The Distractions of Demand: Carry What Counts // Do Not Disturb (Part 3) // Pastor Amberly Bell

Welcome to Transformation Church Podcast, where we represent God to

the lost and found for transformation in Christ. We're so

glad you're here and wherever you're listening from, we believe

God will transform your life.

Do today's message, you guys know, we're in a series

called do Not Disturb, and last week y'all got to

hear from your very own.

Youth pastor, Pastor Tie and he has his own cheering

squad sitting directly in this direction if anybody was wondering

where the youth sit. But he did a phenomenal job

of setting us up and just kind of talking through

focusing and what the different distractions are and what it

is that we have to lock in and focus in on.

And so this has been an incredible series. Pastor brestarted

us and today I am so excited to be able

to share just with you what I feel like God

has shared with me. And when we were kind of

prepping the work for this sermon series, we were taught

fucking just We've had lots of meetings about this sermon

series and I remember Pastor Bree she was like, Okay,

so this is what we're gonna do, and this is

what we're gonna talk about and we were all kind

of going back and forth with our ideas, and she said,

just think about what distracts you. Amberly like, what is

it that really distracts you? And I just sat there

for a moment and I was like, I'm distracted by

my distractions. And she was like okay, And so I

was like, do I call the sermon distracted by distractions?

And so I really like went back to the Lord

and I was like, I meant that in my heart

of hearts, I'm meant I'm distracted by my distractions. But

I really had to figure out what is it that

I feel like really distracts me and gets me out

of alignment of the will of God in my life?

And what is it that takes my focus off of God?

And so I'm excited to be able to share with

you what I believe that is something that's kind of

happening to a lot of us in this season of life.

We live in a very fast paced culture, a very

busy world, lots of things going on at any given time,

of things coming at us. We live in one of

the greatest times of society where information overload is we

can look up and chat GBT and google anything within

seconds and have an answer to our question within point

zero zero two seconds. And so my question for all

of us this morning is does anyone in the room

feel like they are pulled in ten different directions? Am

I talking to anybody in the room feeling like you

have been pulled in ten different directions? With all of

the responsibilities, all of the expectations, all of the requirements.

And what I've realized is that we live in a

very demand driven culture, one demand after another coming from

every angle. It's just a demand after a demand after

a demand. And I've realized that we are a culture

and a people that are constantly distracted by our demands.

So I'm going to title the message today the Distraction

of Demands, because I believe that God wants us to

understand how crucial it is that we lock in and focus,

but what it is, and how the demands of this

life cause us to be distracted and keep us off

of the course, away from what it is that God

is calling us to do. So I want to just

if I can. We are a hot church which is humble,

open and transparent, and so I want to I can

I just be vulnerable with you guys. This morning, am

I in a safe space to be vulnerable. I want

to kind of walk you through what I have been

battling as some of the demands that I feel like

are pulling on me and pulling for my attention constantly.

And my hope in my prayer is that maybe you'll

see yourself in some of these examples, or maybe you

will realize, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that

was something that was vying for my attention, and I

thought it was harmless, and it's actually turned out to

be something more dangerous than I realized. And so I

want to start this morning by just kind of talking

you through some of the demands that I feel like

pull me in those ten different directions that I was

talking about. The first one that I want to talk

about is relationships. I feel like there's a constant demand

to have our relationships all together. And as you can see,

this is my incredibly fine husband, Will. He's so fine,

Thanks babe, And I got this. You're good. Yeah, I

got this on my own. And I love my husband

and I love being married to my husband. But he's

kind of needy and he's constantly wanting things for me

that I may or may not want to give him.

Do the married folks know what I'm talking about? Okay?

Can I talk to the right people in the room.

And what I've learned is at the ripe ole age

of forty four, there are certain things in my body

that are working against me that make me not want

to desire maybe the things that I I freshly wanted

in my twenties. Can any woman in the room relate

right now? And so there's constant demands for my husband

of making sure that his needs are met, making sure

that our marriage is priority, making sure that I am

locked in knowing what it is that he needs, praying

for him, helping him, being his helpmate. And on top

of that, I've got friends ships that I'm trying to maintain,

and I've got friends that want to get together for

dinner days, and I've got friends that want to call

and run an idea by me and I just need

you for two minutes that turns into thirty two minutes,

and if you could just help me figure out this

one thing that I need to figure out. And so

it's constant demands from relationships. It's even just even some

of my coworkers are pulling on me, not from not

even necessarily from a work standpoint, but just they're just

they're relationships that I desire and I want to have,

but the demand to always be everything that they need

to be at all times become so exhausting. And I

love my husband and I love my friends, and yet

it feels like I'm carrying around this demand that feels

a little bit more than I can handle on my own.

So we've got my relationships that I'm thinking through, and

then it's like, oh, on top of that, because I

am forty four, I have to keep my health in check. Right.

So your pastor aka my pastor, about three years ago

he decided to get physically fit. Y'all. Remember when Pastor

Mike was fat and then he got skinny, y'all? Remember

when Will Heckaback was fat and he got skinny. I

love you. He really is one of my close friends.

