Introduction:
When We Are Distracted, Even By A Good Thing (Luke 10:38-42):
- We try to Do it all ourselves . (Luke 10:40)
- We Worry . (Luke 10:41)
- We don't Dwell in His presence . (Luke 10:42)
Ways To Keep The Focus On Jesus:
- FIND: Your Prayer Room . (Matt 6:6)
Matthew 6:6 - "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
- FIND: The real Reason behind the distraction.
- FIND: Scripture with real answers. (Matt 6:24)
Matthew 6:24 - "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money."
- FIND: Who will Keep me accountable ? (John 17:21)
John 17:21 - "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."
How I will take action today?
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:39-00:40
All right, good morning.
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First, I wanna just say, once again, it is an honor and a great privilege to be standing here in front of you today.
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And I just wanna thank Pastor Jeff and the elders for the ability to do so.
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I'm really excited to get into God's word with you today.
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I feel unworthy, really, of being able to do this, but the good thing is, is that this is God's message.
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This is not my message.
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This is coming from his word.
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And so I think we can all take comfort in that.
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So before we start, let me just pray for us here real quick.
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And Father, thank you for bringing us here today.
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We've all convened to worship you and fix our eyes on you.
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I pray that you would be glorified through this message and that we, myself very much included, could apply this to our lives, not only for the rest of the day today, tomorrow and next week, but to the rest of our lives as we seek you daily.
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And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
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All right, so this guy, the smartphone, who's got one?
01:53-01:54
All right, that seems about right.
01:54-01:56
You probably know where this thing is at all times, right?
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You probably checked it once here before the sermon starts.
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Maybe you're still on it right now.
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I can't really see everybody.
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But there has been research done on this, and 15%, just 15% of US adults don't own a smartphone at this point.
02:14-02:15
That's a pretty exclusive club.
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I mean, if you're part of that 15%, it almost deserves a reward at this point.
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Maybe a new phone, for example.
02:24-02:25
That's pretty significant.
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And of course, I don't need to tell you what you can do on them.
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There's apps for just about everything.
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There's not much you can't do on a smartphone these days.
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One of those things is to scroll on your social media accounts.
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You know, a little like here, a little like there, dog video here, a recipe, I'll make that.
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According to Pew Research, just over seven of ten US adults have a social media account on whatever platform that is.
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So now here's what I found to be really staggering.
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So Pew ran a poll just this past year from January to February and they ask people how often they use the internet.
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So check this out.
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85% of Americans say they go online on a daily basis.
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So same number as people that have smartphones.
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48% of people, so almost half of the American population, say they go online several times per day.
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Now there's no cap on several here.
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I mean, several could be three, several could be 20.
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We have no idea what that means.
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Now here's the really astounding part.
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31% of those polled, so three out of every 10 people that you see here sitting today, they say they're online constantly.
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Constantly.
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I don't even know what constantly means.
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What does that mean?
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When I think constantly, I think of just endless scrolling, No bathroom breaks, no eating, just all on the phone, all the time, constantly.
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And that's 31% of Americans do this.
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Now of course I found all this information on the internet.
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And the internet is a really funny place, because if you look at any website, right, as soon as you go on a website, what happens?
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There's just a million different things that pop up, right?
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where you've got to click the little X and maybe you've just got to scroll past it.
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And I've always tried to picture this if it were to come to life in an actual conversation, person to person, just one-on-one.
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So you're talking with somebody, hey, this weather, man, it's been really crazy.
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It's been raining almost every day.
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What is up with that?
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They're like, yeah, you know, but it's actually, it's really great for the garden.
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I really love it.
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And then all of a sudden, there's somebody that comes in into your conversation with just a big sign in their hand that just is like, bang, look where these 20 child stars are now.
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And then you're just having another conversation about, you know, hey, they're sending all these people to space.
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Can you believe that they're doing all this?
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This is crazy.
