Elevation with Steven Furtick - The Movie In My Mind

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

We all play movies in our minds, but is our imagination getting in the way of our reality?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. We're studying from Luke chapter 10, verses 38 through 42. Today, we're going to talk a little bit about, well, it's going to be a very practical message. I think it would be a lot of fun, too. if you participate. Sometimes you can help the preacher preach better and you don't even know it. So I just invite you to whatever you want to do. But I'm going to tell you this.

The sooner you look like you get it, the sooner I can let you go. So you can speed this along today just by looking interested. Just shake your head like this. We get it. We get it. And this is one of those little little. Bible passages that you can't quite figure out why this part got included in the Bible because it seems pretty small, little insignificant in the scope of the whole narrative of Jesus going to the cross

and rising from the dead and then little things like this get told in the Bible. And I want to use this for the third installment of Trigger, taking back your mind in the age of anxiety, look at somebody and say, you look less stressed than the last time I saw you. You know, it's always awkward because I tell people to say things to their neighbors. And there's always one person who's like independently minded, and they're like, uh-uh. But then the person next to them is like totally a rule follower, and they'll turn to the other person and start to say it. And then like, oh, you're not actually doing it. You're a rebel and you're going to hell. So this little passage is going to give us some practical insight today and help us get our minds focused and help us get a concentration on what matters.

At least that's our prayer. Luke chapter 10, verse 38, and even the first line has a little message in it. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way. So something is about to happen while they're on the way somewhere else. And some of God's greatest invitations will happen through life's interruptions. It will be places that we didn't plan on going. and it will be through conversations that we didn't plan on having that sometimes God will give his greatest blessings.

How many can testify to that? Maybe you met your wife, not even trying to meet a woman. You were at the club trying to look like somebody who was worthy of a date, and your dance moves proved otherwise. And then you just happened to. I've met people here who signed up to serve on the parking team and ended up on a honeymoon in Turks and Caicos. And so it happens, right?

That happened? Yeah, yeah, it happens. I'm telling you. It just happened on the way. And I pointed out because since we're talking about distractions today, and that's our central subject matter, we need to understand that not everything that you didn't plan on is a distraction. Sometimes the distraction is the thing you planned to do that God didn't even want you to do, but you made up your mind what you were going to do before you even asked God what you were supposed to do. Amen, I am. I'm going to preach this.

She said, preach that. Well, hey, I'm already halfway there. So study some time in the Bible, all the things that happened on the way or along the way, you'd be surprised. They were on their way to Jerusalem for a festival. Ultimately, Jesus was going to Jerusalem later in order to pay for our sins and die on the cross. That's what he came for. And since he knew what he came for, he could not be distracted by the preferences of people or the plans of others. And that's why when Peter said, you can't go die, Jesus was able to say,

Get behind me, Satan. What you represent right now is in opposition to the will of my father. So I've got to keep moving toward Jerusalem. I've got to keep moving toward Jerusalem. I've got to keep moving toward Jerusalem. That's for somebody. You're on the right road, and there are a lot of things trying to get you off of it. But here's what happens in this passage in a little village called Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem.

Jesus came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who was now spiritual to us. Sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. Aw. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. And she came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? tell her to help me.

This is funny to me, and I've read it many, many times. And then I laughed because he says her name twice. Martha, Martha, look at your neighbor, say their first name twice. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her and the scene ends with this. We don't get to see how Martha responds.

I'd love to know, but it doesn't say it just ends right there. The movie just goes to the credits right there. And I want to talk to you today about the movie in my mind. That's my title for this message is the movie in my mind. And I wonder, do you have a similar movie? Have you ever bought a ticket to the theater of your own imagination only to demand your money back because that plot sucked? Seeing the same old things and the same old hurts and the same old memories. You know, sometimes the movie in my mind, I edit together scenes that should have been deleted, and yet they're on repeat in my mind.

mind, one time finding Nemo got stuck in our DVD player in Holly's Yukon, and so we know every scene from Nemo because just every time we got in the car, I feel like certain things in my life are like that. Just, you know, I'm like Dory swimming around, just barely remembering Wallaby way, and just swimming around the same memories. The movie in my mind. Now, I need to tell you, the movie in my mind is rated R for ridiculous and redundant. And I don't know about your taste in movies.

