DEVOTED OR DISTRACTED
THE 52 GREATEST STORIES OF THE BIBLE • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 57:47
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It’s safe to say that our society deals with more distractions than any previous society in history. Most of us persistently feel pulled in different directions.
I saw a bumper sticker once that said, “God loves you and everyone has a wonderful plan for your life.” I certainly feel that—, and it seems like the older I get, the more people that have expectations on what I should be doing for them.
The smartphone is the single-most distracting invention ever created.
Tony Reinke recently wrote a book called “Twelve Ways Your Phone is Changing You.” In his book, he says that the average person checks their phone 81,500 times each year, which equates to once every 4.3 minutes. Distraction does not produce a happy, well-balanced, or productive life.
There was a form of torture in the Middle Ages where they tied a man’s limbs to four horses and let them loose. The French called this distraction. What a great picture of what is happening to our lives! How many of you feel as though you are being pulled apart?
Counselors, Christian and non-Christian, tell us that distraction is a significant contributor to relational dysfunction. Distraction makes intimacy impossible. For someone to feel intimate with you—be that a spouse, a child, or a good friend—they have to believe
1. That you consider them a priority in your life;
2. You have plenty of unrushed time available for them;
3. You are giving them your undivided attention.
Distractibility keeps our most essential relationships shallow, including our relationship with God.
Furthermore, studies now show distraction makes us ineffective. I recently read a book by Greg McKeown called Essentialism in which he explains that the new word for “distraction” is multitasking. We think it means we are on top of things and efficient, but all it means is that we are distracted and not doing anything well.
The word “multitasking” was 1st invented in 1965 by IBM to describe how a computer could do multiple things at once. But the problem is that the human mind isn’t wired up exactly like a computer. Consciousness is pretty much designed to be in one place at one time, and switching back and forth takes time and energy.
The average person sitting at their desk will check their email every 5 minutes in the midst of whatever else they are doing. The problem is that it takes an average of 64 seconds to resume the previous task after you finish—which means that we waste 1 out of every 6 minutes.
McKeown says: “So, when I hear people say they are ‘multi-tasking,’ all I hear is, “My attention is scattered, I feel stressed out, and I don’t do anything well.” Bottom line: If we are going to live productive spiritual lives, we have to learn to deal with distraction.
Today’s text provides us with practical insight into how to deal with distraction. Today’s passage is the only place in Scripture where the word distraction can be found.
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.”
Jesus is warning Martha about being distracted from him by anything else—because knowing him is the most important thing. There are some essential principles about distraction that can be applied to other parts of our lives as well.
First, let me give a vital clarification: Distraction is not the same as a divine interruption.
Jesus seemed to be entirely indistractible on the one hand but imminently interruptible on the other! In Matthew 12, Jesus wouldn’t allow his family to keep him from doing God will.
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
In John 4, we see that not even hunger could keep him from pursuing God’s will. When his disciples returned from eating, they said,
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”
But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
What a picture of indistractible!
He was indistractible, but he was very interruptible.
For example, in John 5, Jesus freely allows his Sabbath to be interrupted by a man who needs healing. Jewish people thought of the Sabbath as the one day you should not be distracted by anything work-related. Jesus explains his openness to being distracted by saying:
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
In other words, Jesus recognized that his Father was always at work and that he needed to be ready to respond. Jesus was perpetually prepared to respond to divine opportunities, and he taught us to live the same way.
If being distractible is one fault, this is the opposite fault. We must guard ourselves against becoming closed off to what God is doing around us. Today’s story doesn’t teach us to live a life of the uninterrupted quiet time.
The text is simple; there is a time for service, and there is a time for communion with Jesus. Quite often, the best moments in our lives come in the form of unexpected interruptions.
A healthy Christian life is one in which you learn to avoid unhealthy distractions so you can be open to divine interruptions. Here’s how I’d summarize a victorious Christian life: Learning to live free of devilish distractions so we can give full attention to divine interruptions.
Let’s get back to our story of Mary and Martha
Distraction is often the good keeping you from the essential.
What Martha was doing was not bad. She was serving and taking care of people. Using her spiritual gifts. Jesus’s gentle rebuke of her was that she had let the many “good” work keep her from the one essential work.
Imagine talking to Martha the next day, “So how was your time with Jesus yesterday? What was it like?” Well, I don’t remember much I was in the backroom cooking and cleaning.” If you’d asked Mary, she’d say, “Oh, let me tell you. Jesus said this, and then that. She took advantage of a nonrepeatable. Distraction seeks to get you to trade something that you only get one shot at for a bunch of things that, in the scheme of things, aren’t that important.