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Yeah, you know, but the really crazy thing is I actually think the earth is flat.
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What?
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And then you get another sign guy that comes in, bang, three ways to get rich quick, just right in the middle of your conversation.
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Or my favorite, and by this I mean this drives me absolutely nuts, is the automatic video play.
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You still get that?
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Where it just, you jump out of your seat because all of a sudden it's just right in your ear.
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So this would be a back and forth conversation and then instead of the sign guy, all of a sudden you get somebody that butts into your conversation, screaming into your ear, "If You have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach.
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I won't finish that, not here.
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But you get the point, right?
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They only do that kind of stuff because it works, because people click on it.
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They get distracted away from whatever they came on to the internet to do, and that represents our lives.
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We're trying to live out a purpose to live for God, and all these things are popping up, and they're built to just pull us away.
06:18-06:20
And that brings us to our friend the goldfish here.
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Now, there's some research out there that'll tell you that the human attention span has dipped to 8.25 seconds.
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8.25.
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It'll also tell you that the attention span of our friend the goldfish is nine seconds.
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Now, there's been some pushback on that, saying we don't really know how long a goldfish can focus on things.
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So maybe we're not that bad.
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But the point is, is that we as a society are more hyper-connected and easily distracted than ever before.
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We've got the world at our fingertips and we just can't help ourselves from plugging in.
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And here's the thing, while that's not all bad, that can be absolutely disastrous for our faith.
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'Cause instead of resting in the presence of God, instead of spending time with our creator, enjoying the loving relationship that we have with Him, we get distracted to the point that we're replacing that time with God with time on our phones.
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And think about it, what are we really connecting to when we do that?
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Latest selfie from our friends, latest COVID variant, the hottest political news, somebody going after somebody's character.
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Surely you're not the one doing that on social media.
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Maybe we're tuning into the latest law being passed lies in the face of our faith.
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It's not wrong to be informed.
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In fact, we should know what's going on around us, but what are we feeding on?
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Some of those articles and those headlines, they're built to draw some kind of emotion out of you, to draw you in.
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And most of the time, that emotion is fear.
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I listen to a pastor in DC sometimes, his name is Ben Stewart, and he made this analogy recently where he said, "Our society and how we go about media is a lot like movie Monsters, Inc., if you've ever seen that, where the machine, the system, it all runs on the fear.
08:25-08:28
And in that case, it's the fear of children.
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But they do so without any real regard for how it's impacting them or who it's hurting along the way.
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It's just to keep feeding the machine.
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And man, we've got to guard ourselves against that.
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We can't let those kinds of things rob our hope our joy, our peace, that we should find in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
08:50-09:15
There are so many things that can keep us from maintaining the focus on Jesus as we go about our daily lives. And you know what, that's a pretty easy sell, what I just laid out there, wouldn't you agree? We know we can get caught up in the modern-day traps that we live amongst. Those are right in front of us. And hey, maybe you're sitting here right now and you think, you know, I hear you on all all this technology stuff, but that's just, it's not me.
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I don't get caught up in that.
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I don't distract myself with it.
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Well, here's something to consider as well.
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Maybe you're being distracted by otherwise good things in your life.
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You know, the things that you have a duty to do, like do well at your job, doing it with excellence.
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God calls us to be trustworthy employees, to give glory to him by our work.
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Maybe you've been going that extra mile lately and trying to get that promotion so that you can advance in your career and support yourself and your family better.
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My wife, Lexi, and I don't have children yet, but maybe it's spending time with your kids.
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God's word tells us in Proverbs 22 to train them up in the way they should go and they won't depart from it when they get older.
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Maybe you've been spending a lot of time doing that.
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And maybe it's serving.
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Maybe you're a key member of the worship team here or children's ministry, hospitality, small groups.
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Could be ministries outside of harvest even.
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These are all good things that we can wrap our lives around.
