One Thing: A Jubilee for the Heart

There is an epidemic sweeping through our nation

Some facts about the INVISIBLE EPIDEMIC

1 in 4 adults have already been diagnosed as acute suffers

It literally kills more Americans each year than car accidents

You can't see it

You can’t prevent the spread by wearing a mask

And it is devastating lives, families, neighborhoods, and the nation.

This invisible epidemic is called anxiety, or as I call it the “oppression of the heart”.

Enslaves your thoughts to cycles of worry and fear

Imprisons your emotions in patterns of dread and panic

Silences your soul from expressing itself in God's presence

Shackles your will supposed to be the President & CEO your life

We are fighting this epidemic with a lot of things

therapy…

medication…

mindfulness and self-care.

All with limited results.

Anxiety rates keep climbing.

The evidence shows that while mental health treatment helps certain individuals in particular, rising uptake of these approaches has failed to stem the tide of anxiety at the societal level.

Why?

Because we are addressing symptoms, but the heart remains in bondage.

We're offering treatment when what the heart needs is liberation.

I am not against mental health treatment…it is certainly better than nothing. But our world…our lives…are in need of a a different kind of intervention.

I believe that the Gospel of Jesus of Christ (properly understood) is exactly the intervention we need.

The heart of man is exactly what Jesus came to recover.

The liberation that Jesus declares in His pronouncement of Jubilee is first and foremost a liberation of the heart from the terrible bondage that sin has wrought.

I want preach on the subject: A Jubilee for the Heart

We will have as our text today, Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

PRAYER

Our Hearts Are Prone To Bondage

The heart is the center of the self…

the seat of the will…

The CEO of the self

“it is, above all, who we are: who we choose and have chosen to be”. (Dallas Willard)

Martha welcomed Jesus…

even Christ followers can get bound up in our hearts

Martha loved Jesus, but she was “distracted”...pulled away

The natural state of the human heart (if not discipled in grace) is entanglement and bondage.

It wills too many things, and they cannot all be reconciled with each other.

All sin arises out of pursuing illegitimate methods to fulfill legitimate needs.

We don’t see it this way, but really we are over her all tangled up, still telling God what to do.

Martha ends up telling God what to do.

That’s what most of our prayer lives consist of.

It’s a Blessing When He Calls Your Name.

We have to recognize the difference between repentance and condemnation

He calls her out, he does not push her away

This is a call to repentance, but it is not a rejection

This is clearly corrective, but it is not cold or callous

He has to point out the error and the sin in our hearts

“You are anxious and worried about many things”

Our wills get caught between FEAR & PRIDE

FOMO activates our will

But also fear of something going wrong

Fear of someone hurting me

MOST OF OUR SIN ARISES FROM US TRYING TO DO THINGS WE SHOULD BE TRUSTING GOD FOR.

But then PRIDE tries to hide the shameful state of our hearts

I’m not anxious

I’m not worried

We have to remember that the call to repentance is a call of love, not a cry of judgement.

Freedom Is A Choice

Mary asserted her will

WE ASSUME THAT MARY HAD NOT EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT IN WHAT MARTHA WAS DOING

It think Jesus’ words implies that she did…but she was not about to let her thoughts and her emotions or muscle memory or the expectations of people around her to pull her away from Jesus.

Repentance is not just a choice, it is also a process

Never simply “turn away”, but always “turn toward

Every step in the process counts

Surrender

Abandonment

Contentment

Participation

There Is One Thing That Works

Mary chose the “good” portion

Having the proper characteristics or performing the expected function in a fully satisfactory way

Mary’s way is going to work…the way you’re doing it, Martha, is not going to work

Your way is disfunctional

It’s not the right combination of many things that will get you where you want to be.

It is in the ONE thing.

Will we give up everything for the one thing?

This only happens by grace.

This only happens when Holy Spirit opens our hearts to see the unsearchable value of knowing Jesus.

Jesus tell the parable of a man who finds a treasure in a field…

This is not the soft bigotry of low expectations.

This is the explosive power of faith.

The very next item Luke presents in “The Lord’s Prayer”

The Didache, a crucial early Christian manual dating to approximately 50 AD,

shows us that the community would pray the Lord's Prayer three times daily.

It functioned as a fundamental prayer that defined community identity and practice.

We call it, “The Lord’s Prayer”. I think Luke would be ok with me calling it, “The prayer for the one thing”

Father, help us to remember how sacred and holy You are. Bring your kingdom into this world, and do your perfect will in us and through us just as fully as it is done in heaven. Give us today, the things we need for today. Forgive us for imposing our will on You, as we forgive everyone who has harmed us by imposing their will on us. Hold us in your care so that we will not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity. God You are the one in charge. And You have all the power. And You deserve all the glory. It has always been this way, and it will always be this way. And this is exactly the way we want it.