Busy For God

Scripture

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 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!' 'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'" Luke 10:38-42 (NIV)

Additional Scripture References

• Matthew 6:1 Jesus checks the motive behind the good stuff we do.
• Luke 5:16 Jesus stepped away from real needs to pray. On purpose. Often.
• John 15:4 Fruit comes from staying connected, not from trying harder.
• Luke 10:42 Mary chose the better thing. It was a decision, not an accident.

Main Idea

You can be busy with the things of God and still be far from the heart of God. Martha wasn't sinning. She was serving Jesus in her own house. But the serving got so loud that she missed the One she was serving. That's the danger. ^{Activity feels like intimacy, so we stop noticing that the real thing is gone.}

If you walked away from God completely, you'd probably notice. Something would feel off. But what happens when you're still here every Sunday, still serving every week, still leading and giving and showing up? ^{The flesh doesn't always drag you out of church. Sometimes it's fine letting you stay busy in it.}

Activity Can Look Like Intimacy

Scripture

"But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made." Luke 10:40 (NIV)

Overview

Martha's problem wasn't a bad thing. It was a good thing crowding out a better one. Jesus was sitting in her living room and she was too busy hosting Him to enjoy Him. Same thing happens to us. Church attendance isn't automatically intimacy. Serving isn't. Leading isn't. You can sing about a God you haven't talked to all week. You can teach Scripture you haven't let confront you. You can lead people somewhere you're no longer personally going.

YOUR ACTIVITY FOR GOD IS NOT PROOF OF YOUR INTIMACY WITH GOD.

Deeper Dive

Here's what a first century reader would have caught right away. Martha did nothing wrong by cultural standards. Hospitality in a Judean village was close to sacred. Guests showed up, and the woman of the house went to work. Bread, water for feet, a meal for a crowd of men. ^{Mary was the one breaking the rules.} Sitting at a rabbi's feet was the posture of a student, and in this time period, that seat usually belonged to men. So when Martha complains, she's not being petty. In her mind she's the responsible one and her sister is off doing something she has no business doing.

Then Jesus flips it. He doesn't tell Mary to get up. He tells Martha to sit down. ^{Jesus was defending a woman's right to be a disciple before He ever defended a hostess's right to help.} And the word Luke uses for distracted carries the idea of being pulled in different directions at once. ^{Martha wasn't lazy. She was stretched.} Sound familiar? Most of us aren't running from God. We're just being pulled apart by a hundred good things.

Question

What is one good thing in your life right now that keeps you from the better thing?

• Follow up: when your week gets full, what's the first thing to fall off your schedule? Be specific.

The Flesh Loves Performance

Scripture

"Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them." Matthew 6:1 (NIV)

Overview

Nobody claps when you pray at 6 a.m. Nobody posts about the morning you repented in your car. But serve enough and people notice. That's the pull. Little by little we stop serving from intimacy and start serving for identity. The flesh doesn't always want the nightclub. Sometimes it just wants the platform.

IF YOU NEED RECOGNITION TO KEEP SERVING, RECOGNITION MAY BE WHO YOU'RE REALLY SERVING.

Deeper Dive

Matthew 6:1 sits in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, right before Jesus talks about giving, praying and fasting. Three good things. He warns about all three. The word He uses for the people doing them for show is the Greek word for a stage actor, someone wearing a mask so the back row can read the emotion. ^{Jesus isn't attacking the action. He's asking who the audience is.}

Now put Luke 5:16 next to it. Jesus often withdrew. ^{That's not a one time retreat, it's a habit.} And He did it with sick people still waiting. Think about that for a second. Jesus left needs unmet. Not because He was cold, but because ^{every need was not an instruction from the Father.}

^‍A phone doesn't apologize for going to the charger. It's useless if it doesn't. If Jesus could walk away while people still wanted Him, you are not too important to stop.

Question

Be honest. What happens inside you when someone else gets the credit, the platform, or the thank you that you expected?

• Follow up: would you still do what you do if nobody ever knew you did it?

Choose The Better Thing

Scripture

"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine." John 15:4 (NIV)

Overview

The answer to unhealthy busyness isn't laziness. It's order. We don't quit serving, we quit letting service for Jesus replace relationship with Jesus. Jesus said Mary chose what was better. She didn't drift into it. Nobody accidentally builds a prayer life. Nobody accidentally gets disciplined in Scripture. The emails will keep coming and there will always be another reason to say you'll spend time with God later. Before you pour out, you have to fill up.

YOU WILL NEVER ACCIDENTALLY DEVELOP A DEEP RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD.

Deeper Dive

The word remain shows up eleven times in John 15. It means to stay, to live there, to make it home. Jesus doesn't say produce. He says stay. And notice what a branch actually does to make grapes: nothing you could put on a to do list. It just refuses to let go of the vine. Fruit is the byproduct of connection, not the result of effort. A branch snapped off the vine can look green and healthy for a while. It just can't keep it up.

That's the quiet danger for people who serve a lot. You can run on yesterday's connection for weeks. Maybe months. The songs still get sung, the lesson still gets taught, the ministry still functions. Then one day there's nothing left and you can't figure out why. ^{Disconnection doesn't announce itself. It just slowly dries you out.} So the fix is never to work harder at producing. It's to go back and stay put.

Question

What is one thing you can actually cut or say no to this week so you have room to sit with Jesus?

• Follow up: what does staying connected look like on your busiest day, not your best day?

Summary

Martha was busy for Jesus. Mary sat with Jesus. Jesus said Mary chose better. Busyness is a terrible way to measure spiritual health, because you can look spiritually healthy while privately becoming spiritually empty. We don't serve so we can get close to Jesus. We serve because we've been close to Jesus. Get that order right and everything else falls in line.

So the goal this week isn't to do less for God. It's to stop letting the doing take the place of the knowing. Serve hard. Sit first.

Call to Action

This week, choose the better thing. Keep serving, keep leading, keep giving, keep working hard. Just don't hand God the leftovers. Pick one small change and start Monday:

• Talk to Him before you check your phone.
• Take ten minutes where you're not preparing, leading, or asking for anything. Just sit.
• Say no to one thing that isn't yours to carry.

Because one day the position changes and somebody else takes your place. When all the doing is gone, there has to still be a relationship underneath it.

Prayer Prompts

• Ask God to show you where activity has quietly replaced intimacy.
• Repent for any place you've served for applause instead of out of love.
• Pray for the courage to say no, and for peace when someone else gets the opportunity.
• Ask Him to make time with Him the first thing you protect instead of the first thing you cut.
• Pray for the people in your group who are running on empty right now and don't want to admit it.
• Thank Him that your worth was never tied to your usefulness in the first place.