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But let me ask you, if we busy our lives too much, we never take a second to just slow down, if we're focused on moving on to the next task, whatever that might be, then where does our faith come in?
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When are we walking with God?
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Where does that sanctification process, becoming more like Christ and focusing on Jesus, where does that all come in?
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And let me tell you that being distracted even by good things is not just a 2021 problem.
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And we see a great example of it in scripture.
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And so let's go to that now.
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Go open your Bibles with me please to Luke 10, and we're gonna start in verse 38.
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We're gonna read a quick story here of the dangers of being distracted.
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Now, in this passage, we get dropped into the middle "Jesus's visit to two sisters, Mary and Martha, in the town of Bethany." And so now Jesus comes to their house and we pick it up there, verse 38.
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"Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house." So right away, Martha opens the door, welcomes Jesus in, incredibly hospitable, so far so good, right?
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All right, let's go to verse 39.
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"And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.
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But Martha was distracted with much serving.
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And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?
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Tell her then to help me." So right there in verse 40, we see that word we're talking about here, distracted.
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She was distracted by all the preparations that she was making.
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And Jesus says to her in verse 41, "But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled "about many things, but one thing is necessary.
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"Mary has chosen the good portion, "which will not be taken away from her." Now, it's important to note here that what Martha was doing was not inherently a bad thing.
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She had the Lord, who she knew to be the God-man himself, Jesus Christ, in her home.
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So she was doing the best to host him, to serve, take care of the house, making preparations for him.
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And you think about when you have company that's about to come over, right?
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I mean, what happens?
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That house gets whipped into shape so quick and if you're in the way, you're gonna get run over.
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I mean, I remember hosting Christmas once every few years for our family.
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And when that year would come around, my mom would go into super mom mode, making sure that house was in shape.
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And then, you know, when all of our guests came over, it was all about hosting them.
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And both of my parents would go full go into that.
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And so imagine how Martha feels right now.
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She's got the God of the universe manifested in this man, Jesus, in her house.
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That's like family relatives coming over times a thousand.
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So what she was doing was not a sinful thing, but the results aren't always what they should be when we're distracted.
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So with that, we'll run through quickly on your outlines if you're taking notes.
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When we are distracted, even by a good thing, number one, we try to do it all ourselves.
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In verse 40, Martha says to Jesus, "Lord, do you not care that my sister "has left me to serve alone?
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"Tell her then to help me." She's like, Lord, here I am putting in all this work, giving all that I have in service for you and making sure that things are being taken care of.
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And here's Mary not doing anything to help me.
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And she's in the middle of this whirlwind of trying to do it all and begins to feel overwhelmed here.
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And not even overwhelmed, but slighted.
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This is unfair.
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And she can only see what's on the surface and that she's doing all of the work herself.
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And when you're in your own world, you start to eventually feel like you're the only one in it.
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We're so busy, we keep everyone out of the process, including God most times.
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The other thing Martha models here and what can happen when we're distracted or caught up in busyness, even by a good thing, is number two, you worry.
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This is plainly laid out.
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Jesus responds by saying in verse 41, "Martha, Martha, you're anxious and troubled by many things." In other words, you're worried.
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Your soul and your conscience, it's not at rest.
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You're stressing out.
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And these are things that are going on internally that God doesn't want you to live in.
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God doesn't want us to live in our worries and our anxieties about work or our lives.
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And Jesus calls it out here for what it is.
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But he also doesn't leave it there.
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And he shows her what she's really missing.
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And it leads us to number three of what can happen when we're too busy or distracted, even by good things, is that we don't dwell in his presence.
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Verse 42, "The only one thing is necessary.
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Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her." Jesus says, "Mary has chosen the good portion.
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She's chosen to be with me." And I'm not going to stop that.
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I'm not gonna tell her not to sit at my feet and learn from me.
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And so while Martha was not doing something outwardly sinful in the presence of Jesus in her home, she also wasn't taking the time to actually be with him.