Usually when I get to know somebody, the way that I get to know them quickly, I'll say, what kind of music do you like and what's your favorite movie? And I can tell whether they're worth talking to by the answer to that. Because if they go, well, I don't really like music, I'm done with you. You have no soul. And then I'd rather you not believe in God. But at least I can convert you. But when we talk about movies, people act real funny.

If they know I'm a pastor, they'll always say this Christian answer. You know, Ben Her, the Ten Commandments start listing every Christian movie. And I want to stop them. They're facing the giants, fireproof. And I don't have the heart to tell them. I don't usually even like Christian movies. Appreciate good messages and wholesome family entertainment. It's just that sometimes I like gritty movies.

I don't know why. Maybe I like comparing my life to somebody else's worst life. Maybe it's a relief to me that at least it's not. My idea of a good movie, okay, if everybody in the movie doesn't end up dead, I'm disappointed. By the end of it, I want the villain dead, the hero dead, the dog dead. The fish, I want the fish. They're on the counter, gasping for breath. Blood everywhere.

Blood of the lamb, of course. For the church people. It's just a different kind of movie. And one of our campus pastor wives, she was telling me, you know, when I go to the movies, I don't want anything that resembles my real life. I want happy endings. I want everything to go well. I get enough of the drama in my real life.

I'm a third grade teacher. I don't need drama. I don't need drama. I need escape. Yet, the worst movie I ever saw was in my own mind. The movies that I make, I made one this week. I had something to do. And when I actually did it, I enjoyed it. But I had made a movie about it, what it was going to be like and how inconvenient it would be and how probably wouldn't be able to find parking space and how it's probably going to have done it. And by the time I got to the event, I was tired from the movie. You ever done this? Movie in my mind. And so here comes a scene in the Bible.

We just heard about the Good Samaritan who stopped in this kind of unexpected fashion to help someone in need in Jesus' teaching. And the next little inclusion here from Luke is about the Lord's Prayer or Father who are in heaven. Here's this weird little movie, this little scene at least with a really weak plot, you know. Jesus came to a house and two women had a fight.

But I'm kind of glad it's in here because this is more like everyday life for most of us. Like most of us, our life is not epic all the time. Most of us don't claim the promised land every Monday morning. Most of us sit in traffic. my Monday morning usually isn't this miraculous good verses. It's just snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze, snooze, okay, if I get up right now, maybe I won't be late. The most epic thing that might happen to me on any given week, maybe I'll be able to bench press 10 more pounds than I did last week, but probably not, because I'm almost 40 and my shoulders messed up. And so I'm kind of glad that they include these little, everyday life things in the Bible, where it's like Jesus came to a house and one woman and another woman got in a fight because one of them wasn't doing what the other one wanted them to do, and they tried to get Jesus to help, and he wouldn't. I like this story.

And I got to tell you one more thing, and you probably really won't like this, because you already don't like that. I don't like Christian movies. And you're already considering leaving the church and going to a real church with a real man of God. And I wouldn't blame you for it. But my favorite character in this little scene is not the one that Jesus commended. Because Mary is the one that Jesus took up for, but Martha is the one that I relate to. I don't know if I should say this on YouTube and Facebook and just like, I like Martha a lot more than I like Mary. One person.

And he's dressed for work. You can tell why he likes Martha. Because Martha is the one that pays the mortgage. Did you read the verse? Oh, I've heard preachers. I've heard preachers annihilate Martha in the pulpit. And Martha was too busy. And Martha was running around.