H It was this awkward moment where we were in

meetings and Pastor Mike was eating meal prep, and all

of a sudden, my raising canes started looking really suspicious

next to his meal prep or my Chick fil A

or my Taco Blaine. I mean whatever it is that

I wanted to eat. He would be sitting next to

me in a meeting just eating chicken and rice and broccoli,

and I was like, that's crazy. And I remember he

began a movement. You guys, remember when he got healthy.

It kind of came to the point where we didn't

have a choice as a staff. We were either gonna

be the unhealthy ones or we was gonna get healthy.

And I decided I wasn't gonna do I wasn't gonna

let him continue to eat meal prep and me continue

to chomp down on my pepperoni pizza that I take

the pepperonis off of because I like the way the

pepperoni flavors the bread, but I don't actually want the

pepperoni on my pizza. Okay, So now I've got to

get my health in check. But then, all of a sudden,

as you begin to age and grow up gracefully and beautifully,

your hormones all of a sudden decide to wreak havoc

on your body and nothing is what it used to be.

And so now you're going to doctor appointment after doctor

appointments trying to figure out what's going on with your hormones.

So I'm just trying to eat right. My husband doesn't

eat chicken. I mean, he doesn't eat chicken. He only

eats beef. But I only eat chicken. I don't eat beef.

So then I have to meal prep only chicken for

me and only beef for him. And then Mia, bless

her little heart. Wouldn't you know that one week she

likes strawberries and the next week she does it. So

I've gotten a costco bought all the strawberries only to

find out what she don't like strawberries no more. So

it's a constant battle. Can I drink four hundred ounces

of water today? Can I eat two thousand grams of

protein today? Can I take? Does anybody understand what that

demand feels like on you when you're trying to be

healthy and keep your body in alignment, and you know

you're the temple of the Holy Ghost and he dwells

inside of you. But the pressure to keep all of

that in alignment is a lot, right, So then we've

got those blessings of children, right. And I love my daughter,

y'all know, I love me some, Mia bell I love

me some Mia Belle. But what I tell you this

kid comes with demands all of her own. First, she

got soccer practice. Okay, let me get you to soccer

practice three times a week. Oh. And then also you

want me to take you to that private lesson for

that coach to teach you the extra skills.

Cool.

Oh, volleyball. Oh, we're gonna go to volleyball twice a week. Okay.

But then you also want to start serving better, so

I'm gonna put you in private lessons to start serving better. Okay. Cool.

Oh and now they're teaching calculus in eighth grade. Great,

let me figure out through Chad Gubt how to do

that again. Oh, and you still want to eat your lunch? Ah,

thank you Jesus. Okay. As you can see, the demands

are piling up. Not only that, but now she's a

pre tea or not a preteen, she's a teenage girl,

my bad, and she has teenage girls problems. And now

I'm trying to counsel her through all of the teenage

girl drama that's going on at school and remind her

to say kind things but then also punch them in

the throat if they need to be punched. You know,

I'm just it's just it's balance, you know, it's like

lay your hands on them and pray for them and

then go ahead and just take them out if you

need to. But so your children are pulling at you

depending on the age and stays that your kids are in,

and they've got demands. At are point, do you see

the demands piling up? Well, then you got to have

a job because you got to pay your bills, right,

So then you've got your career. And I decided let

me bring my real boss, my real life boss, up

to the stage. She said, don't talk crazy about me.

And I don't know if y'all have ever read an

email from Pastor Bree Davis, but per her emails, she

has some things she needs us to know as some

expectations that she wants us to follow through on. On

top of that, I also have a part time job

outside of my full time job, and I would like

to do the work that God has called me to

do outside of this country and go to the work

and do the work in Africa. So there's also a

nonprofit that I'm trying to keep up with. So all

of it is fighting for my attention, one demand after another.

Then it's my spiritual life, which I want to serve God.

I want to hear God's voice. I know I need

to be praying. I know I need to be fasting.

I know I need to be mentoring. I know I

need to be mentored. I know I need to go

to therapy because yeah, there's that, and uh there's I

gotta have a sabbath because that's you know, it's important

to rest, and how do you rest when you're carrying

all of this? And then it's like, I know I

need to fast, I know I need to pray. I

know I need to lock into what God is doing,

and so I've got to show up to church. And

then I also want to be a part of a

serve team because you guys put a really cool graphic

up that made it look like I wanted to serve

and I want to be in community. I don't want

to live life, so I'm gonna get into a tribe.

And it's again just one demand after another. But then

what about when life starts lifing? Because then there's still

bills to pay, there's still car problems. You know, the

light goes on in your engine and you've got to oh, okay,

and then thank you so much and then it's you know,

the dishwasher breaks and you have to have a new dishwasher.

And then it's you've got to make sure that the

yard gets mode and wet and weed eat it, because

if you live in a subdivision with an HOA, you

will be getting a nasty letter from the president of

the HOA. And so there's all these things that are

fighting for your attention, pulling at you and dividing you

in different directions. And then let's not forget finances, because

you do have to pay your bills. You do have

to give to Caesar what is due to Caesar. The

taxman does in fact want his money every April. Oh okay,

and so I need to keep those in order. And

remember I'm not getting any younger. So they say I

need to start saving for retirement and have seven to

one k's and thirteen two twenties to send my kids

adequately to college, and whoa, this is a lot. And

then culture is coming at me telling me I have

to be a certain way, look a certain way, do

a certain thing, live a certain way, post a certain way,

don't post that, post this, do this, don't do that,

And it's just honestly too much. And then last, but

not least, is the emotional demands. How do you keep

your mental health stable? How do you not fall into

anxiety or depression or worry or grief or worry about Oh,

it's honestly just too much. And if I could submit

to you, this is what life is like for all

of us. Someone or something is handing us one bag

after another, bag after another bag, and it's causing us

to be continually and perpetually distracted. And distractions aren't necessarily

always a bad thing. It's only bad when they pulled

away our attention, our focus, and our devotion to God.

And we weren't the only ones that have been distracted.

If you will, will you turn with me in your

Bibles to Luke chapter ten. I want to read to

you about a woman who is distracted. Luke Chapter ten,

verses thirty eight through forty two is what we're going

to read. And it says this. As Jesus and his

disciples were on their way, he came to a village

where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the

Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was

distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

She came to him and asked, Lord, do you not

care that my sister has left me to do the

work all by myself. Tell her to help me 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 from her. So the truth is, we're all carrying

too many bags. Like Martha, were distracted, We're anxious, were

overwhelmed by everything and everyone that's asking from us or

taking something from us. I want to think about this

for a minute. So, men in the room, you are

there's the constant distraction and demand on you to be

the provider of your home, to be able to be

the one to fix anything that goes wrong, to fix

the problems, whether it be the dishwasher or the kids

that are acting crazy. You're the one that's called on

to fix everything. Ladies, we're the ones that are asked

to kind of hold everything together, if you will. And

then we've got married people who are trying to meet

the needs of their spouse that they may have and

on top of that, trying to build their own personal

identity and keep themselves together. And then at the same

time they're arguing about who's responsible for trash on Tuesday

night for the Wednesday night pickup singles. You're out here

trying to do everything on your own. When something breaks,

it's up to you or Chad GBT or Google to

figure out how to fix it. Kids, you're worried about

your homework and your sports, and your classes and your

friends and your teachers. And teenagers you're worried about what

you're going to do and be for the rest of

your life. And our culture asks you at the age

of eighteen to have everything figured out and know exactly

what it is that you want to do for the

rest of your life until you retire at sixty five.

And then for my young adults, you've got bills to

pay and everyone's asking you when are you settling down,

When are you gonna get married? Then you get married,

When are you gonna have a kid? Then you have

a kid. When are you gonna have another kid? Then

you have another kid. When are you gonna have another kid?

Or when are you gonna stop having kids? It's this

constant pool and then for my retired season Saints, you

thought your life was free and you were done. But

now you're raising the grandkids you never planned to raise.

And now you're worrying about the new demands that are

on your body because your body is aging and changing

and there's physical limitations that you didn't experience in the

previous season of life. So there is the distraction of

demands takes a toll on it. So this morning, I

want to talk about the three problems with demands. There

are three problems with demands. Number one, demands divide our attention.

If you look up the Greek word of the word distraction,

it literally means to be pulled apart in different directions.

When you are pulled in ten different directions, it is

impossible to give one hundred percent of yourself in any

one direction. And I think sometimes when we read the Bible,

we read it as if it's written in modern day culture.

And so when we read the story of Mary and Martha,

it's easy to think that Martha was just busy picking

up the kitchen, cleaning the kitchen, getting the lemonade and

the glass jar, you know those glass jars, and have

a little spickett thing on them support the glass elimonade.

But we really have to go back into Bible context

and look at what a first Jewish century history look

like to understand what it was that Martha was actually doing.

If you think about this from a Bible perspective, Martha

there was no pre made checuterie board. Martha had to

go gather the grains and the figs and the greenery

that we put on our secuterary board to make the

said schecutery board. When she prepared chicken, it she didn't

just go to Costco and get chicken out of the

freezer and bring it home. The chicken had to be

chased down and caught, slaughtered, killed, feathers plucked out of it,

and prepared. In order to even be able to have

the chicken, she had to prepare the grain. It had

to be the flour that was made for the bread.

The grain had to be pressed, and so there was

all of these preparations. So you can see Martha's frustrations

when Mary was doing nothing and Martha was doing everything

to get ready to feed Jesus, and she's frustrated when

she comes to Jesus and she says, why is she

not helping tell her to help me. The demands of

her preparations kept her from being focused on what was

really important. It divided her attention from the one who

is in the room. If you think about it, when

our attention is divided, our devotion becomes diluted. If you

think about your own time with God when you set

you know, when you set that alarm and you're like,

I'm gonna get up extra early, and I'm going to

spend some time in the world, and I'm gonna really

pray today, and I'm really going to read the scripture.

