Preach May 9, 2004: Maria chose better than Martha (Luke 10:38)
Dr. Roberto Miranda
: The passage of Martha and Mary teaches us about setting our sights on things above and prioritizing our affection for God. Martha was concerned with many chores, but Mary chose the good part, which was to sit at Jesus' feet and hear his word. The Lord discerned something in Martha's complaint that He did not like, which was her attitude and heart. He wanted her to celebrate and enjoy his presence instead of being busy with service. The passage prompts us to examine our hearts and question if we are doing things to please God or ourselves. The sermon is relevant to Mother's Day as it highlights the hard-working and diligent women in our church.
The passage discusses how anxiety and worry stem from a misjudgment of priorities and a lack of focus on God. The author suggests that excessive self-awareness and pride can lead to anxiety, and that finding rest for our souls requires an adjustment of the heart and mind. The author emphasizes the importance of putting God first in our lives and seeking His Kingdom and justice above all else. The passage also touches on the idea that the quality of our offerings to God is determined by the state of our hearts and minds. Ultimately, the author encourages readers to purify their hearts and minds in order to please God and find rest in Him.
The quality of our heart is what matters to God, not just going through the motions of religious rituals. We need to prioritize loving God above all else, giving Him our best affection, time, and resources. Only then can we find peace and joy in life. We need to surrender everything to God and focus on pleasing Him, rather than our own desires. When we do this, everything else falls into place and God blesses us. Let us examine our hearts and make an effort to love God above all else.
The passage discusses how anxiety and worry stem from a misjudgment of priorities and a lack of focus on God. The author suggests that excessive self-awareness and pride can lead to anxiety, and that finding rest for our souls requires an adjustment of the heart and mind. The author emphasizes the importance of putting God first in our lives and seeking His Kingdom and justice above all else. The passage also touches on the idea that the quality of our offerings to God is determined by the state of our hearts and minds. Ultimately, the author encourages readers to purify their hearts and minds in order to please God and find rest in Him.
The quality of our heart is what matters to God, not just going through the motions of religious rituals. We need to prioritize loving God above all else, giving Him our best affection, time, and resources. Only then can we find peace and joy in life. We need to surrender everything to God and focus on pleasing Him, rather than our own desires. When we do this, everything else falls into place and God blesses us. Let us examine our hearts and make an effort to love God above all else.
The famous passage of Martha and Mary says there: “It happened that while on his way he entered a village and a woman named Martha received him at her home. She had a sister named Mary who, sitting at the feet of Jesus, heard his word."– Luke, Chapter X, verse 38 onwards - "But Martha was concerned with many chores, and coming closer she said: "Lord, don't worry. Does it matter that my sister lets me serve alone? So tell him to help me." Responding Jesus: "Marta, Marta, anxious and troubled you are with many things, but only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken from her."
How many Martas are there here? Raise your hand. I'm playing. I'm going to raise mine. In fact, I am going to preach this sermon to myself and if you want to listen, you are welcome to listen too.
But the Lord always wants to remind us of what the good part is. I would title this sermon itself: “The good part”. It's just that there are so many good things in the world that many times we don't have to choose only between the bad and the good, you know? It would be so easy for any of us if it were so. Simply choosing between black and white, but life is full of greys.
And many times we have to choose between the good and the best. Between what is truly important and what is relatively important. And there are things in fact that by their nature are so important, so essential, so central that other things that are quite good in their own league, in comparison with those essential things pale and are reduced to a category of third or fourth importance.
And I believe that of all the passages in scripture that tell us about priorities in life and what should be the main priority, the passage of Martha and Mary is the most graphic, the most illustrative, the most dramatic. , the most attractive and literary of all.
It is a call for all of us to set our sights on the things above first. Set your sights on things above. And so the Apostle Paul tells us: "Set your sights on things above." The Apostle Paul also says that "those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh."
Who are the people who are of the flesh? Those who do not know the Lord? Here he speaks of the Gentiles. He said: "the Gentiles worry about all these things" What will we eat, or what will we drink, what will we wear, where will we go? They live in a hurry The Lord meant the pagans, those who do not know God, those who do not know the word of God.
Those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh. In the world, the cares, the work, the chores, the duties. But the Apostle Paul says that: "those who are of the spirit think about the things of the spirit." And with that the Apostle Paul does not necessarily mean that we are all going to be mystics, that we are only going to be thinking about ethereal and eternal and spiritual things. No, we are in the world and while we are in the world we have to work, we have to worry about our responsibility to pay the bills, take care of the boys, wipe the noses of the brats, etc. That has to be done, right?
But what the Lord is looking for is something different. Where do we have our affection? Where do we have our heart deposited? What are we giving primary importance to? Because ultimately that is God's primary concern. Where is our heart? Where have we deposited our affection?
