Slow Food

Want to welcome everybody who's watching online, everybody joining us in our venue services too. It's great to have you with us. I want to invite you to grab your message notes that look like this in the middle of your bulletins. You can also download them on the TLC app or on our website if you're watching online as well.

And as we get into the message I just want to do a quick audience poll here. I want to ask you for a show of hands, how many of you feel occasionally like you are running on empty? You know you're out of spiritual or physical or emotional fuel. Most people raise their hands, right? Well that's good because then this message is for you.

Today I want to talk about slow food as we continue our series Meals with Jesus. This series is all about the 10 Meals with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke and today we're looking at the dinner with Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Now as we get into this let me just start by doing a little bit of my own confessing here. Alright, you ready for this, your pastor to confess? Sometimes I worry just a little bit about being kind of a hypocrite when I preach to you. I don't intend to be but here's what I mean.

I have a feeling that sometimes people put me on a little bit of a pedestal because I'm up here teaching the Bible when the truth is, and this may shock some of you, I actually don't have my act fully together. Does that shock some of you? That I actually am not, I'm so far from being perfectly spiritual. It's like this, a friend of mine a few years ago was asked to be a long-term substitute for high schoolers at a local high school. I won't tell you which one and you'll figure out why when I tell you the rest of the story, but they asked him to teach high school physics.

And now I know my friend and he knows nothing about physics, not on any level. So I said how in the world are you going to teach high school physics to these students? And he says well I'm reading the same textbook they are and I'm just trying to stay one day ahead of them, right? Well sometimes I kind of feel like that with the Bible, right? I read the Bible every single day and I know what I happen to be preaching on for the sermon the next weekend so I'm just trying to stay one weekend ahead of you all. That's all I'm trying to do.

But on the topic today I actually may not be one weekend ahead. I may be several weekends or maybe even several years behind when it comes to busyness and slowing down. This is something I have struggled with my whole entire life. I like being busy, just busy, busy, busy. Now of course I don't tell myself you're so busy. What I tell myself is in the moments you know how you talk to yourself sometimes to build yourself up when you're feeling down, in those moments I tell myself René you are so productive. And I say yes I am. I'm so productive.

It started very early. I skipped first grade. I actually at first grade went into the principal's office and told him I can already read. Give me a book. I'm reading it. Get me out of first grade. That really happened. And ever since then I just love to produce stuff fast. I got out of school early. I'm a fast writer. Our first book here at TLC we wrote in one weekend. I'm almost finished with a book on acts for a fall study. I actually got to try to write a small book between services this morning.

I love TiVo. I love TiVo because you can watch a 60-minute show in 43.5 minutes. Does anybody love TiVo because of that? Now when I watch live TV I can't stand it because I actually have to sit through the commercials. But here's the bad side of just being busy and lacking to do things fast. I expect it of other people. And if other people aren't just super productive and on it and fast I can just get so impatient.

I will never forget when Laurie was pregnant with our first child. I was excited but when I realized the gestation would be nine months my head almost exploded. I just I told Laurie there's no reason why if you concentrate you can't have this baby a little prematurely. Come on! So you get the picture. My point is for me to speak on Mary and Martha well guess which one I identify with right?

What I should have honestly I was thinking about this what I should have is I should have asked Mark Spurlock to do this message because I don't know how well you know Mark although Mark is very productive. Mark is not caught up in being fast at all. At all. You ask Mark a question for example and he will pause and pause and open his mouth to say something and then reconsider and pause some more. And then he'll say can you give me a day to process this so I can give you a considered response tomorrow and I say Mark I only asked you which you like better Captain America or Iron Man just give me an answer buddy you won't do it.

So I like busyness right but you know what busyness helped get me? Anxiety attacks at 35 years of age and my wife rushing me to the hospital because she thought I was having a stroke or a heart attack or something. What I'm saying is busyness is expensive. Busyness has costs associated with it. It has consequences but I can genuinely stand before you today and say that after that first anxiety attack around the age of 35 I began to change some things.

