Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Sunday Sit down
where it's not Sunday, but we are sitting down and, and today
I have the honor and privilege to be here with Annabelle Edward
who was preaching yesterday morning.
It's Monday here in real time. And and it was I was actually
away yesterday. I I missed it.
I was sad to miss it. OK, it's online.
That's right. That's right.
So I, but I, I had a good listen this morning.
Yeah. And I was, I was so encouraged
by the word you gave. And I mean in so many ways,
which we'll get into a little bit, but I also like, I was
thinking as I was listening, you're you mentioned in the
passage, which is about Mary and Martha and Mary at the feet of
Jesus. And we'll we'll get, we'll read
it in a moment. But one thing I was like very
acutely aware of, and I just think it's quite poignant is
that it makes so much more sense for a woman to do this sermon,
which was like, it was perfect. It was so perfect.
Just because, you know, one of the things you highlighted is,
is that, you know, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus,
which, you know, was stretching the boundaries of, of what women
could do in that day and age. And there are so many, there are
so many voices in our, even in Christian, you know, in the
Christian universe today that still try to limit the activity
and voices of women. And and I'm so glad that you
were the 1 to give that. Message Yeah, it was it was
actually quite fun when I was I the quote I said on Sunday for
mentee right there was like, yeah, Mary is sitting at Jesus
feet as a would be like preacher and teacher of the scripture
would have first had to be an apprentice to another teacher as
Jesus was called many times in the Bible.
So it was it was it was fun to like see that in this passage
because it's not one that's normally quoted when people are
like, Oh no, women can do it. So I was like, hey, there's
another one. But yeah, so that was quite
cool. And my hope is that that that is
always something that is near and dear to our heart in our, in
this church community. And it's one of the reasons why
every, every chance we can get, whether it's you or my wife, NZ
or Allison or Connie or who, whomever else, right?
It's just we, you know, we need more of that in our lives.
So I'm glad. Grateful that our church does
that and allows me to preach other women to preach and
anyone. It's not just about women, it's
also about like the outcasts and the people that you wouldn't
normally see welcomed into circles that are.
I wanna make like a slight like distinction from you use the
word allow there and I and I want to like just like little
qualifier there just because I don't like the last thing I want
is is for it to feel like, you know, like Grant or I or like we
are like allowing from on like man, I I just I hate not I hate
when people have that mentality about it.
Like, well, thanks, thank you for the opportunity.
But it's like, you know, like you're you're gifted, you are
called and, and like we just God has done that work in you and
now you get to pour that out to other people.
And it's like that's just that's just good.
And, and and we just need more of that.
So yeah, thank. You, but yes.
Cool, so this was Luke chapter 10 I'm going to read.
It was a shorter, shorter section.
So this is Luke chapter 10 verse 38 to 414242 and I'm reading
from the NIV which which is that?
Is that what you read? From yes I did.
There we go. So 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. Cool.
So I, I left my iPad at home and I'm, I'm, I'm going analog.
I I made, I made notes. This.
That's fun. I mean, recently I've started to
do that with school. I'm like looking out the screen
for so long. It hurt your eyes.
This is like, but I mean this is like such like a, a grant thing
to do and and so, but it's really just a function of me.
I didn't wanna, I didn't want to have my like like 16 inch laptop
screen in front of me anyway. Do you know that you're fine
That one, that one's a better size.
And yeah. So there's a few thoughts, a few
questions that were percolating for for myself and for grants.
Send me a few few and I kind of like they kind of aligned with
some of the questions that were percolating for me.
And this is a plug for if you have any questions about, you
know, a sermon, any thoughts that come up, you can send them
to you questions at courtrightchurch.org.
And we always check before we record to see if there's
anything there just to facility discussion for something that
you're processing or working through in light of the sermon.
So first question, what might it look like to createspace in my
day to sit at Jesus feet like Mary did?
And so you touched on on this idea of of Mary.
You know, what Mary's doing is, is you know, she is receiving
from Jesus. She's receiving his teaching as
an apprentice, as a as a disciple.
And so when we think about, when we think about what she's doing
there, how can we, what are some ways?
And you highlighted a couple of them, but maybe I just want to
go a little deeper. And because there's the other
the other piece of the coin that we talked about a little bit
before pressing record is that there are things that we can do
alone. Things that are, you know, we we
see that modeled in Jesus that Jesus would withdraw to to pray
and to be with God the Father. And but that there are also a
lot of things that we ought to be doing in community.
And Mary was in community here. She wasn't alone at the feet of
Jesus. That's why Martha was running
around doing all things because there was lots of company over
right. Yeah, a lot of people.
Jesus. Yes, there.
Yeah, exactly. Actually stressed.