And don't you know, the minute that you open up

your Bible, there's a The first thing out is either

a ding on your phone or it's one of the

kids calling for you from another room. Every time we

set our hearts to focus on the things of God,

there will always be demands that will be pulling at us,

that will be fighting for our attention. And if we

let our attention be divided like that, our devotion will

become diluted. The second problem with demands is that they

disturb our spirit. Jesus said, Martha, you are worried and

upset about many things, And again that Greek word worry

just means this sh she was divided in her mind,

And the Book of Jane says that a double minded

man is unstable in all of his ways. So when

we are worried and anxious and overcome with those things,

we are unstable. We're not able to make clear decisions.

It's the inner restlessness that comes from trying to keep

everyone happy and meeting every expectation, checking off every single box,

or even the way that we look on the outside

is staying busy keeps us falling apart. The overload of

demands produces inner unrest. I think about just the time

demands that we have on our life. The clock is

always ticking. There's meetings, deadlines, practices, appointments. There's never enough time.

But the problem with that is when everything feels urgent,

nothing feels peaceful. For moms and dads, there's the demanding

of parenting your kids and staying up late and having

the conversations with them the early morning's offs at school.

Parenting is a blessing, but it's also such a taxing

toll on you sometimes though. The hardest demands that we face, though,

are the ones that we self inflict. We lay down

at night. We're exhausted. We've had a full day, and

everything our mind won't shut off because everything's replaying the

to do list, the things we need to check off,

the things we didn't accomplish, the things that have to

move on to tomorrow. We're present with people even during

the day, but not actually there. They're talking to us,

and we're not even actually hearing what they're saying because

we're so distracted. And then I don't know about you,

but sometimes I find myself at night scrolling through my phone,

just trying to decompress from the day, and I've got

this bright light shining in my face, and I'm trying

to go to sleep at night, wondering why I can't

fall asleep at night when I've just had the sun

of God shining in my face. We're distracted, and our

spirits become so disturbed that we become so so irritable

and so unkind to people. And it happens oftentimes to

the people that we love the most. And I was

traveling a couple of years ago. I remember I was

traveling with a certain lady and we were getting ready

to catch a flight, and she had about four bags.

She had a fanny pack, she had a pillow, she

had a blanket, and she had her stuffed animal. And

I remember thinking to myself, there is no way that

Southwest Airlines is going to let her onto the airplane

with all of those bags. So I politely went up

to her and I was like, ma'am, I just you know,

just so you're aware, Southwest does have like a two

bag policy, and there's ten that I'm counting, so you'll

want to, you know, just do a little condensing. And

she's like, well, I can't condense these bags. My pillow's

not gonna fit in my suitcase. My blanket's not gonna

fit in my suitcase. And so she said, I'm just

gonna wing it. And I was like, I'm gonna tell

you right now, Southwest doesn't play around, and they will

hold up the whole line for you and make you

look like a plum fool if you don't have your

bags solid, consolidated. Right she said, oh, it'll be fine.

So sure enough, we get to line up and she's

standing about four people in front of me, and she's

got eighteen bags wrapped around her. And the gay agent

stopped the entire line and got on the you know,

the little walky thing, and said, I need everyone to

consolidate all of their personal belongings into two bags. Those

crossbody bags, those things wrapped around, those blankets, those pillows,

those all now have to be wrapped up and put

into your suitcase. And he was literally talking to her,

but made an announcement to the entire airport of people

that were standing there waiting to board the flight. So

she panics, like anyone would do in that moment, and

she tried to stuff what she had extra with her

into the bags that she brought with her, but there

was zero room in those bags. So then she started saying, hey,

she was passing down her pillow that had drool on

it from the night before to the four people behind

her and her blanky down at someone who did have two,

say suitcases, was having to take on a second suitcase.

And I realized in that moment, people were having to

carry a burden they didn't show up to carry because

she didn't prepare well. And I just wonder how many

of us, because we do not have our spirits in check,

because we are so distracted by the demands that life

has put on us, that we are showing up to

the people that we love the most, our spouses, our family,

our friends, and we're expecting them to take the leftover

baggage that we didn't prepare how to handle properly. And

then we have the nerves. When I tell you she

was mad at that gay agent, I mean, she was

anger ree with that gay agent. And I thought to myself,

that poor woman was just man was just doing his job,

but she was so frustrated. And I just think to myself,

when our spirits get so disturbed like that, we become

people that we don't want to become. We say things

that we don't want to say, we do things that

we don't want to do, and it's because we've been

distracted by our demands and our spirits are disturbed. The

truth is, the overload doesn't just exhaust your body, it

wears down your soul. The third thing is is that

demands distract us from what matters most. Martha wasn't necessarily

doing something wrong. She was serving Jesus, the King of

kings and the Lord of lords. But in doing that,

she missed the opportunity to simply just be with Jesus.

That's the danger of demands. Though they don't always show

up as bad things. Many times they're good things that

just slowly crowd out the very best thing. You see,

Martha wanted to feed Jesus. That was her whole desire,

was to make sure that Jesus was fed. But Mary

chose to be fed by Jesus. Martha wanted to Jesus,

and all Mary wanted to do was hear from Jesus.

Martha wanted to serve Jesus, and all Mary wanted to

do was to be with the one who saved her soul.

