10.18.26 | Stephen Deal

Sugar Plain Friends Chruch: Well, good morning. Samuel, I thank you. I I didn't know where that was gonna go. I was getting nervous. I was getting a little warm in the face. But it wasn't that wasn't that bad. I actually remember that. Good times. Would you turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 10? And as we're turning there, I have a confession this morning. I have never heard them do that last song they did. And that really was beautiful, wasn't it? The harmonies. That blessed my soul. I kind of felt like we could have gone home there, but I guess you all have to hear me. Luke chapter ten, I'm gonna start here and then I'm gonna flip over to Isaiah chapter one. Luke ten starting in verse thirty-eight through verse forty-two. Let's see. Now it happened as they went that Jesus entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed her, welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, who it And she approached Jesus and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. And Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part which will not be taken away. From her. Now in Isaiah chapter one, starting in verse ten, this is the word of God through the prophet Isaiah to the Israelites. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God. you people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, says the Lord? I've had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of the lamb of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices, Incense is an abomination to me. The new moons, the Sabbaths, and these callings of assemblies, these ceremonies, I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and appointed feast, my soul hates. They are a trouble to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. Come now, Israel. Come now, my children. Let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land. But if you refuse and you rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Let us pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you. In Jesus' name we pray. Open the ears of our hearts that we may hear from you, O Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom and Gomorrah. Good morning, church. How are you doing? It was last October. I was going, I was driving from the college to my home church about 15 minutes down the road, called the Old Time Religion Chapel. Something like this. We had pews, we sang hymns. Some of you look shocked at that. The old time religion chapel would sing those. They well they did. And they do. And I was coming around the bend. I was invited to be the guest speaker for homecoming. It was fitting because I was coming home. My parents were there. My cousin was the pastor. All these people I've grown up with my entire life. My biblical worldview has been framed from that church. And as I was praying, Lord, open Just open my eyes to what you have to say. God, give me the words. May it not be my words, but your words. Would you speak through me today? And he responded to my prayer in two words. Isaiah 1. As I was making the last turn before the church, I thought, Lord, man, are you sure? Couldn't you have given me this last week? Couldn't you have given me this last night? I mean, to go and stand behind the sacred desk and look at my mom and dad and my friends and say, Hear the word of the Lord, you Sodom and Gomorrah. You lift up your hands in prayer, and guess what? God's not listening to you. Guess what? You come into his house and you lift up your hands like it says in Psalms, and guess what? God's sick of it. God's tired of bearing this. It says, God says, I am weary of bearing them. Version is that preacher preaching from? Is that what my Bible says? Well, that's what mine says. What is this the same God? Is this the Old Testament God versus the New Testament God? What's going on here? Let's turn back to Luke chapter 10 for a moment. In Luke chapter 10, we see three people. We see Jesus, we see Martha, and we see Mary. And it says that Jesus entered into the house of a woman named Martha. She had Jesus over. Certainly she was doing a good thing. She was preparing for Jesus who was there. Now I can see that, you know, she's maybe she's in there cooking a pumpkin loaf. If I went to Martha's house, I wish she would make me a pumpkin loaf. But she was making preparations, right, for Jesus. Certainly that's not a bad thing. But she grew to be frustrated with her sister, Mary. In fact, she called out to Jesus and said, Jesus, why don't you tell her to help me? I'm doing all this stuff by myself. I'm working alone. Tell her to help me. And Jesus' response to Martha was this. Martha, Martha. It would be as if I came over to Tom here and I said, Tom, you know what? Actually, let's just go to Miss Sasha because she's a math teacher, right? Or she used to be. And I said, now Sasha, I was doing some research. Two plus two, isn't that five? She'd say, Stephen, Stephen. Like it's right in front of your face. Like you missed it. Like I thought it was obvious. How did you mess this up? Stephen, Stephen. And Jesus said to Martha, Martha, Martha, there is one thing that matters. That is the part Mary has chosen, and it won't be taken away from her. Mary but and and I quote from Jesus, but one thing is needed. How many of us know that there is one thing in this life that ultimately matters? Amen. We I I believe if you are here this morning at the Sugar Plains Friends Church, you're here because you believe that. You believe that only one thing really matters when this world