One I began to use hair gel around that time but that's not what I'm talking about this morning. When it came to my life I also began to rearrange some things. Now I'm still in process on this. I'm still growing but I tell you this because I am a Martha and not a Mary in my own nature and so I think I can find some words here in Scripture to help all the other Martha's here today.

Now in case you don't know what I'm talking about Mary's and Martha's let me explain it this way I'm going to show you some words on the screen and I want to see if we have any Martha's here today. See these words empty, rushed, busy, stressed, fatigued, overloaded. How many of you find that sometimes these words describe you? Now be honest this is church. Raise your hand if there's sometimes a lot of Martha's here with us today. Now I noticed maybe 30% of you didn't raise your hand. You're Mary's for the rest of the sermon for 30 minutes or so. You can just sit there and feel superior because I'm gonna talk to those who raised their hands right because you're going to meet somebody just like you in this weekend's meal with Jesus.

It's in Luke 10 starting in verse 38. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way he came to a village where a woman named Martha and as you're about to see her last name may have been Stuart. Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary. Now this is not the mother of Jesus Mary and this isn't Mary Magdalene and this isn't Mary the wife of Clopas and this isn't any one of the seven women that are also named Mary. Apparently there was a severe first name shortage in the first century because this sort of thing happens a lot in the Bible but this was another, this was this was Martha's sister Mary and she sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.

And let me just pause here and say this is one example of Luke's concern to emphasize women as part of the early disciples of Jesus Christ. Mary is a disciple here in the fullest sense. Sitting at his feet was not a subservient position it was you're sitting at the head of the class as a full disciple. You're not in the back of the room as a woman. Jesus had a completely countercultural approach to women. He lifts up people like women in the first century that society put down and Luke is the author of the Gospel of Luke so he brings up women a lot and you're going to see this fall when we do our Acts study how he does that dozens of times in the book of Acts 2. Talks about the women that were a key part of the early disciples.

But going on in this story but Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself tell her to help me?" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things but few things are needed indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her."

Now just true confessions here for just a second. Does this story just secretly, has this story always kind of bugged you? Because it bugs people like me who say actually the problem with the world is the world needs more Martha's. I actually think this was the only time Jesus was ever wrong, was in this story. But here's the deal, listen Martha's, he's not saying Martha was evil. What was her problem? Martha was being hospitable. So what went wrong? Well like many Christians Martha was eager to serve, right? Eager to serve. It says she opened her home to him and I'm eager to serve Jesus and probably you are too.

So you start volunteering or going to seminary, getting into ministry and then you get distracted by details, right? Notice how it said Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be. I mean what does it take for this to happen? Imagine God in the flesh is in your living room having chips and dip at your coffee table and there's something that's so important you can't put it off until he's gone? We read this and go, "Well Martha, what an idiot." But of course it's not always that obvious. I mean if it was obvious, if Jesus came up to you sidling up in your pew right now and said, "Hey I just want to talk to you for the next two minutes," you probably wouldn't go, "Jesus I need to get these fill-ins from René. The slides are never up there long enough so hang on. Can you do something about that Jesus?"

You probably wouldn't do that, but it's never that obvious. You know I started as a pastor to bring other people closer to Christ, but very soon that big picture goal got lost for me and my job became about budget details and sermon prep and never reading the Bible for really spiritual reasons but only for professional reasons like I need something to preach on this weekend. And maybe you started with great intentions as a spouse or a parent or a worker. You were gonna change the world, but the little details are weighing you down and so you get self-absorbed and you start thinking things like, "If it wasn't for me, nothing would get what?" You have said that more than once. I'm always the one picking up around here. I'm the one organizing. Everyone else is a slacker. Have you ever said something like that to yourself?