I love I love the way you highlighted.
I like James Jesus. Like if anyone's coming to your
house, stressful. But Jesus, yeah, what if he
noticed the dust on your cupboards?
That would be stressful. I know.
And that's like attention in, in, in our household that we've
gotten better at over the years. Like when it's a company's gonna
come over. Yeah.
And it's like, what is the level of cleanliness that that is
appropriate for, you know, anyway?
No, I, I have started, as I have become an adult, I have started
to notice these things as a child.
I'd be like, why is everyone so stressed about it?
And now I'm like, Oh no, like what if they go upstairs?
They won't. But what if they do?
It needs to be cleaned. Go on.
I think it was Friday night. Friday night, a friend who I
haven't seen in like 2 years. I, I was having like, I was
having like a nap on the couch because I was gonna be a late
night because I had a ball game that was gonna be on an
important very Blue Jays playoff game.
And, and, and I was, I, but I was like, I was so tired from
the previous game, which went into like 1130.
And so I needed to sleep. I needed a nap.
And so, and then all of a sudden my wife wakes up.
She's like Justin, Justin, someone's at the door and it was
a friend who I hadn't seen in years and he was just like
passing by and had, you know, thought he'd stop in.
But we went through this thing of like, I think my wife would
like just did a workout and was like workout clothes and and
like the house was not in a state.
There was like there was like I'd gone to PetSmart and picked
up some like cat litter for our cat and there was sitting in the
front of the door and and but we didn't care, didn't care.
Is nice to see my friend, you know?
But it's a tension. It is nice to see people.
But yeah. But Martha is on the other side
of that. Yes, yeah.
And we'll, we'll come back to that and some of that balance a
little bit later. But so I want to think about
like, yeah, what does it look like to sit at the feet of Jesus
to create that space alone and in community?
So if you have any thoughts around that, yeah.
Yeah, that was something I was really thinking about leading up
to the sermon, because I was at the beginning really focusing on
that alone aspect and like, how do you do it alone?
And then halfway through the week I was someone mentioned
they're like, well, do you have to do it alone?
And I was like, Oh yeah, that that is like half of our call is
to do it together. And the church is not separate.
Like we're all one eye. We're all separate body parts is
the analogy to be the function of the church.
And that is very important. So but to go back to alone, I
think it's very important also to have your personal
relationship with Jesus. Sometimes it can be easy to like
grab on to other peoples a relationship with Jesus and, and
that is great to pull you through hard times of like
leaning on someone else. But also having your strong
foundation is essential and not easy.
As I mentioned multiple times on Sunday, because I, I struggle
with it too of the but what does that even look like?
Because a lot of people talk about you need a relationship
with Jesus. That's what I've just said for
the last few minutes. You need a relationship with
Jesus. But how do you do that?
And the things I've come up with were quite practical because it
would be lovely to spend all your time reading your Bible,
but it's not very practical. A lot of us have jobs or school
or kids for other things going on, but that doesn't mean you
can't spend like carve out time for it.
And that also doesn't mean you can't do it during the other
hectic parts of life. So a few that I mentioned for
individually were like carving out moments to read your Bible
in the morning, afternoon, at night, anytime that you have
time or which worked for me for a while, but then school got
busy. So what do you do when you
really don't seem to have that time?
And like is there stuff on the go?
Like Geo 365 is what I mentioned is something you can listen to,
And someone mentioned that to me a few weeks ago of it doesn't
always have to be reading your Bible and trying to figure it
out and do it that way. Like sometimes it's just lovely
to listen to what other devotionals and stuff like that
and just received and just receive.
Yeah. Because.
And that's sort of ties into the community aspect of doing it
alone is really hard and it's nice to hear other people's
thoughts. Preparing the sermon, I asked a
bunch of people what they saw in the passage.
We sat down with Grant and Allison and talked it through
because we all have different opinions, different approaches,
different ways. We see things things that pop
out to us more than others. So I.
Think we need each other? Like, we need each other.
Yeah, it is vital in the walk with Christ.
We need people. And that's what you see Mary
doing. She's not by herself with Jesus.
In a way, she is like, it's her and Jesus.
She's learning from him. But she also has all these
people around her that want to. And that's, I think, the key
component. Like we need to surround
ourselves with people that are actively seeking Jesus and
knowing and being known by him. So going back to practical
things, what does that look like?
I have like going to a Bible study, making your own Bible
study. We need more leaders.
There's yeah pitch for more Bible study leaders.
If you are feeling called to it, because even if you're leading a
Bible study, you're still part of it and you're still listening
to other people and it's last year as part of a Bible study
and it was great because it was unintentional time.
