A Fully Present Table

Well, welcome to Church of the Grove.

My name is Jonah Faulkner.

I'm the student pastor here for our Walnut Grove campus.

And just want to say one more time, welcome.

Thank you for being here, especially if you're a first-time guest.

We hope you felt welcome, loved, encouraged as you walked in, and we're just excited that you're here this morning.

I want to start by talking about a phrase, more so something that we we now are calling people.

Has anybody heard the phrase or or been called an iPad kid?

Anyone heard that?

So for those of you who don't know, an iPad kid is a kid, sometimes an adult, who relies heavily on an iPad or really any kind of technology or screen for that matter.

And they they rely on it for entertainment, they rely on it for calming mechanisms.

Some of them rely on it for social interactions, your notes for preaching, whatever it may be, it's relying heavily on technology and a screen.

And as a result of this excessive screen time, there could be a lack of social skills, maybe a little bit of awkwardness when it actually comes to interacting with people face to face.

It could lead to behavioral issues, really all because of this high dependence on a screen.

And before I go any further about examples of what this uh may look like, I want to expose myself a little bit because uh my sisters love to call me an iPad kid.

I get that all the time.

Um I'm not really sure why, but I'm gonna share a couple examples of maybe why they would why they would call that.

Uh one of the best and worst things about having a phone in my pocket at all times or having a laptop, iPad, any of that, is that I can really I can stream just about any sporting event that I want to, wherever I am, right?

So if you if you know me, then you know that I care a lot about what happens on most Sunday afternoons throughout the year, right?

That's it's golf, golf tournaments.

I love watching um golf tournaments.

I love watching uh the Braves.

Not so much this year, but I I do genuinely love watching the Braves.

I love watching football.

I'm I'm so excited.

You you kind of get this sweet spot, that September, October range where there's football on, there's baseball on, and then you'll get a few occasional golf tournaments in there as well.

And it's just, I mean, it's a great time of the year, right?

You got all these different things going on, and it doesn't matter if I'm in the car, it doesn't matter if I'm at a wedding, um, it doesn't matter, even sometimes, uh, believe it or not, even I I have streamed sports in in church a couple of times on a few occasions.

Um, one memory particularly, I Pat, I don't know if you remember this, but um one summer, me and Dylan Wages were interning uh for like as in the student ministry, and we were at summer camp um and we got caught watching a Braves game during the worship session at camp.

Um yeah, Pat was not very happy um with us, but again, that just this ability to be able to watch whatever, really whatever I want, anytime I want on my phone, it often gets the best of me, especially if I'm at the dinner table.

And that's usually when I get called an iPad kid by my friends and my family.

So um uh but again, the the point of this is that this uh syndrome, disease, whatever you want to call it, I don't know, it's not it's not just me, but it's I mean, you see it in our in this culture and society we live in.

This is a problem for the majority of the population.

And I guarantee you that if if y'all go out um to lunch or brunch after this and and you're sitting in a restaurant, if you look around the restaurant, you you'll see a lot of iPad kids.

You might see some iPad adults, um, people who are just consumed and distracted by technology.

You might see a parent trying to keep a kid under control long enough for them to eat with with an iPad and entertaining them.

You might see someone um just doom scrolling on TikTok while they're waiting for um a table.

You might see a dad watching the the Tour Championship um on his phone.

That's the the golf tournament this Sunday.

Uh, but it is almost certain that you will see someone glued and distracted uh to a screen while they're sitting at a table, if you were to go out to a restaurant today.

And I'm not saying this to condemn anyone who this might be the case for if if iPad is your way of just getting your kids to chill for a couple seconds so you can enjoy a meal.

I'm not judging you, okay?

I would I would do a lot of things just to have calmness and to enjoy a meal if I had if I had crazy kids.

So this isn't to condemn anyone, but I'm I am trying to bring awareness to how often distraction can steal the gift of just being present with other people, of being in the company with other people, of being intentional and doing life with other people.

And distractions, they're not limited to our screen time, even though I think that is an incredible place to start.

Um, but our jobs, our busy schedules, the worries about what tomorrow can hold, all these things can distract us from being present in the moment.

