[0:01]Good morning, everybody. just a welcome from my side as well. Great excitement and expectation. for what God is, um, doing and going to do in this series. And just to emphasize from my side as well, the importance of getting the whole package, um, which is not just on Sundays, but joining a connect group and, uh, journeying and, um, chewing on and wrestling through these really real issues with other believers as well. And so, I'd like to just open and pray this morning. Um, I do have the sense that even, even as we're talking about this, there might already be just an anxiousness to, to our heart attitude. There might be already a don't tell me what I need to do with my life. You have all these balls that you're juggling in the air and you're so afraid that one of these glass balls are going to fall and shatter. And so there's a a real pressure and there's a real nerve that when we talk about business, when we talk about hurry, often we even speaking to that speaks into our identity, how we live our lives, how our lives are dictated and it can be a real nerve, but the Father wants to love us in and through this. I really have a sense on my heart that he isn't coming with a whip or with a stick. He's coming like a dad. He's got a family meeting. and he sits his children around the table and he talks about just some of these very real things that we face. And so let's turn our hearts to him in prayer. So Father, we, we honor your presence. We honor the fact that you are intricately involved in our lives. We acknowledge that our lives are laid bare before you, God. There's nothing that you don't know. There's nothing that you don't see.
[2:09]We honor the fact that you come as a loving Father and you want to lead in love. You want to correct in love. You want to guide in love. You want to steer in love. Because you love, you want us to let go. You want us to surrender to you. And so we ask Father, your will be done. Your kingdom come. in us and through us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. And so I'm launching this series and I'm speaking this morning about hurry as a strategy of the enemy. Paul speaks in Ephesians 6 of the reality that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual powers and principalities of darkness. Though our lives and our world is is surrounded by physical things, there is a spiritual reality to what we do. And that though we sometimes and often just live completely oblivious to that spiritual reality, we need to come to grips with and be reminded and just afresh again, that in my daily life, there is a spiritual battle for my attention. There is a spiritual battle because, um, whatever we devote ourselves to, whatever we give ourselves to, will be the thing that forms us. And if God's plan for your life and my life is to be formed into the likeness of Christ, we need to live and be aware that the enemy wants the opposite. He wants to keep us and he's got many strategies and I'll talk about some of them now, but we need to live in this reality that the enemy doesn't want you and I to be formed into the likeness of Jesus. For you and I to ongoingly represent God in our actions, our words, our deeds, how we live out our faith daily. Now, the apostles Paul and Barnabas was, uh, went on their first apostolic journey, and we read about it in Acts chapter 13 and 14. They went to the Roman province of Galatia, and they preached in four of the major major cities in that province. It's the first time that the gospel went and was officially proclaimed to Jews and Gentiles in a heathen nation, um, according to Jewish understanding. And so, they started out in Antioch and Pisidia, proclaiming the gospel. The word of God was received. Now, remember, these are pagans who used to worship other gods and have other temples and sacrifices. And they, by the conviction of the Holy Spirit and conviction of the gospel of Jesus, they turned from that and started worshipping Jesus. There were also Jews, Paul proclaimed the gospel in the synagogues there of in the synagogue in each city, and they also turned. And so, the rumors of, of what happened to Jesus in Jerusalem had spread because they were at Jesus's crucifixion, there were people from all over the known world in Jerusalem at that point in time for the Passover festival. So most likely they'd heard of what happened, or they were actually maybe even there in the events of Jesus's crucifixion, but now they've believed the gospel. They've turned from their, from their Jewish faith and put their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and the Christ. And, uh, the Bible there uses beautiful descriptive words of these believers. They said, all who had been appointed for eternal life believed. It says they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they were filled with joy. It says that Paul and Barnabas performed many signs and wonders. And in the city of Lystra, a man crippled, lame from birth, God used Paul to, to, to give strength to his feet again and to walk. But in the midst of all of these great things happening, there was an opposite, the enemy came and opposed them. And the way in which he opposed them was with physical threats, physical persecution. The Jews were