Every Wednesday, I think it was Wednesday, don't actually
remember that, we sat down and we took an hour to go through
whatever it was. So that's one.
I also think coffee hour after church or before church, if you
didn't know, we also have coffee before church now.
Yay. But talk, talking with people,
seeing how their weeks going, what they're wrestling with,
just building that community I think is key.
And it looks different, and there's many different ways to
do that. Inviting over a friend, You
haven't seen those? Those kind of things, yeah.
Yeah, I love, you know, sometimes when you, when there's
a, a friend and you know, have a shared faith and all of a sudden
it becomes this like, you know, this moment to like where you're
just catching up. But you're like, you know, how
is your soul like what's going on in your world?
How like what, what can we, you know, what can we be supporting
each other and like, which is such a huge, you know, like I
love when friendships can go that deeper level.
So that's not going to happen. I have learned a lot now the
last few years months has been like, I don't like small talk.
Small talk is great, but sometimes you just stop at the
small talk and you're like, oh, how's your dog doing?
Or how are your kids and your and and that's it.
And that's great. But with those friendships that
like are deep and you both have a relationship with Jesus and
like actually going out and being like, how are you really
doing? Not just how's your day going,
but you can start with that. But then, but how are you?
How's your walk with Jesus? Have you read the Bible today?
Not like it's like a check up. No, we don't want that.
Yeah, but to be more intentional with nurturing our relationships
together and really seeing how people are doing good and the
bad. If a few 100 years ago, John
Wesley, theologian, itinerant preacher, dude, he, he had this,
he developed like this little, I kind of like small group format.
This is like in the 1700s and, and these, you know, small
groups of people would get together and one of the
questions that they would ask each other, which I think is
such a like such a, it gets to the, the, the point of it is
like, I think the phrasing, if I'm recalling it correctly, I
think I am, is like, how is it with your soul?
And just like guess to like the heart, Like how is it with your
soul? Like, like are, is your soul?
Is there something in it that is disturbed?
Is there something that is it, is it say well, is it, is it,
you know, like I just think it it, it leads anyway.
I just thought of that as you were talking about that and I
was like, Oh, John Wesley, he had some good, some good stuff
in there. And I know that I, I work at a
Presbyterian Church here, but I went to a Wesleyan leaning
seminary And, and that doesn't, if you don't know what any of
those words mean, it does not matter other than just to say is
that they're like learning from different faith traditions
within, you know, with under the scope of Christianity can be a
beautiful thing. And, and, and so I've I've
learned lots from my time with my Presbyterian friends and lots
and now I am one, but also from my, my, my Wesleyan crew, so.
Yeah, that's a good way to say it too.
Like, as we're saying, like people like friends and people
that are on the same walk with Jesus, It doesn't necessarily be
like you have to find another Presbyterian that believes the
same thing. Like that is not.
I went to a Catholic Church over the summer because I was staying
with a family that was Catholic and they brought me to meet
their priest, which was hilarious and lovely.
And it was just an amazing experience.
But they were like, this is a Protestant to and instead of
like this is Annabelle, they're like, this is a Protestant.
We've brought her. They're lovely people.
It was just hilarious how they introduced me and the priest
said, do you believe in Jesus? And I was like, yeah, he's like
same Jesus. And I just love that.
It's like it's the same Jesus. Like you have differing beliefs
on different things and how maybe to act as a church or as a
community, differing things, but we all believe in the same
Jesus. And I think that's.
Lovely and I'm also thinking when you talk about community
and sort of like being at the feet of Jesus and community, I,
I, we were talking this a little bit, this idea like, you know,
for, for centuries, the Christians did not have access
to their own Bibles. Like that's like, like, thank
you to Gutenberg and, and his printing press like fantastic.
You know, we can all have Bibles now, but like prior to that,
you've got like language barriers and like literacy
barriers. And just as a natural byproduct
of that, you have people that are reading the scriptures in
Group contexts where you have one or maybe a couple people
that know how to read and understand what is being said,
right? And, and that can be like,
there's, there's benefits and drawbacks to both of those
things, right? There's like benefits of like,
Hey, I this is kind of meant to be done in community that we can
learn from one another, grow and, and challenge each other
and in the in good ways in community.
But also it became at some point a tool for kind of power and
authority in an unhealthy way, which is, you know, part of, you
know, the the Protestant heritage and what led to some of
the stuff in the Protestant Reformation.
But also some of the drawbacks you see have, like the hyper
individualized, yeah, you know, I'm gonna read my Bible, just me
and Jesus, and that's all we're gonna do.