It's been said that we are the most connected generation in history, and yet we are also the loneliest.

Meaning that in our culture, we're we're really in the know and sometimes kind of even involved in everything.

We are the most connected generation in history, and yet we're also the loneliness.

Depression seems to be taken over like crazy.

Anxiety seems to be taken over like crazy.

All of this in some ways can kind of stem from the fact that we're just lonely.

That it has become the cultural norm to be in the know and involved in everything and yet fully present in almost nothing.

But as we're going to see this morning through scripture, that this is just not the way of Jesus.

It's not how Jesus did life.

Jesus was present with the people around him.

So this morning we're continuing our series called The Table, and this is a five-week series that's that's focused on the importance of and really even urgent need to have community in places of community outside of our time here on Sunday mornings.

And each week we're exploring a different story from the book of Luke, where Jesus is involved in a table in some way, shape, or form, whether he's sharing it with someone, inviting someone to table, whatever it may be, but we're looking at these different stories to learn what our community should look like, what our tables should look like, why it's so important and probably even essential and vital to the health of our souls to be plugged in and involved in community.

And we've we've said from the beginning that the point of this series is to encourage and challenge people to join community groups if you're not in one already.

And we love um we love Sunday mornings here at Church The Grove.

I love this time of the week.

I love getting to see all your faces and talk to you all, laugh with you, all those things.

But we also fully believe that that deep transformation within our lives happens outside of our time here on Sunday mornings.

It happens outside of these four walls, and it happens when we're doing life with other people, when we're living in life, life-on-life friendships and community with other people.

And this morning, um, you'll have a chance to learn about different community groups.

Ruth is going to talk about at the end, but you you should have received a card, hopefully, when you came in.

And on this card, there's a um a QR code that will take you straight to all the community groups that we have to offer and when they meet, how they meet.

We're launching groups in two weeks from today, September 7th.

So if you're not in a group, again, the point of the series is to encourage you and challenge you to join one because Jesus teaches us that the community is vital.

You cannot do life alone.

So this week we are gonna be uh we're gonna see that the table of Jesus calls us to slow down, calls us to prioritize relationships and truly be and see one another.

So our big idea this morning is that Jesus teaches us to choose presence over distraction.

Jesus teaches us to choose presence over distraction.

So we're gonna be in uh a story in Luke 10, if you want to turn there in your Bible.

And in this story, Jesus is invited into a home to share a meal with two sisters, and it's kind of a tale of two stories.

One sister is is fully present, she's sitting at the feet of Jesus, hanging on to every word he says, and the other sister gets distracted from the fact that Jesus is in her house.

Um she becomes worried and anxious about all these things.

Um but Jesus teaches her a valuable lesson through this.

So I'm gonna read the passage, I'm gonna pray, and then we're gonna walk through it.

So this is Luke 10, 38 through 42.

It says, While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister named Mary who also sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

So you tell her to give me a hand.

The Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you're worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.

Um, Father, we are we're grateful to just be in your presence.

Um thank you for just the opportunity to to worship you, give you the glory and honor and praise that you deserve.

And we just pray now that as we open your word, um, that you would open your mouth and you would speak.

God, would you give us wisdom, um, just spiritual understanding of this of this text and the story and and how it applies to our life.

And I just pray that every heart uh would be open, every ear would be open just to hear what you have to say to us.

So just fill this place with your spirit and speak to us.

We love you.

Pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So again, the goal this morning is to use this story of Jesus to teach us what more about what biblical community is supposed to look like.

And the focus this morning is on how important it is to choose presence over distraction when we are gathering with one another, and especially when we're sharing a meal or a table with one another.

So, with that being said, we're gonna walk through the story verse by verse, starting in uh with verse 38.

It says, while they were traveling, this is talking about Jesus and his disciples, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

So, as you can probably imagine, as we get through this story, Martha can definitely get a bit of a bad rap through this story, and and her attitude, the things she says of Jesus, she can definitely um again get a bad rap, kind of become the villain in the story, but we kind of can't ignore her willingness and and even eagerness to welcome Jesus into her home in the first place, right?