jealous of now all these people following the teaching of Paul and Barnabas. And in the first city, it says in Antioch and Pisidia, they expelled them out of the city, and they experienced even in the one city Lystra, the Paul was stoned after the, the this lame man received his strength in his feet again. They stoned, they stoned Paul. They threw stones at his torso and his head repeatedly, repeatedly, a mob of people to the point where they looked at his body and realized we'd thrown the last stone, he's dead. Can you imagine what he must look like after a stony. Drags him out of, um, the city and miraculously Paul gets up. The believers gather around him. He gets up, walks, whether he was dead, the Bible doesn't say, but I, I seem to think that he was dead, but but here we are, have, the enemy coming with murderous threats. He said, preach the gospel once more and I'm going to kill you. And it is the midst, in the midst of that that all these believers came to faith. They came to faith in the knowing and choosing Jesus that if I choose Jesus, life's going to be incredibly hard for me. I'm facing persecution, I'm facing rejection, I'm facing being put out of family and social circles. But they chose Jesus still to be the center of their lives. And Paul goes back to those churches and he encourages them after he was stoned. He also then preached in Derby, I went back to those other cities and laid hands and ordained elders, well, they encouraged them, saying, that it's through many trials and tribulations that we must go, that we will enter the kingdom of God. Here's this man bears the marks and the scars of having been stoned. Maybe still blood and still scabs or whatever still on his body and his face. And Paul and Barnabas leaves there, I think personally, my conviction is, completely, um, secure in the fact that no persecution is going to let these believers to not follow Jesus. That, that Paul and Barnabas encouraged them, they were filled with the spirit and Paul and Barnabas modeled to them what it means to remain in Christ in the midst of persecution. And he leaves them there. And I think Paul thought that no matter what persecution the devil is going to throw at them, he won't convince them to not follow Jesus. They will keep their eyes on Christ. But then we read in the book of Galatians, which Paul wrote about a year later. He writes to the, to these, that's why it's called the book of Galatians. It's written to the churches in the Roman province of Galatia. And there's been a drift in this church. There's been influence into this church that not, I think the devil even realized persecution is not going to work. Physical intimidation, gun to the head, these guys are going to die for the gospel. And so, let me come with another angle. Let me try another less obvious intimidating way. And so, the letter to Galatians is Paul addressing the reality that there was Jewish influence. Now, these same Jews, instead of now threatening them with death, influenced them with the Mosaic law and saying, actually, you have to observe the law after you've become a Christian, you still have to do all the sacrifices and circumcision and all of that. And Paul is besides himself. He's furious. He uses language like, who has bewitched you? He says, and then in Galatians 4, I think Paul is just flabbergasted. He couldn't believe that that these believers were so touched and changed by Jesus. Now drifting and no longer is Christ in the center, but now they're focusing on these other things. He says, my little children for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Galatians 4:19 ESV. And so here is where the, the verse and the word where Christ, the phrase Christ formation comes from in our theology. That part of the process of what we're on and the journey that we're on as disciples of Jesus, is Christ formation. That God's purpose with your life is that you would ongoingly grow in becoming more like Jesus. And the devil has all sorts of strategies to stop that. If physical intimidation or if if temptation and if sin doesn't work, he comes, and we see nowadays in our days, busyness and hurry as a strategy where we just subtly in a very unaware way actually drift away from being formed by Christ with him being at the center of my life, to actually just being formed by the other things that my life is occupied with. Formation takes place, whether it's intentional or unintentional, whether you're aware of it or unaware of it. Formation takes place, God, God asks us to be intentional about our Christ formation and the awareness of the devil's schemes in this. And so John Mar Homer, author of the ruthless elimination of hurry, quotes Corri Ten Boom, who was a an evangelist lady during the Holocaust time. And he says, Corri Ten Boom once said that if the devil can't make you sin, he'll make you busy. There's truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect. They cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul. Dallas Willard, a Christian philosopher wrote this. He says, hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. It's the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. And so right at the outset of this series, we need to come to grips with the reality