Life is short. John Maxwell says, “It’s hard to overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” don’t let the unimportant things to keep you from the things you can’t ever get back. • So, whatever situation God has you in, be all there!
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.
Missionary Jim Elliott summarized it: “Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every moment you believe given by God.”
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
Make every moment an offering to God.
‘When you’re with the people of God, be all there.’ Everybody should come to a weekend worship service, or small group, with something to offer and expecting to hear from God. When you are with a group of friends, be all there! When you are with a group or in a meeting, be all there!
Tony Reinke: If I come into an appointment and I take my phone out and put it on the table, I am saying that I am engaged for the moment, but ready to disengage if something more interesting comes along. And if my phone is in my hand, and I am responding to texts and scrolling social media, I project open dismissiveness, because dividing attention is a typical expression of disdain.
In times of rest and solitude, be all there as well!
Tony Reinke points out the irony of the phone is that it keeps us isolated from people when we’re with them, and distracted by people when we should be isolated from them. God has a purpose in solitude and silence, and many of us never get it because stuff is always on, and we’re continuously checking.
Before I move on to #3, let me say something here to those of you who are not believers.
Distraction with the good is one of Satan’s primary tools to keep us from considering the eternal. In Jesus’s parable of the seeds, it was a distraction that kept the seed of God’s word from taking root. The sower sowed the seed, and the devil came along and just planted seeds of distraction.
C.S. Lewis pointed out it’s not usually evil or unbelieving thoughts, just ones that keep you from considering what is important! “I’m hungry. I’ve got a report due tomorrow.” And the impact of the Word fades from your memory. You never rejected the word of God; you just got distracted from it.
Distraction enslaves an insecure heart
Martha’s busyness appears to be driven by a need—a need she probably didn’t even recognize about herself. In
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,
Jesus called her worried and upset about many things.
The word “worried” is similar to distraction: it means to be torn into pieces in many directions.
Upset means to be tossed along—like a capsized boat with no anchor. Jesus diagnoses Martha as having an unhappy, unsettled, unanchored soul. She probably was the kind of person who needed to be needed— you ever meet someone like that? The type of person who only feels significant when everyone is depending on them?
Here’s the question for Martha: Why should she need to feel needed by others to feel significant? Shouldn’t the fact that Jesus loved her and wanted to spend time with her make her feel special? She’s looking for something in service that can only be found in the Savior. Furthermore, she probably felt like the weight of serving was all on her—like the burden of making it come together sat on her shoulders. If I don’t do this, who will?
You see—when it was all said and done, her distraction, like ours, came from failing to believe the promises of God!
We tend to stay over-busy because we silently tell ourselves:
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I will never make it in life.
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I’m going to fall behind.
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I might be poor.
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I won’t be accepted.
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I will disappoint someone.
· If I don’t do as much as I possibly can, I won’t measure up.
This just a failure to believe the gospel! Martha’s disbelief leads to an awkward encounter: She rebukes Jesus! She accuses Jesus of not caring and tells him what to do. You see, what this shows us is that distraction and the feeling of being overwhelmed and hurried often comes from being terribly out of fellowship with Jesus.
Here’s one closely related to that one.
Distraction entices an empty heart.
Because Jesus was not in the right place in Martha’s heart, her soul craved the significance that came from serving. When our soul is out of fellowship with Jesus, we always want more—which is why our radar is still on for that next enticement. Scientists say the reason many of us are so attached to our phones is that when we look at social media, a chemical called dopamine gets released. Dopamine is the same substance that causes us to get addicted to drugs, or porn, or other things.
Ironically, dopamine heightens when the "hits" are smaller—thus 140-character messages (i.e., Twitter) seem almost designed to create a dopamine-addiction loop. As with other addictions, we feel like we need increasingly more of it for the same “high.” Which might be why studies show that 33% of people check their phone in the middle of the night, or when they are bored and don’t know what to do they instinctively reach down for the phone.
John Piper wrote a great little article that asks why we are so drawn to turn to technology first thing in the morning and at the first sign of a lull. He gives six reasons.
1. Novelty Candy. We have (FOMO). We’re afraid that our friends are going to know something we don’t know. (Sociologists have classified a condition where you experience legitimate anxiety of being too separated from your phone—it is called “nomophobia.” Not kidding. Without Jesus, your FOMO will lead to nomophobia. But with Jesus, you’ll have NoMoFoMo.)
2. Ego Candy (We want to know what people are saying about us, so we get on social media looking for likes and positive comments!)