We see that in this story it begins by Jesus traveling to the next village as he kind of continues his ministry.

Jesus just traveled from village to village to village.

And you can imagine in that time, there there probably wasn't, I mean, there wasn't much of a heads up, right?

It's not like he could call over to the next town and kind of set up sleeping arrangements or meal arrangements or anything like that.

It was just kind of as as you went, meaning that there was probably little to no heads up to Martha that Jesus was coming into town.

And I know for me personally, I I don't operate well that way.

Okay?

I'm not I'm not the spontaneous kind of guy.

I I especially if someone's coming over for a meal, I like to have that scheduled, right?

I like to have a little bit of heads up so me and my wife, um my wife can clean the house, right?

Um but I don't operate well on that kind of schedule.

I'm not big on surprise visits unless you're family or you're a really close friend or you're the Amazon guy.

I like to have things scheduled out and and I like to stick to my schedule, right?

But we see something different with Martha.

Um, not only is she probably open to a surprise visit from Jesus, but she goes out of her way to welcome him in unannounced, unexpected.

And she sees this opportunity to host Jesus for a meal, and she's not gonna pass that up.

And what we can learn from this is that presence, being present with other people, is impossible without leaving room in our schedules for interruptions.

Rather than this interruption and Jesus coming into town being an inconvenience and a missed opportunity, it's an opportunity for fellowship, and Martha takes advantage of it.

And the same has got to be be true for us, meaning that if we really want to live in community with other people, then we cannot view interruptions or unplanned conversations or unplanned meals as an inconvenience.

But instead, they've got to be an opportunity to be present with people, to welcome people in, um, to do life with one another.

And it's it's um so easy for us to cram our schedules to the point that this becomes impossible.

Where it becomes impossible to leave room for interruptions and unexpected conversations, and sometimes cram our schedules so full that we don't even, even the ones we have planned, we have to say no to or back out last minute.

It's so easy for us to cram our schedules and overcommit to things that we know that we don't have time for.

And as a result, we don't have room or time to be present with people.

So the first step of choosing presence over distraction is to just make sure that we leave space and time in our lives for the people in our lives, right?

That all these other things don't get our attention before the people that we care about or the people that need our attention in our presence.

So we see Martha go out of her way to invite Jesus into her home, but then we kind of see distraction begins to steal her attention and her focus.

So verse 39, it says she had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord's feet and was listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted by her mini task, and she came up and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone?

So you tell her to give me a hand.

So we kind of see a tale of again, tell two stories in these two sisters.

On the one hand, we have Mary.

Um, the son of God has walked into her house.

As a result, nothing else matters, right?

Nothing else is getting her attention, her focus.

Jesus is in the room, and that's all she cares about.

She's sitting at his feet, she's listening to his teaching, hanging on to every word.

But then we see Martha.

After welcoming Jesus in, um, she becomes distracted by the many tasks that probably come with hosting someone at your house.

She becomes so distracted that she cares less about enjoying the presence of Jesus and that time even with her sister, and more about performance and making sure everything is getting done.

And we can see from this that distraction blinds us from the gift of presence.

Distraction blinds us from the gift of presence.

Martha's serving and and busyness distracted her so much that she was more focused on the things she had to do than the fact that Jesus was there.

He was in the room.

The Son of God was standing in her house, sitting around her table, and she she was so distracted that she didn't even seem to care or be focused on that.

And you might read this passage and kind of think to yourself, how could how could Martha be so distracted that she misses Jesus right in front of her face?

But this story shows us how easily the things of this world can steal our attention in the same exact way.

How easy the worries and the things that we might even get upset about can steal our focus, um, steal our our minds from just being in the Lord's presence and even the gift of being present with other people.

John Orberg says this He says, For many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith, it is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of faith.

We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

When you hear that last sentence, it is scary to think, to think of ourselves as being someone who skims our lives instead of actually living them.

Being so worried about what tomorrow holds that we don't actually live and be right now, where we are today, understanding that tomorrow's not even promised, but we get so worried about it that we don't live in the moment.

We don't live for right now and what's the the people that are around us, the people that are in front of us.

