Beyond the Turkey: Stop Stuffing Yourself

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Luke 10:38-42 “38 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. 39 Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. 40 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.” 41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.””

Introduction

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. In fact, two weeks from tonight, most of us will have eaten more than our fair share of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Most of us will have watched more than our fair share of football; and napped more than our fair share thanks to the Tryptophan in the turkey. Thank God for Thanksgiving!

So looking at the title for tonight’s message, you may think, “Oh no, he’s going to tell us not eat a lot on Thanksgiving.” On the contrary, I would not be much of an American, (or a Church of God pastor for that matter) if I told you to forsake the many blessings of this joyous holiday.

But as I began to think about Thanksgiving and the absurd amount of food we eat on that glorious Thursday in November (can you tell that this is one of my favorite holidays?) I felt Holy Spirit ask me, “When was the last time you ate healthy?”

I replied cautiously, “Well umm… gee… I had grapes and corn with my Tilapia last night.”

God rolled his eyes.  “No, when was the last time you evaluated your spiritual diet? What have you been eating lately?”

I’m a little ashamed to tell you that these words brought me into deep conviction. I began to ask myself “When was the last time I really soaked in God’s presence?”

See, it’s one thing for us to come here on Thursday nights and get fed and then go to RiverLife on Sunday mornings and get but that’s not the makings of a great spiritual diet. If we are dining at the Father’s table and spending time at the foot of his throne only two times a week one of two things is happening: We are either starving to death or we are clogging our spiritual arteries with the things of this world.

Thesis

The Bible tells us that one thing, intimacy, is needed in our lives and that we are to pursue it.

Transition

3 things that stand in the way of intimacy:

I. We stuff ourselves with worry and busyness.

a. The story of Mary and Martha found in Luke 10:38-42

b. Here in this familiar passage of scripture, we see two follows of Jesus in very polar opposite roles.

i. Mary is found at Jesus feet

1. Worshipping him

2. Hanging on his every word

ii. Martha is found distracted

1. Busy serving

2. Busy worrying

c. Martha says to Jesus “Doesn’t it bother you that she’s left me to stuff the turkey, bake the pumpkin pie, not to mention make the whipped cream by hand! This is the beginning of the New Testament! We don’t have Cool Whip!”

i. For the record, I’m quite sure this isn’t what Martha was serving.

ii. But, she was quite concerned with all the work that was set before her.

iii. She was concerning with doing her job of being a good host.

d. Jesus replies and says,

i. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about so many things.

ii. You’ve got all this stuff to do and I’m mindful of that.

iii. I’m not trying to scoff at all that you have to do.

iv. But you’ve missed the most important thing.

v. It’s not the food that we eat from your kitchen that satisfies.

vi. One Thing is needed! Intimacy!

vii. Your sister has chosen to sit at my feet and spend time in my presence and listen to my every word.

viii. I’m mindful of all you have going on in your life; your job, your responsibilities.

ix. But One Thing is needed. Intimacy!

x. Mary has chosen that good part, and I won’t take that away from her.”

e. How many of you have Moms and Grandmas that are so concerned with serving the meal at the family dinner that they wont sit down and eat until every last person has been served?

i. My Grandma Beulah has always been like this. She wouldn’t sit down until Grandpa, her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids were served.

ii. I remember a few times where she’d be lingering in the kitchen waiting to serve seconds and she herself hadn’t eaten yet!

iii. Finally my Dad or my Aunt would finally go over and tell her to sit down and enjoy the meal and the presence of her family

f. Sometimes we get so caught up in the daily activities of our life that we have no time for the One Thing. Intimacy!

g. Sometimes the things we get caught up in are good things.

i. We’re serving God.

1. We’re on the youth band.

2. We’re the youth pastor

3. We’re leading a bible study at school

ii. We’re serving other people.

h. God is still honored and blessed by these things.

i. Other times we just get worried about all that’s going on and it causes us to spend less time in the secret place, and more time in the busy place!

i. Our schoolwork

ii. Our family

iii. Our finances

j. Beloved, I believe God is speaking to each and every heart here tonight. It’s great to be the youth pastor; it’s great to be a Christian whose busy serving the Lord. But our God is a God of relationships and he wants us to have intimacy with him.

k. God is asking you tonight: “Do you need to slow down and spend some time at my feet? Are you stuffing yourself with worry and busyness or are you feasting at the table I have prepared before you?”

