Helter-Skelter

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Well, good morning, everyone. It is so good to see you. I’m Virgil Grant. I’m the senior Pastor here at Eastside, and I’m so excited that you’re here today. We are beginning a new sermon series today. What we do is that we really call these collections of talks. It’s a collection of talks. And what we do is that we take one sermon and we divide it out over several weeks. And the title of this collection of talks is Morning, Noon, and Night. And the title for today’s message is Helter-Skelter. Would you say that with me, Helter Skelter we’ll talk more about that in a moment, and it’ll make sense to you. But I want to begin by diving into the Bible and looking at Luke Chapter Ten, a very familiar passage. Luke, chapter ten, beginning verse 38.

“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.”

Luke 10:38.42 (ESV)

Now Helter-Skelter will become apparent in a moment. But what exactly is happening in Luke chapter ten? There has Jesus praising one sister but sort of publicly shaming the other sister. Now, what’s going on? Now we know that Martha is called out twice by the repeat of her name that Jesus goes Martha. Martha. Now we know, growing up, and we know that when your mom puts your middle name into a sentence, it’s not good, right? But when she puts your full name in a sentence, it’s a what? A bad day, right? And so here we have Jesus saying, Martha, Martha. And what has Jesus so riled up? Well, now I think there are a couple of things that are going on here. And I think we need to understand that Jesus is not trying to say that one personality is better than the other personality. I don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying at all. I don’t think he’s upset because there are people in the world like Mary, and there are people in the world like Martha because these people have different perspective when it comes to life. Mary People, notice the colors. Martha People, They have the compass. They know which way to go. You would want to go on a hike with a martha on your team. Mary says, Isn’t it beautiful? Martha says We’re a long way from the road, and the sun is beginning to set, and we need to get out of here. Mary goes, Did you not see the beautiful flowers? And Martha says. That way is north. Right. And so you want those types of people on your team. Do you know what I’m saying? You want a Martha on your team Because the Martha of life is going to help you to get where you need to be. You have to understand Jesus is not upset at Mary or Martha or neither one of them. I mean, like Jesus knew their personality. He knew their Enneagram type. He knew their dis profile. He knew that Martha was an ENTJ on the Myers-Briggs. I mean, like he knew all of that. And what we have to understand in this world is that every one of us should be a Mary with Martha’s heart. Look what Jesus says in Mark chapter ten, verses 43-45.

“But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant,”and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Luke 10:43-45 (ESV)

See, folks, you have to understand that Jesus is talking to Martha because Martha did the right thing, but she did it in the wrong way. Martha was on target, but she did it in a bad way. She lost her center. She lost her why. She lost her groundedness if you will. She lost her heart. And here’s the thing about it.

When you lose your why, you always lose your way.

Martha had lost her why. It was clear that she had lost her why. She had somehow or another lost her why and then she lost her way. Now, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, and she was saying how beautiful, how wonderful this is. But you know what? I’m thankful for Martha because if it wasn’t for Martha, then Mary couldn’t have sat at Jesus’ feet. It was Martha who went and got the guacamole, and she went and got the food without Martha. There’d been no food, There’d been no celebration. She just lost her why along the way. Here’s how I would say it. She got so wrapped up in the party being perfect that she forgot about the guest of honor. She got so wrapped up in her party that she was planning for Jesus. She forgot about Jesus. She forgot about simply being with Jesus. She got wrapped up in all of the distractions that easily set in. Now, let me ask you a question. What happens in your life when you get distracted? What are the outcomes? What are the side effects of when you get distracted, and you’re not focused on Jesus? Well, I just wrote down a couple of things that I saw from the life of Martha. Maybe you would see more, but let me just give them to you. They’re not on the screen, but you may want to write them down. I think that when you get distracted by the dinner party, and you’re not focused on Jesus, I think several things happen.