is gone. There will be one thing that remains, and that is your faith with G in your faith in Jesus Christ, your relationship with God. That will be the ultimate thing that matters. Jesus realizes that. Mary realizes that. What about Martha? I'm not going to say that Martha didn't realize that. In fact, I'll say, I think Martha did realize that. But the passage says in verse 40, but Martha was distracted by many things. I know, personally, Stephen Deal, I know that there's one thing that matters more than all else. But I also can stand before you and say that I've been Martha more than a time or two. But Stephen was distracted by many things. I can tell you many things that distract me. Squirrel, anyway, many things distract us in this world with social media, with you know, I was preaching this toward teenagers, and I said, you know what, I think it's easier to be distracted as an adult, actually, you know, as a father or a mother or as someone who has a full-time job. Has to do so many things. Is there anything wrong with that? No, there's nothing wrong with that. But there's one thing that matters, and we cannot be distracted from that. We must take a lesson from Mary. Mary did the number one thing: she sat at Jesus' feet and she heard his word. The main point of this message is this. God has created each and every one of us for an authentic love relationship with Him. How's your relationship with God? I could ask that to a room full of saints and sinners, and each of them would have a relationship with God. For instance, each of us have a relationship with our parents. For some, maybe it's a good one. For some, Maybe it's an estranged relationship. But nevertheless, there is a relationship. God created us. We all have a relationship with him. How is that relationship? Is it an authentic love relationship? What is love? Is it that feeling I get somewhere around here inside like butterflies? Tom's like, yeah, the butterflies. My tea time at one at by 1 p.m. today, the butterflies are gonna be there. 1:50. Thank you for the invitation, by the way. There's still time. What is the definition of love? Dr. John Oswalt defines love as a choice to give, no matter the cost. A choice to give, no matter the cost. If I was a pulp to you know what? Let's see. Let's see what I got here. Bear with me. I kind of trick up my sleeve. Let's see. Huh. I thought I had a fake hundred dollar bill in here. I know it wasn't a real one. Well, let's say I had a hundred dollar bill here and I pulled it out and I came down and said, Brother Truitt, and I said, Pastor Truitt, I love you. And so I gave him a hundred dollar bill. I think that I'm really loving him because it's costing me something. If I didn't love him that much, you know, I might give him a maybe a one dollar bill. Here's here's a one, just take it, you know, like sympathy or pity. But I really love you, Pastor Truitt. And so I'm gonna give you one hundred dollars because I love you, no matter the cost. Now, what if I went to your wife and I said, Mrs. Truett, I love you. I honor you for being married to Pastor Truitt for so long. That what that what I'm going to do is I'm gonna buy you a bouquet of flowers. And so what I do is I run down to Kroger, if you have those in Indiana, amen. And I pick up those beautiful flowers, I buy them, spend 15 bucks on those, I bring them to Mrs. Truett, and I take the flowers and I say, here. Flowers for you. Here. Okay. Thank you. She'd be a little dislike. What's just happened there? Like you're you're doing something nice for me, but I don't think you actually meant it. Did you actually love me, or are you just doing it? Well, my dad taught me: if you love someone, you buy them flowers, right? I watched my parents, and my dad loves my mom, so he bought her flowers. In Isaiah chapter one, we see the Israelites were in obedience to the commandments that God had given them. God had given them the commandments to make sacrifices, to make burnt offerings, to keep these ceremonies, the new moons, and the Sabbaths, and what God told them to do, they were doing it. Amen. Amen. God's calling. Pick up. They were doing what God had told them to do. They were going to church. They were singing songs. They were doing all the right things. You know, this follows over into the New Testament. Jesus Christ comes from heaven and he enters in. And there's these two groups of people, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And what do they say? They say, We're doing all that we were told to do, everything that was required of us. In fact, It says that we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath. Well, I'm actually not going to take more than so many steps because I really want to do what the Bible says. And the Bible says to tithe 10%. Well, I'm really going to do it to the T. So I'm going to go tithe the mint out of my garden. I'm going to tithe 10% of the leaves, those leaves, and I'm going to give it to the Lord. They were doing everything God told them to do. Without love. They were doing all the right things, but without love. It's like they bought their wife flowers, but without love. How do you think your wife's gonna respond? Not well, because the purpose is. Is an authentic love relationship with Jesus. That is the purpose of this passage. In fact, that's the purpose of our creation. That is why God created us. And He wants an authentic love relationship with you. And so when the people in the Old Testament came to church and they sang songs, Jesus, we love you. love you. You are the one our