And and then you can read your Bible, you and Jesus, and arrive
at some very wrong conclusions. Like there is a reason that we
have teachers on these things, and there is a reason people
study it their whole lives. I heavily leaned on some of the
commentaries around this passage because they have really
insightful things to say. And I think it's a misconception
that you have to like fully figure it out yourself and that
you will like individually. Know.
I think that is a product of our culture today, especially in
North America of everything's very individual and you are
praised for doing things individually and that is like
the ladder climbing up. You want to be the person that
gets that promotion so to, but to actively do it together,
collaborate and learn together. Again, everyone comes from
different parts of life, walks of life.
They have different insights. They have different things that
are being drawn out to them while you're reading a passage.
And I think it's a beautiful thing to read a passage or
listen to a series or do it together because yeah, I think
it's a bit of a disservice to not like it's wrong not to do it
have quiet time yourself. That is also very important.
But I think it's a bit of a disservice to us to just leave
it at that because. And you'll never hear or see the
other things that are being shared by others.
Yeah, that's great. So kind of connected to, you
know, so we talked about creating space in our day alone
with community for Jesus to be at the feet of Jesus.
I wanna like talk a little bit about like what's happening in
this context. Like so they're in the home of
Mary and Martha and and there is there is a component of
hospitality here to to what, to what they I think Mary or sorry,
Martha would see herself. As terrified of mixing.
Those I. Know because I practice my
sermon a few times and I totally mixed them up.
Mary and Martha, why do? I know.
Come on, she got, she got Martha like who's like, I think kind of
functioning in the role of, of this, like I got to do all the
hospitality stuff, right. And, and there is like a
component, like I think there's a component of hospitality for
both of them that, that Mary is, is she's sitting there with
Jesus and, and she's listening and then Jesus is a guest in
their home. And anyway, but I want to talk a
little bit about radical hospitality.
You refer to that and, and wanted like unpack that a little
bit. Talk, talk.
Tell me more about radical. Hospitality, one of the things
that ended up on the cutting floor, I mentioned it maybe once
or twice in the sermon, but it was like its own thing that I
was like, if I keep talking, I will be here all day.
Yeah. And I don't know if people will
appreciate that. So radical hospitality is how I
see it, is like a radical way of being welcoming and making
people feel comfortable and seeing in your space.
So in this context, we'd be talking about the church, our
church. This is the specifically words
and actually radical hospitality.
The term was coined by Alpha, which is a We have Alpha Canada,
there's Alpha UK, and it is like a series of videos that help
people learn and understand the gospel in the Bible.
Which may be making a resurgence at our church.
Stay tuned. But it is, as they say, it's an
opportunity to explore the meaning of life for Christians
that have been Christians for a long time, for new people.
All of the above. But I love that term when I read
it cause I think it's something that we, we have to do.
I talked about how Jesus's Kingdom is radical.
And it is radical because at the beginning we're talking about
bringing in women, but bringing in outcasts as well, bringing in
the Samaritan. If you didn't catch that sermon
last week, go watch it. And Jesus Kingdom is radical.
So therefore everything we do has to be or is radical in its
own way. So that's where radical
hospitality I found came from. And I think that connects to how
we have to do this in community and are knowing and being known
by Jesus specifically. I don't believe that we can get
to exploring or bringing forth which Jesus is help the radical
Kingdom that he was bringing into the world at that time
without him. So we can do all the things like
I was saying, have all the Bible studies have Alpha have
community like time with your community after church with
coffee. But if we don't do it with a
posture of knowing and being known by Jesus, actively seeking
that I like how, how can you bring in someone's Jesus's
Kingdom without him being there? That's more like bringing in
your own Kingdom of what we think is right.
And that's dangerous. I think that's very dangerous.
So like how the question then becomes how do we make KPC?
How do we make our church, our church, the church, a community
that is intent on pursuing, continually pursuing Jesus's
radical Kingdom and then having radical hospitality, radical
generosity, all those things that come with it.
And like I think that comes with knowing and being known by
Jesus. And I think we sort of talked
about this at the beginning before the cameras turned on was
with that radical hospitality. Like I think Courtright is very
good at being a community and welcoming people when they come.
But like, how do we invite people?
How do we be a community intent on inviting people to church and
how do we do that well? And again, I think that all ties
back to we as court, right, as members of the church, as
longtime Christians or just people that are like, yes, this
is where I want to go. How can we collectively as a
team work on knowing and being known by Jesus to then go out
and invite people and build his Kingdom?
And knowing, knowing and being known by Jesus and then knowing
and being known by our neighbors, you know, which is,
you know, being coming trusted neighbors.
And, you know, yesterday we had, you know, this fall fair event
after the surface. And, and there is like, you
know, I don't know if we have a head count, but there was a lot
of families, like a lot of ton of families from the
neighborhood that that came through.
