Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: We're studying from Luke chapter ten, verses thirty eight through
Speaker 2: forty two. Today we're gonna talk a little bit about Well,
Speaker 2: it's going to be a very practical message. I think
Speaker 2: it would be a lot of fun too. If you participate.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you can help the preacher preach better and you
Speaker 2: don't even know it. So I just invite you to
Speaker 2: whatever you want to do. But I'm gonna tell you this.
Speaker 2: The sooner you look like you get it, the sooner
Speaker 2: I can let you go. So you can speed this
Speaker 2: along today just by looking interested, to shake your head
Speaker 2: like this, we get it, We get it, we get it.
Speaker 2: This is one of those little Bible messages that you
Speaker 2: can't quite figure out why this part got included in
Speaker 2: the Bible, because it seems pretty small, little insignificant in
Speaker 2: the scope of the whole narrative of Jesus going to
Speaker 2: the Cross and rising from the dead, and then little
Speaker 2: things like this get told in the Bible. And I
Speaker 2: want to use this for the third installment of trigger
Speaker 2: taking back your mind in the age of anxiety. Look
Speaker 2: at somebody and say, you look less stressed than the
Speaker 2: last time I saw you. You know, it's always awkward
Speaker 2: because I tell people to say things to their neighbors
Speaker 2: and there's always one person who's like independently minded and
Speaker 2: they're like ah ah, But then the person next to
Speaker 2: them is like totally a rule follower, and they'll turn
Speaker 2: to the other person and start to say it and
Speaker 2: then like, oh, you're not actually doing it.
Speaker 1: You're a rebel and you're going to hell.
Speaker 2: So this little passage is going to give a some
Speaker 2: practical insight today and help us get our minds focused
Speaker 2: and help us get, you know, a concentration on what matters.
Speaker 2: At least that's our prayer. Luke, Chapter ten, verse thirty eight.
Speaker 2: And even the first line has a little message in
Speaker 2: it as Jesus and his disciples were on their way,
Speaker 2: So something is about to happen while they're on the
Speaker 2: way somewhere else, and some of God's greatest invitations will
Speaker 2: happen through life's interruptions. It will be places that we
Speaker 2: didn't plan on going, and it will be through conversations
Speaker 2: that we didn't plan on having. That sometimes God will
Speaker 2: give his greatest blessings. How many can testify to that.
Speaker 2: Maybe you met your wife not even trying to meet
Speaker 2: a woman. You were at the club trying to look
Speaker 2: like somebody who was worthy of a date, and you
Speaker 2: just you your dance moves proved otherwise, and then you
Speaker 2: just happened to I've met people here who signed up
Speaker 2: to serve on the parking team and ended up on
Speaker 2: a honeymoon in Turks and Keikos, And so it happens, right,
Speaker 2: did that happen? Yeah, Yeah, it happens. I'm telling you
Speaker 2: just happened on the way. And I pointed out because
Speaker 2: since we're talking about distractions today and that's our central
Speaker 2: subject matter, we need to understand that not everything that
Speaker 2: you didn't plan on is a distraction. Sometimes the distraction
Speaker 2: is the thing you planned to do that God didn't
Speaker 2: even want you to do. But you made up your
Speaker 2: mind what you were going to do before even asked
Speaker 2: God what you.
Speaker 1: Were supposed to do. Amen, I am I'm gonna preach this,
Speaker 1: she said preach that, well, hey, I'm already halfway there,
Speaker 1: So study sometime in the Bible all the things that
Speaker 1: happened on the way or along the way. You'd be surprised.
Speaker 2: As they were on their way to Jerusalem for a festival. Ultimately,
Speaker 2: Jesus was going to Jerusalem later in order to pay
Speaker 2: for our sins and die on the cross.
Speaker 1: That's what he came for. And since he knew what
Speaker 1: he came for.
Speaker 2: He could not be distracted by the preferences of people
Speaker 2: or the plans of others.
Speaker 1: And that's why when Peter said you can't.
Speaker 2: Go die, Jesus was able to say, get behind me, Satan.
Speaker 2: What you represent right now is in opposition to the
Speaker 2: will of my father. So I got to keep moving
Speaker 2: toward Jerusalem. I got to keep moving toward Jerusalem. I
Speaker 2: got to keep moving toward Jerusalem. That's for somebody. You're
Speaker 2: on the right road, and there are a lot of
Speaker 2: things trying to get you off of it.
Speaker 1: But here's what happens in this passage.
Speaker 2: In a little village called Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem,
Speaker 2: Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha
Speaker 2: opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary,
Speaker 2: who listen how spiritual this.
Speaker 1: House sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
Speaker 2: Oh, but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that
Speaker 2: had to be made, and she came to him and asked, Lord,
Speaker 2: don't you care that my sister has left me to
Speaker 2: do all the work by myself.
Speaker 1: Tell her to help me. This is funny to me.
Speaker 1: I've read it many many times.
Speaker 2: And then I laughed because he says their name twice, Martha, Martha.
Speaker 2: Look at your neighbors, say their first name twice, Martha, Martha.
Speaker 2: The Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things,
Speaker 2: but few things are needed, or indeed, only one. Mary
Speaker 2: has chosen what is better, and it will not be
Speaker 2: taken away from her. And the scene ends with this.
Speaker 2: We don't get to see how Martha responds. I'd love
Speaker 2: to know, but it doesn't say. It just ends right there.
Speaker 2: The movie just goes to the credits right there. And
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you today about the movie
Speaker 2: in my mind. That's my title for this message, is
Speaker 2: the movie in my mind. I wonder do you have
Speaker 2: a similar movie? Have you ever bought a ticket to
Speaker 2: the theater of your own imagination, only to the and
Speaker 2: your money back, because that plot sucked seeing the same
Speaker 2: old things and the same old hurts and the same
Speaker 2: old memories.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the movie in my mind I edit together scenes
Speaker 2: that should have been deleted, and yet they're on repeat
Speaker 2: in my mind. One time, Finding Nemo got stuck in
Speaker 2: our DVD player in Holly's Yukon, and so we know
Speaker 2: every scene from Nemo because just every time we got
Speaker 2: in the car. I feel like certain things in my
Speaker 2: life are like that. Just you know, I'm like Dory,
Speaker 2: swimming around, just barely remembering Wallaby Way and just swimming
Speaker 2: around the same memories the movie in my mind. Now,
Speaker 2: I need to tell you, the movie in my mind
Speaker 2: is rated R for ridiculous and redundant. And I don't
Speaker 2: know about your taste in movies. Usually when I get
Speaker 2: to know somebody the way that I get to know
Speaker 2: them quickly, I'll say what kind of music do you like?
