the Lord. I've not been spending time with the Lord. That's what some of you worry about. But then He says, "One thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part". Literally, it's the word, "chose" is like take out of many, she chose one. Of all the things you need to worry about, one thing you need to focus on. That part I mentioned last, to spend time with the Word, that's your part. If you take care of that, that's one thing that's needed. And the word "needed" is it's of necessity. It is something you cannot go without every day. You say, "I'm too busy for the Word". Then you know something? You'll be very, very, very busy, because the Word is what puts you at the right place at the right time. Receiving from Jesus, amen.
"One thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her". Not by the devil, not by anyone else, not by all the distractions around her, amen. It will not be taken away from her. Even when she doesn't know it, because it's in the passive, the voice is passive. It's not the active voice. It will not be taken even when she doesn't know it. She's not actively trying to hold onto it. She's just hearing, and no powers is allowed to take it from her. So Jesus says, "Choose that portion every day".
Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Why, Isaiah 55, verse 2 says, "Why are you spending money for that which is not bread"? Why pursue things your labor for that does not satisfy? It says, "Listen to me, harken diligently unto me, and let your soul delight itself in fatness". Do we have that verse? Fatness. "Let your soul delight itself in fatness". Today, have you got some fatness from God's Word? Huh, fatness of God's Word. See what happened in Job? Job says, "When I washed my steps with butter".
You know how you get butter? The Word of God is, the milk is a picture of God's Word, right? But butter is the fat. When you, you just don't want superficial reading of the Bible. You want the fat. And when you wash your steps with butter, the rock, Jesus, will pour you out rivers of oil, rivers of anointing. Anointing! Anointing for your ministry, anointing for your career, anointing for parenting, anointing for every area of your life. No oil creaks. No oil is very hard. It is sluggish. It is a lot of effort. But oil, whoo, it's a flow. It's the anointing, amen. And when you preach by the oil, sometimes you don't know when to stop, hallelujah, but you gotta stop, amen. Part three coming, hallelujah.
Now, as I end, I must say this. Why do you say this, "Right place, right time"? Very simple, all right? Because she was the only one, later on she anointed Jesus. And later on, the women came to anoint Jesus on the third day at His tomb, He rose. They were at the wrong time and the wrong place. Right place, in that case, right place but wrong time. They were not where Jesus is, so in a way it's the wrong place also. He's not there. Hey, the only one who anointed Jesus for His burial was Mary, and Mary wasn't there with all the ladies in that morning. There were other Marys, but Mary, the sister of Lazarus, wasn't there. And I must share this with you.
Notice, go back to, go back to as she approached Him. See the word, "She approached Him"? I must tell you this, one last butter. "She approached Him," in the Greek is actually, "She came up higher to Jesus". Amen, in the translation, show them the translation, ESV, "She went up to him". Darby's, "Coming up she said". And NASB, "She came up to Him". The idea is when you are complaining, when you are worried, you are in a low place. You're in a low place in life, but Jesus in a high place. "Rise up, my love, my fair one. The winter has past. Let all your worries be behind. Come with Me. Rise up, rise up".
Every time you come to Jesus, like Martha did, she come to Jesus, amen, you go higher. When you come to spend time in His Word, you are going higher in life. When you spend time in the Word and delight your soul in fatness, you are going higher in life. Let this be the thing that you will do and you end up like Mary, doing the right thing at the right time. Mary, by the way, was already in the high place. She was at the feet of Jesus. Martha had to come up, Mary was there. It speaks of a spiritual place where every time you come to God, you say, "Lord, I want fatness. I want the riches of Your Word. Open my eyes".
Let this be the year. You got the best book ever. Yale University, recently I read, 2022 discovery, Yale University said this. People who read long, people who read often live long. They didn't say what book, all right? I believe they're generally speaking, but I believe the book above every book is the Bible. Let this be your goal this year and all of a sudden you'll find yourself right place, right time. And all the people said, "Amen". Thank you for your time. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus.