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Modern gadgets have produced a generation of young people who can’t think. They can’t focus their minds. And we’ve created a culture of distraction. A recent New York Times article titled, “Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction” speaks to this point,

“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School … And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently” (Matt Richtel, “Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction,” New York Times, Technology Section, Business Day, November 21, 2010).

Then the article cites a young college student, who said,

“I’m doing Facebook, YouTube, having a conversation or two with a friend, listening to music at the same time. I’m doing a million things at once, like a lot of people my age,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll say: I need to stop this and do my schoolwork, but I can’t” (Ibid).

The lie of this digital age is that multitasking, or doing many things at the same time, increases efficiency. But in fact, it results in not doing anything well. And it will distract you from focusing on the thing most important. In the case of this young man, it is his homework. He knows he should stop but he can’t. He’s become a hopeless addict to these gadgets. He goes on to say,

“Facebook is amazing because it feels like you’re doing something and you’re not doing anything. It’s the absence of doing something, but you feel gratified anyway.” He concludes: “My attention span is getting worse” (Ibid).

Like the young man said, “It feels like you’re doing something and you’re not doing anything.” That sums it up! The madness of worthless distractions from electronic gadgets! And in the end, you’ve wasted all your time. And you have nothing to show for it but bad grades. All your time spent in the “virtual” world robs you of time spent in the “real” world. And may I say that only the time spent in the real world is ultimately important.

The passage that Mr. Prudhomme read earlier illustrates this very point. Oh, it is not nearly as drastic a situation like that young man. But it does show how distraction can prevent you from focusing on what is most important. Jesus and His Disciples entered into a house of a lady named Martha, with her sister Mary also present. The actions of the two sisters in the home are completely different. The passage says,

“Mary … sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered [distracted] about much serving” (Luke 10: 39-40).

You can either think of Christ and hear His words, or you can be distracted with something else. One will lead to forgiveness of sins, salvation, and Heaven. The other will lead to Hell. There is a great lesson to be learned here, and I will apply it to those of you who are lost.

I. First, the one thing needful is to think of Christ and hear His words.

“One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken from her” (Luke 10:42).

If you are lost, you are not ready to meet God. You have a wicked and depraved heart. And all of your sins are recorded in the books in Heaven. At the Last Judgment you will be cast into the Lake of Fire. And Christ is your only hope for escape. Only He can blot out your sins with His own Blood.

But you must be convinced of your sin. And your heart must be prepared to trust Christ. The one thing needful for you then is to think of Christ and to hear His words. All else is relatively unimportant. In this world of distraction you must fight to think about Christ and His words. Your very soul depends upon it. If you don’t focus on your school, you will get bad grades. That would be disappointing. But if you don’t focus on Christ and His words, you will lose your very soul. The Bible says,

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Your soul is more important, more valuable than all the riches in the whole world! That’s because your soul is eternal. When your body dies, your soul will live on – in Heaven or in Hell. Yet, by not thinking about Christ and His words, you are treating your soul like trash. And your priceless soul is at great risk of being lost forever.

You must focus your mind on Christ. He is a real Person. The more you think about Him, the more you will be convinced of this. Think of Christ daily and frequently during the day. He loves you. Think about that. Think about the Blood that He shed for you on the cross to pay for your sins. Think about that again and again. He’s praying for you. That’s right - for you. You’ve heard that time and time again. And yet, you still don’t think about Him. Think about Him as you do your daily Bible reading. Think about Him during your prayers. Ask God to make Him real to you. Yes, I know you can’t see Him. But neither can the Christian. But He is so very real to us. The Bible says of the Christian, “Whom having not seen, ye love” (I Peter 1:8).

You must focus your mind on the preaching. You must think of what the Bible and Christ is saying to you. You must read and reread the sermons. You must meditate about the sinfulness of your depraved heart. And you must think again and again about your need of Jesus and His Blood. You must be like,

“Mary … [who] sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word” (Luke 10:39).

Sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His word is another way of saying that Mary was Jesus’ disciple. This is the way that all the twelve disciples began to follow Christ. And all of them except Judas were later converted. If you begin to really think of Christ and hear His words, it is likely that you, too, will be converted.

Stop playing video games and think of your sinful heart. Stop texting and instead read the sermons. Stop spending so much time on Facebook and think of Christ and His words. Stop being distracted by your thoughts and feelings. Instead think of Christ. Get rid of your thoughts of self-pity. Instead think of how Christ has suffered greatly for you. Get rid of your thoughts about how to trust Christ or how to come to Him. Thinking of the “how” stops you from thinking of Christ.

As long as you are distracted by your thoughts and your feelings you will not, you cannot think of Christ. Stop thinking about the Bible verses that speak of salvation. This will prevent you from thinking of Christ Himself. There is a proud young lady who despises her mother. Her mind is so filled with high thoughts of herself and low thoughts of her mother that she has no room to think of Christ.

II. Second, thinking of Christ and hearing His words is something you can choose to do.

“One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken from her” (Luke 10:42).

One thing is needful – to think of Christ and hear His words. And you can choose to do this! Mary did and Martha didn’t. It’s as simple at that. You can choose not to be distracted and instead focus your mind on Christ and His words. You hope one day to come to Christ and to trust Him. Yet you think very little or not at all about Him. If you never think of Christ, how will you ever trust Him? If you don’t think of Christ, how will you ever come to Him?

If you’re not frequently thinking of Christ and His words, then you have not begun to strive to enter Christ. And you have not shown any violence for your salvation. If you can be so easily distracted from thinking of Christ and His words, there is no hope for you to be saved.