Burnout

Resentment

Jealousy

Folks. Here’s the interesting thing that was going on is that when you are burned out, when you’ve lost your core, when you’ve lost your why, you begin to look at other people, and you begin to critique them. You begin to know how they should live their life. And you know that whenever someone is trying to control you, you know, they have lost control in here because let me tell you something. People who are out of control in their own personal life. The way that they gain control is by controlling and critiquing and telling others how to live their life. And what was Martha trying to do? She was trying to tell Mary how to be a better version of Mary. And what was Martha’s better version of Mary is to be more like Martha. Right? And how was that working out for Martha? It really was not working out for her. But you have to understand, here’s Martha. She’s opened her home. She has Jesus in her presence. Jesus is setting her kitchen table, and she has the audaciousness to step up and begin to critique Jesus and called Jesus out and said to Jesus, Don’t you even care about what’s going on? Now folks, listen to me. When you get burnt out, when you lose your why, when you lose your focus on Jesus, and you become distracted, then you will start accusing Jesus of not caring. Don’t you care about my party that I’ve thrown for you? Don’t you feel honored? She’s saying it. She said, Stop your preaching and tell Mary to get into the kitchen because the potatoes are burning. Folks, here’s the time for the sermon in the sentence. And look at this. The sermon in a sentence.

Sermon in a sentence:

If the things we are doing for God aren’t fueled by the time we’re spending with God, we will eventually begin to think that we’re God.

See, folks, we begin to take control. We begin to think that we have the final authority. We begin to think that we’re all-powerful. And so when you’re doing the things of God, they better be with God, and you’re not trying to do without them. Is that Martha is a hot mess. Martha has gone Helter-Skelter. But the point of the message is not to shame Martha but to learn from Martha. How can we learn from Martha in a moment when we get distracted? And what happens when we get distracted? And Jesus told us exactly what happens when we get distracted. Look back with me in verse 41.

“But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.'”

Luke 10:41 (ESV)

See, folks, when you’re distracted by the dinner party, by the graduation party, by the birthday celebration, by cleaning the house, or by whatever that you’re doing. When you get distracted, and you are not focused on Jesus, then the ultimate byproducts are two things. And Jesus says, You’ll be anxious, and you will be what? Troubled. Anxious and troubled. But here’s what I believe. I think that in our day and age, it’s just not the dinner party. That’s the distraction. But I also think that it’s the devices that cause anxiousness in troubleness. It’s the device we use to plan the dinner party. It’s the device that we use to plan the birthday party because we’re on Pinterest and YouTube, we’re watching and trying to get everything, and then we’re trying to open the Amazon app and order all the stuff to make the Pinterest picture come to life, right? I mean, there are all of these distractions, and I just want to give you a number 1,617 this way. Know what that number represents? This is like the near-impossible question of the day at 1,617 is the number of times that the average individual touches the screen of his or her phone. In one day, you touch your screen an average of 1,617 times. Now you understand that is more than there are minutes in the day. How many minutes are in the day? 1,440, I believe. And there are only 1,440 minutes in a day. But we’re touching the screen of her phone 1,617 times. You know, the average person knows the hours they or she spends on his or her phone. The average person in America spends 4 hours a day on their phone. Some of you like it. Well, I got that beat. My average is better than that. Well, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. Right. But listen to this. You spend 4 hours on average touching the screen of your phone 1,617 times. That’s 4 hours a day. That does not include television consumption. And you know how many hours the average American spends watching television on a daily basis is 4 hours. 4 hours on the phone. 4 hours on the television.

Distraction is a full-time job.