These demands distract us from what matters most. You and

I can spend hours scrolling on our phone, through social media,

through apps, through websites, and then we'll have the audacity

to say that we don't have time to read our

Bible or time to pray. The reality is we have

all been given the same twenty four hours in a day,

and we get to choose what we do with those

twenty four hours. We'll show up early for work, we'll

show up early to the gym, we'll show up early

to the practice. But then when we tell you that

church starts at ten am Central Standard time, we're nowhere

to be found. What we have to see what it

is that we're prioritizing. Demands don't just cae keep us busy,

they keep us distracted. Jesus said that Mary has chosen

what is better and it will not be taken from her.

Mary's focus was on one thing, the presence of Jesus.

He gave her something that no distraction could ever steal away.

So you may be saying right now, so okay, I

understand that Amberly, I'm distracted by my demands. I clearly

see I have a lot of demands in my life

and I'm fully distracted by them. What do I do?

What's the solution to this? And I want to encourage

you this morning. I want to give you some very

practical solutions on when you feel like the demands are

distracting you from the thing that matters the most, your

relationship with Jesus. What do you do? And I want

to take you to what the Bible says is the

greatest commandment in scripture. If you look at Matthew twenty two,

verses thirty six through thirty nine, it says, this teacher,

which is the greatest commandment in the law. The Pharisees are

asking Jesus this, so Jesus replied to them, love the

Lord your God with all your heart, and with all

your soul, and with all your mind. This is the

first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it,

love your neighbor as yourself. So the greatest commandment the

Bible makes it pretty simple. It's to love God, to

love his people, and to love yourself. Well. If you

are wondering, am I a maturing believer? Am I a

believer who is growing up in Jesus? Ask yourself, how

well do you love? How well do you love God?

How well do you love the people that are not lovable,

the people that are rude, the people that cut you

off on the highway? How well do you love those people?

And then, last, but certainly not least, how well do

you love yourself? You are a temple of the Holy Spirit.

So how are you taking care of the one and

only body that God is given you. What is it

that you're doing to show your self love? Because you

can't love others if you don't love yourself. Well, but

here's the thing we keep adding on these ethereal bags.

If you will saying that I have to be married

by the time I turn thirty, I have to have

a house. By the time I turn thirty two, I

have to have X amount in my savings account, or

I'm not worthy enough, I'm not valuable enough. My house,

my apartment has to look Instagram ready so that I

can post it on Instagram at any given time. And

we put these unnecessary demands on ourself. But Mary has

chosen what is better. Mary sat down her demands and

chose the one thing that she could actually carry, and

that was her devotion to Jesus. So I think about

when you go to an airport. So, for those of

you that may not know, I have spent the last

twenty five years traveling back and forth to Africa. I can't.

Somebody ask the other day how many times you've been

added Africa, and I think I'm on thirty eight. I

think I've kind of lost count. So thirty eight times

I've been to Africa. So I've been in a lot

of airports. I've been on a lot of airplanes. I've

seen a lot of suitcases. I've seen a lot of

crazy things happen at an airport. One of my favorite

things to do is to watch Oh it's not really

favorite it's kind of sad. But whenever people check in

their suitcases, it's like they've packed their whole house in

a suitcase and you're only a lot at fifty pounds,

and the kitchen sink is seventy two, so it can't

go with you on the trip, right, So people will

be it's just a panic situation. In an airport, people

are unzipping, throwing out shoes and dresses and an iron

and it's like, what was you gonna do with that

in Africa in the first place. Like I'm telling you

right now, the last thing you're gonna be worried about

is if your clothes or are ironed or not. And

so people are getting rid of the things that they

can't because they have to consolidate down to what is

manageable and to what can be carried. And when I

think about the greatest commandment in scripture being to love God,

love people, and love yourself, that's manageable, that's meaningful, that's

life giving. But when you take on all of this,

this is not manageable, this is not meaningful, and it's

certainly not life giving. So what do we have to do.

We have to decide what we're gonna carry, and we

have to carry what counts. So I think I'm gonna

subtitle this message it's the distractions of demands, but carry

what counts, because if you think about it, whenever somebody

is at the airport and they're having to consolidate all

of their items down, this is essentially what we're gonna do.

The thing about that's important to understand about demands is

demands are seasonal. Not every demand that you have experienced

in your life right now is necessary. Season There are

some things that are absolutely going to be required of you.

You're gonna have to work in order to pay your bills,

in order to feed your family. Those are I mean,

those are pretty non negotiables. But trying to plan the

most epic first child's birthday party with all of the

matching decors and having Elsa there to sing let it

Go is not necessary. Having everything look like a Pinterest

mood board is not necessary. You have unnecessarily added things

to your life that Jesus never asked you to. Is

planning that epic first birthday party gonna make you a

super cool parent? Sure? Are these kids gonna remember it? No?

Absolutely not? And all it's gonna do is stress you

plumb out and cost you a lot of money. And

so these are seasonal. Not everything needs to be with you.

There are certain things that you can take out in,

certain things that you can leave with you. And then

the beautiful thing about Jesus is he allows us every

day becase because his mercies are new every single morning.

He allows us to come back to him every day

and submit does this need to go with me? Or

does this need to stay? I feel very overwhelmed by this.