Speaker 1: And what's your favorite movie?
Speaker 2: And I can tell whether they're worth talking to by
Speaker 2: the answer to that, because if they go, well, I
Speaker 2: don't really like.
Speaker 1: Music, I'm done with you. You have no soul. And
Speaker 1: then I'd rather you're not believe in God, but at
Speaker 1: least I can convert you. But when we.
Speaker 2: Talk about movies, people act real funny. If they know
Speaker 2: I'm a pastor, they'll always say this Christian answer.
Speaker 1: You know been her the Ten Commandments start listing every
Speaker 1: Christian movie, and I want to stop them.
Speaker 2: They're facing the giants fireproof, and I don't have the
Speaker 2: heart to tell them. I don't usually even like Christian movies.
Speaker 2: I appreciate good messages and wholesome family entertainment.
Speaker 1: It's just as sometimes I gritty movies. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: Maybe I like.
Speaker 2: Comparing my life to somebody else's worst life. Maybe it's
Speaker 2: a maybe it's a relief to me that at least
Speaker 2: it's not that my idea of a good movie. Okay,
Speaker 2: if everybody in the movie doesn't end up dead, I'm
Speaker 2: disappointing by the end of it. I want the villain dead,
Speaker 2: the hero dead, the dog dead, the fish. I want
Speaker 2: the fish.
Speaker 1: They're on the counter cassmin for bread, blood everywhere, Blood
Speaker 1: of the Lamb.
Speaker 2: Of course, for the church people, it's just a different
Speaker 2: kind of movie. In one of our campus pastor wives,
Speaker 2: she was telling me, you know when I go to
Speaker 2: the movies, I don't want anything that resembles my real life.
Speaker 2: I want happy endings. I want everything to go well.
Speaker 2: I get enough of the drama in my real life.
Speaker 1: I'm a third grade teacher. I don't need drama. I
Speaker 1: need escape.
Speaker 2: And yet the worst movie I ever saw was in
Speaker 2: my own mind the movies that I make. I made
Speaker 2: one this week. I had something to do, and when
Speaker 2: I actually did it, I enjoyed it. But I had
Speaker 2: made a movie about it, what it was going to
Speaker 2: be like, and how inconvenient it would be, and I probably
Speaker 2: didn't able to find parking space, and I was probably done.
Speaker 2: And by the time I got to the event, I
Speaker 2: was tired from the movie.
Speaker 1: You ever done? This movie? In my mind?
Speaker 2: And so here comes a scene in the Bible we
Speaker 2: just heard about the good Samaritan who stopped in this
Speaker 2: kind of unexpected fashion to help someone in need. In
Speaker 2: Jesus teaching, and the next little inclusion here from Luke
Speaker 2: is about the Lord's prayer father who are in heaven.
Speaker 1: There's this weird little.
Speaker 2: Little movie, this little scene, at least with a really
Speaker 2: weak plot. You know, Jesus came into a house and
Speaker 2: two women had a fight. But I'm kind of glad
Speaker 2: it's in here because this is more like everyday life
Speaker 2: for most of us.
Speaker 1: Like most of us, our life is not epic all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Most of us don't claim the Promised Land every Monday morning.
Speaker 1: Most of us sit in traffic.
Speaker 2: My Monday morning usually isn't you know this miraculous good
Speaker 2: versus it's just snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze.
Speaker 1: Okay, if I get up right now, maybe I won't
Speaker 1: be late.
Speaker 2: You know, the most epic thing that might happen to
Speaker 2: me on any given week.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll be.
Speaker 2: Able to bench press ten more pounds than I did
Speaker 2: last week, but probably not because I'm almost forty of
Speaker 2: my shoulders messed up. And so I'm kind of glad
Speaker 2: that they include these little everyday life things in the Bible,
Speaker 2: where it's like Jesus came to a house and one
Speaker 2: woman and another woman got in a fight because one
Speaker 2: of them wasn't doing what the other one wanted him
Speaker 2: to do, and they tried to get.
Speaker 1: Jesus to help, and he wouldn't. I like this story.
Speaker 1: And I got to tell you one more thing, and
Speaker 1: you probably really won't like this because you already don't
Speaker 1: like that I don't like Christian movies, and you're already
Speaker 1: considering leaving the church and going to a real church
Speaker 1: with a real man of God. And I wouldn't blame
Speaker 1: you for it.
Speaker 2: But my favorite character in this little scene is not
Speaker 2: the one that Jesus commended, because Mary is the one
Speaker 2: that Jesus took up for. But Martha is the one that.
Speaker 3: I relate to. I don't know if I should say
Speaker 3: this on YouTube and Facebook, And just like.
Speaker 2: I like Martha a lot more than I like Mary.
Speaker 2: One person and he's dressed for work. You can tell
Speaker 2: why he likes Martha because Martha is the one that
Speaker 2: pays the mortgage. Did you read the verse? Oh, I've
Speaker 2: heard I've heard preachers. I've heard preachers annihilate Martha in
Speaker 2: the pulpit. And Martha was too busy, and Martha was
Speaker 2: running around and Mark, you know what, Martha is the
Speaker 2: one who pays the taxes and Mary is the one
Speaker 2: with a gofund me. And Mary is the one who
Speaker 2: gets fired, and Martha is the one who pays the
Speaker 2: Like Bill, let's have a south from Martha.
Speaker 3: She's not so bad Martha's and he kids.