You know what? Martha is the one who pays the taxes. And Mary is the one with a go-fund me. And Mary is the one who gets fired. And Martha is the one who pays the light bill. Let's have a shout for Martha. She's not so bad. Martha's in E-Kids.

Mary was 20 minutes late complaining because she's an overflow. I like Martha. I like her. She gets crap done. I want her on my staff. I told my assistant, I hired her. I said she's been with me like eight and a half years. And I said, I need you to be kind of saved.

But I'm not hiring you to extend the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to everybody who wants to meet with me. I need you to keep a little bit of flesh. A little bit of Martha? It's Martha's house. The Bible said a woman named Martha opened her home. If it was just Mary in the passage, Jesus would have had to eat at the soup kitchen. Mary doesn't pay bills. It made my job harder to get this sermon ready.

because I kind of wanted to take Mark the side that's right, get Mary off the floor in there is Jesus and 12 dudes just rolled up in the house and Mary's over in the corner talking about here I am to worship

here I am to praise ribbons bow down and here I am to Martha said, I am in the kitchen. Get in here and help me. This meal isn't gonna cook itself. I like that one actor. I saw him on Twitter.

He said something. He said, if you're not yelling at your kids regularly, you're not with them enough. Because you know how Mary can be. She's so sweet. I never yell at my kids. I never yell at my kids. You're not paying attention, sweetheart. You're going to be visiting them in prison, sweetheart.

If you never yell at your kids. You notice the people who never complain. I don't complain. I bless the Lord at all times. You're not paying attention. You're not engaged. That's why you're not complaining. Now that I totally messed up the sermon, let's make five points.

What the Lord showed me for my own heart and my own life is that it wasn't what Martha was doing. It's how she was doing it. It wasn't her actions that he found fault with and corrected. It was her attitude. It was the movie in her mind. And I'll show you these five components. I hope you'll write them down so you can throw them in your husband's face when he starts acting like Martha this week.

Come on, don't you want some ammunition? Write this down. Martha is operating in a spirit of, number one, manipulation. And when Jesus said, you're distracted or worried and upset, the Hebrew word for anxious is split or divided. And so there seems to be some sense of divide happening in my mind all the time where I am distracted. The literal meaning of the word distracted, by the way, is pulled apart. and it's not always being pulled in a good direction, in a bad direction. It's not always the decision to whether should I, you know, cook meth or read my Bible.

What is wrong with y'all today? It's like, it has to be done. It had to be done. Jesus came to Martha's house because it had excellent ratings on Airbnb. And he liked this place in Bethany. He probably liked it because it was clean and orderly, and that was Martha's gift in operation. She was good at that, and we praise God for her. But the fault in her logic is this, that what is important to me ought to be important to everybody else.

And it wasn't operating in her calling or functioning in her ability that Jesus corrected. It was that she expected others to function according to her priorities. and so then she crosses the line from management to manipulation. Managing the situation, which God wants you to do, stewarding what God has put in your life, which is your responsibility. Your hands need to be on the wheel. Jesus will not take it. If you wait for Jesus to take the wheel, you will see him real soon.

But now Martha, Martha is now she's trying to steer somebody else's car. I wonder are you trying to control someone else's priorities as a cover-up to the fact that you don't really have your straight? Because sometimes in my life I cross over and it's subtle and I don't do it intentionally and it's almost subconscious. But I find myself moving from something that I care about and I'm concerned about. And then without even knowing it, I start trying to control it because I care about it. And I care about it so much that I begin to try to control it. And then I ruin the thing that I love. I ruin the relationship that I love because I get confused about where my responsibility

ends and God's sovereignty begins. And then I start manipulating. And it's my nature to manipulate because I'm Martha. Martha means master. It's her house. She's the one making the payments. And sometimes when you're making the payments, you want to set the priorities. And to a degree, it's right. But watch what she does. You can hear it in her language. And often our language is an indicator of the leaky places in our life. We can see where we're losing our energy, our focus, and our peace through evaluating our language. She says, what verse was it? 40? Lord, tell her to help me. That's called passive-aggressive. Tell her, she's not even saying Mary's name, she's that mad. This is like Holly, tell your children, your children.