Does this go or does this stay? And if we

spend time listening to the one who should really be

writing the agenda and the plan for the day, then

we'll know what needs to go with us and what

needs to stay. But it's a constant submission to Jesus.

And I think oftentimes what we do, I know I'm

guilty of it is I'm like, I got I got this,

I can do all of the I absolutely got. Then

what happens is someone actually needs me. I'm in Target

on Aisle seven, buying cluster lashes that don't have to

be glued in, just stuck in. Just learned about those,

by the way, and I see a woman who looks

completely distraught and the spirit of God is tugging on

my spirit so heavy. Aberly, you have what she needs.

How in the world do I stop doing what I'm

doing and make any space or any margin for that woman.

When I'm like, uh, ma'am, can I pray for you?

Just stretch out your hand, let me pray for you.

It makes it virtually impossible to allow God to use

you when your hands are this full. So what I

submit to you is we're gonna carry what counts. So

we're gonna pick up the things. We're gonna ask God.

We're gonna take this to the Lord. Lord what goes

with me in this season and what doesn't. Mia definitely

needs to eat, so I'm gonna make sure her lunch

goes with me. And I'm gonna consolidate this down to

something that's manageable, something that's meaningful, something that's life giving,

so that as I go about my day, I can

be exactly who I need to be for the people

that God has put around me. I can fully love

and worship God. I can fully be attentive to the

people that are around me that need His love, and

I can fully love myself will and when I think

about the scripture. I want to read to you the

scripture out of Matthew. It's Matthew eleven twenty eight through thirty.

It says, come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my

yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am

gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest

for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my

burden is light. There's a reality. The Bible does say

that there is a burden. It does not say that

the burden is absent, but it promises that the burden

will be light. So my question to you is, if

the burden feels heavy, what needs to be taken out?

What is it that you need to say no to?

What is it that needs to be removed? What is

it that needs to be reevaluated? Because there's going to

be a burden. It's not absent, it's not gone, it's

not removed. But Jesus says his burden is light. If

I needed to lift this up and put this in

an overhead compartment, it's light enough to do so it's manageable.

So we need to assess what it is that we're doing.

So how do you carry what counts? First one, put

your phone down? Put your phone down? How do you

carry what counts? You put the thing that is standing

between the king of kings wanting to speak to his

daughter or his son. Do you understand that Heaven is

speaking to you, but your phone is so much louder.

There are secrets and mysteries and things that he wants

to reveal to you and show you, And you are

fighting for clarity in the midst of chaos. You are

asking for discernment, and the distractions that you are experiencing

on that phone are completely nulling and avoiding any discernment

that you could possibly have. It is a great thing.

I'm not saying technology is bad, and I'm not saying

you shouldn't have your phones, But I don't understand how

in our culture our phone has become such an idol

that it would take place of the one who hung

on the cross and bore the sins of the world,

and that that phone could be more important or have

more to say than the one who died to save

our souls. We have to prioritize the presence of God

when you start your day centered and grounded in the

presence of God. It changes the flow and the function

of the rest of the day. You can't expect direction

from God while entertaining every notification from the world or

from your phone. You see, here's the thing. Silence in

our culture feels like emptiness. If your house is quiet

and there's nothing happening, it feels empty to you, like

you're maybe wasting time. You're not busy, you're not producing,

you're not doing what you need to do. But in

the Kingdom of God, silence isn't emptiness. It's access. When

you choose to put your phone on, do not disturb.

It's not about shutting people out. It's about being intentional

with who and what you let in. The same is

true in our spiritual life. Silence isn't isolation, it's intentionality.

It's saying, right now, I am focusing on the one

thing that matters the mo and here's the beauty of this.

God rarely shouts over the noise. He speaks in a whisper,

but it's whispers that only those that are still can hear.

The second thing is practice focus. You guys know, the

word of the year this year is focused. We're getting

focused in every area of our life, and my encouragement

to all of us is that we have to beget

to a place where we stop multitasking everything that we

do and do one thing and do it with all

of our hearts. I think about just in a normal day,

if there's a Zoom call or a Zoom meeting, and

it's like, while people are on zoom or in a meeting,

they're scrolling through social media, they're checking their emails, they're

checking their text messages, they're adding something to their Amazon

cart to have it delivered between four am and eight

am tomorrow morning. They're multitasking, and they think that multitasking

is making them more productive. But the problem is, multitasking

doesn't make us more productive. It makes us more distracted,

more drained, and more divided. Even with our families, when

we're sitting around watching a movie together, there's multiple screens,

people are watching different things. We're all in the same

room together, we're all watching the same thing, and yet

we're all completely divided and not really even spending time together.

We brag about multitasking as if it's a superpower. As

Pastor Bree says, we wear busyness as a badge of honor.

But busyness doesn't equal fruitfulness. It's just a fancy word

for being really distracted all the time. The third thing

is is you have to protect the priority. So guard

that one bag. Whatever that one bag is, your time

with Jesus, your family, whatever that is. You are to

guard that as if it was a non negotiable. Life

will always be willing to add more more bags to you,

So you have to guard the one that's important to you.