Speaker 2: Mary was twenty minutes late and complaining because she's an overflow.
Speaker 3: I like Martha. I like her. She gets crapped on.
Speaker 3: I want her on my staff.
Speaker 2: I told my assistant with a hired her, I said,
Speaker 2: she's been with me like eight and a half years now.
Speaker 2: I said, I need you to be kind of saved,
Speaker 2: but I'm not hiring you to extend the love and
Speaker 2: compassion of Jesus Christ. Everybody who wants to meet with me,
Speaker 2: I need you to keep a little bit of flesh,
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 3: Come on, we need a little bit of Martha. It's
Speaker 3: Martha's house.
Speaker 2: The Bible said a woman named Martha opened her home.
Speaker 3: If it was just Mary in.
Speaker 2: The passage, Jesus would I had to eat at the
Speaker 2: soup kitchen.
Speaker 3: Mary doesn't pay bills.
Speaker 2: It made my job harder to get this sermon ready
Speaker 2: because I kind.
Speaker 1: Of wanted to take Martha's side. That's right, get Mary
Speaker 1: off the floor. In there is Jesus and twelve dudes
Speaker 1: just rolled up in the house, and Mary's over in
Speaker 1: the corner.
Speaker 2: Talking about here to sh Hereah, I am to praise ribbons,
Speaker 2: bow down here right to you marn't just said I
Speaker 2: am in the kid, Send kid in here and help me.
Speaker 2: This meal isn't cold cook care South.
Speaker 1: I like that one actor I saw him on Twitter.
Speaker 1: He said something. He said, if you're not yelling at
Speaker 1: your kids regularly, you're not with them enough. Because you
Speaker 1: know how Mary can be. She's so sweet. I never
Speaker 1: yell at my kids. I never yell at my kids.
Speaker 1: You're not paying attention, sweetheart. You're gonna be visiting them
Speaker 1: in prison. Sweetheart. If you never yell at your kids,
Speaker 1: you notice the people who never complain. I don't complain.
Speaker 1: I bless the Lord at all times. You're not paying attention.
Speaker 1: You're not engaged. That's why you're not complaining.
Speaker 2: Now that I totally messed up the sermon, let's make
Speaker 2: five points. What the Lord showed me for my own
Speaker 2: heart and my own life is that it wasn't what
Speaker 2: Martha was doing, it's how she was doing it. It
Speaker 2: wasn't her actions that he found fault with and corrected.
Speaker 1: It was her attitude. It was the movie in her mind.
Speaker 1: And I'll show you these five components, and I hope
Speaker 1: you'll write them down so you can throw them in
Speaker 1: your husband's face. When he starts acting like Martha this week,
Speaker 1: Come on, don't you want some ammunition? Write this down.
Speaker 1: Martha is operating in a spirit of number one manipulation.
Speaker 2: And when Jesus said you're distracted or worried and upset,
Speaker 2: the Hebrew word for anxious is split.
Speaker 1: Or divided, And so there seems to be some sense of.
Speaker 2: Divide happening in my mind all the time where I
Speaker 2: am distracted. The literal meaning of the word distracted, by
Speaker 2: the way is pulled apart. And it's not always being
Speaker 2: pulled in a good direction in a bad direction.
Speaker 1: It's not always the decision to whether should I, you know,
Speaker 1: cook meth or read my bible? What is wrong with
Speaker 1: y'all today? It's like it has to be done. It
Speaker 1: had to be done.
Speaker 2: Jesus came to mark this house because it had excellent
Speaker 2: ratings on Airbnb, and he liked this place in Beth,
Speaker 2: and he probably liked it because it was clean and orderly.
Speaker 1: And that was Martha's gift in operation. She was good
Speaker 1: at that, and we praise God for her. But the
Speaker 1: fault in her logic is this that what is important
Speaker 1: to me ought to be important to everybody else, and
Speaker 1: It wasn't operating in her calling or functioning in her
Speaker 1: ability that Jesus corrected. It was that she expected others
Speaker 1: to function according to her priorities. And so then she
Speaker 1: crosses the line from management to manipulation, managing the situation
Speaker 1: which God wants you to do, stewarding what God has
Speaker 1: put in your life, which is your responsibility. Your hands
Speaker 1: need to be on the wheel. Jesus will not take it.
Speaker 2: If you wait for Jesus to take the wheel, you
Speaker 2: will see him real soon. But now Martha is Now
Speaker 2: she's trying to get She's trying to steer somebody else's car.
Speaker 2: I wonder, are you trying to control someone else's priorities
Speaker 2: as a cover up to the fact that you don't
Speaker 2: really have yours straight? Because sometimes in my life I
Speaker 2: cross over and it's subtle, and I don't do it intentionally,
Speaker 2: and it's almost subconscious, but I find myself moving from
Speaker 2: something that I care about and I'm concerned about, and
Speaker 2: then without even knowing it, I start trying to control
Speaker 2: it because I care about it, and I care about
Speaker 2: it so much that I begin to.
Speaker 1: Try to control it, and then I ruin the thing
Speaker 1: that I love. I ruin the relationship that I love
Speaker 1: because I get confused about where my responsibility ends and
Speaker 1: God's sovereignty begins.
Speaker 2: And then I start manipulating. And it's my nature to
Speaker 2: manipulate because I'm Martha.
Speaker 1: Martha means master. It's her house.
Speaker 2: She's the one making the payments, and sometimes when you're
Speaker 2: making the payments, you want to set the priorities.
Speaker 1: And to a degree it's right. But what's what she does.
Speaker 2: You can hear it in her language, and often our
Speaker 2: language is an indicator of the leaky places in our life.
Speaker 2: We can see where we're losing our energy, our focus,
Speaker 2: and our peace through evaluating our language. She says, what
Speaker 2: verse was it? Forty Lord? Tell her to help me.
Speaker 2: That's called passive aggressive.
Speaker 1: Tell her she's not even saying Mary's name. She's that mad.
Speaker 1: This is like Holly, tell your children your children, and.