And they'll do this to us. They'll try to manipulate us. Dad, could you please tell Mom that we need more time on Fortnite? Well, no, as a matter of fact, I can't tell Mom that, and I won't tell Mom that. Because we are united, whether it's Fortnite, or whether it's homework, or whether it's vegetables. You are not going to play me against your mom, because I was with her first. And I get more pleasure out of my relationship with her than I do out of my relationship.

I can French kiss her, and I'm not about to lose points with her. Help me. Jesus, it's manipulative. It's manipulative. It's trying to get you to do. Here's what she's doing. She's saying, Jesus, I wrote a script for how this visit is supposed to go. And in my script, Mary is here in the kitchen with me.

In my script, my husband comes home at 5.30. In my script, my wife acts like his wife acts. In my script, my kids are like their kids. In my script, I'm married at age 23. In my script, say you got your script, but Jesus didn't come to read the lines off of your script. He's the author. And he will not be manipulated. And he's like, no, Mary, don't move.

I think there's a Mary and a Martha living inside every heart. The more I reflect on this passage, I see a contrast not just of two women, but two tendencies in me. Not only do Mary and Martha live in the same house, they live in the same heart. And part of me is Martha. And thank God, because that puts food on the table. And part of me is Mary and needs to know what's important. I'm really sorry, by the way, for all of the manipulative preaching that I sometimes, I'm sure, quite often have been guilty of and others who stand here because we try to make you do the right thing, but we sometimes go about it in the wrong way, and we need to do better.

And in the same breath, a preacher will thank the tithers in the church, but then get mad if the tither has to miss a week for a trip to work so he could go make some money and feed the family and tie. And so it's kind of confusing. And there's always cliches that we can use about priorities. I heard this one one time, nobody ever said, this is a voice I go into when I'm, nobody ever sat on their deathbed. I wish I'd spend more time at work.

That's fine. I'm not on my deathbed right now. And right now my kids need braces. And for my kids to get braces, I'm going to have to bring home some money. So before I get to my deathbed, I've got different. things pulling on me. I got different things pulling on me. Notice, Martha was distracted, not by Candy Crush. She was distracted by something that was important, just not important, in that moment. So it says that she got into a manipulative state of mind. Tell her to help me.

And the reason she did is because she herself was being manipulated. She herself was being pulled. There was something guilty in her. There was some perfect Perfectionist tendency. Enneagram 1. Holly's doing this new personality thing. Well, it's not a personality thing. It's a Witchcraft or horoscope or something. No, it's really actually good and she said that the tendency of my personality is it could always be better. It could always be better Perfectionist. Perfectionist and so I feel Martha because there's something pulling on her to make it nice because she respects her guest and somebody has to do it but it gets out of order because you can see it in her language. Tell her to help me. And then you can see it in the language of the text, Stephen.

It says, she was distracted. Give me that same verse again. I think it's the same one by all the preparations that had to be made. Here's the phrase that had to be made. And now she's operating not out of a sense of privilege to get to do it, but out of a spirit of obligation. I've got to do it. the preparations that have to be made.

Obligation. Sometimes you will pray and ask God to give you an opportunity, and then you will praise God when he does it, and then give it a year, and your prayer request will be the same thing that was a praise report a year ago. Because what starts out as an opportunity, hey, let's have Jesus over, now becomes an obligation. So you find yourself like me, I was walking up. the door a few years ago to preach on a Saturday night. And I guess I wasn't in the best frame of mind. The movie in my mind was probably really busy. Lots going on. The kids are pulling me,

and this is pulling me, and maybe I didn't have my message right like I wanted to. Saturday night is interesting, because a lot of times I'm still trying to get it exactly right. So I'm just, I'm divided, and I'm thinking about this, and the kids are doing that. and the kids were the distraction, even though they're the priority. Because in that moment I had somewhere to be that I needed to be, and I looked at them, and I said something we've all said, thousands of times, and I still say it all the time, but it was the way I said it. I said, get off me. I got to go preach. Spirit of God spoke so clearly on my heart. No, you don't got to. I know it's bad grammar, and God probably uses correct English, but this is how he spoke to me. You don't got to do any of it It kind of stopped me on my tracks