And, and we're just continuing to build those relationships and
foster those connections. And, and, and you know, like
that is a simple, easy invite. You know, we're not, we're not
like holding them hostage for like a gospel, you know?
You first have to sit through. The yeah, like, no.
No. Because I think that's like when
you talk about how we can do this, well, there's also ways
you can do it really poorly, right?
And that, you know, like we don't, you know, you can't do
like bait and switch type stuff, right?
Like that's, that's not gonna go well.
Like sometimes a fun event is just a fun event, you know, and
we're, and we are working in and being in community with, with
our neighbors and, and for community related events and
yeah, and community building stuff, right.
It's all, it's great. But I do think, yeah, when it
comes to things like you mentioned, like Alpha, you
mentioned, there's other, lots of, lots of other events where,
where it's like, hey, there are some other tiers here where it's
like, hey, how can we bring people in?
How can we? And, and, and alongside that,
you're not just inviting them, but you're inviting them into
something that is deeply hospitable, right?
Especially something just using, again, Alpha as an example.
Like you're there, you're coming into, you know, someone's church
or someone's home and, you know, sharing a meal together and
you're having like pretty deep discussion about things like
like that, that requires a certain level of, of, yeah,
radical hospitality that you, we don't see a ton of in our world
today. I find, at least in here in the
West, which tends to be more hyper individualized and it's
like, I've got my here's my home and my property and and don't
don't come on my property no trespassing, you know, and like
that's a pretty like that's a pretty kind of, I think western,
at least in in, in this, you know, in this part of the world
here. It's because I've I've been to
places where, you know, people who have nothing invite you into
their homes and give you everything that they have,
right. So like that's not the norm
here, right? But anyway, yeah, just like some
good questions. I mean even like for for Astro
sport, but also for like for you as a listener of like, how am I,
how am I preparing myself to to like potentially like extend
take the take the risk of extending the invite to someone
because. You're when you invite people, I
remember last year, first year, I met a bunch of friends, people
at school and I invited them to church and that was vulnerable.
I was like, come see my church. I was like, it's not perfect,
but it's so community and they're lovely.
But no, but that's for any church, everyone.
And I think so that is a vulnerable step to put yourself
out there and be like, come feel welcomed.
We want you to join us. But I think that's also a way to
build community, like inviting people in and having a space to
ask those questions and to get to know God is a great way to
build that community and do those.
Like what is an actionable way you can do it together?
That is an actionable way. You can do it together.
But again, I don't think you can first.
Well, you can, but I don't think you can do it well without
knowing God or having like as a church being intent on like
these are our we know that this is what Jesus is calling us to
do and this is what we want, like our being trusted
neighbors. That was what we discerned was a
call for our church and then to not bait and switches.
He said like inviting people to the fall fair without saying you
gotta come to church first is because we know Jesus and we
were still obviously pursuing him constantly, but that is not
what Jesus did. He didn't like, I will heal you
if you get baptized right now. That was not Jesus.
That was not his ministry. So he invited the people and to
come see him to learn. And I think that is that's why
we say like, invite them to these fun events, not with the
intent to convert them today, but because we know that's what
Jesus would have. Done.
Absolutely. That's great.
And so I want to, you know, continue on here with with one
of the things that that Jesus says regarding, you know, Mark,
Martha comes to Jesus and she's like, would you make my sister
do stuff, please? Belt on a deep level.
Not for my sister no, but I was like oht siblings.
This is this is every sibling knows that like, oh, this is not
fair. When you're 5 and you see your
sibling doing something, you're like, I wanna do that.
Like that is feel it. And then Jesus, Jesus turns back
to her and says, like, you know, she's chosen the better thing.
Yeah, you know, and and then so then, but then Jesus says so few
things are needed, indeed only one.
And so like, what is the one thing like that that Mary is
doing that that he is. I don't think like, I don't
think he's going to Martha. Like, I don't think he's like, I
think I, I picture it like as a gentle chiding, you know, like I
pictured of like, like, like Martha, I want you to see the
bigger picture here. You know, like what you're doing
is good, but actually what Mary is doing is, is better.
And yet Martha, Martha is also doing something that's kind of
crucial, like, you know, like, what's what's gonna happen?
To eat if she doesn't make. That, yeah.
Someone doesn't make. Out.
So I guess the question is like what?
How is Mary being at the feet of Jesus the better thing?
I think I love that language. When I read it first, I was
like, better. Cause it's not.
He's not saying the best thing and he's not saying what she
Martha is doing is awful and wrong and how could you possibly
do that? He's saying he's inviting her
into a space that is better. I like to think of it.
Jesus, being like this is great. Like what?