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So I'll ask you, who do you think really heard the words of Jesus that day?
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Who became more like him that day?
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Is it Mary or is it Martha?
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Martha was doing a good thing, she was missing the best thing.
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And that, church, is a situation we can find ourselves in as well.
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and service to our families, service to this church and to each other.
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So great, we've seen both sides of it then.
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We've seen how we can get caught up in the ways of the modern world, and we've also seen how we can get caught up in things that are well-intentioned.
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So now the question becomes, of course, how do we avoid this?
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We have a million things going on, places to go, people to see, work to be done.
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How in the world do we go about this life and keep our focus on Jesus.
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One we're supposed to follow, become more alike, be a reflection of in this world.
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The one who can provide us true peace.
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And you know, if it's just me standing up here and talking to you and asking that question, I would say, "I have no idea.
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I don't, because I fail at this all the time." And this is why I wanted to talk about this subject today because I feel all of these things.
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I feel the distraction of the smartphone.
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I get the feeling of being pulled in a thousand different directions.
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I've been in that situation where I'm trying to spend time with God, even get moments to myself, and instead of being with him, I'm on my phone.
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I'm guilty of that.
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And so the very last thing that I wanna do is come off Like I've figured this whole thing out and I'm merely passing on my infinite wisdom to you in all of this.
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That's not it at all.
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I wanted to share this with you so that we could do this together.
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And I wanna come alongside you so that we can pursue God in better ways and avoid this minefield of sin that we have along the way.
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And these ideas of how to navigate through life and keep the focus on Jesus don't come from me, they come from scripture.
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So let's battle the flesh together and let's dig into it.
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Let's try to get as practical as we can here in battling this.
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So on the outline, ways to keep the focus on Jesus.
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Number one is to find your prayer room.
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In Matthew 6, 6, Jesus describes how we should go about praying.
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He says, "But when you pray, go into your room "and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.
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and your father who sees you in secret will reward you.
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Now we know that Jesus had a busy life here on earth and specifically whenever he began his ministry.
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And he was calling disciples, he was traveling constantly, he was performing miracles, he was conducting sermons, he was doing his father's work.
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You know what else Jesus did?
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He prayed to the father frequently.
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We see many times throughout the gospels that Jesus would pull away from all the crowds and his disciples to get alone with God the Father.
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And if Jesus, the Son of Man, the sinless man, took the time to do that, how much more should we?
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And what does that prayer room look like?
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Well, it could be an actual room, sure, with the door closed, just as Jesus describes here in Matthew.
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Somewhere quiet, presumably, if that's at all possible in your lives.
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somewhere where you should know and work to find out that best place to get alone and where that is.
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It might not even be at your house.
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Maybe it's at work somehow.
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Maybe it's in the car.
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We also have to determine when we can get those moments.
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When in our schedules do we have the time to be with God like this?
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Talk to Him, to be in relationship with Him, to bring things to him, our doubts, our fears, anxieties, all of that.
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And it might take some planning out.
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Make it known to whoever you have to and say, hey, this is the time I'm gonna carve out to spend with God.
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It's gonna be this time, this day, or this time each day.
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And it might have to be that intentional whenever you start this.
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It's right here before I get really busy or I normally play around on my phone or I watch a show, the key is just consistency here.
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Allow for more regular communication with him.
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And the best part of this is, what does Jesus say here in Matthew that will happen to us when we do?
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He will reward you.
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Now, what does that mean?
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What is the reward here?
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The reward is a personal relationship with the God that loves you.
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knowing and talking to the all-powerful God, He is the reward.
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And that is awesome.
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That is more than we could ever ask for.
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And so find your prayer room.
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Number two on your outlines is to find the real reason behind this.
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There's always motivation behind action, right?
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We act on something, there's always something that's leading us to do that.
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We work extremely hard, maybe even put in overtime hours because we want that promotion at work.
