← Stay True with Madison Prewett Troutt
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Matthew 10:38 42. 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, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work 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 away from her. What a powerful passage of Scripture. When I read this passage immediately what jumps to my mind is, this is the more you and I were made for. Because the world has a version of more. And God has a version of more. Yes. You know, we read verses in scripture like Ephesians 3:20, that we were made for abundantly more. That God has abundantly more for us. Or John 10:10, that the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but he came to give us life and life abundantly. That there is more in God's eyes, more for our relationships, more for our mind, more for our soul, more for our heart, more for our purpose. But the world also has this pressuring contrast of more that we have to do, more that we have to be more, that there's this press, this feeling of I can never do enough. I can never measure up in this striving and this performance that leaves us exhausted. And I know for me, I have so often found myself as Martha in this story. But my hope and prayer is that you and I would be a merry heart in a Martha world, that we would have a merry spirit in a Martha world, that in the midst of so much going on, in the midst of the pressures, in the midst of the temptations, in the midst of being pulled in so many different directions that we can sit at the feet of Jesus. That we make worshiping Jesus our delight instead of focusing on all of the duties, thinking that that will lead to delight, that we would worship him before we try to work for him. You see what's so interesting if we look at verse 40, it says, but Martha was distracted. That word distracted means pulled away, dragged around. And the crazy thing is, is that she wasn't distracted by necessarily sin. She was distracted by doing a lot of good things. And the reality is, is that we can find ourself in a place where we're doing a lot of good things. Or maybe Even a lot of God things while still missing God completely. And I know I have found myself in that season many times. And I made my word last year. True worship. That was my word for 2025 was the words true worship. Because I wanted to be a true worshiper. I didn't want to miss God in the midst of doing all of these. And how many of us are so busy doing for Jesus that we miss being with Jesus? I know that that has been so true of my life that there's all of these things this long to do list all of these things that I need to get done and I need to check off that I kind of put Jesus on the side. Like I'll get there. Like I'll try to make time for him today. Like I'll try to fit that in. I'll give him 10 minutes at the end of my day, I'll give him five minutes at the beginning of my day. And then we go about our day, going from thing to thing to thing, not thinking Jesus one time, not inviting Jesus into our everyday moments. And busy is such a word in our culture today. You go around, you ask people, how are you? How are you? And almost all the time you will hear the answer, busy. Just so busy. Life is busy, you know, crazy busy these days. But I'm good. It's like we have made Busyness this idol. And the enemy is so cunning. He's not creative, he runs the same play again and again, but he's very cunning. And busyness is our greatest thing threat to intimacy. If the enemy can't get you to doubt God's existence or to doubt God's goodness, he'll just fill your schedule with a bunch of things so that you don't even spend time in his presence. So that you don't even spend time staying connected to him, so that you don't spend time interceding and praying for other people so that they may know him. So that he fills your schedule so much that you don't have time to even tell other people in your day to day about him. And so busyness is our greatest threat to intimacy. And you see that, that the world will constantly put things on your plate and make you feel like you gotta do more. Fill your schedule. That's good. It's good to be busy. Busyness equals productivity. Busyness equals success. But Jesus says, no, no, no, that's not my definition of living a life of abundantly more. You see also that Martha was driven by performance. She says, lord, don't you care that My sister has left me to do the work. I'm the one doing all of the work. God, don't you care? And how often have our souls cried out that same thing? God, don't you care? Don't you see all that I'm doing for you? God, can't you see all of the sacrifices I'm making, all of the hard work that I'm putting in, all of the things that I'm doing for you? Why aren't you blessing it? Why aren't you giving me what I'm asking for? Why aren't you answering my prayers? God, why don't I have this thing that I so desperately and deeply want? God, don't you care? Martha's service turns into resentment. What was supposed to be something that was good and worshipful and beautiful turned quickly into resentment because Martha was driven by performance. And how many times do we do a lot of good things and even a lot of God things with a heart of we just want to be seen by other people or we just want to be blessed by God and we're doing it to earn God's love, we're doing it to earn God's blessing, we're doing it to be seen by other people. And we live in a society and in a culture that says it's all about performance, it's all about what you produce, it's all about what you do. But you see here, Jesus is like, I care so much more about your heart than what you do for me. Because if you don't get the heart right, nothing else is going to be right. But when you get the heart right, then when you do good works for my name's sake, they actually lead to blessing, they actually lead to love, they actually lead to other people knowing about me, they lead to true worship. When we define more like the world does this performance based mindset, this prove yourself this work hard and get what you want mindset, we will always feel like someone has it better or someone has it easier. And you see Martha make this comparison here and she has lost sight of what it's all about and who it's all for. And we so easily can fall into that God, I'm doing all of these things for you. Why aren't you blessing me like you're blessing her? I'm doing all these things for you. How come he got that? How come she got that? And I, God, don't you see me? Don't you care? But if Martha only realized and had the heart posture of I am making these preparations And I am serving the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And I am doing this out of an overflow of love. I am doing this from a posture of worship. I think this would have been a totally different conversation. You also see in verse 42, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things. You are anxious about many things, but really only one thing matters. And that's the difference between the world's more and God's more is that the world will pile all these things on you. You gotta do more, you gotta be more. And you will feel like, I can't do enough, I can't be enough. I'm so stressed, I'm so exhausted, I'm burnt out. I'm doing all I can and it still feels like I can't measure up. The world offers more activity, but Jesus offers abundance. A life of freedom, a life of abiding, a life of rest, a life fulfillment, a life of peace. Martha