And I start playing it out Well if I don't show up, who's going to preach? Somebody Hmm That's true, isn't it? And if I don't want to do it, somebody else does Huh Okay, kids, not right now

I get to go preach for the glory of God to shepherd the flock over there I didn't say that, I wish I was that spiritual It takes me longer than that. You know, here's a good exercise to do if you've been distracted, pulled apart. Go home if you've got time tonight. Martha, I know you're busy, but before the day is over, sit down and make a list of all the things in your life that you've got to do.

I mean detail, dishes and phone calls and bills and appointments and messages and all of it. And then go back through the list and cross every one of them out because you don't to do any of it. That is horrible grammar and great theology. Tell somebody I don't got to do none of it. None of it. None of it. Well, I got to go to work. No, you don't. Don't go. But I got to pay the bill. You don't have to live indoors either. You don't have to do any of it. Hold on. Let me make a quick announcement. This is probably really bad for church growth. You don't have to come to church here because you have to have to do. to.

Oh, him the glory, and God has been so good to me. I can't wait to give him the praise. I own everything that high breath. Praise the Lord. Five your neighbors say, you don't have to. And if they don't high five, you back, say, you don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to do any of it.

You don't have to study for your test this year. You don't have to pass your class. You don't have to get a job or ever be employed or have any money with which you. to enjoy your life. You don't have to. I get to. I want to. I want to get a want to back in our worship. You know what I'm saying? We're the worship leaders don't have to work so hard and play your song. And that's my jam. And I just love that song. I want you to be able to throw up your hands to anything they sing that mentions the name of the one who sets you free. And if you're singing about Jesus, I don't care if I'm watching on a screen on an iPhone or in Rock Hill.

I'm not praising him because the preacher told me too. I want to give him praise. I want to give him glory. I want to. If you want to, there was a girl who came here from church from Danville. Where is Danville? I don't know. They said it was like an eight-hour drive.

She drove eight hours and somebody else wouldn't drive eight minutes. But that's all right. Because God will always have somebody who wants to waiting to take the place of somebody who wants to complain. This is starting to hurt about what I've got to do. I want to raise my kids. I don't always feel like it, but what does feeling like it have to do with it? I want to kill this lion I want to kill this bear

I want a shot at Goliath I want to sit at his feet It's a privilege It's a privilege you gotta fight Martha Martha will make you miserable You gotta go you gotta gotta gotta gotta No no no no no no I'm going And I want to go

I want to I want to Man It's nothing worse than having somebody doing something for you because they ought to. It doesn't feel right. It makes me nervous when somebody's doing something because they should. I don't want your should, love, should. I don't think God does either. And the worst word we use is ought. I ought to. That's worse than I've got to. Because now you're obligated and you're not even doing it. So now you've got all the burden of obligation

with none of the efficiency of commitment. Buck is so funny now. You've never heard him make jokes, but he is hilarious. You just got to give him the right thing. We were working out one day a few years ago, and he made me a workout, and I went in and he went in. I looked at the workout. It was some legs, some burpees.