Distraction is a full-time job in America today. And what does it lead to anxiety and trouble? Exactly. Now, I think deep down that we all know that we need less screen time. We all know that we don’t need more screen time. We all don’t need more hours on social media because social media research has already proven it’s not really social at all. But there’s something about this device that we cannot put down. There’s something about it that keeps us going back and picking it up. 1,617 times a day. And here’s the thing. We know that it’s not a good thing. But here’s the thing that you need to understand is that this device that we continually pick up is destroying productivity in our world today. And what do I mean by that? The new number is 23 minutes and 15 seconds. I mean, you’re sitting at work, you’re on the computer, you’re doing research, you’re writing a paper, you’re previewing a file or whatever that you’re doing, and you hear this ping, you’re the ding. And you go, Oh, I’m just going to check it real quickly. Andrew, I’m just going to just check it real quickly. Then it says, research says that it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the depth of understanding and engagement with whatever you were involved in before you went and checked that ding or the ping that you had. And here’s the reality. You’re not only just wasting your time on the device, but you’re wasting time by getting back to the point where you were before you checked your phone. And here’s the reality, Brad, most people never get to a deep level of engagement in work because not very many of you will go 23 minutes and 15 seconds without touching your phone and your screen and checking your email or checking that ding that you received. We’ve lost all productivity. How is it so easy for us to pick this up, and why is it so hard for us to put it down? Because some of the smartest people in the world have developed these apps, and they have exploited the psychological vulnerabilities that exist inside of us. There’s a study that was done using pigeons, and these pigeons, they would come, and they would peck on the lever, and when they pecked on the lever, that would come out a little pellet of food. And these pigeons were engaging, and they would every time they would come and peck on the lever, there would come a pellet, the food, pellet, food. And finally, you know, just the newness wore off, and the pigeons, you know, they would just come and go casually, but they begin to toy with the system. And in this system, they changed it so that when the pigeon went to the lever and pecked on it is that sometimes a pellet would come out, and other times the pellet wouldn’t come out. And Cal Newport, in his book Digital Mentalism, talks about how once that change was made, the pigeons became full-fledged addicts to this. He went on to say they would sit there pushing, not knowing if they were going to get it or if they were not. They would sit there pecking on the lever until it destroyed their health. They couldn’t be convinced to leave the lever because there was a novelty to whether they would get a pellet or not. And then he goes on to say, It’s much like a slot machine that you pull. Press the button, not knowing if you’re going to get rewarded or not. And Cal Newport goes on to say that there’s more money put in slot machines than in the film industry and Major League Baseball put together in one year. Because why? We don’t know if we’re going to receive a reward or not. See, folks, if you have an app on your phone, we all do. And it was installed for free. They are getting paid somehow. You know how they’re getting paid. They’re getting paid by advertisers. And advertisers are trying to produce to the advertisers. That here’s the value of your advertising on this app. And the price that you’re going to get is that you’re going to get a little piece of every individual soul. Because here’s what happens when you spend all of your time on an app. When you spend all your time on the phone, what they’re getting is a piece of your soul in my soul. And these advertisers have to prove to the people whose buying the marketing. How long do you stay on there? How many times do you swipe? How many times do you open? Whistleblowers have proven that what app developers would do, they will withhold the likes. Because every time that you open the app and there is a like, or there’s a comment, then the novelty will wear off, and you wouldn’t keep opening the app. But if you’d open the app, sometimes there are likes, and sometimes there are comments, and other times there are not. Then there’s just this addiction that you keep opening up. Time and time again. And folks, this is not an ani-Instagram. Destroy your technology. Let’s go out and build butter churns together. That’s not the message at all. Here’s what I’m trying to say.

Let’s use technology and not be used by technology.

Let’s understand that the system is rigged. It’s not in their favor. Let’s give our souls back. Let’s not be given over. To what? Anxiety and trouble. One of the things that gods have been speaking to me about for the last several months is this thing of business. I don’t know about you, but in every conversation that I’m involved in, it always revolves around busyness. Does anybody else know what I’m talking about? I mean, you can be talking to family. You can be talking to friends. You can be talking to coworkers. You can be talking to new people. And every time that I meet someone, I say, Hey, how are you doing? Do you know what the first response is? Hey, I’m just busy. Just crazy busy. I’m just overwhelmed. I’m just. I’m not available. And they go, Well, I’m sure you’re busy, too, right? Because you pastor a big church, and I’m sure that your schedule is fully crazy and fully wild. And I’m just sure that you do have enough time every single day to get everything done. And you know what I’ve started doing? I’ve started just rejecting that together. No, I’m not busy. I’m right here at this moment. I’m right here with you. I’m not letting anybody speak busyness over my life. Do you want to know why? Because I’m right here. I’m talking to you at this moment. You have got responsibilities. I got to take care of it. Absolutely. Do have a lot on my plate. Oh, you bet. But I also have the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me. I’m not busy. I’m just here right now. I’ve got stuff to do, but I’m not busy. See, folks, business is a choice. Being busy is a state of the mind. Being busy is a lie that you get trapped in when you have to jump over here. Jump over here, Be over there. But at the same time, you want to be present somewhere else. Folks, you’ve got to learn from Jesus when Jesus says, Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from me and learn what it means to be content. Listen to me, folks. Jesus was not crazy busy. Was the weight of the world on the shoulders of Jesus? Absolutely. Did he come to save all of humanity? Yes, he did. 100% for sure. But he was going to weddings and parties and other things. You see him cruising around. What are you doing? I’m going to a wedding. What do you mean, you’re going to a wedding? I thought you had the world to save. I do. But it’s not my time right now. I got to go over there. Out of wine. He goes and touches some water. He brings back a bottle of Cabernet. I mean, Jesus was always going around, and he was just on God’s timetable. He wasn’t on the timetable of mankind. He’s saying, you’re not going to push me into being a king prematurely. You can’t push me into being busy. You can’t push me to be stressed out. Someone told me I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to heal them present where I am. And I’m choosing to be here at this moment. In this instance, God is here. You are here. We’re never going to get this moment back. I’m going to be present. I want to encourage you to be present. I want to encourage you to be focused. I want to encourage you to understand that I’m right here. You need to be right here and reject the notion and the push and the pull of business. I’m going to breathe. I’m going to drink deeply of this life and of this moment that Jesus has given to me. See, friends, it is possible to gain the whole world well and lose your soul. God wants our souls to be healthy. And if we’re going to have a healthy rhythm in life, if we’re going to have a healthy rhythm in life, we’re going to have a healthy soul. Then what is the secret? And David tells us a secret in Psalm. Chapter 55 He says.