that, that this busyness and this hurry that we're all caught up in, and believe you me, I'm, I'm a father of three kids in a primary school, and it's, it's busy. Most parents who greet me at school, they ask me, Rudolph, how are you doing? My answer often is, I'm busy. So I know the reality that all of us are facing. But we need to deal with this right in the beginning that it's not just necessarily bad habits, or just life. Though it's not nice, and though we agree that it shouldn't be that way, but actually, we need to be as wide open to the reality that it might very well be an attack of the enemy on God's church. To keep them preoccupied with other things and not preoccupied with him. It's okay to, he doesn't matter which, which way or which method works, if it's sin, if it's temptation, if it's intimidation, or if it's hurry. He doesn't care which way as long as our devotion is not to Jesus, but devoted to something else. And so I'd like us to look at a passage of scripture from Luke chapter 10. A very famous lady named Martha, in Luke chapter 10. And so if your name is Martha here today, please don't take any personal offense. This message is not aimed at you. You don't necessarily represent Martha in this passage of scripture. Her name just happened to be Martha. It could have been anyone or anything. But it is a well-known passage and I'd like us to draw a couple things from it for us. And so let's read together Luke chapter 10 verse 38 to 42. Now, speaking of Jesus and the and his disciples, it says, now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 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. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. Now if I could just, before we dig into that portion, just walk the elephant out the room. It's, it's obvious, it's clear, but I need to just make it clear that the expectation is not everyone now resigns their job. And we just sit at home, and we study the Bible, and we listen to worship music, and the Christians are just not integrated into the society. And so, um, we need to look at what this means, and how we can apply it in the fact that you have a family, in the fact that you have a vocation, in the fact that there is life happening out there. And so, how can I apply this? And so, number one, what is evident here is priorities, priorities. Jesus says to, to Martha, he says that Mary has chosen the good portion. In other words, Mary has prioritized the right thing. And so in that setting, serving isn't wrong. But there was a choice to be made, and we'll look at choices a little bit later on. About priorities. And obviously, in this context, Mary chose the right thing to be the priority. And Martha had a look and read the room. And felt the pressure of needing to serve and to cook for everyone who was there. But, and so she prioritized something else. And Jesus says, Mary chose the good portion. And so when it comes to priorities in our lives, often what affects our time, what affects our busyness, we need to look at what are the things we are prioritizing? And ask some of those things, do we choose those things over God? It's in essence, because then we get preoccupied with those things and it takes our time, et cetera, and we run in this rat race. Now, I have heard it said, and it's sort of something formed in my mind over time. I don't know exactly where I got it from. But there's this linear model of priorities that seems to be out there in the Western Christian circles. This linear, um, model of priorities, which says, God's first, then family, then work, and then church. Has anyone heard, or had that thought? Now, and it's been my thoughts as well over many years, but there's obviously some real flaws, because we, we end up, um, though in our mind, we say, God first, we need to ask ourselves really, is that really the reality? And we, we feel bad because we, our family isn't getting the time, or the effort, or anything that they need. And so we, we actually, we need to bump work up to the first priority. God will understand. So that I can work hard, so that we can have a a good vacation in three months from now, so that I can then bump family up to the number one spot. And then for a week, we have family time, and I'm devoted, I'm focused there, and then when family time is over, sorry, family has to be bumped down the list again. And, uh, often it, it, it, it, uh, moves between family and work and maybe even, um, um, what's it called? Personal well-being. And then I don't know why we put church right down at the bottom, but it's often the that, um, our involvement and interaction with the church just stays at the bottom. It doesn't really move up the ladder. We don't feel as convicted about that, our involvement and our engagement with the local church. And so it stays at the bottom, and there's enough Christians anyways to get involved and get things done in and through the local church. Now, I would love to suggest rather instead of a linear diagram, a a circular diagram. Which I believe if you guys can put that up for me, that diagram, I believe this is flawed, not perfect, but it helps us at least to visually start thinking and that and at the center of my entire life is God and His kingdom.
