back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 3/16/25
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Sorry, second time, we're just gonna go to verse three 00:00:54.760 |
with a dial and then build on the third line. 00:10:40.820 |
We have some announcements from our family ministry. 00:10:42.820 |
So Rachel's gonna come and give the announcements first. 00:10:54.820 |
which is this upcoming Saturday from 2 to 4.30 p.m. 00:10:57.820 |
This event is actually now open for all of family ministry, 00:11:03.820 |
The purpose of it is really just for there to be a casual event 00:11:06.820 |
for people to be able to get to know one another, 00:11:18.820 |
Our second announcement is that we are announcing 00:11:26.820 |
So if you are unaware, this is a fundraising effort 00:11:29.820 |
our entire church membership body can participate in, 00:11:32.820 |
whether you are submitting a service or you are bidding. 00:11:35.820 |
The proceeds from this year's service auction 00:11:41.820 |
As in past years, church members have submitted 00:11:44.820 |
a variety of talents, items, or fellowship opportunities, 00:11:47.820 |
and then you would fill that out on the Google form. 00:12:00.820 |
because that's where all the services and items 00:12:08.820 |
The deadline for these submissions will be April 19th, 00:12:11.820 |
and after our church leaders review all the submissions, 00:12:18.820 |
We look forward to seeing the many talents and gifts 00:12:39.820 |
Next three announcements is concerning our Easter service 00:12:45.820 |
We're about, I guess, almost about four weeks, 00:12:50.820 |
If you look at--you should have gotten one of these 00:12:57.820 |
we have Passion Week devotions happening at 730. 00:13:03.820 |
as he is headed toward the cross so that we can be prepared 00:13:05.820 |
for the communion, Good Friday, that's coming up. 00:13:08.820 |
And then on Thursday, we have a Passover meal 00:13:12.820 |
So if you've never participated in the Passover meal, 00:13:15.820 |
I strongly encourage you to come because right before Jesus 00:13:18.820 |
goes to the cross, he tells his disciples to do this 00:13:28.820 |
And so if you sit and really understand what's going on, 00:13:30.820 |
for you, for your children, it's a great opportunity 00:13:34.820 |
to kind of revisit when Jesus says to do this 00:13:40.820 |
I strongly encourage you, and even if you did participate 00:13:51.820 |
There is a limited space, so if you want to participate, 00:13:58.820 |
There's a nominal fee for dinner that's happening at 630. 00:14:01.820 |
And then on Friday night, we have Good Friday service. 00:14:06.820 |
we have all the three services, and sometimes even 00:14:11.820 |
Our sister Susan, miraculously, were able to get 00:14:16.820 |
I don't know how she does it, but she found more parking, 00:14:21.820 |
But we do need help because this room can max fit 600. 00:14:26.820 |
We're expecting about 800, 850 for that Friday. 00:14:32.820 |
for ushering help, and whatever else that they need. 00:14:42.820 |
We will be having breakfast right after that. 00:14:53.820 |
And so our sister Laurel has volunteered to head that up, 00:14:58.820 |
They need quite a few people to come on Saturday to prep 00:15:05.820 |
if you can't do it on Friday, or you can do all of it, 00:15:08.820 |
please let Justin know, and Justin will be able 00:15:16.820 |
So if you're willing, you can copy the QR code, 00:15:27.820 |
And then again, if you brought a physical offering, 00:15:29.820 |
we have an offering box in the back that you can visit 00:15:38.820 |
for your continued grace and love and patience. 00:15:44.820 |
No matter what it is that we have been wrestling with this week, 00:15:47.820 |
I pray that you would help us to fix our eyes upon Christ, 00:15:52.820 |
that he would be our refuge, that he would be our glory, 00:15:56.820 |
he would be our joy, that our worship that we give you 00:16:03.820 |