It's scary how easy it is for um to allow endless distractions to steal our attention and focus from the Lord, his presence in our life, and then keep us from being fully present to the people around us.

It's scary how easy it is to um allow a golf tournament to consume my focus around the table rather than just being with my family.

It's scary how easy it is to spend hours um scrolling on my phone in the morning or the evenings instead of just spending time with the Lord and His Word or in prayer.

There's a morning a couple weeks ago where um I kind of got up early, had made my coffee, and just instead of sitting down on the couch with my Bible, I pulled my phone out and just scrolled on my phone for like an hour or so, and it kind of got to the end and was just like, what?

Like, what did I just do?

You know, what was the point of that?

Why did I just waste so much of my life just sitting here on the couch scrolling through stupid things?

You know, it's scary how easy it is to do that.

It's scary how um easy, I'm sure for I'm I'm not a parent, but I can't imagine as parents how easy it would be to allow this go, go, go schedule of taking kids to school, picking kids up from school, taking them to sports practice, picking them up from practice, taking them to church on Wednesday night, picking them up from church.

Y'all should take your kids to church on Wednesday night.

Um this go go go schedule, how easy it could be to allow that to lead to chaos and disruption and all these different things rather than just being intentional with the time that you do get with your kids.

Can't imagine how easy that would be.

It's so easy to spend our entire lives climbing up this corporate ladder that we sacrifice time with our spouse and our kids just to kind of reach retirement and ask yourself, what do I do now?

What do I do now?

And then you spend all your time on the lake fishing rather than listening to what the Lord might want to use you for.

My point is this is that there will never be a time in your life where distraction is not coming at you from every direction.

There's never going to be a time in your life where there's not one other thing that you could do rather than sitting in the presence of Jesus and sitting in the presence of other people.

There will always be something that's trying to steal your attention and your focus in your presence because you have an enemy that wants you to just skim through your life instead of actually live it.

And this is exactly what happens to Martha.

Distraction entered the picture and it blinded her from the gift of just being present with Jesus, sharing a meal with him and his sister.

And not only was she distracted, but this led her to a place of anger and frustration and bitterness towards her sister's perceived laziness, so much so that she has the audacity to tell Jesus, to tell her sister to get up and start helping her, and start helping her serve.

And it's at this point in the story where Jesus has every right to probably rebuke her and condemn her, judge her, whatever.

But rather than doing that, he gently corrects her and just reshifts her focus and her priorities and teaches her a powerful lesson.

Verse 41 through 42, it says, The Lord answered her, Martha, Martha.

You're worried and you're upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.

Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.

So again, in this story, Martha is very relatable to most of us in the story.

All of us have reached this point of worry and frustration that Martha has reached, and we're anxious about all these different things, even just the scene of knowing someone is coming to your house, and and you gotta get everything ready, right?

You gotta clean the dishes before you gotta use them again.

You gotta sweep and mop and vacuum, all these different things that you're running around, you're stressed out, you're you're worried, and you say something that you know you probably shouldn't have, right?

And you snap, and bitterness creeps in.

And all of us have been there.

My my wife personally has never never done that, okay?

She never, she's never gotten, you know, worried and anxious and snapped or you know, said anything that that she regretted later.

She's never done that, okay?

She's gonna be in the second service, and I'm I'm trying to practice sounding genuine and truthful in that.

I'm just kidding.

My wife's incredible.

I'm the reason she snaps.

It's always me.

But again, everyone, um everyone's guilty of this.

Everyone knows that feeling of just being overwhelmed, anxious, upset, worried about so many little things.

We all kind of have our Martha moments, but again, it's in this context that we read the beautiful words from Jesus.

Martha, Martha.

You're worried and you're upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.

And all of us could probably put our put our names into that verse, right?

Jesus looking us in the eyes and just saying, You're worried and you're upset about all these little things, but there's one thing that is necessary.

Just one thing that's necessary.

And if if we get the one thing that's necessary right and in the right place in our lives, then everything else maybe not even gets easier, but it starts to fall into place.

And the Lord works and he moves.

It's incredible that instead of rebuking Martha, Jesus uses this as an opportunity to remind her that being present is so much more important than performing.

