MS | "First Thing" | Josiah Brondyke

Date: April 8, 2026
Series: One Off
Passage: Isaiah 52
Preacher: Pastor Josiah Brondyke

Transcript

Hey middle school, how are we doing tonight? Good? Can we give it up one more time for that awesome worship set that the band just led us through? It's pretty amazing. Awesome. Um, I have a fun question for us, and I need everybody in the whole room to participate in this, okay? Can we do that? Cool. Who here likes a good, well-cooked, juicy, tender, seasoned right steak? Raise your hand. Let me see it. Oh my goodness, almost every single hand went up.

Put your hands down. Let's see the, the vegans in the room. Does anyone like a nice, crisp salad with a good dressing? I know, right? Now who, who, hear me out, raise your hand if you have absolutely zero self-control when it comes to free bread or free chips and salsa at a restaurant? Me too, me too. Absolutely.

Here's the scenario, right. You get up, you get a good night's sleep, you skip breakfast, skip lunch, because you know your parents are taking you to Texas Roadhouse that night for dinner. Anybody? Anybody love Texas Roadhouse? It's amazing right? The scenario is this, right, you haven't eaten all day. You walk into Texas Roadhouse. You know what they do right when you walk in. They show you those perfectly cooked steaks in that display case. Right? The meat display. And that just gets you thinking about that steak even more. Right?

Then what's the very first thing that happens when you sit down at your table? Bread. Right? You get the Texas Roadhouse rolls. Not only do you get the rolls, they put this special crazy cinnamon butter on it right? And you haven't eaten all day. And these rolls look absolutely delicious. The problem is, right, is it's really good. And you keep eating. You know that you really want the steak. You know that the steak is coming, but you have these rolls sitting right in front of you that are just so good, right. That you have absolutely zero self-control over. Right?

So you start pounding roll after roll after roll after roll. Because not only did they bring you one basket, they brought you three baskets of rolls, right? Because they just keep bringing 'em. Well, your steak takes 45 minutes to get there, right? You've already eaten your body weight in Texas Roadhouse rolls. Here's the deal, your steak comes. They set it in front of you. You take one bite of it. And it's the best steak you've ever had. But you can't take another bite. Right, you know why? Because you're so full off of Texas Roadhouse rolls.

So here's, here's what happens, is you eat a whole bunch of really good Texas Roadhouse rolls, but you miss out on something that is great because you filled up on what is good. Tonight we are gonna be talking about missing out on the great things because we're full of good things. Missing out on the great things of God because our lives are filled with just simply good things. Before we hop in though, will you guys pray with me?

Father, thank you for tonight. Thank you for this group of middle schoolers. And Father I ask that as we open up your Word tonight, that our eyes would be fixed entirely on you. Father, that you would rid us of any distractions. Lord, that we would be so focused on you tonight. God, we love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Awesome. Does anyone know... Does anyone know what this series is called that we're in? First Things, right? First Things. Basically what we're talking about is putting the first things first. Putting God at the top. Tonight specifically we're gonna be talking about putting God first when it comes to our priorities. Now you might be asking, 'What is a priority?' We put a definition on the screen for you guys. If you're a note-taker, I would advise you to write this down. A priority is a thing that is regarded as more important than another. Pretty simple right? That's what priority means, is this thing is more important to me than this thing.

So if I were to ask us here tonight, right, what is your top priority in your life? Raise your hand, and don't lie, it's okay. Raise your hand if... If your number one priority in life is your sport. Raise your hand. It's okay. Put your hands down. Raise your hand if it's school. Let's see my nerds. Where are my nerds at? Raise your hand. Put your hands down. Raise your hand if it is sleeping. I think my hand's gonna go up for that one too. I love sleeping. Yeah, totally.

Our priorities are important, and right now as middle schoolers, typically the biggest priority in your life is your sport. Right? If you're a middle schooler, the typical biggest priority in your life is your sport. So we are gonna look tonight at Luke chapter 10. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and crack them open to Luke chapter 10. We're going to start reading in verse 38. If you don't have a Bible, we are going to have it on the screen for you guys to be able to read.