Help us, Lord God, to break away from just regular habit, 00:16:10.820 |
that even this giving would be a reflection, Lord God, 00:28:46.580 |
So, the way we chose her name, Elora means, "My God is my light." 00:28:56.520 |
So, together the name means, "My God is my pure, radiant light." 00:29:01.900 |
And so, her brother's name kind of has a similar mold as well. 00:29:08.500 |
For us, two things that we'd appreciate prayers about would be, 00:29:13.380 |
one, obviously, for her brother and herself to, you know, 00:29:19.220 |
Not just head knowledge, but have a personal, 00:29:23.460 |
And secondly, just for our family in general, 00:29:30.620 |
to do what is right and just, you know, before his eyes. 00:29:33.060 |
You know, obviously, in raising our children as well. 00:29:36.840 |
Earthly speaking, of course, they're our children, 00:29:38.940 |
but we understand ultimately that we're just merely stewards 00:29:42.740 |
of them and the lives that we've been entrusted with. 00:29:45.040 |
So, we want to point them, you know, in the right way as much 00:30:00.220 |
Been coming to Breein for about, what, eight years? 00:30:04.160 |
And this is our beautiful daughter, Margot Rose. 00:30:13.500 |
So, yeah, we just, for those of you that, like, 00:30:17.180 |
come alongside us along this journey, it's been a while, 00:30:21.740 |
just through some, you know, hardships and stuff, 00:30:27.420 |
So, a prayer request, you know, like the brother before me, 00:30:30.520 |
is just that she'll come to faith at an early age 00:30:32.760 |
and she will live her life for the glory of God. 00:30:43.620 |
>> Morning, my name is David, and this is my wife, Fionn. 00:30:51.260 |
We also named Nolan because we just, we like the name. 00:30:55.000 |
We listed a few names and came down to Nolan, 00:31:09.340 |
But also, we also wanted another boy, especially Fionn, 00:31:14.520 |
So, we were lucky enough to have another son. 00:31:16.720 |
So, we also just pray that they would be able to grow up 00:31:31.560 |
This is Joyce, and this is Janelle Eden Nguyen. 00:31:45.320 |
But honestly, we picked it because it started with a J. 00:31:51.780 |
So, prayer request is pray for her and Jacob's salvation 00:32:14.280 |
and then we got to Joshua, and we decided this is what works. 00:32:18.420 |
And our hope for them is that they would be the few 00:32:23.080 |
that might see the promises of God, rather than being fearful, 00:32:26.700 |
that they would come to the Lord, and to know the Lord, 00:32:29.660 |
and to serve him all the days of their lives. 00:32:48.080 |
I think prayer is just that she would come to, you know, 00:32:53.520 |
and I it's been very apparent that we're going 00:32:55.020 |
to need a lot more patience with this one than our other two. 00:33:07.540 |
This is my son, Hayden, and that's Mia Hana Choi. 00:33:18.880 |
because Priscilla really likes Fast and the Furious. 00:33:21.240 |
And there's only Letty and Mia as the two names 00:33:25.240 |
But Mia also means beloved, and her middle name, Hana, 00:33:29.720 |
is in honor of Priscilla's family member who passed away, 00:33:41.060 |
and that we -- me and Priscilla will be good shepherds towards 00:33:53.300 |
and this is our daughter, Eleanor, Charlotte Lee. 00:33:58.780 |
and that is our prayer for her, that God will be her light, 00:34:14.100 |
Full name is Tobias, which means God is good. 00:34:17.560 |
We went with Obi because our older two are Abby and Eli, 00:34:21.060 |
so we wanted to just keep the three-letter ending 00:34:23.960 |
in an "I" name, so -- yeah, we didn't go with Toby. 00:34:27.060 |
Our prayer request is for love, patience, and wisdom for us 00:34:31.000 |
as parents, for all our kids, and that all our children would 00:34:41.880 |
>> I want to read from -- before we let them go, 00:34:44.580 |
Psalm 127, it says, "Unless the Lord builds a house, 00:34:52.500 |
It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, 00:34:54.860 |
to eat the bread of painful labors, for he gives 00:35:06.700 |
