Hanging by a thread part 4

Intro

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke iii. Serving Jesus 10:38–42

περισπάομαι

I want to start with a riddle for you this morning. Are you awake enough for this yet? Ok So listen closely You walk into a camp in the middle of the woods. It is lat January early February. It is -30* outside and you have been lost all day. You are wet, cold, hungry, thirsty and very tired, not to mention scared in fact your body has entered into the early signs of shock and frostbite and hypothermia is a huge risk. Coming across this camp was a huge stroke of luck and as you enter the camp it is very hard to see. In the darkness you are able to make out a few items. You see a fuel light hanging from the ceiling, a kerosene heater in the corner, a large cook stove near one wall, and enough wood to keep it going all night. There is a candle on the table, and a charcoal BBQ that seems to have been stored for winter. So here is the problem, you only have one match, so which item do you light first?

The correct answer is you light the Match first.

I told you to listen carefully. Ok so besides trying to trick you what does this riddle have to do with anything? This riddle serves as a great reminder that the order that we do things in matters. Have you ever woke up in the morning and thought to yourself, I have so much stuff to do today I don’t even know where to start? In fact sometimes the order we do things in matters a lot.

For example if on your list of things to do were mow the lawns and get gas for the mower because it is almost empty would the order you did those things in matter? How many people ever started mowing the lawn only to run out of gas and have to make an emergency run into town to get gas?

Let me ask you was it stressful? Of course it was. Your plans took an unexpected change, now you might not have time to finish everything on your list and who left the lawn mower with so little gas in the first place.

The truth is our list of daily tasks can be daunting and not knowing what to do first can be down right frustrating. Which leads us to this mornings stress management tool.

Recap

If you remember we are in the middle of a series about stress management. The truth is we all get stressed out sometimes. It is normal and nothing to be ashamed about but what we have been learning is that left unchecked stress has a way of building up and establishing new base stress levels. If you want to catch up go to our facebook page and you can listen to the first three sermons of this series there. So what we have been doing is trying to do is give each person here some stress management tools to help first bring them out of stress response and second to help lower the base levels of stress.

So let me give you

Stress Management tool #4

Wait before I do that there is a passage I want to read. If you would like turn in tour bibles to

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke iii. Serving Jesus 10:38–42

περισπάομαι

While you are turning in your bibles let me give you a short recap of what has been happening. So to put this in context Jesus has sent out His disciples 72 to be exact sent out in pairs to the towns ahead of Him. They were given instructions prayed for and sent. Then one day Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment, and when the man who asked the question tried to justify his actions by asking who his neighbour was Jesus told the parable of the good samaritan. That was Chapter 10 up until now, we read...

Luke 10:38–42 NLT

As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Stress Management tool #4

Stress management tool #4

Prioritize

Me: Fill the Jar illustration

We: The problem most of us face is we will our life up with so many “urgent” things we run out of time and energy for the important things.

God: This is what I like to call the Martha paradox. In the passage we read we learned that Martha was distracted .

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke iii. Serving Jesus 10:38–42

περισπάομαι

The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Luke iii. Serving Jesus 10:38–42

The verb περισπάομαι** means in the passive ‘to be pulled, dragged away’, hence ‘to become distracted, busy, overburdened’,

This was Martha’s problem. In an attempt to prepare this big elaborate feast for Jesus she became over burdened. He thoughts were no longer on her guest but on all she had to get done. When she approaches Jesus She brings up the idea of fairness. To her it was not fair that she had to do all the work. To Jesus it would be unfair to make Mary stressed out like Martha was. Martha was stressed out because she filled that day with sand first. If she would have kept the important thing, that is spending time with Jesus, the important thing not only would she of been less stressed but she would of realized Jesus wasn’t there to be impressed by some big fancy meal He was there because HE loved them and wanted to spend time with them. A simpler meal would have sufficed in fact on other occasions when people choose listening to Jesus over “intensive preparation” Jesus Himself provided the meal. I am thinking of the multiple times He fed a multitude of people with very little food. As a pastor and event planner I look at those meetings and thought who forgot to call the caterer? Ok so I need to clarify. This passage is not saying don’t be organized or don’t clean your house. What it is saying is if we will make the important things the important things we will be much less stressed.

You: When you wake up in the morning what do you put into your jar first, the important things like God and family? Or do you fill up your days with the tasks and chores and mundane of the day? If you will fill your day with the important there will still be room for the mundane, but if like Martha you fill it with the sand of life. You know the things that present themselves as urgent, you will never find time for God.

We: How many times do we make the excuse, I didn’t have time to do my devotions today? Another way of saying that is I didn’t have time for God today. In Sunday School we were taught a simple acronym to help us prioritize our life. It was JOY it stood for Jesus, Others, You. We need to fill our lives with the important thing. make God the number 1 priority. Make your family and friends number 2 and let your daily tasks sift in around the important things of your life and I would guess your base stress level would be considerably lower.

Next Step

Tomorrow is a new day. So I want you to take a second and plan for tomorrow. Make a priority list and write it down if you need to. On the top make sure you put the important things. Things that must be accomplished. As you move down the list fill in things of less importance. And here is a tip for you make sure spending time with God is at the top of your list