Starting in verse 38, it says this. "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.' But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'"

Awesome. That's a super small passage of scripture, but there is so, so much stuff packed in here that we are gonna uncover tonight. Let me give you a little bit of context behind what's happening. Jesus and his disciples are on the move. And they enter a town called Bethany. And it tells us that they enter Martha and Mary's house. This is also Jesus' friends, or the sisters of Jesus' friend Lazarus. You guys ever heard of Lazarus? Super cool dude. Basically, this is... oh, let me ask you this. Has anyone here ever had anybody extremely important to your house? Like an extremely important guest over to your house? Tell me who, tell me. Your what? (Audience member speaks indistinctly) The firemen? The firemen are super important, you're absolutely right. Has anybody had anybody super important... okay, nobody. That's totally fine.

Imagine having the Son of God inside of your house. Imagine having God incarnate inside of your actual house, sitting on your couch. Jesus and his disciples roll up into Bethany, into Martha's house. And Jesus decides, 'I am going to begin teaching inside of this house right now.' Now I don't know about you, right, but if Jesus came into my house and decided to teach, I don't know that I would be able to pay attention to a single thing else other than what he is saying. Right? It doesn't make sense to think about anything else because God is literally teaching inside of your house.

Now back then too, right, it was extremely important as well... it was like their culture, what they did, is they were extremely hospitable. Right? To have guests over meant that you had an entire feast put on for them. It was everything... all hands on deck trying to prepare a meal for these people to make sure that these people felt like family. So Jesus and the disciples come to town, into their house, right. I can picture it now, I can see Martha probably in her kitchen, you know, pots flying everywhere, stuff boiling, making these super cool Middle Eastern dishes right, trying to do it all by herself. But she is doing it for God. She is quite literally doing an incredibly good thing by wanting to serve God. Because they are in her house.

This takes us to the first point that I want to kind of uncover tonight. We're gonna see two mistakes that Martha makes. And the first point is going to be this... The first mistake that Martha makes is distraction leads to missing Jesus. Distraction leads to missing Jesus. Let's look again right here at verses 38 through 40. I'll read it for us one more time. It says, "Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.'"

Have you ever noticed that you get to read exactly the tone of voice somebody uses when you're reading a book? Like if you look at that and say, "Lord, do you not care?" She isn't saying, "Lord... Lord, do you not care?" No, she is frustrated. She's annoyed that she is doing absolutely everything in this house, and her sister is literally just sitting on the floor. See, Martha is doing a really, really good thing. She's doing something incredibly good by wanting to serve God and be extremely hospitable towards God. She's doing a good thing... But Martha's focus wasn't on God. Martha's focus was on everything she was trying to do for God. And we see that this distraction that has caused her... we see that it has caused her to miss the great thing completely.

A funny story when I think about distraction... who here has ever played hide and seek in the dark? Raise your hand. Hide and seek in the dark. Put your hands down. There was a youth event a few years back where... basically what happened is our entire youth group decided that we wanted to play hide and seek out in the pitch black... like right off of our property out into the woods. We decided it would be a phenomenal idea to play hide and seek in the pitch black. And so... essentially we go out, right... and my, my youth leaders actually did an amazing job. They set off parameters, right? Like 'Don't go past this line. Because if you go past this line, there are snakes, there are really deep holes that you'll break a leg in.' Right? 'There's a lot of things... just don't go past this line.'

Now there is a small detail of this story that I left out about my specific youth group. The youth group I was in specifically was insanely competitive. And so to not cross that line... to me, right... what that meant is nobody else is going to cross that line, and so if I cross that line, nobody's ever going to find me. Nobody's going to find me. So what do I do? What do I do? I am gonna cross the line. So it's completely pitch black outside, I go past our parameter line... totally pitch black, I can't see the hand in front of my face. But I remember looking back at our youth building and seeing this light. And my only goal was 'Okay, I am not gonna get lost if I can just see that building, right?' That's right here, I look back, I see the light, I'm good.

It's pitch black, I turn back around... and my only thought process goes from 'I'm not going to cross this parameter, I'm going to look back at the light' to 'I am only focused on winning hide and seek.' My only goal in this moment is 'I need to hide well enough where nobody finds me so that I win.' Distraction of wanting to win a completely stupid game... of hide and seek in the dark... completely blinded me to what was directly in front of my face. I'm telling you this right... I am telling you, I could have walked down ten flights of stairs and been fine compared to this... I hit a hole... that I'm... I am 6'4", okay, I am a very tall guy... I hit a hole that sent me waist deep down in the ground. Completely pitch black outside... sent me completely to my waist in this hole...