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. 00:35:13.780 |
Part of the reason why we present our children to you is, 00:35:19.660 |
That's something that the older I get, the more and more urgent 00:35:24.120 |
that seems to be, that what is our church generation, 00:35:32.100 |
And so more and more we think about how, you know, you guys, 00:35:42.080 |
And these children are going to inherit what we labor to build. 00:35:46.340 |
And so, you know, the text here says that children are 00:35:50.220 |
like arrows, like quivers, and a family that has full of them. 00:35:55.720 |
And basically, quiver basically is all the arrows 00:35:59.960 |
And so our natural thinking in our culture is to protect them. 00:36:05.600 |
our church becomes a bunker mentality where we're trying 00:36:09.840 |
but we're not necessarily preparing them to battle 00:36:13.100 |
because that's exactly what they're going to do. 00:36:17.780 |
where they're hostile toward the faith of Jesus Christ. 00:36:21.040 |
And so if we train our children to be safe in bunkers, 00:36:28.060 |
and part of the reason what we're doing is all the teachers, 00:36:31.920 |
parents, the church, to prepare them not only to be protected 00:36:36.200 |
from the evil, but to be able to fight against it. 00:36:38.660 |
When he says I will build my church and the gates 00:36:40.760 |
of Hades will not be able to fight against it, 00:36:43.240 |
is that they would be the next generation people who are going 00:36:45.940 |
to stand up for the truth, the gospel, for what we believe. 00:36:53.540 |
That it will be inherited by these young children, 00:36:59.280 |
And so for that end, we're going to pray for the parents. 00:37:01.560 |
We're going to pray for you, so all the teachers 00:37:03.920 |
who are laboring on behalf, watching the children, 00:37:07.100 |
that that would be the mindset of our church, 00:37:08.900 |
that we prepare them, share the gospel with them, 00:37:15.540 |
against the hostile culture that we live in, and to glorify God. 00:37:18.040 |
So let me pray for us, and then we'll dismiss them. 00:37:32.480 |
Lord, we live in a culture where there's more 00:37:34.260 |
and more hostility, Lord, toward having children, 00:37:37.520 |
just generally, Lord God, and just attack on their mindset 00:37:43.340 |
Help us as parents, especially the parents who are here, 00:37:51.840 |
Help them to disciple them, to set an example for them, 00:37:58.580 |
and that their children would inherit the faith 00:38:04.220 |
that you would bless these homes, that these children, 00:38:07.060 |
even from a young age, Lord God, would be able to discern truth, 00:38:10.660 |
to be able to confess their sins, to be forgiven, 00:38:15.860 |
that they would be the defender of the gospel and the truth. 00:38:19.040 |
They would proclaim who you are wherever they go, 00:38:23.640 |
So we pray for that purpose, that our church, 00:38:26.300 |
not just these families, but our whole church, Lord God, 00:38:29.240 |
would endeavor together, would commit together 00:38:37.380 |
We lift all these children, all these parents to you. 00:38:44.420 |
All right. If you can turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 10. 00:39:00.840 |
"Now as they were traveling along, he entered a village, 00:39:03.280 |
and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 00:39:06.940 |
She had a sister called Mary who was seated at the Lord's feet, 00:39:11.380 |
But Martha was distracted with all her preparations, 00:39:13.880 |
and she came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care? 00:39:16.920 |
My sister has left me to do all the serving alone. 00:39:21.720 |
But the Lord answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, 00:39:23.760 |
you are worried and bothered about so many things, 00:39:35.700 |
We pray for the truth of your word to hit our hearts, 00:39:41.820 |
Help us to hear your voice and your voice alone. 00:39:46.020 |
