WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.320 So we're taking a break from our series going through the Book of Jonah for Mother's Day. 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:12.640 So what better way to celebrate Mother's Day than have a man come up here and man explain to all the women how to be good moms? 00:00:12.800 --> 00:00:14.560 Isn't that a great way to do this? 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:18.000 A tradition of the church for centuries. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:22.480 Hopefully, I won't do that too much, but maybe have some observations. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:28.719 So two weeks ago, I was sitting at my desk working, Christy, it was on Monday, Christy works on Monday. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:39.119 So Christy was out in Gwinnett working at her family's business, and so she was there, and then she calls me and she says, Hey, uh, our oldest daughter Josie, she's up at the clinic and she needs to go to the doctor. 00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.600 And I very firmly fired back. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:45.920 She does not need to go to the doctor because I took her to school that morning and she is fine. 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:50.479 I listed my reasons, most of which were just the fact I didn't want to rearrange my afternoon. 00:00:50.719 --> 00:00:59.920 So, of course, 10 minutes later, I'm at the school picking up Josie to take her to the doctor, and we stop for a smoothie and we play a hand clap game. 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:05.680 I didn't know in the waiting room I'm trying not to touch anything or breathe because all that scares me. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:13.120 But we're there and the doctor sees us and does the strep test, and she's fine, and we're fine, and she's back at school by the end of the day. 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:14.000 Everything's fine. 00:01:14.079 --> 00:01:20.319 But the whole time, uh, my sweet wife, sweet mom, she is calling. 00:01:20.799 --> 00:01:22.799 I don't know, how many times do you think you called? 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:24.719 Confession in front of it. 00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:25.760 It was a lot of calls. 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:26.799 Uh we'll just say that. 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:32.319 I also don't tell her what stories I'm gonna tell in sermons, so she always likes this moment Sunday mornings. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.200 It was probably four or five calls. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:39.359 Uh you know, it was enough to be like, this is a lot of calls, it was that much. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:42.000 And so what, like, like what, why? 00:01:42.159 --> 00:01:43.840 Why all the phone calls? 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.920 Well, moms, you already know, right? 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:54.159 You know, because if you're at work and your child is sick, there's just part of you that's like, what's going on? 00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:54.799 How is she? 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:01.519 What like I you want to be, you want to be with with her or with him, and then sometimes it works the other way around. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:14.080 You're with your child, and you sort of feel like you need to be doing something for work, or work out, or work out more, or clean something again, or just something, like something productive. 00:02:15.520 --> 00:02:17.039 Or your kids are grown. 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:18.080 That's possible too. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.280 Your kids are grown, and you have you're in that hard place if you're not quite sure. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.599 Like, when are you still mom? 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:26.800 And then, like, when are you friend? 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:28.719 And that's hard. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:33.840 A lot of this is hard, a lot of these roles of parents is is hard. 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:45.520 And it can be hard for you today because of the things that Christy listed out, because you've been having trying to have children, you couldn't, or you have children, and it's hard, or your children are grown and they're strained relationships. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:47.599 All of that can be hard. 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:53.120 Or maybe you lost your mom this year and you have your first motherless mother's day, which is hard. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.280 It's all hard, it's can be very hard. 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:56.719 We can feel lost in all of it. 00:02:56.879 --> 00:03:07.680 A few months ago in an op-ed in the New York Times, uh, the writer Olga Meking wrote this in her article, In the Country of Motherhood, Finding My Own Path. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:08.240 That's the title. 00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:09.120 And here's what she wrote. 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:10.400 Here's a little paragraph. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:22.400 The Japanese have kitsungai, a method of repairing broken pottery with gold, making it even better, more valuable after it has been broken. 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:31.680 Some of the parenting books I read told me that I should similarly welcome the shattering of myself and that I was made better because I was now a mother. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:33.439 I disagreed. 00:03:33.759 --> 00:03:37.120 I liked myself just as I was before I had children. 00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:46.319 While other mothers were taking pride in their new broken, repaired forms, I was on my hands and knees still looking for pieces of myself. 