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HopeLives365

Chris Holland

The One Thing

Have you ever wondered what it means to truly follow God?

How is it that you have quiet time with God?

What does it mean to develop a personal relationship with Jesus?

But Most importantly, how do I develop and flourish in that relationship that I might have peace in the storms of life?

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful to be able to come together.

And now as we study your word, we pray that you would open our eyes that we might see and be transformed.

It was December the 26th, 1960, Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It was the NFL championship as it was called at the time.

It positioned the Green Bay Packers against the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Green Bay Packers with their new second-year coach Vince Lombardi.

The game began at noon on December the 26th.

And it began at noon because there were no lights at Franklin Field.

It was about 48 degrees Fahrenheit, 9 degrees Celsius when they began the game.

The field was in quite poor condition because of the high temperatures in the middle of winter caused pools of water throughout.

It was a battle of the titans in front of about 65, 000 people.

And in a back and forth game it came down to the final minute.

They needed to score a touchdown But they were driving down the field behind their star quarterback, Bart Starr.

With 30 seconds left, they called a timeout.

At the Philadelphia 30-yard line, Bart Starr and Jim Taylor in the backfield.

After a short completion, Bart Starr lined up with what would be the last play of the game and he threw a pass to Jim Taylor and as he was closing in on the goal line only 1 thing stood between he and the goal line and that was linebacker Chuck Bednarik.

Jim Taylor was running toward that goal line, but Chuck Bednarik stopped him short of the goal.

He stayed on top of him for an extra long few moments to assure the time expired.

And the Green Bay Packers, under second year head coach Vince Lombardi, lost the NFL championship.

But on that day, something happened with the Green Bay Packers.

There in the locker room, Vince Lombardi said these words to his young men, this will never happen again.

You will never lose another championship.

Author David Moranis recounts in his book, When Pride Still Mattered, The Life of Vince Lombardi.

The following year on the first day of training camp for the Green Bay Packers as these professional athletes all arrived for their brand new season after their previous season had ended in such a bad way with the loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

These players arrived at training camp with great expectations.

There would be new plays, better plays, smarter plays, more effective plays, better mechanics.

Vince Lombardi had a different idea because he took nothing for granted.

He took these 38 professional football players and began a new tradition with the team.

He wanted to start from scratch, get back to the very basics, and he made the assumption that all of his players would begin with a blank slate.

And he began with the most elemental statement.

He picked up a football, he held it out to these professional football players and he said, gentlemen, This is a football.

Every year at training camp thereafter Lombardi would begin with those words, gentlemen this is a football.

You see he knew that the will to win was not enough.

He knew that for his team to perform at their best, his players needed to know that they had prepared as thoroughly as possible to win, which meant that he had to begin at the most fundamental understanding that it was a football and this was the game of football.

Focusing on those fundamentals meant repetition, sometimes dry repetition, sometimes repetition that seemed almost too much.

And although his players, some of them, were the best in their game, he reviewed basic techniques of blocking, tackling, and he insisted on intense conditioning drills.

By the way, it applied in the same way to the player's personal life.

Lombardi was best known as having players of good character because he instilled in every player that the virtues of hard work, sacrifice, perseverance, competitiveness, selflessness, and respect for authority were the fundamentals for excellence in life.

Could it be that the secret to success in leading a Christ-centered life lies in a principle of returning back to the basics?

Could it be that the key to having peace in the storms of life through a personal relationship with Jesus rely on getting back to the very fundamentals?

Today I want to explore with you 2 biblical metaphors that I believe revealed the key of getting back to the very basics.

The metaphors when you first read them are seemingly opposite of 1 another, yet in their contradictory nature, they actually function in a complementary experience.

These 2 metaphors are the metaphors of sitting and walking.

We're going to go back in time, back to the time of Jesus.

And there with Jesus, we're going to pick up on a story where Jesus in Luke the 10th chapter had sent out the 70 to go and minister.

And as those 70 had returned from their ministry, Jesus needed some time to step aside.

And so he went to visit his, what the Bible describes as his good friends, there in the town of Bethany, just a few miles, just a few kilometers from the city of Jerusalem.

There in Luke chapter 10, beginning in verse 38, We hear and understand the story.

Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard his word.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but 1 thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.

He's come for a little bit of a retreat there in Bethany.

It would appear from Martha's scurrying around that Jesus has somehow surprised the family in His arrival.

And by the way, Mary and Martha are sisters, and their brother Lazarus lives there in Bethany as well.

And she is, as the Bible says, distracted with much serving.

It makes sense to be focused on serving Jesus.

But the Bible makes reference to the younger sister Mary.

It simply says that she sat at Jesus' feet and heard His Word.

The description of Martha is simply distracted with much serving.

The Bible does not convey emotion sometimes, but it is very clear in this story that not only was Martha distracted, but she became quite frustrated.

She became quite frustrated as she was pouring out her efforts into the serving of Jesus that she noticed that her sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus.

And in not sitting well with Martha, Martha, out of her frustration, says, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

In her frustration, she gives Jesus a command.

And again, the Bible doesn't record intonations, but I imagine in my mind that Jesus in a very gentle voice said, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.

What were the many things that she was worried and troubled about?

Here the Bible tells us she was worried and troubled about and distracted in particular with serving.

And then Jesus said this phrase, but 1 thing is needed.

What is that 1 thing that Jesus said is needed?

That 1 thing that Jesus said that was needed is the sitting and hearing of His word.

And Jesus says that this is the good part and it would never be taken away from Mary.

The word there, hear, is the Greek word akuo, and it literally means to comprehend, to understand, to listen with understanding.

What does it mean to sit at the feet of Jesus?

What does it mean to truly hear, to comprehend, to have that understanding, to learn?

Well, I want us to draw a few principles here.

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The One Thing

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