You know, typically when we survey the church, 00:39:56.220 |
teeters back and forth depending on who we ask. 00:40:00.960 |
you know, our church is a little bit too legalistic. 00:40:05.900 |
and we gave, like, this is, you should take it seriously, 00:40:08.780 |
you should prepare for marriage, you should seek counsel. 00:40:12.880 |
just because I know, I hear it through the grapevine, 00:40:18.580 |
Why do we have to get involved with other people's lives? 00:40:22.880 |
And then there's some of you who are in this room 00:40:32.320 |
We're just allowing people just to do whatever, 00:40:45.320 |
years ago we were at Together for the Gospel, 00:40:51.960 |
but I think he was, I'm pretty sure it was R.C. Sproul. 00:40:54.800 |
He basically outlined 2,000 years of church history, 00:41:03.480 |
And I forgot how many different eras that he mentioned, 00:41:08.080 |
but there are maybe about 15 to 17 different swings 00:41:11.920 |
that he kind of, you know, was telling us about. 00:41:24.960 |
and then they would correct it all the way to the other side, 00:41:28.840 |
and then they would swing the other end back and forth. 00:41:31.520 |
Just in the short time that I've been a Christian, 00:41:33.200 |
the last 40 years, I've seen the pendulum shift 00:41:37.480 |
I've mentioned many times, I became a Christian in 1983, 00:41:41.880 |
and it was at the tail end of the Jesus movement. 00:41:51.520 |
And so if you don't know about the Jesus movement, 00:41:58.980 |
and so they got rid of the traditional worship. 00:42:01.960 |
You had hippies who were coming into church with barefoot, 00:42:05.320 |
you know, long hair, doing drugs, just coming up. 00:42:08.240 |
So a lot of the Calvary Chapel pastors were teenagers, 00:42:11.780 |
or in their 20s, coming out from the Vietnam War, 00:42:19.600 |
all I heard was Jesus loves us unconditionally, 00:42:23.560 |
that, you know, Christians are not perfect, just forgiven. 00:42:28.880 |
And then the '80s hit, and they said, you know what? 00:42:30.980 |
The church is getting a little bit too loose. 00:42:34.800 |
So back in the '80s, if you became a Christian 00:42:42.520 |
So the campus ministries were heavily influenced 00:42:51.100 |
This kind of free, cheap grace type of thing, 00:42:53.940 |
we need to combat this, and the pendulum started to shift. 00:42:59.180 |
or you experienced Christianity during the mid to late '80s, 00:43:04.440 |
There was a very strong emphasis on discipleship 00:43:07.780 |
And after that, there was like, oh, you know what? 00:43:16.920 |
charismatic movement started shifting and coming in, 00:43:23.400 |
They're so concerned about the younger generation leaving, 00:43:26.800 |
and they were, I'm reading articles left and right 00:43:33.000 |
And then you hear stories about the seeker-friendly, 00:43:42.960 |
and just kind of breaking the church down into bare bones 00:43:45.760 |
so that more and more people would be attracted 00:43:47.640 |
to the church, and that was the seeker-friendly movement. 00:43:50.360 |
Well, tail end of the seeker-friendly movement, 00:43:57.100 |
And so the young, restless and reform movement came, 00:44:03.080 |
And so early 2000, the young, restless and reform movement, 00:44:05.480 |
all of a sudden, the younger generation started to say, 00:44:07.920 |
you know, I'm a Calvinist, and I believe in election. 00:44:11.640 |
The church should practice church discipline. 00:44:16.360 |
and I was pretty amazed that just all of a sudden, 00:44:29.440 |
to noticing that maybe we've gone a little bit too far, 00:44:32.400 |
and then the gospel-centered movement came in. 00:44:39.000 |
It's what he's done, and he had these cliches 00:44:43.280 |
And so maybe we're still kind of lingering in that part. 00:44:53.280 |
to holiness, to grace, to holiness, to grace, 00:44:57.560 |
Well, how do we recognize that we're balanced? 00:45:01.800 |
Even in this church, if I ask a group of people, 00:45:15.960 |