3. Entertainment Candy (We want to feed on what is fascinating, weird, strange, unusual, or shocking.) – oh look, this woman in Oregon has an Alpaca that can do Calculus.
4. Boredom Avoidance (We want to put off the day ahead, especially when it looks routine to us.)
5. Responsibility Avoidance (We want to put off the responsibilities God has given us as fathers, mothers, bosses, employees, students.)
6. Hardship Avoidance (We want to put off dealing with relationship conflicts or the pain, disease, and disabilities in our bodies.) Candy and avoidance strategies.
Candy is not good for you; it gives you no sustenance—but it tastes good; and if you are starving, it can temporarily entice you even though it hurts you in the long run, and avoidance strategies keep you from doing what you know you should be doing
These are signs of an unhealthy soul that needs a hit of an entertainment or distraction drug to find satisfaction and enjoyment! We are supposed to have such pleasure in knowing and doing the will of God; we are not susceptible to other cravings.
Again, John 4: Jesus was so focused on God’s will he could go without food—because doing God’s will was more fulfilling to him than even eating. Martha should have been so full of intimacy with Jesus and doing his will that she didn’t feel the need to prove herself—and so she could sit when he wanted her to sit and get up and serve when/if he wanted her to do that!
The answer to Martha’s problem is to get close enough to Jesus to sense the warmth of his love and know what he wants! Martha is not close enough to Jesus to detect either of those things!
Consider Mary for a minute. She is said to be “sitting at Jesus’s feet,” which means she is listening. Furthermore, in the Bible, getting down at someone’s feet meant to be under their authority. She’s both focused and submissive. The answer to feeling distracted is to get focused and submissive. You can’t just come and sit through an occasional sermon and equate that with sitting at Jesus’ feet. That’s not listening. Sitting at Jesus’s feet means devoted, personal time paying attention to him, and when you do that—the problem of busyness will mostly dissolve.
1. First, you’ll feel the warmth of his love and won’t feel the burden of always trying to prove yourself or the burden of trying to carry the weight all by yourself.
2. Second, because you’ll be more in touch with his Spirit, you’ll be more aware of when something is not a distraction but a divine interruption.
That’s why Martin Luther used to say that on his busiest days he had to get up even earlier to spend more time with God so he could walk with God through that busyness without it destroying him. • And then you should get up from your quiet time and say, “God has things for me to do and accomplish today.” And get after them.
Distraction rules an unprioritized heart
The necessary component to being focused on what you need to be focused on is saying “no” to other good things. Martha needed the ability to say “no” to legitimately good things so she could say “yes” to the best thing.
One of the most valuable things I ever learned was that whenever I said “yes” to anything I was saying “no” to another— be that my budget or in my time. I’m a people pleaser and like to make everyone happy, so I was always saying yes to everything. But when I started to realize that saying “yes” to this opportunity, I was saying “no” to my children.
Many of us are asking, “How can I get more done?” when we need to be asking, “Am I sure I’m getting the right things done?” Success, Greg McKeown explains in Essentialism, Success is determined as much by what you don’t do as it is what you do. You’ve got to get clear on whose opinion matters: The Bible says that in a multitude of counselors, there is wisdom, but today we have opinion overload. Through my phone, everyone can tell me their opinion about what I’ve said, what I’m wearing, what I should be doing. You’ve got to learn who to listen to. What this story shows us is that distraction grows out of a messed-up heart.
As with all things, it’s not so much of a behavior problem as it is a gospel problem. Horizontal dysfunctions ultimately go back to a vertical disruption. Distraction and busyness come from being out of fellowship with Jesus. So, focus there—rest in Jesus and figure out what he wants, and that will break your captivity to distraction.
Can I close with a few super practical things?
1. Take at least the first 15 min a day to be with Jesus. Don’t look at your phone until then. (Do it as a challenge for a week and see if it doesn’t reshape for the better how you handle life!)
2. Throughout the day, keep your phone in your pocket and check it only at set intervals
3. Unfollow, the people you envy
4. Review your priorities often—what roles you need to fulfill to be faithful; what tasks you need to accomplish to be a success. Do this in community. Review them with your spouse if you have one; people in your small group, or your boss if you have a good relationship with them.
But most of all, re-prioritize time with Jesus. That is the key to everything else. ‘
Two decisions today:
1. Have you ever received the love of the Father given in Christ? The gospel is that he loves you and gave Jesus as a Savior for your sins if you will receive his offer to come home to him, turn over control of your life to him, and receive his offer of forgiveness. Have you done that?
2. Will you make a commitment to daily quiet time?