Being hospitable and doing that is lovely.
But I'm here for a short time and I want to get to know you.
I want to know you. And Jesus is inviting her into a
relationship with him. He's like, there's so much noise
in our lives, in Martha's life. There is a lot going on and
sometimes it feels like you can't keep up with it.
And so, but Jesus is saying, Martha, I'm not going to be here
forever. Like in physical form.
I want what your sister is doing is better.
She's sitting at my feet and she's listening and we're
talking and having a conversation and getting to know
each other. And I think that is why what
he's saying. Indeed, indeed, only one of
these. What is the?
I think this might be different translation that Grant was
referring to is that a few things are needed indeed.
Only one is like few things are needed, but indeed only one
getting to know me. Me getting to know you, knowing
and being known by Jesus, the relationship with him because I
think you can doing all the other stuff, being hospitable
church, radical hospitality, generosity, inviting people in
their great and they are the call of the church and call of
us as Christians. But I don't think you can do
them well at all without first knowing and being known by
Jesus. So I think Jesus is saying to
Martha, to us like inviting us into that space of sitting at
his feet and having a relationship with him because
he's saying this is the better thing.
You need to know this first or continually about this because
we're not gonna like check mark know Jesus.
Yes, it is a continual process for your entire life.
So, and there's something about this idea of, of, I mean, these
two things are obviously connected of that we, you know,
we pursue God's Kingdom, but it can't be divorced from knowing
and being known by Jesus. And in fact, I think what Jesus
is saying here, it's like, it's like we pursue God's Kingdom by
like the, the tangible fruit of the Kingdom, by knowing and
being known, right? It's starts there, right?
And, and I've seen, you know, I actually, I don't even say I've
seen, I have been in places in my life where I, I'm not running
on the power of knowing and being known by Jesus where I'm
just doing, I'm just, I'm just doing the thing that I know how
to do because I'm like, you know what, I'm good at this.
And if I just, I can just do all, do that all I want all week
long on my own strength without being empowered by Jesus and
knowing him. And it usually is mediocre.
You know, it's like, it's one of those things where it's like,
yeah, like I, I did the thing, yeah, it was a thing.
You know, it happened, it happened, it happened, you know,
versus doing the thing out of a place of being deeply known by
Jesus and knowing right. Like there's a there is a
distinct difference between those things.
And so like, yeah, you could you could imagine a scenario I'm
just kind of picturing like Martha having first taken time
to be at the feet of Jesus and to be alongside her sister and,
and to, to take those moments. And then for for Martha, how
different that experience may have been for her.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I think it really changes how we do things.
I think if it's just on us, then we stay in the comfortable box
of I can do this, yes. But if we know and are known by
Jesus, we are stretched to maybe it's not the thing we would have
inviting over somebody to a Bible study or to church.
Not something you might have done by yourself, but knowing
and being known by Jesus. You're like, this is, I feel
calling me to do this and I'm gonna step out in faith to do
this and know that Jesus is there beside me in that I when I
was about to go up, I was like, OK, God, this is this is your
sermon. I can't, I, I can't do it
without you because other like, how can you preach or talk about
Jesus's Kingdom without him? Because then it just, it doesn't
it, I was like, I need you to be here to let this land.
And two, for the people that need it.
This is not me. It can't be me.
So I think that's. And there's something because I
mean like you're, you're like slightly, you're 33 sermons in.
3 sermons. Yeah, and but there is like you,
what you're describing is it doesn't go away like that, that,
you know, there, there are still times when, you know, I'll wake
up on a Sunday morning when I'm slated to preach and and, you
know, but like, I'm not happy with my ending.
I'm not happy with whatever. And then at some point all of
the striving and all of the like, trying to like make sure
I've crafted in just the right way And like it's, it's I gotta
give it over. Yeah, right.
And it's one of those things where cause here, and this is a
really like tangible thing. Like we're on a Sunday morning.
There's two coaches. And this is like a Mary Martha
approach in some ways, right? There's two approaches.
If you're, if you're in, you know, if you're getting up there
ready to preach or to whatever, you can sit there during the,
you know, the, the musical worship and whatever.
And you can be just like stewing, thinking about all the
things you got to say and you're reviewing your notes and doing
all the things. What are you going to absorb in
those 20 minutes versus entering in to to the the song worship in
that moment and just receiving from the Lord in that moment?
How much better is that? Yeah, right.
And it's hard like that's that's something that has been learned
thing for me where I used to be a pacer.
I'd be like pacing around and be like, OK, I'm just I gotta be
ready to go do this. Gotta do that.
Like there's an anxiousness to that versus OK, well, I've done
everything I can do. Nothing else is going to help me
in this moment other than just being Jesus.
