There's a story told of Robert Schuller, the former minister of the Crystal Cathedral. He was on a huge book promotion tour visiting eight cities over a period of four days, all the while trying to keep up with and maintain his ministry duties at the Crystal Cathedral. Busy, busy, busy, man. While he was on this tour, his assistant reminded him that when he gets back, he's got to have lunch with the winner of a charity Raffle who paid $500 to have lunch with Robert Schuller. Schuller was just thrilled, elated, that his presence was so highly valued until he learned that the person who paid the $500 for his undivided attention was his own teenage daughter.

I think if there were one word that best describes the American family today, it's the word busy. We are busy. I'm busy. Our family's busy. We're just so busy, busy. And it could be that one of the biggest challenges for the Christian family today is how to prioritize life. We can get so focused on meeting immediate needs that sometimes we just don’t think we have time for the eternally significant things, like how do I find time for Jesus - to show up at church or read my Bible every day or pray or spiritually interact with other believers or attend that next church event or volunteer in ministry. How do I prioritize all of these things in my life?

In Luke chapter 10, we read the story of Mary and Martha. And what I want to do is to draw out four priorities that I think could benefit every home in America.

Now, we're going to start with Martha as the example, because Martha is a good woman doing some good things. We don't want to discredit that. So we're going to give Martha some credit here with this first point.

Priority #1: Welcome Jesus into our homes.

Luke 10:38…

38 While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

Martha, her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus live in this small village called Bethany, which is just outside of Jerusalem on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. In fact, Jesus and his disciples spent a lot of time in this home, especially during the last week of Jesus’ life.

Something that I like about Jesus is that he never forced himself onto anyone. If someone rejected him, he just went somewhere else. That's Jesus. He never forced himself into people's homes or areas or anything. He quietly went to another area if they rejected him.

But when people invited Jesus into their homes, what did he do? Well, he went. He went and ate with them. He went and talked with them.

Today, Jesus still promises to go where he is invited.

Revelation 3:20 says…

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jesus always knocks. He doesn't break down the door and barge in. He waits. He waits for you to come to the door, open it up, and let him in to welcome him into your home.

What does that look like? How do I make Jesus a welcome guest into my home?

• Pray together as a family.

It doesn't have to be an elaborate, drawn out, flowery prayer. It can be as simple as, “Lord, thank you for this food. God, thanks for keeping us safe today. God, you're wonderful. Thank you for taking care of our family. In Jesus name, Amen.” It could be as simple as that because when we do things like that, it says to Jesus, “God, you're welcome in this place.”

• Read the Bible together.

This is a step listed on your blue card this week: Read through the Gospel of mark. Mark has 16 chapters. If you read out loud with your family two chapters a day in the book of Mark, and you started today, you would be done by next Sunday.

We believe here at HCC that most biblical learning ought to take place in the home, not here. You only get an hour a week here. So, spend time together, getting that biblical training and learning at home.

• Watch Christian movies together.

There are some good Christian themed movies nowadays. I would recommend I Can Only Imagine, The Case for Christ, and God’s Not Dead., and The Chosen.

• Listen to Christian music together.

You could turn on some Christian music during dinner. Sometimes we at home will turn on Christian music in the background, and it creates this soothing atmosphere. For those of you who are younger generations - Good vibes.

• Invite other believers into my home.

We can host discipleship groups and dinner parties and barbecues with Christian friends and elders and ministry leaders and missionaries. Even me. It doesn't always have to be this huge spiritual event. But just having other believers in our homes to play cards and throw darts and just sit on our back decks even can be very spiritually encouraging. And trust me, you'll make memories with each other that you'll laugh about and talk about for years to come.

• Speak Jesus in casual conversation.

Is Jesus a part of just who you're talking about every day? This is simple.

Deuteronomy 6 puts it plainly…

6 “These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Pretty simple. Make Jesus a part of your daily conversation.

• Live godly lives.

Our kids, if you have kids at home or whatever, if you're a grandparent, these kids, they're listening, they're observing everything we do. They're watching how we talk, how we spend our time, how we behave. They're soaking it all in. And you know, they emulate what we say and do, don't they? Sometimes that's not a good thing. Let's make it a good thing, right? Let's pray more, let's read our Bibles more, let's invite Jesus into our daily lives more. And when we do, our kids are going to see that and sense it and eventually, hopefully emulate what we do.

So priority number one, inviting Jesus into our homes.