“I call on God, and the LORD saves me. Morning, noon, and night I complain and groan, and he listens to my voice.”

Psalm 55:16-17 (GW)

Now, the interesting thing here about David is David just doesn’t say. All I do is my morning devotion. And that’s it. David does more than that. And then I got thinking about that. I’m like, Well, where’s the purpose? Where’s the meaning of daily devotion. Well, the daily devotion is kind of like your pre-game routine. I mean, like, you know, you got game day, you got the big moment coming up, you know, get the big event, and everybody goes through a pre-game routine, you know, whether it’s eating a meal, whether it’s listening to music, whether it’s putting warpaint on or whatever. And here’s the way I look at it, is that your daily devotion is designed as a pre-game routine. I mean, like, you’re getting ready for a life. You’re getting ready to go out and fight battles. You’re getting ready to go out and make a difference. You’re getting ready to go out and to fight the enemy, to engage the enemy. You’re getting ready to go out and to be present today and to make a difference. And so you do your pre-game routine, which is your daily devotion, which I think is super, super important. But here’s what I’ve found, is that the pre-game routine is not enough to last throughout the day. And this is the reason why David goes morning, noon, and night. I don’t know about you, but about 2 hours after my morning pre-game routine, about 2 hours into the day. I don’t know about you, but I start getting a little restless. I start getting a little fussy, and I start getting a little anxious and troubled. I started giving you a little selfish if you will. And David realized that the pre-game routine would wear off. And David says morning, noon, and night. He doesn’t mean that we’re going to take an hour to do this, but it means that we can simply take a two-minute water break and walk to the water fountain and get a drink of water and take a couple deep breaths. It means that we could literally just recite the Lord’s Prayer or read Psalm chapter 23. Or it could be that we could quote back a verse that we had read that morning in our daily devotion, and we could just repeat that back and put it on replay. In your mind, it could mean that we take your phone and we put it on airplane mode, and we play a worship song and put the earbuds in. And just for the next 5 minutes, listen to the worship song and have that to calm down and to get rid of the anxiety and trouble that we’re facing. Maybe it’s giving up on your desk and walking around the block. Maybe it’s just you say in the name of Jesus over and over and over. Maybe it’s you just sitting in your chair, in your office, and just closing your eyes and just thinking and praising Jesus for everything that he’s doing in your life. You’re just acknowledging his presence in your walk and seeing friends. These are all the different things that I’m doing personally, trying to get rid of the stress, the anxiety, the trouble that lives in my heart, that develops as I look out over the world, look out over your community, and look out over even over my life. I’m just trying to find peace and contentment in the presence of the living Lord. See, I don’t think any one of these prayers is the breakthrough. Not one of these powerful moments is the one moment. Some of you are saying, well does it work? I don’t know. Are you doing it? See folks, we think. That it’s just one moment, and then there’s a breakthrough. That’s not how it happens. I want to read you a quote from a book. Alan Stein Junior is a performance coach who wrote a book called Raise Your Game. It’s mostly for athletes, but he talks in the book about a time when he got to meet Kobe Bryant at the top of his game. He asked permission from Kobe to watch him train. They were doing an event together for Nike, and he said, Can I come and watch you practice? Kobe said, Yeah, I’ll be there four if you want to watch. And Alan goes, Well, how can we do that? We have an event at? How is that going to work? Kobe goes, I mean, for a year. I’m Alan Stein Junior goes. He’s like, Oh, God, you’re Kobe freakin Bryant. I’m going to work. You’re going to work at it for him. So Alan shows up. He’s got himself some coffee. He’s in the practice gym. And here’s what he says.