I get out, there was no snakes, obviously... you know... there was no snakes, thankfully. Got right out of it, walked back, super upset because I wanted to hide well... but if I would not have been so distracted about just winning hide and seek... I would have never fallen in that hole. See, what Satan is trying to do with middle schoolers today... is he is going to throw distraction after distraction after distraction at you. Do you know why? So that you stop paying attention to Jesus and you focus on the distractions that Satan is throwing your way.

In almost every situation... they don't even have to be bad things, right. Martha is literally doing an incredibly good thing for God. And we still saw her get distracted, we still saw her miss out on Jesus sitting inside of her living room... talking to her sister Mary... because she was doing a good thing. She was too focused on doing a good thing for God. How many of you guys think that maybe we do this same thing with our sports? Can I just be really real with you guys? If we prioritize things like our sports... that are really, really good things, right... over the great things, the great God... God completely cares less about how amazing you are at baseball... God could not care less about how many touchdowns you score... God completely does not care... what matters is your heart. Do you prioritize a good thing over the great thing? Right? Are you prioritizing a good thing, your sport... a very, very good thing... over a great God?

When Jesus looks at Martha in verse 41... he identifies the root problem. Which takes us to our second point. This is the second mistake that Martha makes. And it's this... Anxiety steals your peace. The second mistake Martha makes is anxiety completely steals her peace. Looking at verses 41 and 42... "But the Lord answered her, 'Martha, Martha... you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary... Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.'"

Again... imagine being there to hear the way Jesus actually speaks this to her. It's literally the creator of everything looking at Martha with so much compassion... so much grace... and saying, 'Martha, Martha... you're so anxious... and you are so troubled with all of these good things that you are trying to do for me... that you've missed out on me... that is sitting in your living room. Sitting inside of your house right now... and you are trying to do all of these things for me, and completely missing the actual son of God.'

I remember a time when I was incredibly anxious. I'm going to tell you guys a story, right? I'm sorry, I have absolutely awful stories... when it comes to... I don't know why every time I think of stories it's something where I hurt myself, but literally everything I do... apparently I hurt myself. I think of a time when I was extremely anxious... Have you ever wanted to jump on the bandwagon to like just a complete trend? Just fully just a trend. Do you guys... well let me think... actually, you guys might have been born when these came out, right. Hoverboards. Have you guys ever heard of a hoverboard? How many of you guys got a hoverboard for Christmas when it came out? Literally everyone right? Put your hands down... Literally everyone got one...

So here is the problem... again, small details, I am 6'4", and not a very small guy. I was in completely the upper echelons of the weight limit... to ride this hoverboard. Right? That is a very small piece of this story that goes to play literally right now. So what happens, my sister right... what... I come out of my room... one Christmas morning... I was like 15 years old. Super stoked on these hoverboards. Because she gets one for Christmas. Okay? She pulls it out... and let me just explain my house real quick to you... My house... goes straight out of the door, out of the back sliding glass door... out onto my back porch... and straight off my back porch is my pool. Let me just lay the framework for you right now, I don't go in the pool. That doesn't happen. That's, if you see where it's going, it stops.

Okay, so basically what happens... is I get on this hoverboard... absolutely stoked to try this out... completely on the edge of the weight limit right... get on it right... inside the house... I'm doing really, really good... but the back slider door to the porch is completely wide open. In Florida, in December... somehow it's like 90 degrees out... it's absolutely miserable outside... so the door is wide open right... and they're cooking a huge meal for all of my family, we have like our grandparents over, things like that... people that are extremely... important over to my house...

I get super arrogant... on this hoverboard right... I get insanely confident that I'm really good... to the point that I can do a 360 spin right... while riding through my house right... My mom had just mopped a few minutes before this... And so... again, on the upper echelons of the weight limit... I decide... oh hey listen, quiet down, look at me... I decide that I am going to try and do a really sick 360 spin... And the exact moment that I put the pressure down onto my right foot... right onto that mop line... what happens right, is my, the hoverboard... shoots to the left... out from completely underneath my feet... the hoverboard flies straight left out the back door, hits my sliding glass door, shatters the sliding glass door out back... okay...