And when you get self-absorbed you start saying things you later regret. Anyone ever done that? Because I have and Martha does here. It says she came to him and asked, "Don't you care?" Now just think about this for a second because what is happening when she interrupts and does this? What is Jesus doing at this moment? He's teaching and it wasn't just Mary. It was a probably a room full of people like there always was a room full everywhere he went. Mary's part of this group, this classroom, and Martha comes in and interrupts Jesus while he is teaching things that are going to end up in the Bible.

But she's this worked up, you know? Excuse me everybody, excuse me. I know Jesus is sharing the words of God but can I just interrupt Mr. Messiah for one moment to say nobody's in the kitchen helping me make the guacamole. So come on. Worked up. Now notice this next phrase. Look at this. Don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself. Tell her to help. Look at all those personal pronouns. My, me, myself, me. It's all about me and the heavy load I bear. And she's now because of this self absorption reached the next stage which is she is resentful, right? My sister has left me to do the work by myself and you don't even care. God.

And we can get to this place so easily, right? Resentful in ministry. I see this in pastors all the time. Resentful as a spouse. Resentful as a parent. Resentful as a teacher. Resentful as a volunteer. I'm doing it all! And she's confident that Jesus is going to say, "You're right. We need to organize this better so all the load is not on you." And he totally surprises her by not taking her side. I mean honestly I feel like almost any management guru these days would have taken her side. Oh yeah, absolutely. We need to delegate some of these tasks. But Jesus doesn't. He spots something in her. He surprises her. He diagnoses her as the unhealthy one.

He says, "You are worried and upset about many things." What he's saying is, "Martha, this is not sustainable if you want to be my disciple." What started as dedication ends with irritation. Now like I said, I have been there and I can get there again very quickly. So what's the cure? Well, this story is really about one word. Jot this down somewhere at the top of page two maybe on your notes. One word, priority. That's what the story is about. And I hear this word a lot as our society I think becomes more frenetic, more frantic, more disjointed, disconnected, mobile, involved, speeds up. The word priority just sounds so good, right?

I hear people say this all the time, "I need to get my priorities straight." But what does that really mean? Well, think about it. Priority is a form of the word prior, right? And you know what the word prior means. What's it mean? Before, right. Exactly. It comes before. So a priority is something that comes before everything else. It precedes everything else. It doesn't mean you don't have all these other things in your life. But the priority is the thing that's the foundation for everything else that happens.

So what in your life comes before anything else? And for Christians there should really only be one answer, just one answer. Now I don't want you to say this out loud, but just think about it. If I were to say to you, write down on a piece of paper the number one priority from my life as a believer, what is it? What would you write down? What's the number one, the priority? Not two, not three. And I know you're probably sorting through some mentally right now church. Is it family? Is it job? Is it, you know, providing for my family? Whatever. Witnessing. I'm not talking about priorities though. I'm talking about priority one.

David said in Psalm 27:4, and let's read this out loud together. "One thing have I asked of the Lord. One thing shall I seek." And then look at this little phrase from Philippians 3:13. Say this with me. "This one thing I do." And then in Luke 10:42 Jesus says this, and again let's read this out loud. "Only a few things are necessary. Really only one." So the good news is there's only one. The bad news is if you don't have that one right, then everything else in your life kind of goes askew.

So what is the priority singular? What's the one thing? Well Jesus said it when he was asked what's the greatest command, what did he say? Do you know? Yeah that's right. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength." He said all the law and the prophets hinge on these things. With that as your priority, everything else follows. Okay so how do I do that? How do I create an environment in my life where that happens?

Well did you notice here three adjectives are used to describe Martha in this story. Distracted, worried, and upset. And I'm ashamed to say how often these words or at least two or three of these words describe me. But look at the three verbs that are used to describe Mary. Choose, sit, and listen. Mary has chosen what is better and Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened to him. I don't know about you but I want to move from the Martha words to the Mary words. And I think those three make pretty good action steps for us. Choose, sit, and listen.