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But let's take a step back to look at why we're being distracted.
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Why is it?
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You know, in school, in high school and in college in particular for me, I was a master procrastinator.
21:53-21:55
Okay, it didn't matter what it was.
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Mostly it was for writing papers.
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And sure enough, I would be the guy nine times, maybe 10 times out of 10, that would be up till two in the morning writing this paper because I'd waited so long to do it.
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And I always tried to examine to myself, okay, why do I do this?
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Why do I put myself through this?
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Sometimes it was because I got distracted by many things, but most of the time, it was because I just flat out didn't wanna do it.
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And so I would put it off as if it were just gonna poof and just disappear.
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I just wouldn't have to do it anymore.
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Maybe we'd get raptured up.
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That's what I was hoping for by the time I had to write this paper.
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But the heart behind my procrastination is that I just flat out didn't want to write it.
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So here it's what's the heart behind your distraction?
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Maybe it's you scroll through all these social media accounts, you know, the highlights of people's lives that aren't really their lives.
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Or the lowlights, like, whoa.
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Glad I'm not them.
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At least my life's in better shape than theirs. That's all a comparison problem. That's the heart behind that.
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Why are you chasing so hard after the work? Is it just support or is it greed?
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Why is your life so busy?
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Just because you're busy you've got a lot of responsibilities, or do you take on more because you always want to be in control?
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So you do extra things to gain that momentum and gain that control If it's just pure entertainment, that's your distraction what you're choosing to spend most of your time on What's the heart behind that is there lust there?
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Are you seeking pleasure in ways you shouldn't?
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Has that entertainment become an idol to you where it's what you're thinking about the most throughout your day movies and TV shows Some people are almost obsessed with sports
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(audience laughing)
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Some others even talk about it all day at work.
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I mean, come on.
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Those aren't evil things, but the real reason behind it is why are you diving into that too much?
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Proverbs 20, verse five tells us that we should search our hearts for deeper understanding.
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Let's do that.
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And once you ask yourself that and you hopefully find the answer to that, Then you can do number three, and that's find scripture with real answers.
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If it's comparison, then what's my identity?
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Psalm 139, your God knows you completely, knew you before you were born, knit you together in your mother's womb.
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Ephesians 1, you've been chosen by God, adopted into his family.
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Romans 8:17, you're a co-heir with Christ to the inheritance God has for you in heaven as one of his children.
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You've been redeemed from your sin.
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You were bought by the blood of God's Son, Jesus himself, who came to rescue you.
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And he calls you his own.
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He loves you unconditionally.
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That is who you are.
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That's who God says you are in his word.
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It's a beautiful picture, isn't it?
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So why compare?
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If it's great in Matthew 6.24, No one can serve two masters for either he'll hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other.
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You cannot serve God in money.
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What's being the master of your life?
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Might not be money.
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Maybe it's that entertainment or that pleasure that you're constantly seeking.
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Entertainment again, not evil, but is it replacing God?
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Maybe you're distracted and busy by just trying to be a great parent or servant for your family.
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Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 10 that whoever loves son or daughter more than him isn't worthy of him.
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Yikes, that sounds really harsh.
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And Jesus certainly is not condemning us having love for our family and putting in that time, but you can't put that over him.
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If you love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then everything else falls into place from there.
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And so for every struggle, there are answers in scripture.
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This is the most reliable source that you can find.
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And I'd encourage you, as long as we're getting practical here about things, to memorize it once you find that truth that applies.
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I'm talking to myself as well.
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Now that isn't just looking at a few lines and just picking it out.
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There's danger in doing that as well.
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I wouldn't recommend that.
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But look at the context in which that truth is in.
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Look at the whole chapter.
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And then hopefully that leads you to look at the whole book.
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And then that book leads you to look at the book before that, the one after that.
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Then you want to gain knowledge from the Old Testament or the New Testament.