I said, he said something, you know, he respects me in, and I pay his salary. But he said it so. cool. He said, what kind of workout do you like? I heard him. I heard what he was saying. You make that same noise every time you walk in here, no matter what I write on the board. You hear Martha in the kitchen? You know, she's making all kinds of noise in the kitchen. Jamaican's from Mary and Jesus can hear banging pots together. And what's really weird

about the passage is Martha is simultaneously the judge. who is telling Mary what she needs to do and the victim because this is the third attitude that causes us to be distracted. Remember, distracted is not an action, it's an attitude to state of mind. So now she's in the third element that makes a really bad movie in your mind, stresses you out, keeps you from really entering into the joy of the Lord and that is victimization. It's taking on the victim mentality. Lord, she left me to do all the work by myself. On the surface, this is sensible. But being mad at Mary doesn't make your life any easier. You know? Like maybe Mary should help. But that's not

your place. You can't make Mary do anything. And so she's judging one minute and she's a victim the next. And that's why the Bible says that you don't want to get in this habit of judging. Because you too will be judged. You will become the victim of your own judgments. When you don't let other people operate in their grace, you will find very little grace for yourself when you need it. You start scrolling. And for a few pictures, you're okay. It's like, ah, their baby is kind of cute.

The real stuff that you don't say to them, you know, kind of cute. No, they're on vacation. Again, they know they can't afford to be on two vacations and six years. Martha's getting mad, madder and madder and madder with every flick of the finger. Oh, must be nice. Does she think she looks good in that? Somebody needs to tell her, tell her Jesus. Tell her that's too tight.

Tell her that dress fit her in a previous lifetime. What somebody... Y'all should come to the 9.30. That's when I'm fresh, alert, and guarded. So Martha is mad, and in a sense she has a right to be. But remember something now. He said in verse 38 where it says not only was it Martha's home, her name was on the deed, but it was Martha's idea to begin with.

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. Now touch the person next to you and say, this was your idea. Come on now. You're the one who wanted to have Peter and Bartholomew and Judas. It was your idea to let all these former fishermen up in our house. Don't get mad at me because you wanted to have a party, but now you want me to panic because you overcommitted.

Don't move, Mary. Don't let people who overcommit drag down your priorities into the chaos of their urgency because they made bad decisions. And don't do it to yourself either. Don't make yourself the victim. Everything that I'm stressed about today is something that I committed to yesterday. About a schedule that I made. I've got to take these kids to the game.

No, you don't. You do not have parents. Since when did we get in this prison of having to be at everything? Okay. This side. Holy See. Spirit just left that part of the church. Some of y'all need to drop your kids off at soccer and go out on a date with your wife because

your kid is an average soccer player and they're not going to score anyway. So go to Bonefish. Go to some games, but God my God, every once in a while it's good for our kids to get the message. The world does not revolve around you and your dance recital. If you want to dance, baby girl, I'll be there. It's wonderful, and I'll show up when I can, but I might not be there every time, and I'm not going to be many places at once. So I've got to be where I am and be okay with that.

I feel freedom breaking out in the church right now. Now go to the next game. Don't let Martha, who comes to every game, make you feel bad because you couldn't make that one. It's okay. This is therapeutic. This is $150 an hour. work right here trying to keep you off that expensive couch and just give you this this teaching from the Word of God because when you live in that place of manipulation

obligation victimization the next thing that happens is interpretation and the skill of interpretation is so important it's like your life is a is a foreign film and what God has planned for you the events that happened to you you don't always know what it really means. And when you're under pressure, and when you play the movie in your mind, where you remember different ways you were offended, which I do so often and what I've got to do, and how it's not fair, and how others don't, and how others should, and all these things that I can tend to dwell on, like Martha, that Martha in all of our minds will start to come to this conclusion. This is the interpretation. Jesus will not do what Martha

wants him to do, and Mary won't do what Martha wants Martha Mary to do, and nobody is saying their lines like Martha wrote them in her mind. So here's what she says next. Lord, all this is in verse 40. Lord, don't you care? You see it? Since she can't control everybody, she thinks that nobody cares about her. Since she can't control the situation, she interprets the situation. Lord, don't you care? And Jesus is like, no, not really. I care about you, but I don't care about what you're cooking in there right now. I came to be with you. And since I can't accept the fact that God loves me more than he loves what I can do for him, I interpret the fact that he's not doing exactly what I want him to do and others aren't doing exactly what I want them to do,

I interpret that to me that they don't care about me. I imagined it so many different ways. Martha! Martha! Because he said it twice. Martha! She didn't listen to the first time. Martha! Or like this. I've been hearing it more tenderly lately. Martha. Martha. So I always thought that this passage was about work and worship.