hearts adore. When they sang these songs, we praise your name, Jesus. I surrender all. What was Jesus thinking? He was saying, Why don't you just stop? Just cut it out. You're coming into this building because that's what you've always done, and you're paying a pastor because that's what you've always done. And you come into the church and you lift up your hands because that's what you're technically supposed to do. But you don't really mean it. Your heart really isn't in it. You really don't love me. They were missing it. It's as if in Isaiah chapter one, God is writing to them, Israel, Israel. It's one thing that matters. And yet somehow you have taken the Ten Commandments, which were supposed to be. These are the Ten Commandments. This is how you live in a love relationship with God. And they just turned into do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, legalism, rules. My sister thought until she was twenty-five that that's all Christianity was. Was you know, you're not supposed to do this on Sunday and you're supposed to go to church. And it's it's just about a list of rules and morals. And so she rejected that because she wasn't looking for a religion. She wasn't looking for more rules and regulations. What she desired in her heart was an intimate relationship with Jesus. But that's not what she saw modeled before her in her home church, unfortunately. She's accepted Christ. And I see a real transformation happening in her. And I see her loving Jesus. Not loving church, not loving Christianity, but the person of Jesus. What my sister is doing is she's coming and she's sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing every word. That is the posture that I applaud this morning in that scripture. There's many things that can distract us, but Mary was focused. She was sitting at Jesus' feet to hear his words. Because she had a love relationship with him. I have another confession. When I was at Kentucky Mountain Bible College, I had a girlfriend. Some of you look shocked with her. Well, shame on you. And there was this, there was this couch, and she she would sit here, and you know, from nine to ten, you know, it's like, you know, you can. Do whatever you want on campus. I mean, you know, you can walk around the circle, you know, you can hang out, you can play sports. Well, I had a sweetheart, so I was gonna talk to her. And so we're sitting there talking and I'm telling her some story that's not really that impressive, kind of like what I'm telling you right now. And she just looked at me and she was like, It wasn't so much that I was telling her something that was that impressive. It was the person that was telling it. She loved me. Like she really loved me. It was that love relationship. She wanted to sit next to me. She wanted to hear my words. She was hanging on every word I said because she loved me. I wonder. Who would we relate with the most? Would I read this passage and say, Mary, I'm a lot like Mary? Will we read this passage and say, I'm a lot like Martha? Maybe we'd read this passage and say, maybe I'm a lot like Israel in Isaiah chapter one, or the Sadducees and the Pharisees who know all the right stuff. They have all the right information. They know how to come to church. They know how to speak the Christian language. Because they've done it their whole life. But they're missing the love in their heart for God. In Luke chapter 7, we read a story of someone who is entitled as the Sinful Woman. Jesus was at the house of Simon the Pharisee. He had been invited over for dinner because, Tom, that's the right thing to do, you know. Pharisees are doing all the right things, but they did it without love. In that time when you invited a guest to your home, you would do three things. He would anoint them with fragrant oil, right? Like a rut, like a flower oil, like a perfume, if you will. I've been anointed with a rose oil one time. It smelled so good. I mean, I smell good. And I really enjoyed the scent of it. I mean, I smelled that for the rest of the day, so that was nice. So they would anoint you with a fragrant oil. They would also greet you with a kiss, right? Like they did back in those days. And they would wash your feet. They would wash those flip-flops that Jesus was wearing back in the old days, right? Sandals, if you will. Amen. Amen. Because your feet were dirty from walking on on those dirt roads. And what did they do? They did none of these things for Jesus. They brought him in and they didn't even do the common courtesy. That was very rude. They're having dinner, and then all of a sudden, the uninvited dinner guest walks in. No one invited her, no one opened the door for her to come. I mean, no one said, Hey, come on in. She just entered in the scene. And she didn't go for the lamb chops that were being served. She went right to her feet. She went right to Jesus. I don't know how she knew about Jesus. Maybe she had seen him from afar in his healing ministry in Jerusalem. Maybe she had kind of spectated a little bit and had come to draw a conclusion that Jesus was the Son of God, that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Savior. And she knew that she needed a savior. We can speculate, commentaries have thought into this and have thought perhaps this woman was a prostitute in her day. This is certainly, as the Bible says, a sinful woman. And she comes in and she does three things. She begins to wash Jesus' feet, not with water, but with tears. She begins to kiss his feet. And she begins to anoint Jesus' feet with fragrant oil. And