First you and I have to choose. And this means distinguish the central from the peripheral. You have to make a choice. You ever find yourself facing ten tasks and they all just have to be done? Right? They're all, if you don't do all ten or twenty things on your to-do list, listen, when everything seems equally important, that is proof that you are not at this point yet. Jesus said Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. It started with Mary's conscious choice. She didn't accidentally end up sitting at the feet of Jesus. She should, Jesus says she chose, she saw Martha in the kitchen and she chose not to do that. And Jesus is endorsing that.

She chose not to buy into Martha's priorities. And for you and me in a Martha culture, this means not buying into our culture's priorities. And you know, busyness, multitasking as a virtue is such an important part of our culture that I don't think we even realize how much a part of our culture that it really is. It's kind of like fish don't realize they're in water and we don't kind of see the air that we're practically swimming in. We're busyness is such a part of our culture that we don't even notice.

Like when you greet people, how often you go, "Hey, how you doing? Keeping busy?" As if like that's the top priority, right? Keep it busy. Hope so because I'm busy. Probably busier than you. How are you doing? What do you, how do you respond? How are you doing? I'm so busy. I'm super busy. Why do we say that? Like that's the highest thing we could possibly aspire to. Me too. Go be superficial. You too. Bye bye. It's crazy.

Listen, busy isn't better. Choosing better is better. And that's what I want you to walk out today knowing. Busy isn't better. Choosing better is better. But often we really don't make any choices at all. We don't even choose to be busy. We just get swept up in the ride of living. I love this verse. Look at Colossians 3:2 from the message translation. Look at this. Don't shuffle along. Eyes to the ground. Absorbed with the things right in front of you. Doesn't that describe you and me sometimes? Look up and be alert to what is going on around Christ. That is where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Don't shuffle along. Eyes to the ground. Focus on Christ. Here's what this is about. Two words. Intentional living. Intentional living. A lot of times I just sort of drift from thing to thing on the to-do list for the day and I never sort of wake up and reorient myself and ask what is the most important thing for me to do today.

You know when we went to Disneyland with the kids when they were young I used to say okay kids it's gonna be so busy at the park today so what's the one thing you really want to do at Disneyland today? You just get to choose one thing and if we do that one thing then today will have been a success and then all five of us would go around and everybody would get to choose. I want to go on Pirates. I want to do Space Mount. I want to eat that one restaurant. Okay now each person has prioritized and now we actually have a chance of feeling like this day was well lived right and you have to choose.

You need to make a conscious choice to do what? To prioritize time with Jesus. Distinguish the central from the peripherals. See Martha probably did not have to create some elaborate production. She probably could have put out bread and dried fruit dried meat would have taken five minutes done. But if you were here four weeks ago when we launched this series Meals with Jesus you'll remember that I talked about how in the first century there was an elaborate food culture. There was so much pressure in the first century just to put out our royal spread when you had a guest over and what Jesus is saying is you know I'm totally fine if you just throw some sausages on the grill because we're here about the Word of God today and still today saying yes to Jesus means choosing to say no to other things.

And let me just give you some concrete examples. Last couple of years around Christmas my wife Laurie's been asking okay if we do not do X will we still have a Merry Christmas? If we don't you know if I don't set out all the little ceramic cottages in my Christmas village scene with fake snow around them is it remotely possible that we just might be able to still have a satisfactory Christmas and if the answer is yes then she doesn't do that thing and you know what the last two years we have had the most awesome Christmases ever because now we have margin to do spontaneous things and we don't have to schedule out every single minute for 31 days or your to-do list ask will it be a disaster really if I don't get all these things done you know if my toddler wears the same clothes two days in a row because I'm not caught up on laundry is that a disaster? No.

Now sometimes this means significant changes like maybe going to a low maintenance yard to buy yourself more time not to do more stuff but to have some margin to spend time with Jesus. Let me just say as a church that was behind two major decisions we made this year. We decided not to hold the world's biggest garage sale this year and we decided not to do the Christmas concert later this December because we don't have the bandwidth this year with everything else going on on campus to do those things and do them well and sometimes you have to make those decisions.