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And then if that's not good enough to quench your undying thirst at that point, then you've read the whole Bible.
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I know it's not always that easy, if only it were.
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But the point is to start there and let the Holy Spirit inside you crave for more once you've seen it make an actual difference in your life.
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when you remember it, when you meditate on it, and you actually live in it.
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So identify the distraction, the motive behind it, and replace it with truth.
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My wife Lexi is an amazing person in many different ways, for many different reasons.
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But one of those reasons is that she is an incredibly patient and loving teacher of children with special needs.
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And she leads an autistic support classroom, and one of the things she explained to me over the years is the concept of replacement behavior.
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So this is replacing a less desirable behavior with a positive one to achieve the same function.
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So maybe you just want to escape the world and all of its trials, but you do so by endlessly scrolling on your phone.
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You immediately take to whatever it is, social media.
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It's about what you're turning to to escape the world.
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If you aren't using scripture, if you aren't using the truth as your escape, then sometimes, if not most times, you're gonna be even more anxious than you were before, looking through all of that.
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Replace that escape method with something better.
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And this isn't just a bunch of positive quotes and self-help mantra that you might see anywhere else.
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This is the alive and working, timeless and God-breathed, life-giving, life-receiving word of truth. That's what this is. Don't underestimate that. So use it and study it and memorize it.
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Understand what it is, the power it possesses. Don't gloss over it.
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But so often the effects of distraction, they don't show themselves right away.
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And so it's hard to get in front of it.
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It's kind of like boiling a frog. You ever heard of that? I haven't done it myself. I kind of like frogs actually, but the idea here is is that if you boil a pot of water and you stick the frog in it, that frog, as long as it can jump high enough, is going to sense that danger that this is really hot and jump right out.
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But you put that frog in, you know, normal temperature, put that frog in the water, and then you just slowly crank up the heat.
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Frog can't necessarily sense that danger. And by the time it realizes that it's way too hot in here, it's boiled alive. And so that can oftentimes be what we're like. Are we getting focused on Jesus, or are we being sucked into the patterns and temptations of this world? We might not even realize it? Are we getting slowly boiled by this world? If you're having trouble seeing the pattern of sin that you're living in or the pattern of distraction that you're headed down, that's where the last part of this comes in. And that is to find who can keep me accountable. These things that I'm wrestling with, that I'm fighting against daily, who's gonna check up on me to make sure that I'm staying on track? Who's gonna call me out if I'm headed down a road in which I shouldn't be. And you can slap whatever name you want on this person or this group of people, the accountability partner, the faithful friend, the battle buddy, the bumper buddies, that's what we call ours, it's cute. Whatever. We aren't called to do this alone. We're supposed to be a community, a body of Christ with many members and parts. And I could go into some many different things to look out for in this person, but the highlights here whenever you're picking this person is that they believe what the Word says, that they're committed, that their faith is real, and that they're walking with the Lord. You can see the fruits of that in their lives, and that also they're gonna be bold enough to share the truth with you in love. They're not gonna bash you over the head with a Bible whenever you mess up, but they're also not gonna sugarcoat anything. They're not going to tiptoe around issues because that doesn't help anybody either.
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Ephesians 4 verses 12 through 15, you can go back and look at those. That's where this concept comes from. The language used in there is building up the body of Christ, unity in faith, becoming mature, no longer tossed to and fro by the waves of life. That's where we want to be.
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And so as I wrap up here, you might be sitting here today and listening to this online and maybe you don't know Jesus. You might be thinking to yourself, "Man, all these disciplines that you're putting in your life, that sounds absolutely exhausting. Why in the world would I do this?" Well, it's because we have a sin problem. Our natural inclinations are to do what we want.
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You have that issue too.
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And there's nothing that we can do to get ourselves right again.
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It only takes one sin for us to fall short of perfection, and that's God's demands.
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That's his standard.
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It only takes one smartphone and we're totally derailed.