[21:30]It's not sometimes. It's actually and then and then family, work, church, and my personal wellbeing, all revolve and turn around God and His kingdom.
[21:58]He and we sing these songs, Jesus at the center of my life. But family cannot and should not be detached or separate from God and kingdom. Surely, friends, we can't detach or separate church from God and His kingdom. Surely we can't or separate or have work and my vocation as a separate entity in my life and I have, actually, the kingdom of God is everything and everything revolves around Him. He is the king of my life. I'm submitted to Him. He is Lord over my life. Therefore all the areas of my life revolves around his leadership, His kingship over my life.
[22:50]And so, Jesus has to be at the center. And if the enemy has his way, he keeps us occupied with either one of those four areas. And if I could just briefly elaborate on the four areas, family include your marriage. Family includes your children, or if you're single, family is maybe your close group of friends, your social circle. If you don't work, you don't have a vocation, maybe that space is, is where you spend most of your time. Maybe you're studying, or maybe you're a stay at home mom, or whatever it might be. Church, friends, isn't the kingdom of God. That's why church isn't in the middle, but church we see in scriptures, God's chosen vessels, through whom he advances his kingdom. And it's the church's integrated in my discipleship journey. It is key, it is fundamental, and part of my Christ formation, takes place in and through interaction with the local church. And I'm going to focus much of what I say down at the leaders, at the looking in new members, will go around what that looks like my interaction with the body, and how that contributes to my spiritual growth and my Christ formation.
[24:15]Personal well-being, mental health, physical health. That has to be an area of my life where God gets glorified. I have to be healthy. First Corinthians 6, Paul speaks of the body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we need to glorify God with our bodies. But it can often become such a fixation, such a thing we, we focus on unhealthily that it just contributes to our busyness and our rushing and our running.
[24:52]And that actually, okay, God, in my work space, I'm running, I'm flourishing, I'm loving it, but, but what is devotion to you look like? Are there areas that I actually need to pull up the handbrake? Things I need to say no to, and that I actually easily can say no to. So that my devotion to you can be more evident in my work space. So I can be more devoted to my wife or my kids at home, et cetera. Your personal well-being, what is it look like in your health, mental health, physical health?
[25:40]And so my next point for this morning is touching on the reality that we have the right to choose. It says, Jesus said to Martha, Mary chose the good portion. It doesn't take away from the reality that Mary was also potentially under the same pressure. There are guests here, there are things that need to be done.
[26:15]And in the midst of the current pressure, Mary and Martha both had an option to choose.
[26:29]Often the pressure we face in life, it feels like I just can't say no to this. The the pressure of society is so, I need to keep up. I need to catch up. And so there's a bunch of yeses, and so part of what we're going to learn in the home groups is how to say no. How to put boundaries in place to guard what's sacred. But we need to live in this liberty, in the reality, though it might be under pressure, no one's holding a gun to your head. No one's forcing you. No one's intimidating you. You have a choice. You do.
[27:03]And there are things in your life that are getting more priority than your devotion to Jesus in any one of those areas. You have a choice. You can say yes or you can say no.
[27:26]And I don't know what it looks like in your context. But the reality of pressure, I'm not denying the fact that there is real pressure, sometimes subtle pressure.
[27:54]Subtle. Um, I'm busy with my quiet time with God and I didn't, I took my phone with me into my office.
[28:09]It's on silent but I, I hear that vibrate and a message comes through.
[28:22]Right there there's pressure. Pressure to have a look at my screen.
[28:30]And to reply or to choose to say I want to be in the moment, present to God, because he's present to me. You have the choice. The devil isn't standing there forcing you to do it.
[28:49]You have a choice. And there are things in your life that are getting more priority than your devotion to Jesus in any one of those areas. You have a choice.