Not only that right... that hoverboard completely came out from under my feet, the most anxiety I've literally probably ever had in my life is having absolutely no control over my 6 foot 4 body hitting a completely tile floor full speed... back side of the head onto the floor. Straight down onto my head... I get a complete concussion right... In complete control, or absolutely no control... completely anxious... missing the peace... if I just wouldn't have been totally stupid and rode my hoverboard in the house. What anxiety did inside of this story for me is it completely left absolutely out of control... I was so anxious falling down... hitting the back of my head... totally out of control.

Anxiety removes you out of total control and totally removes your peace of anything that you have going on. Just like Martha in the story right... she is completely out of control... trying to do entirely everything right to please God... but missing absolutely sitting inside of her living room sitting right there... is entirely Jesus. So Martha gets super anxious, totally out of control... doing these totally great things for God. What are the things that cause you the most anxiety in your life right now? Middle schoolers... what brings absolutely so much anxiety and rips complete peace away from you... like Martha?

And I can actually tell you one... It might be your sport. Again... God completely completely doesn't care how many things you can do on the field... if you don't even know his name. God does not care. I'm going to say something that's really gonna string... or sting inside of you guys... If we continue to prioritize... our things that we think matter, things like our sport... what we continue to see is God's completely not mattering to us. We start to see God as less. Right? We start... as our priority of baseball goes up... to an absolutely ungodly level... God completely goes down. Right? He completely goes down.

If you think I'm lying... I dare you... look up absolutely any professional sports guy... and tell me right now that a majority of them are believers. Right? They are so wrapped up in their specific sin... Because their sport became so ungodly important to them... that it completely pushed away whatever their morals had... whatever they had a focus on right... is completely pushed to the wayside... to focus entirely on baseball. Let me ask you guys this, how many of you guys have Sunday morning baseball tournaments? Where are my baseball players? Stand up. Raise your hand if you have Sunday morning baseball tournaments. Where are my volleyball players? Do you guys have Sunday morning tournaments? Right?

It becomes so incredibly difficult to focus your attention completely on Jesus on a Sunday morning... when you are too focused completely on trying to be to an 8 am practice... when you're focusing on trying to completely catch a 9 am pitch... instead of sitting and worshipping the Creator of the universe. What's gonna happen when you get the call up to play on the number one team... are you absolutely gonna say... 'Oh yeah dude let's hit it, let's play the 8 am game, I don't need Jesus.' Or are you going to be the person that completely pushes the limit... completely decides 'I am not doing it because I want to worship the creator, I'm going to worship the creator completely... and baseball falls absolutely second completely to everything.'

You put completely whatever you want up at your top right... If it is completely your academics, you can say your academics instead of baseball... God will completely have to take the place over academics... if God is completely not up to your top spot... Because if your first thing isn't God... you completely miss absolutely everything that God has for you completely. If you fill yourself up with completely the bread and the rolls and the cinnamon butter of Texas Roadhouse... you completely miss the steak... Of what God completely actually has... and let me let me just tell you guys really something real quickly... God actually wants to give you these amazing, these completely full things of life... you completely miss them when you focus on these absolutely small trivial matters of trying to be totally focused... completely on these baseball, sports... cheer, whatever... it goes above everything else completely in Jesus' name.

And so tonight, as the worship team makes their way back out here, let me challenge you guys with this. You've got an opportunity right now to look inside your life, right. What are the top three priorities in your life right now? Middle schoolers, this literally matters to every single one of you inside this room. Right now... stop what you're doing right now... stop. And focus inside your mind. What are your three biggest priorities inside your life right now? Give yourself right now three things inside your heart that are driving you the furthest away from Jesus.

And if Jesus isn't your number one... reprioritize it tonight inside of your life. Ask him to strip away those unnecessary, unneeded things in your life. Strip out the un-Jesus things of your life. Strip them out, completely remove them from your priorities. Ask Jesus to come and fix those things inside your life... to bring you full all the time towards him.

If you guys don't have Jesus in your top spot tonight... Tonight is your amazing opportunity right here during worship to come up front to pray with me, Pastor Chris, literally anybody up here tonight wants to pray with you tonight... to make sure that you put the right, true God first. Would you guys stand up with me tonight and let's entirely worship our perfect and good God together. Let's worship God. Right now. Let's pray to Jesus.

Father, I ask you tonight to bless the rest of this night. God, thank you for exactly who you are. Thank you for the words in your book. We love you. In your perfect name. Amen.