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That's why we're having this entire conversation.
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And he's not leaving you here either.
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God so loved you that he sent his one and only son on a rescue mission to save your soul from eternal destruction. Because the wages of your sin that you can't wipe away on your own is death.
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And that's eternal death. That's hell. That's a lonely place of suffering, absence of the presence of God. But he sent his son Jesus to live a perfect life for you. Perfect life so that he can take on your sin when he was nailed to a cross and was put to death because of it. He took your sin of the grave until he cried, "It is finished." And he took his last breath and they pierced his side and when the water and the blood poured out, they knew that he was dead. And then the most amazing and important thing in human history happened. Three days later he rose from the tomb, appeared to those around him and with it wiped away your sin for good.
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And what's he called for us to do? It's to believe in him, to make him Lord, show your love for him by obeying him. And he loves you so clearly by suffering a horrible death and giving up his life for you. And through Jesus you have identity and being his, you have purpose and serving him and bringing others to life-saving faith, and you have freedom from the bondage of your brokenness and and the fate of eternal death.
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Identity, purpose, freedom.
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We all crave that.
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And that can be found in Christ.
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You can have that today if you accept the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of your life.
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And if that's your decision today, our prayer team's gonna be in the back as soon as I wrap up here.
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I'll be with Pastor Jeff in this corner as well.
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We would love to talk with you more about that decision.
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And church, Jesus wants this so much for us.
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He is constantly inviting us to draw near to him.
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And not only to draw near, but check this out, and this is where we'll really end today.
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This is incredible to me.
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I take you to John 17, where Jesus has just shared his last meal with his disciples, and says he's gonna leave them, and it's another one of those times we talked about earlier where he just stops the prey, gets away from everybody else.
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And in this case, he does so for us believers.
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Part of that prayer, Jesus says in verse 21, "That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.
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They may also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me." Here's Jesus, the Son of God, one third of the Holy Trinity, with this perfect relationship between He and the Father, saying, "What we have, Father God, "this perfect unity between us, "where I'm in you and you are in me, "let's let them in on this too.
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"Let's invite these people into the oneness with us." How incredible is that?
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That's Jesus's desire for us, is to be one with Him.
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And Martha got distracted in that story.
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Distracted by a good thing, yes, but distracted.
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Are you settling for the good things instead of the very best things?
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Jesus wants us to be one with Him.
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We have a decision to make.
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Are we going to live distracted or are we going to live committed?
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My hope is that we put these steps into place and that it enables us to lead the life that God calls us to because He's ultimately calling us to Him.
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He wants us.
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What are you willing to do today to allow Him to have all of you?
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Let's pray.
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Father God, I just, I pray Lord for all of the different things that we can get caught up in in life, Lord.
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It can be overwhelming at times.
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I pray that at times that it is overwhelming that we don't escape using anything else but your word.
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And that we can ignore the lies that Satan puts into our heads about who we are.
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And we instead turn to you and turn to your word to get what our real identity is, Lord.
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And I pray that we would find our prayer rooms, we'd find that time that we can spend just talking with you.
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That we can surround ourselves with people that'll help us along this walk, God, because it's not easy.
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We still live in our flesh.
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So I pray that we would be seeking after you day in and day out, and that we could achieve that oneness with you, and that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit.
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In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Luke 10:38-42
What is one thing that God revealed to you personally during the sermon?
Have you identified what distracts you the most from seeking after the Lord daily?
Why do you think Jesus calls us to "shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret"? What does it mean to have Him as our reward when we do this?
Have you taken the time to memorize Scripture? If so, how do you feel it impacts how you live out your day?
What steps do you feel you need to take to not allow the things you enjoy (entertainment, social media, etc.) become idols and distractions?
Do you feel like you have the right amount of Christian accountability in your life? Are you that accountability partner in someone else's life? How have you seen that be effective?
Breakout
Pray for one another.