Yeah, and it's like a complete surrender that I don't think
it's possible unless you have that relationship with Jesus.
And that if you are not preaching in a church, which I
don't think many people like, lots are, but most people
watching probably are like that's great, but I'm not a
pastor. But that is for everything, for
going into an exam. You're you're just like I did
all the work. I studied, but I'm giving you my
anxiety and my stress and walking into this or at work, a
big presentation inviting someone to church again, I keep
mentioning that, but it's that there's only so much you can do
before you have to be like God. This is this is you.
At some point it just becomes like anxious frittering, like
you're just sort of like, I don't know what you think you're
gonna accomplish in these 10 minutes before this thing here,
but you'd be better off like centering yourself, sitting
before the Lord, doing a few deep breaths, praying, you know,
whatever. Seeing what he's going to do,
because I think that's also beautiful.
I remember my second sermon. I've only had three guests.
My second one, there was like one word that I didn't know if I
wanted to say, just the way that it made the sentence sound.
And I was like, OK, when I get to this part, like it's gonna be
1 or the other. And that like that was a
surrender of I don't know how this is going to land, but this
is how I'm giving this to you and that and I strongly felt
like you gotta say it this way. And it's not always like that.
But I think that is the beautiful way that when you have
that open communication with God, when you have that knowing
and being known by him, like those fruitful things come out
of it because he knows more than you do.
Maybe someone was thinking us or it landed for one person because
of that and for anywhere in your life for a situation that is he
knows more than we do. And that's why I think it's so
crucial for the work of the church as well.
That's great. OK, so one final kind of thought
connected to all of this is like we've all been in situations
where someone else seems to have like chosen rest while we're
kind of carrying the load. Like we see someone like someone
having maybe they're literally having an app or or like their,
you know, taking a day off. Meanwhile, we're busting our
butts trying to do the thing, whatever that, whether that's
something in in search life or something in your house or, you
know, I don't know whether you like group projects and in
school and someone knows someone not pulling their weight and,
and, and it's like, Nope, sorry, today's my day off.
I'm not touching it, you know? And it's like, like, so like,
how do you, Yeah, like, how do you like, not become like bitter
and resentful, like toward that person, Right.
And, and like there's a question that sometimes or there's a word
that sometimes I never, I feel a bit like mixed on the word
itself. And the word is balanced because
I feel like life, it balance is not possible in, in life.
Like, like balance, like that's a, it's a nice ideal, very
unrealistic. And, and sometimes not even the
thing we need, right? Sometimes we don't need balance.
But is there a balance here? Like how do we, you know, the,
this, this, you know, this tension between like, Hey, I
deserve, you know, rest and to be with Jesus and to slow down.
Those are all good things that we all need and deserve in many
ways versus doing, you know, I don't know, like just RIP off
that with me. Yeah, I think.
And we see that in the passage, like Martha's like Jesus, dude,
do you not see my sister? She's not doing anything.
I'm very stressed right now. Probably.
Probably resentful. Yeah.
And I think that's that's dangerous to specifically in the
church when that resentfulness like festers and you are just
like this one person never. That is a dangerous thing and I
think that is where I don't fully know.
That is an open question that I invite you us to tackle and to
reflect on. But I think a crucial part of
this is boundaries. Having like tangible, like these
are the expectations. Sometimes it is easy in church,
in a church to just be like wherever it goes.
And that is great too, because we want to be the people open to
Jesus moving, but I think it's also dangerous and we don't want
volunteers to burn out. We don't want people that work
here to burn out. We don't want, but we also want
people to have rest and everyone to have moments of rest and time
to be with Jesus. So if there's one person doing
that where everyone else is trying to pull the work, the
weight of the work, that's also not good.
So it's like that balance and like real expectations and
communication and you don't have to leave Jesus out of that.
Like going forth in the like praying and seeing and seeing
where different people have strengths versus weaknesses.
In just an example, like a Bible study, like who is the person
that is volunteering that you're like, they would be great up
front leading this. And then who are the people that
would be really good as like a table leader, who would be
really good at drawing people out, who would love to set up
and who would love to take down and those kind of things.
So like, putting people in places where they can thrive is
fundamental. But then also checking yourself,
like when you're like, OK, I like you see that person that
you think maybe is taking a nap, Maybe they had a really hard
week. Maybe something's going on.
And maybe that's the place where you can be invited to check on
them or to go say, hey, how's it going?
And yeah, so that's many thoughts.
I don't know what. I had I had a thought and and
this probably came from somewhere, but it it entered my
brain. And so if this is if I owe
someone, you know, a, you know, a footnote, too bad.