All of this is an introduction to the text that we're at. 00:45:30.360 |
And then he gives an example of the Good Samaritan. 00:45:48.080 |
That he was the one who was practicing the Shema 00:45:53.200 |
And then he ends it by saying, "You go do the same." 00:46:26.900 |
if you think that we're a little bit too loose, 00:46:57.180 |
if you love your father and mother more than me, 00:47:02.260 |
that if you do not honor your father and mother, 00:47:06.580 |
God's blessing comes from honoring your father and mother. 00:47:54.340 |
"Hey, you're worried about too many things," right? 00:48:08.280 |
and Martha, you're worried about too many things, right? 00:48:12.520 |
if you've been a Christian for any period of time, 00:48:14.080 |
you've probably heard multiple sermons about this, right? 00:49:01.480 |
not completely a Martha, okay, raise your hand. 00:49:05.960 |
But if you're more of a Mary, raise your hand. 00:49:11.560 |
There's still some of you who are raising your hand, 00:49:13.400 |
but predominantly, more people relate with Martha. 00:49:26.800 |
'cause I'm not talking about anybody specific, right, 00:49:33.000 |
How many of you are really like, you know what? 00:49:38.880 |
You're not Mary just because you don't like to work. 00:49:54.880 |
and we're gonna be talking about that a little bit, 00:50:01.600 |
I think more people will say I tend to be a Martha. 00:50:04.360 |
And the reason why is because you have to get things done. 00:50:07.760 |
If you want to get an A, you want to go to a good school, 00:50:11.800 |
And so if you are a functioning, good citizen, 00:50:14.600 |
member of the church, any society, in a family, 00:50:26.840 |
And so our natural inclination, including myself, is Martha. 00:50:44.400 |
Doing, distraction, and then disgruntled, right? 00:50:52.600 |
Martha doing, distracted, and then disgruntled. 00:51:02.760 |
Now, you have to understand that this Marian, Martha, 00:51:06.200 |
is the brother of Lazarus, where John chapter 11, 00:51:08.680 |
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, and they're in Bethany. 00:51:12.260 |
Bethany is about two miles away from Jerusalem. 00:51:23.200 |
because he knows that hostility waits for him in Jerusalem. 00:51:28.360 |
the people who want to crucify him and nullify him, 00:51:33.320 |
So it seems like this home was a very prominent home 00:51:43.280 |
and that's exactly what he does in John chapter 11, 00:52:00.040 |
that Jesus lived during a period of Asian-Americans. 00:52:05.920 |
Okay, so I know we're not all Asian-American, 00:52:10.760 |
You have a leg up in understanding the Bible, 00:52:12.940 |
and I remember when this was revealed to me in seminary. 00:52:19.600 |
because the Hebrew culture is generally an Asian culture, 00:52:24.160 |
very hierarchical, honoring the leaders and the elders 00:52:29.680 |
And then you have the Greek culture, who is Western. 00:52:32.600 |
So much of the Western world gets their culture, 00:52:36.960 |
even the law system, philosophy, educational system 00:52:44.060 |
So the Western world was influenced by the Greeks. 00:52:59.840 |
Predominantly, the spoken language at that time was Aramaic. 00:53:16.160 |
And so that was a language that the disciples 00:53:26.460 |
or if you wanted to engage the old generation 00:53:52.760 |
You can't just have an honored guest like Jesus 00:54:01.040 |
is coming to your home and using it as a base, 00:54:04.080 |
everything in your schedule is gonna be cleared out. 00:54:11.240 |
You have to make sure that everything is prepared. 00:54:13.960 |
And so Martha is doing what any guest should have been doing. 00:54:30.440 |
Jesus came into town, and we just saw a picture 00:54:44.920 |
Only because of the interaction between Jesus, 00:54:54.700 |
but it was why she was doing it and what she says. 00:54:57.760 |
So the second part of it, doing, to distract it, 00:55:00.760 |
it says Mary was distracted in what she was doing. 00:55:04.920 |