in this passage, we read, Jesus says these words. Therefore, I say to you, Simon, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much. That woman showed love to Jesus. When Simon the Pharisee, you know, he did what was right. He invited Jesus over for dinner. He did it without love. He did not greet Jesus with the holy kiss. He did not wash his feet. He did not anoint him with fragrant oil. But yet we see a true lover of Jesus. She comes in with love motivating her actions. And she kneels down and she washes Jesus' feet, not with water, but with her tears. She begins to kiss, not his cheek, but she begins to kiss His feet. She begins to anoint his feet, not with just some common oil, but we can see that she's anointing Jesus' feet with a valuable oil, spike nard, worth a year's wage. Some some say that they make $50,000 a year, yet not I. But whatever this woman made, whatever whatever this woman made in a year, like that's a year's wage, and she's taking this. And is she just dropping one drop of it on Jesus' feet? Just maybe just a little bit'll do it? No. But she takes off the she takes off the lid and she pours it out on Jesus' feet. She's lavishing Jesus with love. It was a choice to give. Prostitute, loving Jesus. Who would I have you follow today? The religious man who sits in church and wears a jacket and wears all the right clothes to church? Or would I have you follow what the prostitute did in this passage? We loved Jesus. And because she loved much, she was forgiven much. It wasn't a transaction. It was, okay, Jesus, I give you $50,000 of fragrant oil, and you give me salvation. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. No. No. It was love. Choice to give no matter the cost. No, love's a dangerous thing because you can love and it's not reciprocated. You're really putting yourself out there. There was no promise of salvation for this woman, but she said, I love Jesus. He is worthy of my praise. He is worthy of my life. In fact, he is worthy of all. She forsook all for Christ. She didn't just pour a little bit of her life out at Jesus' feet, but she poured it all. So this morning, as I'm closing, My question for you is what do you have that you can pour out at Jesus' feet? What are you holding on to in your life? What is it that you've kept stored up and is a possession of your own? This is my possession. Jesus can have this and he can have this, but can he control what I do? Can he control what I watch? Can he control what I read? Can he control the thoughts in my mind? Maybe if I just came to Jesus and I just gave him just a little drop of my life, right, Pastor Samuel? What if I just came to church and I just, you know, just gave Jesus just a little bit of my life? That would certainly make him happy enough, right? No, he wants all of you. He wants you to fully love him. And if you fully love him, then you will fully give yourself to him. Don't just come and give him a little piece of your life, but give him all of your life. This morning, if I was to come and have a chair here and invite Jesus to come and invite you to come and pour out. Something precious of yours on his feet. What would it be? What needs to be fully surrendered to Jesus? What is holding you back? Perhaps what is distracting you from living that relationship with Jesus? That we all know that we should live. We all know it. And there is time such as now when the grace of God. Comes and covers your mind, brings clarity to your mind. He covers you with his grace, and he enables you in this moment to make the right decision for Christ. And the devil will come and say, maybe later, you can deal with this later. But by that time, God's grace that is that is opening your eyes, trust me, the devil will come back and he will shut your eyes back to the truth. But if God has opened your eyes this morning, if he has revealed something in your heart that he wants to realign, if God has revealed something precious to you that needs to be surrendered to Jesus this morning, now is your time to respond in love to him. Would you respond to Jesus this morning? Let's have a time of silence so that we can respond to Jesus. Let's not leave this morning unless we've responded to Jesus. Amen. We come for you today as a congregation, our hearts opened. We're asking right now that your July Spirit would move in our midst to expose our hearts, to open our eyes to what you're calling us. Lord Jesus, we're asking for you to help us to see how we can love you. Yes, yes. It's our desire. It's our heart to want to know you, to love you more. And Father, if there's something in our hearts that it's preventing us from doing that, Lord, I ask you to expose it, to convict us of it. And Father, to give us the grace that we need to turn it over to you. I ask that all of us here would not leave this place without feeling curse of your Holy Spirit. To test our hearts. We trust in your ways. And in your past, Father, we thank you for your salvation that you've given us. So we can be like the woman of Jesus be, that we can be fully repentant, pouring out everything that we have, giving our money, giving of our resources, our time, and Father, also giving of our reputation pour out before you. We put it all onto you. We do this not because we can earn our salvation, fathers, we can. But because we know the great love you have loved us first, because our only chance to respond, give it back to you. We pray this in your holy and precious name. Amen. Thank you all for having me

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