But like, one thing that I think is so important for us as a
church and for like our, you know, our our staff team, but
also just down into our volunteers is that we value
people over productivity. That's where I think I might
need the footnote. I don't know.
That might have come from somewhere else.
But yeah, it is a good whether it came from my brain or the
Lord or somewhere else, it's a good line.
We need to value people over productive productivity.
And, and just like, like, especially in the church, like
we are, you know, yeah, we got stuff we need to do.
We've got, we've got thing there are things to get done.
You, you know, you've been running our social media.
I was like, I was feeling it for you a little bit.
I was like, you were, you were finishing up writing a sermon
for this past week. And also you were like, you
know, rightfully so, like bugging me for like things you
needed for, you know, some of the, the social media posts.
And I'm like, oh, I feel bad that Annabelle's got to do all
that plus. Right?
Yeah. But like I think that that is a
right approach that we see like you as a person and your health,
your spiritual, physical, mental well-being matters more than
getting the thing done right. And that's the way that I want
us to be as a church for our volume.
So if a volunteer ever came to me and said and said, like, Hey,
I, I'm going through some stuff right now, my first thing will
be well, then quit, like quit what you're doing like, like
that matters more. And, and for us to be able to
say like, look, God, God, if this thing needs to happen, God
will provide like we, we believe that, right?
So. Yeah, I think that's, and I
think that comes out of knowing and being known by Jesus,
specifically knowing Jesus, Like Jesus's ministry wasn't just
like convert all these people. It was checking in on people.
It was seeing how they were doing.
It was going, it was relationships with people.
And I think maybe that's one of the ways that churches can get
it wrong sometimes of if it's the numbers of how many people
came to church this week or how many new people came to church
this week or how many people have we invited.
It's good to invite people, but it is not the the key.
Like we checking those boxes, trying to put numbers to it.
And again, it's good fire codes safety, good to know.
All the. Things, but it is not the main
focus. Our main focus are people,
having relationships with people and making sure people are OK.
Yeah. And yeah.
And there's even attention within that of like, of like,
you know, you, you wanna have, like, you know, this is like
very business. You like language, like you
wanna metrics met metrics are not A bad thing.
Like there's OK. Like there are things that goals
we want to strive for, things that we want to see happen And,
and like, is otherwise nothing will happen.
But also like there's a there, there becomes a threshold where
it can become like a little bit icky, you know, And I remember
in a, in a, in a previous season, there was someone,
someone who was involved in, in a church leadership situation.
And, and one of the things that they were suggesting was like,
hey, like, how many baptisms are you gonna do this year?
How many salvations? And I'm like, well, whoa, whoa,
whoa. That doesn't sound like my job.
Like, and I don't mean that in a way that like we're, you know,
obviously like we have a role in, in like encouraging people
to be baptized or to encouraging people to walk and take steps
toward faith, right. Those are, those are things,
right? But like, at some point it can
veer into, well, I got to meet this goal in this metric anyway.
It's it's gave me the ick when I was in my early 20s and still
does now. Yeah, Yeah.
I think it's that our goal shouldn't be that our goal
shouldn't be metrics and stuff. It is a great byproduct and it
is we should be ones to facilitate that.
And of course we we have a mission and vision for a reason,
because we want to be trusted neighbors.
We want to be people that seek God's radical Kingdom and bring
it forth. And we need a business approach
in a sense, for that, of course, to run a building could have
staff to do all those things. But if that becomes the primary
focus, then what makes us different from any other
business? Because that we're not.
We're supposed to be the body of Christ and seeking out God's
Kingdom. Yeah, and it and it, you know,
makes me exceptionally more grateful for those who are who
do have that, that mindset to be able to kind of run the facility
and of things in the finances and all the things that like
man, like that's, that's not the way my brain works.
And like, God bless those folks. And so there are many of them in
our church community that, you know, we are eternally grateful
and indebted to. So anyway, anything else you
want to say that you didn't get a chance to say earlier?
And I think that was, I think that was, yeah, I think that's
good. I think it's just the main like
knowing and being known by God. And to know that individually,
that's great. But as a community, that is also
something we should actively be pursuing.
That's great. Well, thank you again for all
that you poured out for us and, and in the middle of like
midterms the other week, like man, you are, you're just
remarkable to see that all come to, you know, all come to
fruition and, and just grateful for grateful for this and for
Lord willing Moore. And so, like I said earlier, if
you have any questions or thoughts connected to the sermon
from the previous Sunday, feel free to send them to questions
at corychurch.org. And so we hope that some of
these conversations will help guide some conversation for you
in your in your household with, with friends, with, with who,
whomever you're interacting with.
And so we hope this has been helpful and we'll see you next
time.