I thought that Martha was working. and Mary was worshiping and that worshiping was better than working. But really you can't make that case if you read the Bible in context because Paul said that to live your life as a sacrifice is your spiritual act of worship. And that has nothing to do with a song. That has nothing to do with Sunday morning.

So if he's not contrasting work and worship, Maybe he's advocating that the two should become one. That there should be a way that I try to live my life by the grace of God and move into that is more like Mary, not to kick Martha out of the house because it's her house. And not to stop being busy or start feeling bad about how you've been spread so thin. But to blur the line between work and worship a few weeks ago, we were having a staff event and our interns were serving,

our staff on this particular day. And they had put in a very long day, but at the end of the day, we're having a worship service with our staff. And it was so strong what was happening in the auditorium that the interns on their way to tear down chairs and tables and clean the floors and do the work, got caught up in a spirit of worship. There was a TV in a room. One of our interns, Ellie, pulled out her phone, and she caught this moment. When they stopped working for a month, moment and started worshiping. And see how Martha can become Mary, and Mary needs Martha. And Mary needs Martha.

Because you see that girl on her knees right there, and you see that girl headbanging right there? See that white guy clapping off rhythm right there? All that is worship. But then what they did in video is when they stopped singing and started serving, and They took that same spirit with a mop and a broom. My goal in worship today is not just that we have a moment in the presence of God, but that when we leave and we grab our mop and our job and our kids and our responsibilities.

And yes, our tests and yes, our books and yes, the things that we have to do that we work like we worship and we worship like we work. And we find ourselves with extraordinary things that we have to do. extraordinary joy in the congregation, an extraordinary joy in the kitchen, an extraordinary joy that spills over and overflows, and this becomes a way of life. I know you've got to go. I'm almost done, because the fifth thing that I want to discuss with you is the most important of all, and it's expectation. more than anything else, this movie in my mind is about my expectation. And when the movie in my mind doesn't match the scene in my life, there is a tendency for me to begin to think that maybe God is not the author of my story.

Bring my chair real quick. This is the way I saw the movie in my mind. I saw Martha, who saw herself as a director, And I saw how Jesus wanted her to be an extra. And now she's acting extra. Because she's trying to direct a movie in her mind that was not hers to script. And I wonder if you've been sitting in the wrong seat and God gave me this message so you could switch positions and sit like Mary for a little while at his feet. and say, God, this is your movie.

These are your gifts. This is your temple, my body. This is your assignment. God, you know why Mary was so good at interpreting what Jesus was doing? Because she did something Martha didn't do. She listened. She listened. And Martha, Martha's too busy giving directions.

It took a while to learn this. It took a little while to learn that this is not your place. Everybody that said amen just now is over 50. It takes that long. I'm telling you, this is not, you don't want this seat. Because you get it one way in your mind how it needs to be, how it should be. And now you're miserable like Martha. Didn't the universe get my script?

Didn't my future husband get my script? Where is he? Future wife, whatever. Everybody said, why you always put it on the women? You're such a sexist. I'm not a sexist. I'm an equal opportunity offender. I try to make everybody mad in the sermon. This is not my place. And see, it makes sense that this scene, this little, weird little scene, now that we've spelled movie, we spelled movie, we understand how this works. Yeah. But to really understand the scene, you have to put it in conversation. context of the whole story, don't you? Don't you? You can't understand the movie just by one scene. The reason this simple little introduction to Mary and Martha is made here in Luke 10 is because of what the Bible records in John 11. That's where their brother Lazarus gets sick unexpectedly, and they sinned for Jesus to come heal him. So go get that rabbi that stayed at our house, that rabbi who ate my Brussels sprouts,

and tell him to come heal my brother. Jesus doesn't show up for his casting call. He misses. You know, Martha's got it all scripted out. Oh, Lazarus is sick and Jesus is going to come heal him. Lights, camera, Jesus. Jesus doesn't show up until after Lazarus died. And Mary, the director of the movie, now has to reconcile what happened in her life with the way she planned it in the movie in her mind.