The distractions themselves may not be sinful at all. But if they distract you from thinking of Christ and Gospel sermons, it is the greatest sin in the world to you. That’s because through these distractions you will lose your soul. This is the great sin of distraction. I’m talking about video games, Facebook, texting, YouTube, and the rest. They may or may not be particularly sinful. But if they distract your mind from thinking of Christ and the sermons, drop it! Drop it!

And then there is the distraction of sin. Not all distractions are innocent ones. Many are by their own nature sinful. These are not committed ignorantly. But they are committed purposefully and willingly. It is a preference for sin and the world over Christ and the Gospel. The prophet Isaiah captured the nature of sin so vividly,

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

The nature of sin is choosing to go “astray” or to turn to “his own way” from God and Christ. Sin is “missing the mark” of God’s way and going another way that’s preferable to the sinner. The pleasure of sin distracts you from thinking of Christ and the Gospel. You could think of Christ, but you don’t. Instead, it is the love of sin and the world that grabs your attention. You choose them over Christ again and again.

Some have one major distraction that prevents them for thinking of Christ and the Gospel. It might be the sinful addiction to pornography. You can’t think of Christ and the preaching, because you are distracted by the thoughts of naked women. It occupies your mind constantly. This wicked sin distracts you from hearing the Gospel and from being saved.

I am thinking of a young man who by all accounts lives the life of a Christian. He never misses a church service. He reads his Bible every day. He attends prayer meeting. He is outwardly moral. He is no weak-willed teenager who is easily distracted by nonsense. No, he has a superior mind and a strong will. He can focus his mind on whatever he choses. He can recall most of the major points of every sermon that he’s heard as an adult. But he is still not a Christian. The Bible speaks of a similar man,

“Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:21-22).

Love of material things was the one distraction, the one sin, which prevented that young man from becoming a true Christian. He went away from Christ sad and grieved. And he never found true happiness in life without Christ. What about you? In the end you are no wiser than the teenager who went to Hell because he couldn’t focus his mind on the sermons. What a pity. Wake up man! Your eternal soul, your most valuable possession is at great risk of being lost in Hell forever. Because you would not really think of Christ and you really haven’t heard His words. Like the rich young ruler your heart is completely distracted by the sin of covetousness!

In the parable of the sower Christ placed great importance on hearing the Gospel. Christ said,

“Take heed therefore how ye hear” (Luke 8:18).

Be careful, pay attention to how you hear the Gospel. Because how you hear the Gospel will determine whether you hear it at all. Sinner, how have you been hearing the sermons? Do you make great efforts to hear the sermons carefully? Do you read and reread them every day? Do you let them speak to you, or do you make excuses for your sin? Do the sermons affect you? Do you have some measure of conviction of sin? Do you feel some sense of your need for Christ and His Blood? If not, then you really have not been hearing the Gospel. Christ said, “Take heed therefore how you hear.” By the grace of God choose to think of Christ and hear the preaching. Do not allow your mind to be pulled and distracted. And pray that God would help you to hear more carefully so you can trust Christ and be saved.

III. Third, you cannot be converted unless you think of Christ and hear His words.

“One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken from her” (Luke 10:42).

To think of Christ and to hear the sermons will lead to eternal benefits. That’s what Christ meant when He said, “which shall not be taken from her.” And this includes salvation, where once saved you can never be lost. How carefully then you should hear the preaching.

What is stopping you from thinking about Christ and hearing the Gospel? Whatever it is, have done with it! Is your mind weak, and you can’t focus your mind to really hear the sermons? Then drop the electronic gadgets that weaken your mind! Stop the video games. Stop the texting. Stop the Facebook and YouTube. And then pray and ask God to heal your mind enough so that you can start thinking about Christ and the Gospel. For God’s sake stop being so absorbed with your own thoughts and feelings and think of Christ.

Many of you can’t really think of Christ. And if you can’t think of Christ, how can you ever hear His words? How will you ever then be converted? In your desperate attempt to think of Him you imagine what He looks like and you try to visualize Him. You try to think of Him through your emotions and feelings. You try to think of Him through a Bible verse. But all of these attempts fail and fail, time and time again. You must think of Christ but you can’t. Yes, depraved sinner you can’t do anything to be saved. You can’t even simply think of Christ. God must first reveal Christ to you. And God will do this to the sinner who has given up on himself and feels hopelessly lost.

“One thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part,
which shall not be taken from her” (Luke 10:42).

Have you seen the one thing needful to you? Have you been thinking of Christ? Will you now hear His words? Jesus said,

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Are you weary of the load of your sin? Christ died and shed His Blood to remove your burden of sin. Come to Christ and rest in Him. This world and everything in it will soon pass away. But there is an unseen world that is eternal which will never pass away. Christ was speaking to Mary things of eternity, things for the soul. And Christ is also speaking to you this evening. How I pray that you will hear His Gospel call.

Christ died for your sins on the cross. On the third day he rose physically, flesh and bones from the grave. He ascended into Heaven and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. Think about Christ. Think of His great love for you. Hear His words calling you to come to Him. Come to Christ. Trust our loving Savior. He will receive you. He will wash your sins away in His Blood.

If you would like to speak with us about becoming a Christian, about having your sin cleansed by the Blood of Jesus, please leave your seat right now and walk to the back of the auditorium. Dr. Cagan will lead you to another room where we can pray and talk about Jesus saving you. Go right now to the back. Dr. Hymers, please pray for someone to trust Jesus this evening. Amen.

(END OF SERMON)
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Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Mr. Abel Prudhomme: Luke 10:38-42.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“He Washed My Eyes With Tears” (by Ira F. Stanphill, 1914-1993).