II. We stuff ourselves with the things of this world.

a. The Parable of the Rich Fool found in Luke 12:13-21

b. In those days, it was common place for the first born son to get the greatest portion and even sometimes all of the inheritance.

c. Here we find a man, likely a younger brother, who comes to Jesus asking for his brother to divide his inheritance with him.

d. Jesus refuses to get involved in the civil dispute, but uses the opportunity to teach us all a lesson on greed and stuffing ourselves with the things of this world.

e. In this parable, a rich man yields a whopper of crop.

i. He gets greedy and decides that he is going to tear down and build new barns so he can store his plentiful possessions.

ii. He says to himself “I’ve got more than enough now. I’m just going to take it easy and eat, drink, and party hard.”

f. But then God says to him, what if your life is ended now?

i. Who will those things on earth you’ve been piling up and stuffing yourself with belong to then?

ii. What good has any of that done you if you don’t have a relationship with Me?

g. The verse closes with Jesus saying that if you lay up treasures on the earth, and if you focus on the things of the world and stuff yourself with it then you have missed the whole point of life.

h. You have been rich toward yourself and you haven’t been rich toward God.

i. You’ve missed out on the riches of an eternal relationship with the Creator because of your love for the temporary.

j. Time for another Food analogy…

i. I’ve got an Uncle that always goes overboard on Turkey, dressing, stuffing, etc.

ii. By the time he’s done with his second plate he’s too full to eat any desert.

k. It’s time to stop filling up on the stuffing, go beyond the turkey and eat the pie!

l. It’s the same way in the kingdom of God. We fill ourselves up with so much of the world that if we come to the Fathers table we’ve gotta get all the junk out of our system first!

m. The world around us has yielded a great plenty. There is great food, culture, music, art, movies, etc. around us. But if we stuff ourselves full of it, and not the things of God, we will be spiritually bankrupt.

n. God is asking you tonight: “Do you need to put the world on hold and let me hold you? Are you stuffing yourself with the things of this world or are you feasting at the table I have prepared before you?”

III. We follow His commands but not his Heart.

a. The story of the rich young ruler found in Mark 10:17-22

b. Here a young man who’s got a lot of bling and is rollin’ easy comes to Jesus and basically asks him “How do I get into heaven?”

c. Jesus, testing the motives of his heart, asks the young man if he follows the 10 commandments.

i. (Thou shall not defraud is widely accepted as an application for the eighth and ninth commandment.)

d. The young man tells Jesus that he, in fact, has followed the commandments all his life.

e. Jesus answers him and says “one thing you lack”

i. He lacked a wholehearted allegiance to God.

ii. Jesus gave him the hard test to reveal to him that he had an idol before him (the love of wealth, in this case.)

f. We follow his commands. We try to be a “good Christian.”

g. But some of us don’t take the jump from following his commands to knowing his heart.

h. We were raised in church, we know all the bible stories, we’ve stuffed our face on the Christian-ese, we know how to walk the walk and talk the talk but we don’t know his heart.

i. We offer lip-service but not heart access.

j. Jesus warns us in Matthew 7:20-23 that there will be many who claim to have served him and done great things from him but will not make it into heaven because they did not know him.

k. God is asking you tonight: “Do you need to lay down yourself and give your life over to me? Are you stuffing yourself with religion that won’t get you anywhere or are you ready for a relationship that can take you anywhere?”

Close

Paul describes intimacy as a pursuit. A prize worth fighting for and pressing on toward. (Philippians 3:13-16.)

David (Psalm 27:4) He was the most powerful man on the planet; king of the greatest nation, commander-in-chief of its military, and director of its worship ministry. I cannot imagine the stress and strain on this man. But he did not get caught up in his worries or daily responsibilities, he didn’t get caught up in the riches and fame, and he didn’t offer lip-service. On the contrary, God called him a man after his own heart.

Sometimes we get like Pac-Man. Busy, busy, busy eating everything in sight, going about our business. Until that ghost thing knocks us off course. Tonight, we need the Holy Ghost to come and knock us off the course we are on and bring us down to the feet of Jesus so we can pursue the One Thing.

Other times we gets so used to spiritual fast food that the unsatisfied feeling or that feeling that we ate something we shouldn’t of doesn’t bother us much. At least until we taste the feast the Lord sets before us.