I watched the best player on the planet do basic footwork. Thinking it was going to be something sizzling hot, flashy, he says, nope. I watched the best player on the planet do basic offensive moves. Granted, he did everything with surgical precision and superhero intensity, but the stuff he was doing was so simple. I couldn’t believe it. Later that day, I went over to him.’Thanks again,’ I said. ‘I really enjoyed watching your workout this morning.’ ‘No problem,’ Kobe replied. Then I hesitated, not wanting to sound rude- or worse.. Condescending. But I asked him this. ‘You’re the best player in the world. Why do such basic stuff?’ He flashed that gleaming smile of his and said, ‘Why do you think I’m the best player in the game? It’s because I never got bored with the basics.’ He knew that if his footwork was not razor sharp, then the rest of the move would never be as good as it could be. He knew that the only way to do that was through sheer repetition. If someone at Kobe’s level needs to commit hours to practicing the fundamentals, then so do all of us.Kobe taught me a pivotal lesson that morning. The basics are simple, but not easy. If they were easy, everyone would do them.

Alan Stein, Jr. 

I think sometimes we look at our life, we look at our lives, and we go God, what are you going to do to take me to the next level? God, what do you need to do in my life in order to take me to the next level? And we think there’s got to be some breakthrough alter call. There’s got to be some vision at the foot of your bed. God, just show up at the foot of my bed. God, just give me a vision. Give me a glance. Give me a picture. Give me a sign. If you just do that, I’m all in. I follow you for the rest of my day. And it’s going to be some powerful thing when it happens. But we couldn’t possibly think it is as simple as just reading your Bible and praying. We don’t think It couldn’t possibly be as simple as showing up for church week after week. Not missing the chance to gather together with God’s people. It couldn’t possibly be as simple as joining a life group. It couldn’t be as simple as everyone talks about serving on a serve team and tithing and praying. You go, There’s got to be some essential oil out there that I purchase it and put it on in my house. Then it would diffuse this odor, and the odor would cause me not to want to be on my phone anymore. In fact, Pastor, I believe that there is a new bush that just found in Utah that will help you not to use your phone and touch it as much. But how did you find out about that new bush on my phone? See, some of you are saying, well, Pastor Virgil, if you would just pray for me. If you just pray for me, the elders would just pray for me. Then there would be a breakthrough. Can I just say something to you? The only breakthrough is in doing the reps. It’s about the footwork. It’s not the fancy stuff. It’s another layup. It’s another three-pointer. It’s another wind spin sprint. It’s watching what you eat. It’s spending less than you earn. It is allowing Jesus to be the first and the best in your life. It is finding a lonely mountain to pray on and trusting in God. It’s honoring him. It’s integrity. It’s character. It’s compassion. Is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you. It’s not some magical bullet that exists. It’s reading his word, putting it into practice today, getting up tomorrow and doing the basics all over again, reading his word and practicing it and putting it into practice. It’s reading. It’s giving. It’s serving. It’s showing up for worship. It’s the basics of the Christian life. And see what happens. We get distracted from the basics. And we get distracted from the basics. Then it leads to what? Anxiety and trouble. And my challenge to you this morning. It’s to make a commitment to just doing the basic footwork. Doing the layup, doing the three-point shot, doing the wind sprint, and what am I talking about? I’m talking about getting up and reading your Bible, letting the word of God wash over you each and every morning. It’s doing the pre-game routine, and then when you get into the game, that is called life. Then you take some time out of your morning, take some time out of your noon, you take some time out of your night, and you recalibrate, and you get re-centered. And folks, we think that the spiritual life is some grand spiritual event when in reality, it’s about doing the basics day in and day out. It’s doing them morning, noon, and night. Would you pray with me please?