had to learn it's not about just doing more, it's about sitting at his feet. You can be busy doing all of these good things, but if you miss God completely, what's the point? God has a better way. A more that doesn't leave us feeling anxious, distracted, overwhelmed, but a more that leads to abundant life. A more that leads to a life of freedom and rest and peace. And that's been true of my story. I thought for so long I just have to please God. I just have to live up to this like perfect standard. I have to work so hard for his pleasure and for his approval and for his proudness. I just want to make him so proud. I want him to be proud of me. And so I get into this works based, performance based mindset and system where I'm doing all of these things and wondering why I don't have delight, wondering why I feel so exhausted, wondering why these things don't feel, feel fulfilling. And it's because I, I go about it so often with the complete wrong mindset. I'm doing it to be seen and honored by other people. Or I'm doing it to earn God's love and grace and favor, when in reality that's the opposite of the gospel. The gospel is I did not deserve God's righteousness and grace and love that it wasn't what I do. It's not, it's not about what I do, it's about what he did for me. It's not about what you do, it's about what he already did for me. You. The more that we crave the more that we were made for isn't found in the doing, it's found in the dwelling. When we dwell in God's presence and we realize that in his presence is the fullness of joy, as Psalm 16 tells us. When we realize that in his presence, everything that seemed so big and so impossible is. Is put right in its proper place. And instead of it feeling so big and so impossible, then Jesus becomes bigger and everything becomes possible, because nothing is impossible for God. And so when we sit in his presence, it's like that verse in Matthew 6:33. When you seek him first in his kingdom and his righteousness, everything else will take care of itself. Everything else will fall into his rightful place when he becomes the most important place, when he becomes the most important one. And so this is not about don't do good works. We know that we are called to do good works. But the message and the heartbeat of this passage is, first, it has to start in your prayer closet. First, it has to start in your heart. First, it has to start in this place of dwelling in God's beauty, of beholding God's majesty, of sitting in God's presence, letting the Holy Spirit speak to you, reading His Word like it's alive and like it actually can change and transform your life. Like it's not all about you and finding Jesus in the Scripture. And what is Scripture speaking to you and how can you learn from these stories and apply it to your everyday life? It's spending time praying and interceding for other people and just dwelling in friendship and in relationship with your Heavenly Father. So here's what I want you to hear. Martha was not wrong for doing good things, but she was in the wrong for prioritizing service over God's presence. And so often we're running on empty fumes, trying to pour out everything we got into other people wondering why we feel so empty. And it's because we have to first get in God's presence. We have to be filled with his goodness, filled with His Spirit, filled with his presence, so that then when we go and we serve and we. We give and we love and we bless, it's just an overflow. We're not emptying ourselves. We're just giving everyone else what we've already freely received from God. And that's why it's called the fruits of the Spirit. It's not the fruits of Maddie. It's not the fruits of you. It's the fruits of the Spirit. I want people to get Jesus when they're around me and so that means I gotta be around him. That means I gotta be abiding in him. That means I gotta stay attached and connected to him. And so it's so matters that in the midst of a world that is pushing on us, busyness and do more and be more and you can't do enough and you'll never be enough. And there's so much pressure and there's so much anxiety and there's so much fear and performance and striving. Take a deep breath. Remember that it's all about Jesus. Get in his presence, fall at his feet. Listen to what he has to say to you. Read His Word, be transformed by His Word. Pray what's on your heart, not just what you think you should pray. Pray for other people, not just about yourself. Spend time listening, spend time enjoying and dwelling. And then from that place, go and be who God's called you to be. Go and do what God has called you to do. But not trying to earn, not trying to strive, not trying to prove, but just from this overflow, because of who God is to you, because of who is inside of you. And so if you'll bow your heads with me, I'd love to pray over you. God, we thank you that you are the great I am. That you are worthy of our worship, that you are worthy of our time, that you are worthy of our affection. And so, God, in this moment, I pray for every single person listening, that wherever they're at, whatever they feel, whatever has been on their plate, whatever they've been carrying right now, as your Word tells us, to cast our anxieties, to cast our cares at your feet, I pray that they would do that right now. And so if you're listening, I just want to invite you to picture the Lord in front of you. And I want you to see yourself. Are you the Martha or are you the Mary? How have you been operating? How have you been living? Are you running around stressed and anxious about many things? Or are you sitting at the Lord's feet, dwelling in his presence, enjoying his goodness and friendship, beholding his majesty, worshiping at his feet? Where do you find yourself today? Because the more God has called you to is not the same more that the world pushes you to. It's a more that leads to life, a more that leads to freedom, a more that leads to rest and peace and love and joy. You were made for abundantly more. And the Lord wants to invite you into that right now. And so I want you to picture yourself as Mary, and I just want you to begin to Just throw off whatever you need to throw off. I want you to throw off the weight. I want you to throw off the worry. I want you to throw off the pain. I want you to throw off the unanswered prayers. I want you to throw off the fears. Whatever it is that you've been carrying, that you've been holding onto, that you were never meant to carry, I want you to just put at his feet. And I want you in this moment to see Jesus looking at you with the biggest smile on his face. Not with displeasure, not with disapproval, not with disgust, but with delight. He looks at you with delight. He is pleased in being with you. And you were made to be in his presence. And so, God, I just pray over my friends right now that they would run to your loving arms every day, that they would dwell in your presence, just as David prayed. This one thing I seek, this one thing I ask that I may dwell in your house all the days of my life. God, that is the cry of our hearts. That's what we were made for, is to be in your presence, is to be attached to you, is to rest in you and to run to you. And so God forgive us for when we've run to all the other comforts and all the other things, God fill us with more of you. We need more of you. We want more of you. I pray rest, I pray peace, I pray joy, and I pray God's definition of more over all of you. In Jesus name, amen.