You have to block off time for it, for your life,

for your health, for your spiritual wealth. Even Pastor Mike

I don't know if you guys follow him on social media,

but just a few days ago he posted something so

powerful about how we have to get our finances in order,

and if you don't have money, you should be talking

with somebody who has money to teach you how to

use money so that when you get money, you know

what to do with money. You have to block off

time for that. And so work is always going to

have deadlines, friends will always have expectations for you, and

culture is going to continue to pressure you. So when

you protect the priority, when you're protecting the one thing

that's the most valuable and most important to you, what

does that mean that you're doing It means you're saying

no to the things that need to be said no to,

and you're saying yes to the things that need to

be said yes to. Let your yes be yes, and

let your no be no. And for some of us,

very practically, that means we need to start time blocking.

Maybe for some of you that's that's a cuss word.

Maybe for some of you, you don't know what that means.

But if it for me, if it's not in my calendar,

it doesn't happen. And so I have reached the stage

of life, like I told you at the beginning, where

I schedule intimate fellowship with my husband because I know

that that's important to our marriage and to the health

of our marriage, and so it has become a priority.

So it goes in my calendar. Working out my gym

appointment that I have every morning, it goes in my

calendar so that it cannot be missed. My quiet time

with God. It is in there every single day. Now

does it happen at the same time every day, Not necessarily,

but it's part of my daily routine. It's a part

of my daily practices. And so if you're not structured

in time blocking, I would encourage you that's how you

remove some of the distractions is creating a more structured

environment for yourself. It doesn't mean you have to always

live in that structured space, but it may be the

exact ground, it may be the exact foundation that you

need to be successful. So you have to you have

to set the right priorities. I think about again, going

back to just traveling and being in and out of airports.

Whenever I see people condensing down their suitcases and remember

the iron is not going to Africa with us, or

the seventeen boxes of wreos. There literally was one woman

one time who packed seventeen boxes of oreos and I

was like, Oh, she's really sad. There's not going to

be American chocolate and when we get to Africa. But

as I see people pulling things out of their bags,

I realized everyone's doing essentially the same thing. They're keeping

in their bag what's most important to them, and they're

pulling out the things that they could they could probably

do without for the next two or three weeks. They

don't necessarily need those items. And that's all I'm saying

to you this morning is there's a lot of things

that you could keep, there's a lot of things that

you could take. There's a lot of expectations that you

could meet, and a lot of demands that you could fulfill.

But does it all does it all need to go

with you? Is it all meaningful? Does it all all

produce life? Does it give you that joy and zeal

and passion and fervor for life that God desires you

to live? In the Book of John, says that the

enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus comes

to give life and life in abundance. And so this morning,

if you're experiencing a non abundant life, if you're worried

and overwhelmed and anxious, I want to submit to you

that it's possible that the demands that are in your

life are not actually demands, but they're decisions, and we

all have a choice. You can choose to cancel Netflix.

I know that's a shocking statement to make, but you

don't have to have Netflix. That is, if that is

distracting you from spending time with God, or causing you

to stumble in ways you didn't even know you were

going to stell, then I would submit to you. You

don't have to have it. You don't have to be

all things to all people at all times. You don't

have to show up to every birthday party that you're

asked to go to. You don't have to go to

every baby shower. You don't have to go to every event.

Every text message that you get doesn't need a response.

Every DM that hits your inbox doesn't need a response.

It doesn't make you a bad person. It means you're focusing.

As I was preparing this message, I just realized that

some of the demands that I feel like that are

demands in my own life are really just decisions that

I've made. And the beautiful thing about God is he

gives us the chance and the opportunity and the choice

to assess. He's so kind and he's so gentle, and

he won't make us do anything that we don't want

to do, but he'll wait tenderly and lovingly for us.

Because at the end of the day, when I think

about Martha and Mary, Jesus was there no matter what.

He wasn't going anywhere. He was waiting for Martha to

come and stir her little heart up and tell him

how bad her sister was, but he wasn't going anywhere.

And the thing that I love the most about Jesus

is he handles both personalities at the same time. He

handles Mary sitting there resting in his presence, and he

handles or anxious, frantic Martha at the same time, and

he doesn't yell at her. He says, Martha, Martha, why

are you so worried? Why are you so anxious? I

know sometimes in the homes that we've grown up in,

that's not maybe the type of parenting style that we

even heard. And as I was just thinking about some

of the demands that we have in our life, like

what is it that makes us feel like we have

to do so much? And if you really think about

your own life, it comes down to, probably more than

likely how you were raised. You either saw parents who

were workaholics and working there, you know, working till late

hours of the night to provide everything for you, or

you saw parents who weren't and you knew you didn't

want to be like that. So now you've turned this opposite,

You've gone the opposite way. And I remember as a kid,

I cannot count on one hand how many times I

heard the word the sentence I'm proud of you. It

just wasn't a sentence said in my home. And I'm

convinced it's not because my mom wasn't proud of me.

I think it's because she never had it said to her,

so she didn't know how to say it to me.