Speaker 2: They'll do this to us. They'll try to manipulate us.
Speaker 1: Dad, could you please tell mom that we need more
Speaker 1: time on fortnite?
Speaker 2: Well, no, as a matter of fact, I can't tell
Speaker 2: mom that, and I won't tell mom that because we
Speaker 2: are united, whether it's fortnite or whether it's homework, or
Speaker 2: whether it's vegetables.
Speaker 1: You are not going to play me against your mom
Speaker 1: because I was with her first, and I get more
Speaker 1: pleasure out of my relationship with her than I do
Speaker 1: out of my I can French kiss her and I'm
Speaker 1: not about to lose points with her.
Speaker 3: Tell her to help me.
Speaker 1: Jesus is manipulative. It's manipulative. It's trying to get you
Speaker 1: to do it's trying. Here's what she's doing.
Speaker 2: She's saying, Jesus, I wrote a script for how this
Speaker 2: visit is supposed to go.
Speaker 3: And in my script, Mary is here in the kitchen
Speaker 3: with me.
Speaker 2: In my script, my husband comes home at five point thirty.
Speaker 2: In my script, my wife acts like his wife acts.
Speaker 3: In my script, my kids are like their kids. In
Speaker 3: my script, I'm married at age twenty three. In my script, say.
Speaker 2: You got your script, but Jesus didn't come to read
Speaker 2: the lines off of your script.
Speaker 3: He's the author.
Speaker 2: And he will not be manipulated. And he's like, no, Mary,
Speaker 2: don't move. I think there's a Marry and a Martha
Speaker 2: living inside every heart. The more I reflect on this passage,
Speaker 2: I see a contrast not just of two women, but
Speaker 2: two tendencies in me not only do Mary and Martha
Speaker 2: live in.
Speaker 1: The same house, they live in the same heart.
Speaker 2: And part of me is Martha, and thank God because
Speaker 2: that puts food on the table, and part of me
Speaker 2: is Mary and needs to know what's important. I'm really sorry,
Speaker 2: by the way, for all of the manipulative, manipulative preaching
Speaker 2: that I sometimes, I'm sure quite often have been guilty of,
Speaker 2: and others who stand here because we try to make
Speaker 2: we try to make you do the right thing, but
Speaker 2: we sometimes go about it in the wrong way, and
Speaker 2: we need to do better. And in the same breath,
Speaker 2: a preacher will think the tither's in the church, but
Speaker 2: then get mad if the tither has to miss a
Speaker 2: week for a trip to work so he could go
Speaker 2: make some money and feed the family and tithe, and
Speaker 2: so it's kind of confused him. And there's always cliches
Speaker 2: that we can use about priorities, like I heard this
Speaker 2: one one time.
Speaker 1: Nobody ever said this is a voice I go into
Speaker 1: when I'm nobody they ever said on their deathbed, I
Speaker 1: wish I'd spend more time at work. That's fine.
Speaker 2: I'm not on my deathbed right now, and right now
Speaker 2: my kids need braces and for my kids to get braces.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to bring home some money.
Speaker 2: So before i get to my deathbed, I've got different
Speaker 2: things pulling on me. I got different things pulling on me.
Speaker 2: Notice Martha was distracted.
Speaker 1: Not by candy crush.
Speaker 2: She was distracted by something that was important, just.
Speaker 1: Not important in that moment.
Speaker 2: So it says that she got into a manipulative state
Speaker 2: of mind. Tell her to help me, And the reason
Speaker 2: she did is because she herself was being manipulated. She
Speaker 2: herself was being pulled. There was something guilty in her.
Speaker 2: There was some perfectionist tendency. Any of Graham one, Holly's
Speaker 2: doing this new personality thing. Well, it's not a personality,
Speaker 2: it's a witchcraft or horoscope or something.
Speaker 1: No, it's really actually good.
Speaker 2: And she said that the tendency of my personality is
Speaker 2: it could always be better, It could always be better.
Speaker 1: Perfectionists, perfectionist.
Speaker 2: And so I feel Martha because there's something pulling on
Speaker 2: her to make it nice, because she respects her guests,
Speaker 2: and somebody has to do it. But it gets out
Speaker 2: of order because you can see it in her language,
Speaker 2: you can see on any tell her to help me,
Speaker 2: and then you can see it in the language of
Speaker 2: the text, even it says she was distracted.
Speaker 1: Give me that same verse again. I think it's the
Speaker 1: same one.
Speaker 2: By all the preparations that had to be made, here's
Speaker 2: the phrase that had to be made. And now she's
Speaker 2: operating not out of a sense of privilege to get
Speaker 2: to do it, but out of a spirit of obligation.
Speaker 1: I've got to do it.
Speaker 2: The preparations that have to be made obligation. Sometimes you
Speaker 2: will pray and ask God to give you an opportunity,
Speaker 2: and then you will praise God when he does it,
Speaker 2: and then give it a year, and your prayer request
Speaker 2: will be the same thing that was a praise report
Speaker 2: a year ago. Because what starts out as an opportunity, Hey,
Speaker 2: let's have Jesus over, now becomes an obligation. So you
Speaker 2: find yourself like me. I was walking out the door
Speaker 2: a few years ago to preach on a Saturday night,
Speaker 2: and I guess I wasn't in the.
Speaker 1: Best frame of mind. The movie, in my mind was
Speaker 1: probably really busy, lots going on. The kids are pulling me,
Speaker 1: and this is pulling me, and maybe I didn't have
Speaker 1: my message right like I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Saturday Night is interesting because a lot of times, I'm
Speaker 2: still trying to get it exactly right. So I'm just
Speaker 2: I'm divided, and I'm thinking about this and the kids
Speaker 2: are doing that, And the kids were the distraction, even
Speaker 2: though they're the priority, because in that moment, I had
Speaker 2: somewhere to be that I needed to be. And I
Speaker 2: looked at him and I said something We've all said
Speaker 2: thousands of times and I still say it all the time,
Speaker 2: but it was.
Speaker 3: The way I said it. Get off me. I gotta
Speaker 3: go preach.