Feeling like you got to live up to everybody else's expectations and meet all their requirements and and earn their approval and and and their right standing with you.

We can fall, I can fall into that so easily of caring more about my performance than just being present with people and just kind of I mean, this is you know, say it rather than saying this is who I am, I'm trying to become someone that I want them to think I am.

Does that make sense?

But Jesus is reminding Martha being present is so much more important than performing.

And the same is true when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.

Jesus gently reminds Martha that she had her priorities all wrong.

She was distracted and anxious and troubled about little things that she missed the one thing that was necessary.

And it's even in this verse after this, she he Jesus.

Tells her that Mary has made the right choice.

And it's important to notice the words that Jesus uses here, specifically him saying that Mary has made the right choice.

She made a choice.

When it comes to the things we prioritize, the things we worry about, the things that distract us, the things that make us anxious, the things that we fill our schedule with, we all we always have a choice.

We have a choice of those things.

The choice to be present or the choice to be distracted.

The choice to slow down or the choice to hurry.

The choice to fill our schedules or leave room for relationships.

But again, Jesus teaches us that we have to choose presence over distraction.

That's a choice that we get and have to make.

It's incredibly important for us to get this choice right because the stakes are high when it comes to this.

Again, we we don't want to be people who skim through our lives, but we want to be people who live them and live them in the way that God has intended and planned for us since the beginning of creation.

And if we miss this and we get this choice wrong, we can miss connection with Jesus, meaning we could fall victim the same way Martha did, of not realizing that Jesus is in the room, that when we gather on Sunday mornings and we get to sing worship and praise, not realizing that Jesus is in the room, that he hears every cry, hears every every every single word that we sing.

But sometimes we can walk in here and have so many other things on our mind or just our hearts be so hardened that we don't even lift a word of praise to him.

And that's falling victim to the same thing that Martha did.

But all throughout our all throughout our lives, if we choose to be distracted and hurried and all these different things, then we could just miss connection with Jesus.

We can miss the relationship that we get to have with him right now here on this earth because the all the tasks seem to be piling up and coming at us from every direction.

We can't miss connection with Jesus.

We can miss discipleship moments with our kids.

Allowing, again, distraction and hurry and all these little anxious thoughts getting our way to where to where we just missed miss moments with our kids.

And asking yourself, when your kid leaves, when your kid graduates, goes off to college or moves out, what are you going to care about in that moment?

What are you going to care about?

What is the one thing that you want your kid to be equipped with and know?

What's one promise from the Lord that you want to make sure your kid knows?

We can miss these moments with our kids if we become too distracted and rush throughout our lives.

We can miss opportunities just to bring healing in the lives of people around us.

And so many people, the whole point of this series is really to show that so many people are just looking for a seat at the table, right?

So many people come in these doors just looking for a place to belong.

So many people are in the community, scared to come through these doors because they don't think they would belong.

And this is what Jesus has called us to do, to be intentional and be present with people, to make sure that they know they have a seat at the table.

There is a God who loves them, and there's a church in this building that loves them, right?

But if we're too distracted, we can miss these opportunities to bring healing, to speak encouragement, speak life into the people around us.

And none of this is really meant to be condemning, but at the same time, my prayer is that God would wake us up, right?

God would wake us up to us skimming through our lives and the urgent need to just be present with people around us.

I read this morning in Romans 13, just Paul saying, it's it's we gotta wake up.

Salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

And understanding that we've been given a mission and we don't really know the timeline of it, right?

So we gotta wake up.

We gotta start taking things serious and prioritizing our presence with the person of Jesus and being present and on mission to the people around us because the stakes are high.

We are the most connected generation, and yet we're the loneliness.

We have to stop skimming through our lives.

We have to stop letting things distract us from the one thing that's actually necessary.

We have to stop letting things distract us from being fully present and available to the people that are that are around our table.

We have to choose presence over distractions.

So, what does this practically look like?

What does it look like to choose, to make this active choice and to choose presence over distraction?

For one, just like Mary, we have to choose the presence of Jesus over the distractions of this world.

Again, this is the one thing that's necessary.

This is where everything else kind of boils down to.