And so those words I'm proud of you never ever

echoed in my childhood, and I'll never forget as an adult,

I got my degree, got into the workforce, and I

may be heard like good job, old buddy, old palell

a couple of times, but I never really heard that

I'm really proud of you. So when I entered into

my real estate career full time, I'll never forget. The

first year that I was in real estate, I sold

over ten million dollars with a real estate, which in

Oklahoma is a really big deal because we sell like

houses for little money compared to like Florida and California

and TC Nation. I just had to give you some perspective.

And I remember my broker called me and he was like, man, Amberly,

I'm really proud of you. And you know what that

did to me Instead of it making me feel all

ugly googly on the inside and warm and fuzzy. I

was like, Oh, that was the affirmation I've been looking

for my whole life. I will always produce at this level.

I will always work to the bone. I will always work,

and I will always sell, and I will never stop,

and I will never give up. And you will not

find me sitting down. And anyone who sits down is lazy.

And if they're not working forty plus hours a week,

sixty plus hours week, thing, you're lazy and you're not

using the gift that God has given you. And this

ugly thing grew in my heart because I'd finally received

the affirmation that I needed and it came from what

I produced. And so I realized, in submitting even this

sermon to God that the demands that I've placed on

myself are coming from a little six year old Amberley

who just wanted someone to say, Man, I'm proud of you.

And so this wasn't a part of my message, but

I want to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. And

there are people in this room that never heard I'm

proud of you either. You say, you can absolutely relate

to that. In fact, you heard phrases maybe more like

you're worthless, You will never measure to anything. And I

just am here to tell you you are worthy, You

are valuable. You are seen by a God who loves

you endlessly, and you don't have to produce, You don't

have to perform, you don't have to do backflips. You

get to just simply be with him. And he loves

you just because of Goog. You are because you are

his child. And so this morning, my invitation to you

is simple. I'm gonna have everyone stand in the room.

What I have found is that the loudest demands in

our life rarely matched the deepest needs of our soul.

So I'm gonna ask you, is it what bag is

that you need to set down? What bags is it

that you need to leave behind so you can really

focus on the thing that matters most. I have no

doubt in my mind that in a room this size,

and with people watching from all over the world, that

there are people that are just tired. You're weary, you're overwhelmed,

you're anxious. Your life looks like all of those bags.

And today he says, come come to me, all you

who are weary and heavy burden, and I will give

you rest. And so this morning. That's my simple invitation

to you. The worship team's gonna come, they're gonna play,

they're going to sing, and we've got the altar team

that's going to be down front. They're going to make

their way down now even and we've got people who

want to partner in prayer with you. It really is

your choice, it really is your decision. And so, Father God,

we just come to you right now with hands lifted,

with hearts surrendered, saying, Holy Spirit, would you just reveal

the parts of our heart and the reparts of our

life that don't need to be there? God, Maybe the

demands that we've been distracted by, maybe the excessive baggage

that we've been carrying, maybe the things that just feel

so heavy, so anxiety ridden, so worrisome, and God, would

you give us the strength and the power to surrender

that to you this morning. God, God, your word is

so clear that your yoke is easy and your burden

is light. So Holy Spirit, we pray that you would

do a work that only you can do for some

of you that are in the room today. The very

real reality is that the Jesus that we've talked about,

that even that Mary and Martha, were trying to host

and hear from, and feed and be fed from. You

don't have a relationship with that Jesus. And so we

want to give you that opportunity this morning to make

Jesus the lord of your life. If you've never asked

Jesus to come into your life and to be the lord,

I want to explain what that briefly means. I think

about it. When you're renting a property, there's a landlord,

and that landlord essentially gets to make all of the

decisions concerning the property, and you run everything through that landlord.

You don't paint a wall unless you talk to the landlord.

You don't move a wall unless you talk to the landlord.

And the same is true. And we make Jesus the

lord of our lives. We run everything through him. We

ask him for wisdom and direction and discernment and understanding

and knowledge. And so if you have been in this

where you've been trying to do this on your own,

and you've never fully surrendered to Jesus, we want to

give you the opportunity this morning to make Jesus the

lord of your life. This morning, you're surrounded in a

church full of amazing people who love you and who

are going to walk this out with you. And so

if that's you this morning, I'm just going to ask

everyone in this room to pray this prayer after me,

and I want us to just say, Dear God, I

admit that I've made mistakes. I admit that I need

a savior. I asked that you would change my heart.

I asked that you would change my motives. I believe

you lived, I believe you died, and I believe you

rose again just for me. Will you change me, renew me,

and transform me. I am yours in Jesus' name. A

men and amen listen. If you have made that decision

this morning, you have made the absolute greatest decision that

you could ever make in your life. I want you

to do me a favor. If you've made that decision,

will you just raise your hand. We just want to

get you some information. I see people up in the

back corner. Can we celebrate the people? I see you

over there, I see that hand over there. We thank

God for you and for your life. And if you

have made that decision, maybe you didn't feel comfortable raising

your hand, do us a favor and text the word

saved to A two A two A two. We just

want to connect you with some resources and help you

walk this out. We do not want you to do

this alone. The altar is going to stay open, the

worship team is going to continue to pray or to

sing for us, and we just want to invite you

to come. This space is open for you and he's

longing to meet you. So until next week, go out

and live a transformed life