Speaker 1: Spirit of God spoke so clearly in my heart. No,
Speaker 1: you don't gotta. I know it's bad grammar and God
Speaker 1: probably uses correct English, but this is how he spoke
Speaker 1: to me. You don't gotta do any of it. It
Speaker 1: kind of stopped me on my tracks and I start
Speaker 1: playing it out.
Speaker 2: Well, if I don't show up, who's gonna preach somebody?
Speaker 1: Hmm.
Speaker 2: That's true, isn't it. And if I don't want to
Speaker 2: do it, somebody else does.
Speaker 1: Huh? Okay, kids, not right now, I.
Speaker 2: Get to go preach for the glory of God to
Speaker 2: shepherd the flock over. I didn't say that. I wish
Speaker 2: I was as spiritual. It takes me longer than that.
Speaker 3: You know, here's a good exercise to do.
Speaker 2: If you've been distracted, pulled apart, go home if you
Speaker 2: got time tonight, Martha. I know you're busy, but before,
Speaker 2: before the day is over, sit down and make a
Speaker 2: list of all the things in your life that you've
Speaker 2: got to do every I mean detail, dishes and phone
Speaker 2: calls and bills and appointments and messages and all of it.
Speaker 2: And then go back through the list and cross every
Speaker 2: one of them out because you don't got to do
Speaker 2: any of it. That is horrible grammar and great theology.
Speaker 2: Tell somebody, I don't gotta do none of it, none
Speaker 2: of it, none of it. Well, I gotta go to work, No,
Speaker 2: you don't, don't go, but I gotta pay the bill.
Speaker 1: No, you know.
Speaker 3: You don't have to live indoors either. You don't have
Speaker 3: to do any of it.
Speaker 1: Hold on, let me a quick announcement. This is probably
Speaker 1: really bad for church growth.
Speaker 3: You don't have to come to church now.
Speaker 2: Don't come here because you have to come here because
Speaker 2: I owe him the glory.
Speaker 3: And God has been so good to me. I can't
Speaker 3: wait to give.
Speaker 2: Him the praise in my life. Let everything that hot
Speaker 2: breakfrays the Lord. High five of your neighbors, say.
Speaker 3: You don't have to.
Speaker 2: And if they don't, high five you back, say you
Speaker 2: don't have to.
Speaker 3: You don't have to. You don't have to do any
Speaker 3: of it. You don't have to study for your test
Speaker 3: this year. You don't have to pass your class.
Speaker 1: You don't have to.
Speaker 3: Get a job or ever be employed, or have any money.
Speaker 2: With which to enjoy your life.
Speaker 1: You don't have to. I get to. I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to get a want to back in our worship.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying, where the worship leaders don't
Speaker 2: have to work so hard and play your song and
Speaker 2: that's my jam and I just.
Speaker 3: Love that song. I want you to be able to
Speaker 3: throw up your.
Speaker 2: Hands to anything they sing that.
Speaker 3: Mentions the name of the one who sets you free.
Speaker 3: And if you're singing about Jesus, I don't care if
Speaker 3: I'm watching on a screen on an iPhone or in
Speaker 3: rock Hill. I'm not praising him because the preacher told
Speaker 3: me to. I want to give him praise. I want
Speaker 3: to give him glory. I want to if you want to,
Speaker 3: if you want to.
Speaker 2: There was a girl who came here from church from Danville.
Speaker 2: Whereas Danville I don't know. They said it was like
Speaker 2: an eight hour drive. She drove eight hours. Somebody else
Speaker 2: wouldn't drive eight minutes. But that's all right, because God
Speaker 2: will always.
Speaker 1: Have somebody who wants to.
Speaker 2: Waiting to take the place of somebody who wants to complain.
Speaker 2: This is starting to hurt about what I gotta do.
Speaker 2: I want to raise my kids. I don't always.
Speaker 3: Feel like it. But what does feeling like it have.
Speaker 1: To do with it? I want to kill this lion.
Speaker 3: I want to kill this pair. I want to sonic
Speaker 3: a liar. I want to sit on his beak.
Speaker 1: A privilege, it's a privilege. You gotta fight Martha. Martha
Speaker 1: will make you miserable. Yeah, I gotta you gotta go,
Speaker 1: You gotta gotta got it. No, no, no, no no,
Speaker 1: I'm going, and I want to go. I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 2: Man, It's nothing worse than having somebody doing something for
Speaker 2: you because they ought to.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel right. It makes me nervous when somebody's
Speaker 1: doing something because they should. I don't want your should,
Speaker 1: love should. I don't think God does either. And the
Speaker 1: worst word we use is ought. I ought to.
Speaker 2: That's worse than I've got to because now you're obligated
Speaker 2: and you're not even doing it. So now you got
Speaker 2: all the burden of obligation with none of the efficiency
Speaker 2: of commitment. Buck is so funny. Now you never heard
Speaker 2: him make jokes, but he is hilarious. You just gotta
Speaker 2: give him the right thing. We were working out one
Speaker 2: day a few years ago and he made me a
Speaker 2: workout and I went in away. I looked at the workout.
Speaker 2: It was some legs, some burpies. I said, he said something.
Speaker 1: You know, he respects me in and I pay his salary.
Speaker 1: But he said it. He said it so cool. He said,
Speaker 1: what kind of workout do you like? I heard him.
Speaker 1: I heard what he was saying.
Speaker 2: You make that same noise every time you walk in here,
Speaker 2: no matter what I write on the board.
Speaker 1: Do you hear Martha in the kitchen?
Speaker 2: You know she's making all kinds of noise in the
Speaker 2: kitchen j' makings from Mary and Jesus can hear banging
Speaker 2: pots together.
Speaker 1: And what's really weird.
Speaker 2: About the passage is Martha is simultaneously the judge who
Speaker 2: is telling Mary what she needs to do, and the victim.