Last week Trent Smith said that when his son Elijah who's a young junior higher he's in fifth or sixth grade he heard the announcement about the father-son camp next weekend and he said dad it would have it was last week that he heard about it and he said dad it would be great if we could go to father-son camp and he said and dad if money is an issue I'll pay my half and Trent was telling us the story and we were just like that's it you're going but I'm scheduled to lead worship no you're going to father-son camp you know sometimes you have to say no to some things to be able to say yes to others you can't just keep adding stuff to your calendar that's what barnacles do that's not what disciples of Jesus do.

Alright be smarter than a barnacle that that's the title of this message why do you have to choose so that you can like Mary sit just sit. I think people long for this you and I need to set aside time for spiritual prep not just physical preparation. I think this is why meditation is so popular right now in our culture right meditation is huge because God made us this way to take quiet pauses and this was Martha's problem remember it says she was distracted by all her preparations yet physical preparations.

How about physical preparations another true confessions for me if I'm honest I'm not always paying attention to what is happening during worship and I'm the pastor of your church sometimes I'm sitting there in the first pew and I'll be distracted from actually worshiping because I'm thinking about what's the next transition or is my microphone on or did I tell the light people that there's a video in my messenger or something else right that do you ever get distracted during worship honestly during my sermons no yes I know you do how secure are those speakers up there if they dropped on René right now would he be killed or just maimed what what happened if that happened all this talk about food meals with Jesus Martha and their cooking is making me hungry we're gonna go lunch after the service should we go to gales should we go to carpos should we go home do we have any food at home should we invite anybody oh they're closing in prayer it's so easy to go there right so easy.

So I love this let me show you one of my favorite all-time verses in the Bible 2 Corinthians 11:3 love love this verse and what I this is such a good verse and in so little known Paul says I'm afraid however that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ that's all we have to do it's all it's simple have simple and pure devotion to Christ that's the one thing but Satan you know we always kind of imagine this Hollywood idea that Satan's gonna attack us with zombies or demons that come out of our television sets or something no here's how he attacks believers he doesn't have to make you be demon-possessed he doesn't have to make you doubt he doesn't have to make you an atheist he doesn't have to make you sin he just has to distract you.

He can distract you by good stuff have you ever been distracted from a simple and pure devotion to Jesus by the news headlines or by your worries about where the country's going or by worries about your own life or worries about your kids well been his plans working because that's all he's got to do so all you have to do is to set your simple and pure focus back on Jesus so ask yourself do I have margin in my schedule to do this block off time in your calendar you know on your phone or whatever you know I found if you don't put it in your calendar like an appointment it won't happen and that's one of the reasons I run as a hobby that running time that's time alone with God for me because you know what I've discovered it's very difficult to write a sermon while you're running I've tried it's very hot it's almost impossible but I almost always run alone because I need that time to think.

It sounds funny but running is one of the ways I sit so I want to ask you imagine what your life would look like if you had margin if you had some breathing room in your schedule imagine how different your life would feel how different your week would feel imagine when it's time for small group maybe if you're in a small group say on Wednesdays imagine not going to yourself I'm so busy I don't have time why did I say yes to small group right what if you had space in your life where you go ah I'm really looking forward to that but that only happens when you choose to say no to some things so you can say yes to the most important thing and sit and have some downtime so you can listen and that's our final point and this means practice Christ focus over self focus.

Remember all those personal pronouns and Martha's story don't you care my sisters love me to do the work by myself tell her to help me when you focus on yourself you can get so worked up look at this verse don't miss this I love the message translation of Matthew 6:34 Jesus said give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don't get worked up by what may or may not happen tomorrow God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