The word distracted is translated to be pulled away, 00:55:20.120 |
She was so concerned about all these other things 00:55:30.420 |
You know the people who are the most guilty of this 00:55:34.280 |
in the church are the church leaders, are the pastors, 00:55:39.520 |
'cause we're so busy taking care of the church 00:55:46.700 |
that we are so focused on feeding other people 00:56:04.800 |
all the rooms, especially in a smaller church, 00:56:11.680 |
and usually it's the pastor and oftentimes the wife. 00:56:17.640 |
you sit down and they're exhausted and they're tired 00:56:37.960 |
where if we are laboring and serving with our own energy, 00:56:55.920 |
it's the fuel that you work with that burns you out 00:57:18.680 |
Like, I'll get burned out running to my car from here. 00:57:29.680 |
For whatever the reason, you find joy in running, 00:57:35.760 |
So it's like, well, you don't get burned out? 00:57:39.920 |
They're thinking about tomorrow and the next day, right? 00:57:44.240 |
It's not the amount of work that burns us out. 00:57:58.480 |
is not something that we can do by our own strength. 00:58:03.320 |
"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, 00:58:05.240 |
"not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, 00:58:08.200 |
"work out your salvation with fear and trembling." 00:58:25.240 |
"both to will and to work for his good pleasure." 00:58:47.440 |
So if you're a Martha and you're running around 00:58:52.280 |
and you need to do this, you need to do that, 00:59:00.760 |
that's happening in you, but you're just doing it 00:59:06.160 |
You learned how to climb up the social ladder, 00:59:08.680 |
you're a good citizen, you're a good church member, 00:59:11.240 |
and so you're used to getting A's as students, 00:59:13.920 |
so now you're trying to get A's in the church. 00:59:18.280 |
you know how to fix things, you know what the problem is, 00:59:44.320 |
but to wait for what the Father had promised, 00:59:53.120 |
The disciples said, "Okay, we failed the first time, 00:59:56.280 |
He's like, "By your own strength, you're gonna fail. 01:00:00.240 |
And then he says, in chapter one, verse eight, 01:00:09.440 |
"Judea, Samaria, to the remotest part of the world." 01:00:17.240 |
but he said, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, 01:00:19.420 |
"it's not your education, it's not your experience. 01:00:25.080 |
He said, "No, in the flesh, you're gonna fail 01:00:31.000 |
He said, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, 01:00:38.600 |
He said, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon you," 01:00:55.640 |
because it's the Spirit that's going to carry you along. 01:01:04.120 |
when Jesus tells us about the different soil, 01:01:09.360 |
the devil comes and snatches it away, it disappears. 01:01:21.560 |
other than the one whose seed has sown among the thorns, 01:01:26.680 |
but the worries of the world, deceitfulness of riches, 01:01:31.440 |
and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 01:01:34.360 |
You notice here, he doesn't say they get caught in sin. 01:01:50.800 |
And so he said that their anxiousness and their distraction 01:01:54.700 |
that dragged them away from what is most important 01:01:57.720 |
choked the word in their life, and then they die. 01:02:01.260 |
So you have to understand how important this is, 01:02:06.520 |
because with good meaning, with good intentions, 01:02:11.520 |
our biggest fight oftentimes is distraction, distraction. 01:02:22.360 |
for the kingdom of God, that in the midst of that, 01:02:32.200 |
because we're laboring, because we're sacrificing, 01:02:35.200 |
but in the midst of that, what does it lead to? 01:02:37.160 |
Because she was distracted, what does it say? 01:02:39.400 |
She became disgruntled, because that's what it leads to. 01:02:43.560 |
If you're working hard with the wrong motive, 01:02:47.080 |
with the wrong fuel, eventually you become disgruntled, 01:02:58.980 |
