TDP 0006: Are You Sabotaging Your Spiritual Growth?#0006 (Luke 10:38-42 – pt.1) One of the greatest problems Christians face today is not what many would suspect. It isn’t persecution, wealth, or gross sin. It’s a problem so subtle that few recognize its existence, which is what makes it so lethal. It slowly erodes your spiritual vitality, separating you from the Lord and putting a stop to your spiritual growth. Join me as we dive into God’s word to discover this hidden danger and how to overcome it!
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Scripture from this episode:
Luke 10:38-42 ESV – 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 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 the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Matthew 11:28-30 ESV – 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
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Episode Transcript
*Please Note: This transcript is computer generated and may contain errors.
Welcome to the daily pursuit, a podcast that teaches you God’s word in short, impactful episodes. This podcast is dedicated to helping you follow Jesus and find rest for your soul while navigating the busy-ness of daily life. Now here’s Mike Lawrence with today’s daily pursuit.
Hello, welcome to another episode of the daily pursuit. I’m so glad to have you with me today, I hope you are doing well. In the last few episodes we’ve been talking about the topic of finding rest in Jesus. You know, this is an interesting topic. It often causes mixed reactions from people who hear it.
And one of the biggest reactions that I get when I’ve taught on this topic, Or when people read it is this idea that, well, that’s nice, but it’s not reality. And we kind of dismiss this idea of walking with the Lord and resting in him as something for those who maybe have a lot of extra money or a lot of extra time, but not us. Right.
We’re too busy. You don’t know my circumstances. And so one of the things I have to remind people is that I to know what it is like to be busy. I’m married. I’m a pastor I’m launching a business and a ministry. I also have five kids ranging from 17 to three. So there are a lot of demands on my time.
And on top of all that I’ve been led to live a lifestyle and preach a message of rest. And I’ll admit, I do a lot better preaching than I do living it, but I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I recognize that this is something God’s been doing in my life. And as I’ve tried to grow and understand what it looks like and what it means. I also want to pass that on to you.
And so one of the pushbacks I get is it’s just not realistic. You just can’t do that. And so I want to continue to break down this idea. As we embark on the journey of this podcast, we’re going to be looking at a lot of scripture and it’s not all going to have to do adjust the topic of rest.
But my hope is that this podcast becomes like a stream of living water in your day that gives you refreshment for your soul. No matter what the topic is, no matter what the passage is, because that’s what God’s word is, it is living water. And when his spirit moves, when his spirit begins to speak to your heart, it refreshes your soul.
And so, as we’ve talked about this topic of rest, this idea of abiding is what we come to. Because as I said in previous episodes, it’s not just a once a week thing where you just take a day off, a Sabbath. It’s not a once in a while thing where you go on vacation, it’s not an evening thing where you finally go to sleep.
Yes. All of those are aspects of rest, but what Jesus has invited us into is something so much deeper than that, because it is a state of rest. It is a lifestyle of rest where even in our work, we are working out of a place of rest and it seems like an oxymoron, but it’s something that is only possible when the Holy spirit is living inside of us.
So that no matter how active we may be, we’re not frantic. We’re not chaotic. We’re not stressed out and on the verge of burnout. The reality is that too many of us are not experiencing the rest that Jesus promised. We live a hurried life. Busy-ness is our way and our culture. We wear busy-ness like a badge of honor.
In many ways, I would say that people see busy-ness as synonymous with success. If you’re not doing enough, then you shouldn’t expect to succeed. And the more you do the better, I’ve heard some say, “Hey, As a Christian, I should work even harder than the world. And therefore I’m going to put in 60, 70, 80 hours a week because I’ll stand before the Lord one day and have to give an account.”
And while it sounds so good to our American ears, I fear the reality check we’ll get when we stand before the Lord, because we’re going to see in a passage that we’re going to look at over the next couple of days that he does not ask us to work like slaves. You see, God is not a slave driver and you are not just his servants, your sons and daughters of God and any good father knows that his sons and daughters need seasons of rest, that they need times of rest. They care about their soul.
Any good shepherd makes sure that his sheep have opportunity to rest. And Jesus said he is The good shepherd. And as we saw in our last episode, God is a good father. And so Please, let me be clear. I agree as Christians, we must work hard. I wholeheartedly agree that we work hard for the Lord, but we also have the freedom to rest in the Lord on a regular basis, both lack of physical activity, like I said, but also a state of rest, even as we go about our work.
And so I want to look at a passage that will contrast with this kind of Americanized version of Christianity that says you just got to slave away for the Lord and rest will come in heaven. Yes, that is our ultimate rest, but we don’t just slave away for the Lord. And we find this passage in Luke chapter 10, and it reveals some very interesting things to us about busy-ness and the effects of busy-ness.