So how do you do this how do you listen to God I'm listening well one thing I told some of you when I had that anxiety attack when I was in my mid 30s the doctor who was a believer who attended Twin Lakes though I didn't know it at the time he gave me a little assignment he said you're a pastor I want you to write down some positive promises from God's Word I will never leave you or forsake you that sort of thing and all things God works for the good of those who love him or are called according to his purpose write those down on cards if you have five cards put a rubber band around them and stick that little stack of cards in your back pocket and then all through the day without those cards six seven times a day and read through them again and I just was able to just relax and also I made it a discipline to listen to Christian music more it's easy these days with Caleb and air one and CDs and iTunes and if you don't like that kind of Christian music there's stuff you can but you know what I did one time I made a playlist of songs by artists who are not traditionally Christian artists that were all Christian songs that talked about Jesus Bob Dylan James Taylor gosh so my van Morrison so Eric Clapton so many of these artists that was a great playlist but listening to that kind of music just helped me focus back you know what was happening was this next verse let the word of Christ dwell in you richly those three by five cards as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms hymns and songs those playlists from the Spirit singing to God with gratitude in your hearts keyword gratitude when you live with gratitude it just changes you.

Now as we bring this in for a landing I want to say a couple of things even if you do these three things choose sit listen you'll still get frustrated at times you'll still get overwhelmed at times you're only human and life is life but when you do these three things you're developing a foundation for those busy times you're developing some margin in your life and we've been talking about behaviors that you're choosing to do choose and sit and listen but ultimately Christian transformation isn't about you modifying your behavior it's about you putting yourself in a place where Jesus can change you and all this is doing is helping you get to a point where you're sitting at the feet of Jesus and looking at him and the Bible says when we do that we become like him and ever increasing like this by his power by his grace and not by trying harder that's very important.

But one final thing I want to say for some of you getting rid of your sense of anxiety and being overwhelmed isn't just about behavior modification when I went to the doctor with my anxiety attacks I discovered that I actually have an anxiety disorder and to this day I still take just a little bit of a prescription for anxiety every night before I go to sleep and it really has taken the edge off for me and I would encourage you if you suspect that you know you've you felt guilty your whole life because you hear people talk about well just turn your eyes on Jesus and you're like well that helps but I still am really dealing with depression or anxiety you could have a mental health issue going along and I'd urge you to see a mental health professional about how you can be helped with that you know if you're a diabetic you you change your diet that's an important part of it but you also take insulin and so you may be in that position there's such a taboo in Christian circles I would say still today about talking about mental health issues there's no need for us to be ashamed about that that's just the way life is for some of us and that's one of the reasons that we're starting the first of what we hope to be an annual mental health conference at Twin Lakes Church all the information is in your bulletin it's the first Saturday in June we're going to have mental health professionals here at panel discussions some great keynote speakers and I'd encourage you to sign up for this there's more information in your bulletins but we want to be a place where that taboo is broken and we can talk about what Jesus brings to the discussion on mental health I'm really looking forward to this I'll be there myself and I hope you're there as well.

But as we wrap up look at your notes one more time remember those three adjectives that described Mary she's upset and she's worried and she's distracted does that describe you or is this more likely to describe you you're somebody who chooses to find time to sit and listen you know what happens when you choose to do these things and Jesus fills you listen what happens is no longer are you running on empty but you're walking on full doesn't that sound good walking on full and when you walk on full then the fullness of Jesus inside of you overflows to other people can you see that for yourself can you can you imagine living a life that was more characterized by these three words than your life is right now I can imagine it for you I can imagine it for me and I can picture it for this church so let's ask God to make that a reality would you pray with me right now Heavenly Father thank you so much for this teaching in your word and Lord one of the things that I love about coming to church is it's a place where people gather to worship and to hear your word and to pause to rest to reflect and it does our soul good but then we tend to leave here and we enter the race and it doesn't do our soul good we dry up we run on empty so God give us the courage to choose to say no so we can say yes to what's better Lord we know that we all have to work hard in our jobs and work hard in other areas of our lives but we want to work hard and be productive with a pace that's sustainable with a pace that leaves time for you and we can't do that in our own power so we would ask that you do that through us move in us even to will and to act according to your good purpose and we ask this in the name of Jesus Amen.