And she's frustrated and angry. In fact, you're going to laugh at this verse. In John 11, after Lazarus died and Jesus shows up late, Mary, this is funny. Can I read you this? You got a few more seconds, Martha? When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, this is 20. Oh, yeah, there. Look. She went out to meet him.

She's waiting at the road when he arrives. She's got her hand on her hip. And Mary stayed home. Mary's got her head on her pillow. They're both playing their role. Mary's like, it's dead. There's nothing to do. Martha's like, it's about time. Did you not get the script?

Did you not get the... You missed them. You didn't say, be healed. And he was supposed to be healed and he was supposed to be well and you did it. Jesus didn't come to read your script. He came to flip the script and to show you something that you never could have expected. A movie you didn't know the right immeasurably more than you ask or imagine. I feel the spirit of God on this message right now. I know you wanted me to show up and heal him.

I didn't come to heal him. I came to show you something greater. And one time God showed me that the reason he can't meet all of our expectations is because if he always met my expectations, he would never have the opportunity to exceed my expectations. He's making this movie, not you. He's written this script, not me. And so Martha's like, you should have been here. This is not the way I wrote the movie.

This is not the way I imagined it. And she's waiting at the road, verse 21. But even if you would have been here, my brother wouldn't have died, verse 22. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask. You see, you're getting out of the director's chair a little bit. She's still working Jesus, by the way. I know you can still do it. Come on, women do this to men all the time.

How do you carry all those groceries, you big, strong man? I know you still do it. It didn't go the way I wanted. And she said, your brother will rise again. What? She's still got her script. I know he'll rise again on the resurrection. at the last day. I know. Jesus said, no, no, no. I came not just to read my lines in the script

that you wrote for your life, but I came to change your expectation for something greater than you even knew to ask for. And Jesus said to her, watch, I am the resurrection and the life, and the one who believes in me will live even though they died. Next verse. And whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? That's the question. Do you believe this? Do you believe that you are not the one making this movie? That this is not my place. This is. This is my place. Let's take a moment in God's presence today and just consider that maybe it's not our life that's making us anxious. Maybe it's the movie in our mind, what we wanted it to be, what we always imagined it would be, what we think we have to be. The saddest thing about Martha is that she's frustrated trying to meet an expectation that Jesus did not even have of her.

Jesus never even asked her for all this. Jesus came into her house to be with her. Are you frustrated with yourself because you're expecting something of yourself that God never even put on you to begin with? I came today to break the spirit of manipulation, to break the spirit of obligation, to break the victim mentality, and to let you know that just because God isn't doing it like you want him to do it. Doesn't mean he stopped caring about you. I'm really thankful for one thing. It says that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead,

which Mary never would have put in her movie. She didn't know it was possible. When you let him sit in this seat, what he has for you is so much better than what you have for you. I'm telling you by faith what I know by experience. Let's just stand up like you're in a hurry because it'll pressure me to finish this. I could talk to you all day.

I love this stuff. In John chapter 12, verse 1, it says that a little bit later on, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Now watch verse 2. This is going to bless you. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served. See, she finally got it.

She's not talking. She's not manipulating She's not serving out of obligation and guilt anymore She's serving because she has seen God do What only God could do And I am here at your service God what you want me to be I'm ready to be that now

And so I throw off the expectations of others And I throw off the expectations of self Do what you wanted to God This is your story This is your move and I am your child, and I am at your feet, and I trust you in this season of my life. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give

now or visit elevationchurch.org slash podcast for more information. And if you enjoyed the podcast, You can subscribe, you can share it with your friends. You can click the share button. Take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you. This is an IHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.