Sunny & 65 with Madi Schultz
Join Madi Schultz as she imperfectly pursues Jesus and emphatically encourages you to do the same. Through scripture, conversations, and testimonies— Madi's prayer is that you would walk away from listening to each episode with a greater affection for Jesus + experience the freedom He has for you in deeper ways.
| madi@sunnyand65.com | @madelinschultz_ | @mackandbenj
Sunny & 65 with Madi Schultz
Episode 77: Indeed Only One
Friend, I pray this encourages you to sit at the feet of Jesus. Few things are needed, or indeed only one.
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 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 the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-41
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Hey friends, welcome back to the Sunday in 65 podcast. I'm your host, maddie Schultz, and today I'm actually going to be sharing with you a message that I shared with the women in my church a few weeks ago at one of our women's ministry events, and so I'm praying that this blesses you. As we were thinking about this brunch I think originally it was like let's do a beautiful brunch I imagined us all so dressed up and cute, but then, when our team got together, we were asking ourselves the question what do the women of Providence actually need? In this season? Fall is often full, fall is chaotic. In many cases, fun chaos. We choose. Other times not so fun chaos and hard things that we very much did not choose.
Speaker 1:Maybe you find, like I do, when asking people, how are you, how was your week, the canned response during this season is typically so busy, we have so much going on and we often unintentionally wear our busyness as a badge of honor to the point of burnout, and then we pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and trudge through onto the next, oftentimes good thing, usually running on fumes or completely overwhelmed. Or maybe you were already in a hard season and have been in a hard season and then fall is now here to pile on more. Maybe you can relate. What is the one thing you're longing for right now? Let it come to mind. What's the one thing that you believe might ease the exhaustion and the chaos and the stress just a little bit in your life right now? Let it come to mind. What is it? Maybe you're thinking if I could just have that five-day vacation, or if my kids could just sleep better, if I could just make it to my school fall break where I can sleep and do whatever I want, if I could just get one hour of silence by myself, if I could just get that iced latte today? Maybe, on a more serious note, if I or my family member could just be healed of this illness, if I could just fix my marriage, if I could just have this friendship that is currently in relational turmoil reconciled and resolved, if I could just get a different job, if I could just get a hold of this sin struggle and figure it out, if I could just fill in the blank with whatever is your thing that's going through your head, if I could just blank, then I could feel this rest and peace that I'm longing for, at least for a moment. Let me just recharge a little bit, and then we can go at it again and hop back on the endless hamster wheel of life till I need another recharge.
Speaker 1:What if that latte, that trip or a completely different set of circumstances isn't actually the answer? I think we know or at least most of us in this room would say that we know that those things are not the answer. We know those things will not bring true rest and true peace, but the way we functionally live our lives often says and reveals otherwise. My prayer today is that you would know and believe that you can live out of a place of rest, regardless of your circumstances, because of what Jesus has already accomplished on your behalf on the cross. You can live out of a place of rest regardless of your circumstances, because Jesus is your rest. Here's the kicker, though. In order to be able to do that, we desperately need to sit at the feet of Jesus and be renewed by him and his word, starting in Luke 10, 38,.
Speaker 1: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 the work by 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. Don't just let these words pass by you right now, but use your redeemed imagination to put yourself in that house. Are you Mary lately, or are you more like Martha? I'll read it again. 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 the work by 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.
Speaker 1:Mary, verse 39, says who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said? I imagine her, down on two knees, looking up at Jesus with such anticipation and joy and hope, holding on to every last word and breath and hand movement. I imagine she just couldn't get enough of what Jesus was saying. I imagine she was content and at complete peace, simply sitting there at his feet. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. Another translation says but Martha was distracted with much serving.
Speaker 1:Maybe you found yourself in a season that you've just been in quotes, too busy to sit at the Lord's feet. Preparations need to be made for your family, for your job, for school, for your health, for your ministry, for your church, for your city group, and your soul is paying the price for it. You're overwhelmed, exhausted, discouraged, apathetic, maybe like Martha. This has led you to annoyance and maybe anger with the people around you. Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha.
Speaker 1:Martha says Jesus, I love that. You can just feel the grace and compassion Jesus has for Martha in that moment, martha, martha, the grace and compassion he has for you, for me. If you are in Christ, if your hope and trust is entirely in what Jesus did for you on the cross, his atoning for your sins to reconcile you back to the living God, if that is true of you today, his countenance toward you is grace and compassion, martha, martha. He's not wagging his finger at you, saying really, you filled your schedule and left me on the back burner again. Really, you filled your schedule and left me on the back burner again. Really, you served all those people and did all this ministry work, but haven't spent any time with me. Haven't you learned, really? No, he's gently but firmly reminding and urging you, reminding and urging us.
Speaker 1:Martha, martha, or maybe my dear daughters at Providence, or maybe my dear daughter that's listening to this podcast you are worried and upset about many things.
Speaker 1:Another translation says you are anxious and troubled 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. Few things are needed, or indeed only one. This one thing that is needed, this one thing that is needed, is to sit at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he has to say, anticipating it, receiving it, resting in it like Mary. It receiving it, resting in it like Mary. It is when that marks our daily lives that we can then live out of a place of rest, regardless of our circumstances. So back to the question we were asking ourselves what do the women of providence need right now? It was a collective answer of they need to be refreshed and revived by the living word of God. They need time and space to simply sit at the feet of Jesus and rest under his words. We need to be reminded what is true of our God, then leading us to know what is true about us. So that is exactly what we're going to be doing here in a few minutes.
Speaker 1:We're going to be doing a longstanding spiritual practice in the church called Lectio Divina. Maybe you've heard of it or maybe you've done it before. We learned a little bit about it a few years ago at our women's retreat from Phil Collins. It's just another way to engage with scripture. Lectio Divina in Latin means sacred reading, and we're going to be reading scripture over you today. There's nothing special about what we're doing here today or how we're going to read it. You could do this at home with your friends. I've done it with my D group gals and actually this last summer I forced all the adults in my family to do it when we were all together. It's just another way to contemplate and meditate on God's word.
Speaker 1:So what this is going to look like is we're all going to lay down on our mats or, if you're listening to this, maybe you could find a spot to lay in your house or your apartment. Find a spot to lay in your house or your apartment If you're driving great, but still keep your eyes open. But just find a spot that's comfortable for you. And we're going to be reading scripture over you for essentially the rest of the time here today. We'll be reading many different passages and we'll be reading each passage three times. We'll repeat each passage three times and we're just going to be asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate or make different words or parts of the passages stand out to you today, because we believe that God's word is alive and active. If you're wanting to hear God speak. He has spoken to you. He has spoken to us. We are absolutely spoiled that he has spoken over 700,000 words to us in our Bibles. That is mind-blowing thousand words to us in our Bibles. That is mind blowing.
Speaker 1:God tells us in Isaiah that his words do not return void, meaning they will change us when we read them, listen to them or meditate on them. He tells us in 2 Timothy that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete and for training in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. He tells us in Psalm 19 that his law is perfect, reviving the soul. He tells us in Matthew 4 that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We need God's word to live. His word is our lifeline. No-transcript.