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:56.960 So she's asking a pretty good, legitimate question, and is as that we should all ask in front of any role that breaks us in some degree: who am I? 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:02.240 Who am I if this role cannot define me? 00:04:03.199 --> 00:04:04.240 Where am I at? 00:04:04.479 --> 00:04:09.919 So our text this morning is this well-known story in Luke chapter 10 with Jesus and Martha and Mary. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:14.240 I'll reread what Christy read, jumping there at verse 38 in Luke 10. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:17.680 Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. 00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:25.600 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. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:32.560 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? 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.480 Tell her then to help me. 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:42.000 But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.319 Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:47.839 So, two points for this morning. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:05:04.480 Here's point number one is you are more loved and secure in Christ than the roles you serve, which frees and empowers you to joyfully serve the roles you serve. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.240 Big sentence, that's a long sentence. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:07.600 I probably should have broken it up into two points. 00:05:07.759 --> 00:05:09.279 I'll say it again so we can get it. 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:20.480 You are more loved and secure in Christ than the roles you serve, which frees you and empowers you to joyfully serve the roles you serve. 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:27.600 That's a preacher's way of saying you are a human being before you are a human doing. 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:35.519 Now, in the ancient world, and in the context of this passage this morning, the Greco-Romans saw women as property, not as people. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:44.000 Roman law stated that all the sons born to a father had to be raised, but only the firstborn of the daughters. 00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:46.560 Girls had almost no education. 00:05:47.519 --> 00:05:49.600 They had no cultural value. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.720 Women were human doings. 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:54.639 They were not human beings. 00:05:54.959 --> 00:06:06.959 And Jesus shows up into this horrible context and values Mary not as she is doing something, but as she just is someone. 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:14.720 You see, God does not value you for the role you serve or the role you do not serve. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.560 He values you because you are his. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:26.800 A few weeks ago we were in York for the Mockingbird Conference, an annual theological ministry conference we go to. 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:32.560 We took the afternoon before the conference began that evening, and we went to the Museum of Modern Art, the MoMA. 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:37.519 Not usually my scene, but I was there pretending like I could fit into this crowd. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:43.920 And there on the second floor, we were on the second floor, and there's this massive, massive canvas. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:45.680 Huge white canvas. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:48.240 I mean, it was taking up a wall. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:54.319 Huge, five colored lines painted vertically on the canvas. 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:00.240 I stood in front of it trying to be cultured enough for this. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:06.079 And you hear other people around you making little, oh wow, oh yeah, you know, what? 00:07:06.959 --> 00:07:08.560 It just looked like somebody didn't finish. 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:11.040 It doesn't, I didn't get it. 00:07:11.839 --> 00:07:12.639 We moved on. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.040 On the fifth floor was the Impressionists. 00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:19.120 So Picasso, uh Renoir, Matisse. 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:28.319 And there on the fifth floor, most of the people were up there, by the way, if you're just wondering where people were filtering, slowly everybody was up there looking at those pieces of artwork. 00:07:28.399 --> 00:07:35.360 And we're all up there, and there in the biggest room, a floating wall there in the middle of the floor, is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:38.480 Big crowd gathered around it, just staring at it. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.439 Stood in front of that piece of art as well. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.800 And it was very quite different scenario, at least for me. 00:07:46.959 --> 00:07:50.959 And the feeling for me in front of that piece was there's nothing to add. 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:54.319 There's nothing to change. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:55.680 It was complete. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:57.839 It was perfect. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.399 Even its oddities were perfect. 00:08:01.199 --> 00:08:04.399 I didn't feel inadequate in front of it at all. 00:08:04.879 --> 00:08:10.720 I felt the opposite of what I felt in front of the five-line big white canvas piece. 00:08:11.040 --> 00:08:16.240 And now it's been a few weeks, and now I'm wondering if actually both pieces of art did their job. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:22.879 I still don't love modern art, but it certainly created a feeling in me. 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:24.160 It did that. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:26.319 Sort of angered me a little bit. 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:27.600 And then you're like, what's the anger? 00:08:27.680 --> 00:08:28.480 Why am I angry? 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.199 I think I could do that, is why. 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:38.399 But the piece, that piece of art made me feel incomplete. 00:08:39.200 --> 00:08:41.919 The Van Gogh piece didn't make me feel that. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:48.879 The five-line piece made me feel incomplete, which is often how I feel. 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:55.440 At least when I'm trying to self-justify with a role. 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:07.200 And here's the point to use roles, good roles, godly roles, to use roles as self-justification is enslavement. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:08.480 It's actually sin. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:15.039 Because our justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:18.399 Self-justification by roles is all conditional. 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:24.720 It's based on you and your behavior and your merit, which then is condemning in time. 00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:28.639 Do you love and raise your children? 00:09:29.120 --> 00:09:31.759 Or do you use your children to define you? 00:09:32.960 --> 00:09:35.519 Do you love and care for your friends? 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:38.320 Or do you need them to approve of you? 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:41.919 Do you love and serve your job? 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:47.679 Or do you need the next rung up to finally be okay? 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:53.360 And the gift of God's grace is we get to be merry. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:58.799 We act like Martha, but we get to be merry. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:11.440 We can let go of roles and busyness as to be defined by God's grace to us, that we are his beloved because of his grace to us. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:24.399 And it's then we are freed and empowered to be quicker repenters joyfully, to serve our roles joyfully without them defining us, so we come into the role with a full cup. 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:28.559 Two weekends ago, the Kentucky Derby ran. 00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:30.000 Now I know nothing about horses. 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:32.320 If you want to know about horses, you talk to Miss Harriet right over there. 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:34.720 She knows about horses, probably maybe the only one in the room. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:37.279 I don't know about horses, but I knew this was a big deal. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.960 First of all, the race is a big deal, but then this race was a big deal. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:11:00.639 If you didn't catch it on the news, maximum security, the horse, not the security going on that the horse, maximum security, was in the lead, drifted out of his lane by two lanes or so, cut off War of Will, who then interfered with long-range Toddy, who then interfered with Boat Express. 00:11:01.200 --> 00:11:03.120 Alright, can you believe it? 00:11:04.320 --> 00:11:10.320 Now the problem is that a jockey and a horse, once they establish their lane on a straight, they gotta stay in their lane. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:11.600 They can't drift. 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:20.320 Now the problem was worse, is that maximum security went on to win, which is tens of millions of dollars of revenue for that owner. 00:11:20.960 --> 00:11:28.879 And the stewards, which is a fancy name for ref, the stewards, they came out and said he's disqualified. 00:11:29.200 --> 00:11:33.679 Never before in the Kentucky Derby had they disqualified a winning horse. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:39.519 And their quote is this a foul is a foul. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:43.519 You see, we want to win at motherhood, right? 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:45.840 We want to win at the role that we serve. 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:47.120 We want to win at that. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:49.120 Of course we do. 00:11:49.360 --> 00:12:02.720 But as soon as it becomes our source of absolution or righteousness or worth, we will live in condemnation and exhaustion to it. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.039 Because a foul's a foul. 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.360 And we don't live in perfection with our roles. 00:12:10.559 --> 00:12:16.720 We're not the perfect parent, perfect friend, perfect business owner, perfect employee, perfect neighbor. 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:24.559 Life by a role is life by merit, and life by merit is condemnation and exhaustion and time. 00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:28.480 And it's amazing in the story with Martha and Mary what Jesus is doing. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:39.840 He's doing exactly what we need, what the gospel is, and that is that Jesus is extending constant forgiveness to Martha in her sin of busyness, in her role idolatry. 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:47.519 And this is our sin taken on the cross, on Jesus for us, that we have complete absolution, nothing for us to add. 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.879 And then to Mary, he's extending constant worth. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:13:00.799 And this is the gift of righteousness and worth and justification that the cross gives us. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:11.120 Point number two is this we can begin to understand God's love to us in Jesus Christ as the perfection of motherly love. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:17.200 We can begin to understand God's love to us and Jesus Christ as the perfection of motherly love. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:20.960 There's this great little passage in Isaiah 49, 49, 14. 00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:29.519 Yet Jerusalem says, so that'd be a way to say God's people, yet God's people say, the Lord has deserted us. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:31.919 The Lord has forgotten us. 00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:34.879 So the people are saying, I don't feel loved. 00:13:35.120 --> 00:13:36.720 Life's hard. 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.200 I feel like he's forgotten me. 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:40.799 I have hurts and I have wounds. 00:13:40.960 --> 00:13:41.840 Where is he at? 00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:44.320 Why does he fix this? 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:53.200 And God does not give them an explanation of their struggling, he does give them a promise of his love. 00:13:53.600 --> 00:13:56.080 So the Lord's forgotten me, you've got forgotten me. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:58.399 And then verse 15, never. 00:13:59.919 --> 00:14:01.679 God says, never. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:05.840 Can a mother forget her nursing child? 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.879 Can she feel no love for the child she has born? 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:13.919 But even if that were possible, I would never forget you. 00:14:14.559 --> 00:14:19.519 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. 00:14:20.480 --> 00:14:24.720 Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem's walls and ruins. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:29.440 Now we're not going to get into a mother's debate on nursing. 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:31.759 We're not going to do that this morning. 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:37.919 Attachment moms, sleep training moms, tiger moms, you work that out in the parking lot or online. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.039 You'll probably just do it online. 00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:40.080 That'd be okay. 00:14:40.399 --> 00:14:47.279 But the point here in this passage is this is can't can a mom forget a baby she's cared for and nursed? 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:51.759 A mother's love is close and unconditional. 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:54.080 But what if you did? 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:56.799 What if you did find a mom who was able to do that? 00:14:56.960 --> 00:14:59.919 Just let's float the scenario, is what this passage says. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:01.120 Let's float the scenario. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:02.399 What if you did? 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:05.519 God says, not me. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:09.200 I will never forget you. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:17.840 I will love you unconditionally in and through all things, in and through all your sin, in and through all your struggle. 00:15:18.080 --> 00:15:21.120 One way forever, constant love. 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:30.159 We are the baby before the mother, taking and taking and taking, and God gives and gives and gives. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.559 And then in verse 16, the image changes. 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:36.240 I have written your name on the palms of my hands. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:44.320 And I learned this week that a servant would sometimes be tattooed on the palm of his hands, the name of his master. 00:15:45.759 --> 00:15:52.639 But never would a master tattoo the name of his servant on his own hands. 00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:54.720 So what is this verse? 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:56.240 What is this image? 00:15:58.320 --> 00:15:59.279 Both images. 00:16:00.559 --> 00:16:04.799 It means God is radically graciously devoted to you. 00:16:06.799 --> 00:16:09.039 And here's what you get to do this week. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:10.639 Any day, any moment. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:19.039 You get to preach to yourself that though you often act like Martha, you are in fact Mary. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:31.039 You get to joyfully collapse into God's grace and joyfully repent of all the ways your heart, me too, I get to do this, our hearts stay busy and love rolls as to define us. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:38.720 And we get to rest back in the absolution, forgiveness, and justification we have by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:47.759 My brothers and sisters, God did and He continues to humble Himself and radically, unconditionally devotes Himself to you in Christ Jesus. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:48.720 Let's pray together. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:50.080 God, thank you so much. 00:16:50.240 --> 00:17:05.039 We are so grateful that our very beings, our very beings do not have to be dependent upon what we produce, what we look like, what we earn, what we merit in the world or in religious life. 00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:12.559 Forgive us for making roles our God, for making roles our Savior. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:14.720 Free us from that. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.000 Help us be joyful, quick repenters this morning. 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:21.200 Any day, any moment that we see ourselves doing it. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:27.519 We ask for that conviction upon us that we might be quick repenters in the great grace of God. 00:17:29.519 --> 00:17:41.680 Help us to see how much we are loved and secure in Christ Jesus, that it might free us and empower us to serve the roles you have called us to serve. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.799 In Jesus' name we pray and live all things. 00:17:45.039 --> 00:17:45.519 Amen.