You would think the natural inclination is like, 01:03:02.720 |
Jesus is coming into town, thank you for visiting my house. 01:03:22.240 |
I'm doing all the work, and she's looking over 01:03:24.120 |
in the corner of her eye, and Mary's just sitting there. 01:03:26.960 |
And so she's bitter at Mary, and this is what happens 01:03:30.520 |
with a lot of people who serve hard in the church. 01:03:37.000 |
their laboring turns into, why aren't they helping? 01:03:55.160 |
it becomes a source of contention, bitterness, 01:04:04.440 |
because you get burned out in the context of serving. 01:04:13.760 |
as soon as Jesus, the Messiah, comes into town, 01:04:31.200 |
The king of kings and lord of lords forfeited his glory, 01:04:40.760 |
He's about six to eight months to go to the cross 01:04:45.240 |
to take all her sins, past, present, and future, 01:04:49.440 |
to take it upon himself, and this pain that he bore. 01:05:14.040 |
very young, we took 'em to Disneyland, okay, yes. 01:05:24.400 |
'Cause our kids are young, they wanted to go, 01:05:31.600 |
So we sacrificed, and Esther loves Disneyland 01:05:38.200 |
So neither of us are fans, but we did it for our children. 01:05:42.440 |
We're gonna be here, we spent a lot of money, 01:05:46.320 |
Waited until the fireworks, and pew, pew, pew, 01:05:51.340 |
We're coming home, and then we said, you know what, 01:05:59.720 |
So we stop by Jamba Juice, and the kids are too young, 01:06:01.940 |
so they can't drink the whole thing by themselves, 01:06:03.560 |
so we got a big, big one, and then we split it 01:06:10.560 |
But we didn't split it perfectly, at least to them. 01:06:18.440 |
We stopped by, got jamba juice, we put it in three cups, 01:06:21.000 |
and all we are hearing in the backseat is, it's not fair! 01:06:40.680 |
You know, we're driving back home, and we're just tired. 01:06:46.660 |
And the whole time, I was like, every ounce of energy 01:06:50.640 |
I had to hold myself back, to grace and love and mercy. 01:06:58.940 |
After the whole day of that, and you're gonna go to bed 01:07:06.520 |
It's unfair because you didn't get enough jamba juice? 01:07:24.040 |
If you look at the context of what Martha is saying, 01:07:27.440 |
how ridiculous that sounds, Martha is saying that 01:07:43.660 |
That God demonstrates his own love toward us, 01:07:48.100 |
he deliberately, willfully walked to the cross 01:07:57.440 |
if life doesn't turn out exactly the way we want it, 01:08:17.520 |
to the very one who came to sacrifice everything for her. 01:08:27.000 |
That the ones who are laboring and struggling 01:08:37.160 |
The ones who are serving and leaders, at one point, 01:08:43.900 |
Because they were laboring, and they got burnt out, 01:08:47.440 |
and their burnout turned into disgruntlement, 01:08:56.280 |
On the other hand, Mary is sitting there, just quietly. 01:09:02.380 |
about what Mary was doing, she was just sitting. 01:09:05.160 |
This was not an ordinary position for a woman at this time. 01:09:09.160 |
All it tells us, and Luke is just contrasting 01:09:13.040 |
between Martha who was running around doing everything, 01:09:26.720 |
when God wants to use somebody, he isolates them. 01:09:41.940 |
I couldn't understand, I think a lot of the Jubilee members 01:09:44.020 |
may be able to relate, I just couldn't understand. 01:09:53.620 |
And all of a sudden, it's just sort of blown up, 01:09:55.500 |
and I realized it wasn't coffee that they're selling. 01:09:59.700 |
They were selling koinonia, a place for people to gather. 01:10:04.700 |
It wasn't like, oh, I drank this Starbucks coffee, 01:10:10.000 |
and it was the best coffee ever, changed my life. 01:10:16.640 |
But they were selling koinonia, a place for people to gather. 01:10:28.240 |
and so you don't have anywhere to experience community, 01:10:35.480 |
When I was starting to work with the younger people 01:10:38.880 |
in our church, and they would say, you know what? 01:10:50.360 |