Speaker 2: Because this is the third attitude that causes us to
Speaker 2: be distracted. Remember, distracted is not an action, it's an
Speaker 2: attitude to state to mind. So now she's in the
Speaker 2: third element that makes a really bad movie in your mind,
Speaker 2: stresses you, out keeps you, keeps you from really entering
Speaker 2: into the joy of the Lord. And that is victimization,
Speaker 2: is taking on the victim mentality.
Speaker 1: Lord. She left me to do all the work by myself.
Speaker 1: On the surface, this is sensible, but being mad at
Speaker 1: Mary doesn't make your life any easier. You know, like
Speaker 1: maybe Mary should help, but that's not your place. You
Speaker 1: can't make Mary do anything. And so she's she's judging
Speaker 1: one minute, and she's a victim the next. And that's
Speaker 1: why the Bible says that you don't want to get
Speaker 1: in this habit of judging, because you too will be judged.
Speaker 1: You will become the victim of your own judgments.
Speaker 2: When you don't let other people operate in their grace,
Speaker 2: you will find very little grace for yourself when you
Speaker 2: need it.
Speaker 1: You know, you start scrolling.
Speaker 2: And you know, for a few pictures you're okay, Ah,
Speaker 2: their baby is kind of cute. The real stuff that
Speaker 2: you don't say to them, you know, kind of cute. No,
Speaker 2: they're on vacation again. You may know they can't afford
Speaker 2: to be on too vacations. Sixty Martha's getting mad, madder
Speaker 2: and madder and madder with every flick of the finger.
Speaker 1: Huh, must be nice. Does she think she looks good
Speaker 1: in that?
Speaker 4: Somebody needs to tell her, Tell her Jesus, tell her
Speaker 4: that's too tight, Tell her that dress fit her in
Speaker 4: a previous lifetime with someone.
Speaker 1: Y'all should come to the nine thirty. That's when I'm fresh,
Speaker 1: alert and guarded. So Martha is mad, and in a
Speaker 1: sense she has a right to be.
Speaker 2: But remember something now, he said in verse thirty eight,
Speaker 2: where it says, not only was it Martha's home, her
Speaker 2: name was under deed, but it was Martha's idea to
Speaker 2: begin with.
Speaker 1: As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he
Speaker 1: came to a village where a woman named Martha opened
Speaker 1: her home to him. Now, touch the person next to
Speaker 1: you and say this was your idea.
Speaker 3: Come on, now, you're the.
Speaker 1: One who wanted to have Peter and Bartholomew and Judas.
Speaker 1: It was your idea to let all these former fishermen
Speaker 1: up in our house.
Speaker 2: Don't get mad at me because you wanted to have
Speaker 2: a party, but now you want me to panic because
Speaker 2: you over committed.
Speaker 1: Don't move Mary.
Speaker 2: Don't let people who over commit drag down your priorities
Speaker 2: into the chaos of their urgency because they made bad decisions.
Speaker 3: And don't do it to yourself either.
Speaker 2: Don't make yourself the victim.
Speaker 3: Everything that I'm stressed about today is.
Speaker 2: Something that I committed to yesterday. Man about a schedule
Speaker 2: that I made.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take these kids to the game. No you don't.
Speaker 3: You do not have parents.
Speaker 2: Since when did we get in this prison of having
Speaker 2: to be at everything?
Speaker 1: I'm okay this side.
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit just left that part of the church. Some
Speaker 2: of y'all need to drop your kids off at soccer
Speaker 2: and go out on a date with your wife because
Speaker 2: your kid is an average soccer player and they're not
Speaker 2: gonna score anyway.
Speaker 3: So go to bowl fish.
Speaker 2: Not every game, go to some games, but God, my god,
Speaker 2: every once in a while, it's good for our kids
Speaker 2: to get the message the world does not revolve around
Speaker 2: you and your dance recital. If you want to dance,
Speaker 2: baby girl, I'll be there is one and I'll show
Speaker 2: up when I can.
Speaker 3: But I might not be there every.
Speaker 2: Time, and I'm not going to be many places at once,
Speaker 2: so i.
Speaker 1: Gotta be where I am and be okay with that.
Speaker 2: I feel freedom breaking out in the church right now.
Speaker 1: Now, go to the next game. Don't let Martha, who
Speaker 1: comes to every game, make you feel bad because you
Speaker 1: couldn't make that one. It's okay. This is therapeutic.
Speaker 2: This is one hundred and fifty dollars an hour work
Speaker 2: right here, trying to keep you off that expensive couch
Speaker 2: and just give you this, this teaching from the Word
Speaker 2: of God. Because when you live in that place of manipulation, obligation, victimization,
Speaker 2: the next thing that happens is interpretation.
Speaker 1: And the skill of interpretation is so important. It's like
Speaker 1: your life is a.
Speaker 2: Is a foreign film, and what God has planned for you,
Speaker 2: the events that happened to you, you don't always know
Speaker 2: what it really means. And when you're under pressure and
Speaker 2: when you play the movie in your mind where you
Speaker 2: remember different ways you were offended, which I do so often,
Speaker 2: and what I've got to do, and how it's not
Speaker 2: fair and how others don't and how others should, and
Speaker 2: all these things that I can tend to dwell on,
Speaker 2: like Martha that Martha, in all of our minds will
Speaker 2: start to come to this conclusion.
Speaker 1: This is the interpretation.
Speaker 2: Jesus will not do what Martha wants him to do,
Speaker 2: and Mary won't do what Martha wants Martha Mary to do,
Speaker 2: and nobody is saying their lines like Martha wrote them
Speaker 2: in her mind.
Speaker 1: So here's what she says next. Lord, all this is
Speaker 1: in verse forty. Lord, don't you care? You see it?
Speaker 1: Since she can't control everyding, she thinks that nobody cares
Speaker 1: about her. Since she can't control the situation, she interprets
Speaker 1: the situation, Lord, don't you care? And Jesus is like, no,
Speaker 1: not really.
Speaker 2: I care about you, but I don't care about what
Speaker 2: you're cooking in there right now. I came to be
Speaker 2: with you, And since I can't accept the fact that
Speaker 2: God loves me more than he loves what I can
Speaker 2: do for him, I interpret the fact that he's not
Speaker 2: doing exactly what I want him to do and others
Speaker 2: aren't doing exactly what.