Now, if you’re as busy, as I often am, I probably don’t need to tell you the effects of busy-ness. You know what they are. But I hope that this will challenge you to do something about it, to actually stop being so busy, to make the hard choices, if that’s what you have to do in order to live the life that God is calling you to live.
Cause he’s inviting you to something greater because we cannot win the world to Christ by living just like them. And I don’t mean in regards to sin, I mean, in regards to the pace of our life. Jesus did something different and he wants to do something different than us. And so in Luke chapter 10, Starting in verse 38.
It says “now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her”.
In verse 38. It says now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. We know that this village is Bethany. This is the home of Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus. Lazarus is the one whom, you know, Jesus raises from the dead. And so we know that Jesus dearly loves this family. He spends time with them. He’s been in their home more than once, and here he goes to their house to spend time with them.
And I love this because this really demonstrates the heart of God for them as well as for us. So often Christians treat God is so he is distant. And as though he is far, but God is not distant. God is not far. God loves you. And he wants to come into your presence daily and have fellowship with you.
And so here, Jesus goes to their house simply to spend time with them. We don’t know of any other agenda. Other than to spend time with this family, possibly to rest from the hard work that he was doing, likely just for fellowship and blessing as he’s passing through that area. But we see the heart of God here and how he wants to fellowship with us.
He wants to spend time with us. He loves when we spend time with him, he loves to spend time with us and he asked us to do the same with him. And this passage demonstrates that. And so it says that Martha welcomes him into the house. Now she has a sister called Mary who sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to his teaching, but Martha is distracted with much serving.
So you notice here in verse 39 and 40, that these two sisters take a very different posture. They are completely opposite ends of the spectrum. Right? One of them is busy and I think most people in my experience can relate with Martha. We’re busy. We’re trying to honor the Lord. We’re trying to take care of the things he’s given us.
We’re serving him, right. We’re doing things for Jesus and when you first read this passage, if you had only had verses 38, 39 and 40, most people in our culture would probably walk away with the idea that Martha was the honorable one. That Mary was not because Martha was busy about Gods business… she was serving God himself.
And I want to point that out because so much of what we do today when we are busy, actually has little, if anything, to do for the Lord, right? We just get busy with life. We get busy with errands. We get busy with work. We get busy with our kids, if you have a family, you know, sports or activities or whatever, all these things we get busy with, and they’re all good, there’s nothing wrong with those things.
But here, the busy-ness is not just the busy-ness of life. This is the busy-ness of honoring and serving God himself. Jesus has come into her home and she wants to make sure that her home is clean and tidy. She wants to make sure that everything is in its place. She wants to make sure that there’s a meal cook than something for him to eat.
I don’t know what it is, but she’s serving fervently and so much so that she’s frustrated that her sister is not helping her. And I would imagine that if God came into your home and if God came into my home, Physically speaking, if God came into our home, we’d probably want it taken care of, right? When my neighbor comes over, my wife wants the house to look nice.
How much more if Jesus is knocking on the door saying, Hey, I want to come in and spend some time with you guys. So I can totally understand why Martha is serving. But what we’re going to find out is that this is not actually the honorable posture. We see that Mary chose a different posture, and Mary’s posture was simply this… sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to his teaching.
You see, Martha is a distracted woman, but Mary is abiding in Jesus’s presence. Mary has a posture of learning and intimacy. She wants to hear from the Lord. Now we know that Mary served the Lord because other passages tell us this. So it’s not like Mary is just lazy and figured, Hey, my sister’s doing this. She’s got it. I’m just going to enjoy the Lord’s presence. That’s not the case at all, because she has served the Lord in other passages, but here she takes the time to sit at his feet and let him speak to her heart, to listen to his teaching.
And so my question for you today, which posture more closely reflects your relationship with the Lord right now? Would you say you’re more like Mary, where you’re seeking to press into the Lord and listen to his teaching, to be in his presence even as you go about your day or do you more closely relate to Martha?
You’re busy, even distracted from Jesus because you’re busy serving Jesus. And so that’s the question I want you to think about, that’s the question I want you to meditate on. Cause we’re going to dive into this passage a little more deeply in the next episode or two, and I believe the Lord wants to bless you and encourage you through it.
But in order for us to experience the blessings and encouragement that the Lord has for us, we have to first recognize where we are at and where the Lord is leading us, what it is he wants to do. And we have to be willing to submit to his lead and follow him. I hope this episode has blessed you if it has, don’t forget to subscribe so that you can be notified when future episodes drop.
I hope you have a great day and I’ll see you on the next episode. God bless.