I mean, if you wanna work, that's where you would go, right? 01:10:53.320 |
No, they have to go where there's K-pop music 01:10:55.320 |
happening in the background, and people are in line talking, 01:10:58.200 |
other people sitting there, and even now, right? 01:11:01.160 |
There's a culture where it's like, oh, I got so much to do, 01:11:06.320 |
where there's all this noise and distraction happening. 01:11:09.840 |
But for whatever the reason, we live in a generation 01:11:22.960 |
God isolates his people to get their attention 01:11:30.920 |
in order to prepare him for what he had planned 01:11:35.560 |
Moses was taken from the palace of the Pharaoh 01:11:41.800 |
just spending time with the sheep in isolation. 01:11:45.480 |
He physically meets God in the burning bush later on 01:11:47.840 |
after the 40 years, but for 40 years, he lived in isolation. 01:12:00.960 |
He was revealing himself to them to get up, to sit down. 01:12:08.200 |
and God began to minister to him and speak to him. 01:12:10.120 |
John the Baptist was taken out into the wilderness 01:12:16.760 |
was isolated for 40 years praying and fasting. 01:12:35.720 |
Some of you have attended church for 10, 20, 30 years, 01:12:41.480 |
It wasn't taught, or it just wasn't priority. 01:12:45.080 |
And so now you're learning the scripture for the first time. 01:13:30.880 |
For the sake of time, I'm not gonna read the whole thing. 01:13:47.360 |
In the Gospel of Mark, he says this three separate times, 01:13:51.640 |
well, who's gonna sit on your left to the right? 01:14:03.200 |
He told them he was gonna resurrect in the third day. 01:14:06.400 |
But when he resurrected, they were not the ones there. 01:14:09.080 |
They were listening, but they weren't paying attention. 01:14:23.160 |
Mary, it says, took a pound of very costly perfume 01:14:30.400 |
and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 01:14:34.040 |
At the minimum, we know that Mary loved Jesus. 01:14:38.920 |
Martha was busy taking care of all these things. 01:14:48.480 |
Mary was there just sitting quietly, listening to Jesus. 01:14:56.960 |
declaring her love, this very expensive perfume, 01:15:04.960 |
which would have been humiliating for a woman at that time, 01:15:07.920 |
to wipe Jesus' feet, kissing him, adoring him. 01:15:18.920 |
and she got on her feet, and she was kissing the feet. 01:15:20.960 |
I forgot which one of our members experienced that, 01:15:43.200 |
that money could have been used to feed the homeless, 01:15:45.120 |
and ultimately, it wasn't even about the homeless. 01:15:51.720 |
But this is how Jesus describes what she did. 01:15:57.280 |
"so that she may keep it for the day of my burial." 01:16:07.600 |
It doesn't tell us that Mary fully understood. 01:16:19.720 |
Probably what Jesus was saying to all the disciples, 01:16:31.720 |
and we don't know how many times he visited there, 01:16:34.880 |
but this was the center that they established 01:16:40.120 |
So my guess is that what he was talking about 01:17:00.200 |
and doing stuff, and what am I gonna get out of this? 01:17:07.400 |
But Mary was sitting there quietly, listening. 01:17:13.160 |
you are worried about and bothered about so many things, 01:17:25.800 |
Oftentimes, the biggest problem in the church 01:17:47.720 |
Like I said, burnout is not because you worked hard, 01:18:10.600 |
I wanna conclude with this and hope it really sinks in. 01:18:34.880 |
He can establish his church better without us. 01:18:42.880 |
That whatever we do, he wants us, not the work. 01:18:47.680 |
That whatever we do, we do it as an act of worship. 01:18:56.280 |
Because we love Jesus, I'm going to love these people. 01:19:19.520 |
to learn what you are teaching through this text, 01:19:26.760 |
that in the midst of so many things that we do, 01:19:35.560 |
so many things, Lord God, that constantly carry us away 01:24:59.080 |
he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 01:26:58.260 |
♪ So give glory to the praise of your mercy and grace ♪