What does the presence of God look like in your life?

How intentional are you about pursuing that, pursuing his presence, pursuing him through word or prayer, through community, whatever it may be, Jesus is the one thing that is necessary.

And like I said, there will never be a time in your life where distractions aren't surrounding you because that's what the enemy wants you to do.

If he can't keep you from believing in Jesus, he's gonna do everything he can to keep you as far away from him as possible.

He's gonna distract you.

He wants you to think and be worried about all these different things, but in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life, we have got to remember that one thing is necessary.

And it's the person of Jesus.

That's it.

Sitting at his feet, listening to his teaching, reading his words, spending time with him in prayer and um just living in communion with him.

David says in Psalm 27, 4, I have asked one thing from the Lord.

It is what I desire to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.

This has got to be, this is it, we gotta share the same heart as David here.

The one thing we desire above all the other, all the other things in this life is just that we would spend the rest of our days in the presence and in the house of the Lord, just gazing upon him in his glory, his majesty, his power, looking to him, learning from him, spending time in his presence.

And we have to address anything in our lives that is taking priority over sitting at the feet of Jesus.

Because what if there is something, there's no excuse.

There's no there's no there's no purpose or anything like that.

There is nothing that should take priority over sitting at the feet of Jesus, gazing upon his beauty and his glory, hanging on to every word he says, just like Mary did.

We have to wake up, we gotta get our priorities right, and Jesus is the one thing that's necessary.

But the whole point of this morning is to understand that the presence we spend or the time we spend in the presence of Jesus, it's gotta lead us to something else.

And the presence of Jesus in our life must lead us to be present with others.

The presence of Jesus in our life must lead us to be present with others.

As you read through the gospel, you see this very clear and intentional rhythm in the life of Jesus.

Meaning you'll see him retreat, he separates himself from everyone and everything, and he just spends time with the Father.

He'll wake up early in the morning before everyone else is awake.

Mark 135 says he goes out to a desolate place and he just spends times with the Father.

And you see this intentionally in the life of Jesus.

But then you also see the rhythm of after he spends time with the Father, he comes back and he's with people.

He's with people, he heals people, he, he, he, he, he encourages people, he forgives people of sin.

The time he spends with with the father is what fuels him and energizes him to be with people.

And this has got to be true for us.

We see that the presence with the Father always led Jesus to be intentional and present with others, and Jesus was, and he always will be, the most important to ever most important person to ever walk the earth.

No one will ever be more important, more sought after, probably, probably more busy than the person of Jesus.

I mean, think about the responsibility, the mission that Jesus was given to literally come in and change the world.

There will never be anyone that has has that much responsibility and that much importance.

But Jesus never seemed too busy.

He never seemed too distracted to be present with people.

He was the most important person ever.

And yet he was never too busy for someone.

No one was ever too lowly to talk and be with Jesus.

No one was ever too lowly for him to seek after and heal and minister to.

And what I've noticed is that that when I'm in tune, when I'm in tune with the Spirit because I've been with Jesus, being with other people becomes a lot more natural.

Maybe a little bit not sometimes easier, sometimes it's still really difficult, but it becomes more natural.

It's a more natural desire.

But but when I when I miss the one thing that's necessary, everything else I miss as well.

I start missing presence with other people.

But when I'm with Jesus, it becomes much easier to be present with others.

And when I don't allow distractions to keep me from the Lord, then it's easier and almost more natural to be present with others.

And this the same rhythm that we see in Jesus' life, it's got to be true for us.

It's important that we're allowing the presence of Jesus in our life to lead us to be present with the people in our life.

So as we respond this morning, and our team's going to come up in just a second, but I want you to consider just a few practical ways that you can practice being present with other people.

This week, even during your community group, whatever it may be, some practical ways that you can choose presence over distraction.

The first thing is maybe you need to say no to some things so that you can say yes to the things that actually matter.

And I know this is not as easy for some people as others.

That's very easy, probably, for me to say.

As I I ain't got kids, nothing like that.

I know that sounds it's really easy for me to say.

But at the same time, the challenge is to take inventory of your life and just say, is there anything that I just need to say no to so that I have more time either for Jesus or the people he's placed in my life?