Speaker 1: I want him to do. I interpret that to me
Speaker 1: that they don't care about me. I imagined it so
Speaker 1: many different ways, Martha, Martha. Because he said it twice, Martha,
Speaker 1: she didn't listen the first time, Martha, or like this Martha, Martha,
Speaker 1: and hearing it more tenderly lately, Martha Martha.
Speaker 2: So I always thought that this passage was about work
Speaker 2: in worship. I thought that Martha was working and Mary
Speaker 2: was worshiping, and that worshiping.
Speaker 1: Was better than working.
Speaker 2: But really you can't make that case if you read
Speaker 2: the Bible in context, because Paul said that to live
Speaker 2: your life as a sacrifice is your spiritual act of worship,
Speaker 2: and that has nothing to do with a song that
Speaker 2: has nothing to do with Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: So if he's not contrasting work.
Speaker 2: In worship, maybe he's advocating that the two should become one,
Speaker 2: that there should be a way that I try to
Speaker 2: live my life by the grace of God and move
Speaker 2: into that is more like Mary.
Speaker 1: Not to kick Martha out of the house because it's
Speaker 1: her house, and not.
Speaker 2: To stop being busy or start feeling bad about how
Speaker 2: you've been spread so thin, but to blur the line
Speaker 2: between work and worship. A few weeks ago, we were
Speaker 2: having a staff event and our interns were serving our
Speaker 2: staff on this particular day, and they.
Speaker 1: Had put in a very long day, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day. We're having a worship service with
Speaker 1: our staff, and it was so strong what was happening
Speaker 1: in the auditorium that the interns on their way to
Speaker 1: tear down chairs and tables and clean the floors and
Speaker 1: do the work, got caught up in a spirit of worship.
Speaker 1: There was a TV in a room.
Speaker 2: One of our interns, Ellie, pulled out her phone and
Speaker 2: she caught this moment when they stopped working for a
Speaker 2: moment and started worshiping. And see how Martha can become
Speaker 2: merry and Mary needs smarta because you see that girl
Speaker 2: on her knees right there, and that you see that,
Speaker 2: see that girl head banging right there.
Speaker 1: See that white guy clapping all rhythm right there. All
Speaker 1: that is worshiped.
Speaker 2: But then what they did in video is when they
Speaker 2: stopped singing and started serving, and they took that same spirit.
Speaker 1: With a mop and a broom.
Speaker 2: And my goal in worship today is not just that
Speaker 2: we have a moment in the presence of God, but
Speaker 2: that when we leave and we grab our mop and
Speaker 2: our job and our kids and our responsibilities and yes,
Speaker 2: our tests and yes, our books and yes the things
Speaker 2: that we have to do, that we work like we worship,
Speaker 2: and we worship like we work, and we find ourselves
Speaker 2: with extraordinary joy in the congregation, and extraordinary joy in
Speaker 2: the kitchen, and extraordinary joy that spills over and overflows,
Speaker 2: and this becomes a way of life.
Speaker 1: I know you got to go. I'm almost done, because
Speaker 1: the fifth thing that I want to discuss with you
Speaker 1: is the most important of all, and its expectation. More
Speaker 1: than anything else. This movie in my mind is about
Speaker 1: my expectation. And when the movie in my mind doesn't.
Speaker 2: Match the scene in my life, there is a tendency
Speaker 2: for me to begin to think that maybe God is
Speaker 2: not the author of my story. Bring my chair real quick.
Speaker 2: This is the way I saw the movie.
Speaker 1: In my mind. I saw Martha who saw herself as
Speaker 1: a director, and I saw how Jesus wanted her to
Speaker 1: be an extra. And now she's acting extra.
Speaker 2: Because she's trying to direct a movie in her mind
Speaker 2: that was not hers descript And I wonder if you've
Speaker 2: been sitting in the wrong seat, and God gave me
Speaker 2: this message so you could switch positions and sit like
Speaker 2: Mary for a little while at his feet and say, God,
Speaker 2: this is your movie, these are your gifts, this is
Speaker 2: your temple.
Speaker 1: My body. This is your assignment. God. You know why
Speaker 1: Mary was so good at interpreting what Jesus was doing
Speaker 1: because she did something Martha didn't do. She listened, She listened,
Speaker 1: and Martha, Martha's too busy giving directions. She took a
Speaker 1: while learness. It took a little while of learness. It
Speaker 1: takes a while to learn that this is not your place.
Speaker 1: Everybody that said amen, just now is over fifty. It
Speaker 1: takes that long. I'm telling you you don't want this
Speaker 1: seat because you get it one way in your mind,
Speaker 1: how it needs to be, how it should be. And
Speaker 1: now you're miserable, like Martha. Didn't the universe get my script?
Speaker 1: Didn't my future husband get my script? Where is he
Speaker 1: future wife? Whatever? Everybody said, why you always put it
Speaker 1: on the women. You're such a sexist. I'm not a sexist.
Speaker 2: I'm an equal opportunity offender. I'm trying to make everybody
Speaker 2: he mad in the sermon, but this is not my place.
Speaker 1: And see, it makes sense that this scene, this little,
Speaker 1: weird little scene. Now that we've spelled movie, we spelled movie,
Speaker 1: we got we understand how this works. Yeah, but to
Speaker 1: really understand the scene, you have to put it in
Speaker 1: context of the whole story. Don't you don't you? You
Speaker 1: can't understand the movie just by one scene. The reason
Speaker 1: this simple little introduction to Mary and Martha is made
Speaker 1: here in Luke ten is because of what the Bible
Speaker 1: records in John eleven.
Speaker 2: That's where their brother Lazarus gets sick unexpectedly, and they
Speaker 2: send for Jesus to come heal him. So go get
Speaker 2: that rabbi that stayed at our house, that rabbi who
Speaker 2: ate my Brussels sprouts, and tell him to come heal
Speaker 2: my brother.
Speaker 1: Jesus doesn't show up for his casting call. He misses,
Speaker 1: you know, Martha. Martha's got it all scripted out. Oh,
Speaker 1: Lazarus is sick and and and Jesus is gonna come
Speaker 1: heal him. Lights camera, Jesus.
Speaker 2: Jesus don't show up until after Lazarus died, and Mary,
Speaker 2: the director of the movie, now has to reconcile what
Speaker 2: happened in her.
Speaker 1: Life with the way she planned it in the movie
Speaker 1: in her mind, and she's frustrated and angry. In fact,
Speaker 1: you're gonna laugh at this verse in John eleven, after
Speaker 1: Lazarus died and Jesus shows up late. Mary, this is funny.
Speaker 2: I read you this. You got a few more seconds,
Speaker 2: Martha said, Uh. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
Speaker 2: this is twenty no. Yeah, there she went out to
Speaker 2: meet him. She's waiting at the road when he arrives.
Speaker 1: She's got her hand on her hip and Mary stayed home.
Speaker 1: Mary's got her head on her pillow. They're both playing
Speaker 1: their role. Mary's like dead, there's nothing to do. Martha's like,
Speaker 1: it's about time. Did you not get the script? Did
Speaker 1: you not get the missed You missed them. You didn't
Speaker 1: say you were supposed to say, be healed, and he
Speaker 1: was supposed to be well, and you did it. Jesus
Speaker 1: didn't come to read your script. He came to flip
Speaker 1: the script and to show you something that you never
Speaker 1: could have expected, a movie you didn't know to write,
Speaker 1: immeasurably more than you ask her.
Speaker 2: Imagine. I feel the spirit of God on this message
Speaker 2: right now. I know you wanted me to show up
Speaker 2: and heal him. I didn't come to heal him. I
Speaker 2: came to show you something greater. And one time God
Speaker 2: showed me that the reason he can't meet all of
Speaker 2: our expectations is because if he always met my expectations.
Speaker 2: He would never have the opportunity to exceed my expectations.
Speaker 1: He's making this movie, not you. He's written this script,
Speaker 1: not me. And so Martha's like, you should have been here.
Speaker 1: This is not the way I wrote the movie. This
Speaker 1: is not the way I imagined it. And she's waiting
Speaker 1: at the rod verse twenty one. But even if you
Speaker 1: you would have.
Speaker 2: Been here, my brother wouldn't have died Verse twenty two.
Speaker 2: But I know that even now God will give you
Speaker 2: whatever you ask. You see, you're getting out of the
Speaker 2: director's chair a little bit. She's still working. Jesus, by
Speaker 2: the way, I know you can still do it. Come on,
Speaker 2: women do this to men all the time.
Speaker 1: How do you carry all those groceries, you big strong man?
Speaker 1: I know you still do it. It didn't go the
Speaker 1: way I wanted. And she said your brother will rise again?
Speaker 1: What she still got her script? I know he'll rise
Speaker 1: again on the red at the last day. I know,
Speaker 1: JESSI no, no, no, I came.
Speaker 2: Not just to read my lines in the script that
Speaker 2: you wrote for your life, but I came to change
Speaker 2: your expectation for something greater than you even knew to
Speaker 2: ask for. And Jesus said to her watch, I am
Speaker 2: the Resurrection and the Life, and the one who believes
Speaker 2: in me will live even though they die next verse,
Speaker 2: and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.
Speaker 1: Do you believe this? That's the question. Do you believe this?
Speaker 1: Do you believe that you are not the one making
Speaker 1: this movie? That this is not my place? This is
Speaker 1: this is my place. So let's take a moment in
Speaker 1: God's presence today and just consider that maybe it's not
Speaker 1: our life that's making us anxious. Maybe it's the movie
Speaker 1: in our mind, what we wanted it to be, what
Speaker 1: we always imagined it would be, what we think we
Speaker 1: have to be.
Speaker 5: The saddest thing about Martha is that she's frustrated trying
Speaker 5: to meet an expectation that Jesus did not even have
Speaker 5: of her.
Speaker 2: Jesus never even asked her for all this. Jesus came
Speaker 2: into her house to be with her. Are you frustrated
Speaker 2: with yourself because you're expecting something of yourself that God
Speaker 2: never even put on you to begin with. I came
Speaker 2: to day to break the spirit of manipulation, to break
Speaker 2: the spirit of obligation, to break the victim mentality, to
Speaker 2: let you know that just because God isn't doing it
Speaker 2: like you want him to do, it doesn't mean he
Speaker 2: stopped caring about you.
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful for one thing.
Speaker 2: Says that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, which Mary
Speaker 2: never would have put in her movie.
Speaker 1: She didn't know it was possible when you let him
Speaker 1: sit in this seat.
Speaker 2: What he has for you is so much better than
Speaker 2: what you.
Speaker 1: Have for you.
Speaker 3: I'm telling you by faith what I know by experience.
Speaker 2: Wat's just stand up like you're in a hurry because
Speaker 2: it'll pressure me to finish this.
Speaker 1: I could talk to you all day. I love this.
Speaker 2: In John chapter twelve, verse one, it says that a
Speaker 2: little bit later, on six days before the Passover, Jesus
Speaker 2: came to bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised
Speaker 2: from the dead. Now watch verse two. This is gonna
Speaker 2: bless you here. At dinner was given in Jesus'.
Speaker 1: Honor, Martha served. See, she finally got it.
Speaker 2: She's not talking, she's not manipulating, she's not serving out
Speaker 2: of obligation and guilt anymore. She's serving because she has
Speaker 2: seen God do what only God could do.
Speaker 1: And I am here at your.
Speaker 3: Service, God, what you want me to be. I'm ready
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: That now, and so I throw off the expectations of others,
Speaker 2: and I throw off the expectations of self.
Speaker 1: Do what you wanted to God.
Speaker 6: This is your this is your movie, and I am
Speaker 6: your child, and I am at your feet and I
Speaker 6: trust you in this season.
Speaker 1: Of my life. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.