Maybe your next step is to create space and time in your calendar, your weekly schedule, so that you can be a part of a community group and not just go but be a part of it and belong there and do life with the people there, commit to it on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, whatever it is.

But just open time in your schedule.

Is there anything you need to say no to?

Is there time for other people?

Is there time for your spouse?

Is there time for your kids?

Is there time for you to do life with a community group?

When it comes to our schedule, sometimes less is more.

Sometimes less is more.

Another practical step is maybe it just starts with being present with the with the people around the table.

Um, one of the things we did in in college that um, I mean, I didn't come up with it, it's it's just something we did, but um when all of our friends we would we would go out to eat, and when we sat down, we would all put our phones in the middle of the table.

And the rule was if anyone reached for their phone and and grabbed it and looked at it, they had to pay for everyone's food.

And you put that punishment in front of a broke college kid, no one's touching their phone, right?

No one wants to pay that tab.

But that causes just to be just to be present with people, to stop worrying about the homework we had or scrolling through social media instead of just being with the people right in front of us.

So maybe that's where you start.

Just when you go out to lunch today or you're having dinner at your house tonight with your family, just put the phones up, whether it's in the middle of the table, the living room, whatever it may be, put the phones away while you're at the table.

Maybe you need to schedule a meal, coffee, or just intentional time with someone this week and then guard that time from interruptions, meaning that that you you let your wife know, hey, I'm going to get coffee with so-and-so, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna have my phone off during this time.

I just wanna be with him, or you and your wife or your family, inviting someone over to your house and being intentional of guarding that time from work or guarding that time from someone, answering the phone when someone calls.

Treat this differently than just finding time to hang out with a friend, but go into this time with the goal and the motivation just to be fully present with that person, to hear them, be intentional with your conversations, push past the surface, like like Nathan talked about last week, and and be vulnerable, bear one another's burdens, share your burdens with them.

But whatever it is, the the challenge is maybe even just asking the Spirit to reveal to you how you can choose to be present over distracted.

Ask the Spirit to reveal areas in your life that you're prioritizing over the person of Jesus and then over the people that he's put into your life.

As you sit in the presence of Jesus, just hear the words that he spoke to Martha.

Imagine Jesus looking you in the eye.

You're worried and you're upset about so many little things, but there is one thing that is necessary.

One thing that is necessary.

And then as you just enjoy the presence of Jesus, and um, again, even asking the Holy Spirit just to show you.

Show you how you can be present, show you how you can be intentional with the people around you.

Show you how you can be present with others in your life this week.

So I'm gonna pray, and then our team is gonna lead us in response.

Father, again, we are so grateful for the gospel.

God, apart from Christ, we wouldn't be here.

We'd have no reason to gather, we'd have no reason to celebrate, we'd have no reason or source of joy.

So we are grateful for the gospel.

Grateful for all that Christ has done for us and pray that um as we we understand and comprehend the message of the gospel, that we would want to be more and more present with Jesus on a daily basis.

God, that the love of Christ would control us to the point that we no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who for our sake died and was raised.

God, would you help us get the one thing that is necessary?

And God, as we enjoy your presence and we enjoy just a time of worship and praise, I also just pray that you would reveal to each one of us how we can be more present with the people in our life.

God, would you bring names to our minds of people we just need to say, hey, you want to go get lunch, go get coffee.

And just be intentional with that person, be present with them, hear the words that they're saying, share their burdens rather than being distracted by the things we got going on at work or the things we got going on at home, God, and just be present with people.

God, I pray that as as families leave this morning and go to lunch or or have dinner tonight, whatever it may be, God, that it would just be a sweet time of fellowship.

A sweet time of maybe even discipleship moments with kids or or spouses, whatever it may be.

God, I pray that if there's anyone in here who's just looking for a place to belong, God, that you would lead them to take the next step of just joining a community group.

God, our community groups would be places that that um mirror the table of Jesus.

Places where everyone is welcome, places where we know nobody is perfect.

But God, just pray that you would lead us to be people who are present with you and present with the people in our lives.

So we love you and we pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.