The Lord said in a passage: “Where you have your treasure, there will be your heart.” Where we have our main affection, there will be our desire and our attention. And so the Lord is seeking, brothers, that we place our affection and our best priority in Him and only in Him. And anything, brothers, that competes with that passionate and radical affection that God wants from us is not going to work for Him. to like, even if it is something very good. Even if it is something as important as, for example, the ministry. One can say, but what else can please the Lord that I dedicate my whole life to the ministry and that I work and serve him and do this, and do that. But the Lord cares about only one thing and that is why He says here: "but only one thing is necessary." And as long as the Lord does not discern that single thing in us, nothing that we bring Him will be pleasing to Him.
I think that is also why the passage from First Corinthians, chapter XIII, comes to mind. where the Apostle Paul says: “if I gave all my goods to the poor, and if I gave my body to be burned and I do not have love, I am nothing. It's no use to me." Because? Because you can do many extraordinary and noble and praiseworthy things but do it for reasons that are not right with God. For secret motivations, even for selfishness. You can give your money out of selfishness? What do you think? Can you give your body out of selfishness? Because many people, by giving those things, derive a certain secret satisfaction from giving those things because it satisfies some compelling need in them. And then God, who is a great discerner of hearts, sees that black vein in a sacrifice that seems very beautiful, and he dislikes it. Because He knows how to discern and what interests Him is with what heart are you giving what you are giving?
That is why we can serve in the ministry and if our gaze has diverted from the Lord of the ministry, then our sacrifice, our offering is not pleasing to him. That is why Martha got into trouble with the Lord, in this case. It wasn't that the Lord didn't like that Marta was preparing the food and wanting to serve him and have things well. That's not the problem.
If it weren't for the Martas in the church, what would become of us? If it weren't for hard-working people, dedicated, sacrificed in their attitude, who are always volunteers. If it weren't for hujieres, deacons, praise leaders and ministry participants, what would this church be? I give glory to the Lord for people who work hard in the Kingdom of God, glory to God for them. But that was not the situation in this case. We have to discern the passage well. The problem was Marta's heart. The problem was the attitude with which she was doing what she was doing. The problem was the contrast between Mary's attitude and what her position before the Lord represented and what Martha was doing. The problem was the context, not the act.
Because God is a very complex being when judging human acts. God not only sees the naked action, He sees the context, He sees the attitude, He sees the purpose and all those things he puts them together and from there he draws his verdict regarding human acts.
And in this case, the Lord discerned something in Martha's complaint that He did not like and that He wanted to point out, and He took advantage of that moment to leave us a teaching that would last for two thousand years and will last until Christ comes again. And He discerned that moment, and He, as an illustrious teacher that He is, wanted to mark that point for our edification and to outline a very important aspect of the Christian life. And it is that matter of the heart and the offerings that we bring to the Lord and why we do it and what we give priority to and give importance to. Marta did not know how to discern the moment, she did not know how to discern the heart of the Lord.
In another passage, for example, the Pharisees complain that the Lord does not fast, that he does not keep a hair shirt, that he does not do this or that to afflict his soul. Then the Pharisees say: "The Lord is not spiritual." You are not going to have me all the time, when the owner of the house, the husband, is there, it is not a time to be sad or to be fasting or becoming sad. It's time to celebrate. I am leaving in a short time. I am here for a while, I will be here for a short time. While I am here rejoice, celebrate me, rejoice. When I leave then fast, then keep days of confession and this and the other. But while I am here discern the moment. You have me, rejoice and celebrate.
The Lord was there visiting Martha's house for a brief time. If you had the king of the universe in your house, wouldn't you want to spend every minute there clinging to him, asking him questions and hugging him and touching him and feeling his warmth and making sure his face is fixed in your minds for all eternity? That you can smell him and see how tall he is and see the configuration of his body? That is what one would do. One would be enraptured, watching. At least that's what I would do, I think and hope so.
However, Marta was missing that tremendous opportunity going from here to there: the pots, the spaghetti, the marinara sauce elsewhere, and that the salad, and the garlic bread stuck in the oven, and she was running all over the place. parts, sweating, and there time was running out and the Lord was going to leave to follow his path and she was going to lose the opportunity to know Him, to listen to the timbre of his voice and receive teaching for her life and she was putting his attention on what he shouldn't at that moment.
And Maria, who was possibly much simpler. The world brothers cannot exist only of the Marias. If the world was made up only of Marías, it would stop and nothing would be done. Maria has a different temperament and was a adorer, which is good. Worshipers are wonderful and important but the world doesn't run with worshipers. It takes business people, laborers, laborers, managers, and people with type A personalities in life, to make the world run. But at that moment Mary's attitude was to discern to see the glorious person before her, and to sit at his feet and melt before him and spend every minute adoring him with her lapdog look and wagging her tail and saying: "Lord, it's good that you are in our house."
And the Lord was pleased with that, because the Lord is pleased with our adoration and the Lord is pleased when he discerns a heart delivered to Him who loves Him above all things. That, brothers, pleases the Lord more than a hundred ml of oil that you give him or a thousand slaughtered lambs or a hundred fasts given with an official, religious, ritualistic heart that is not beating rapidly with passion for Him. it breaks the Lord's heart and unleashes His blessing.
And when Marta complains, she is scolding him, she says: “It doesn't bother you, my gosh, Lord, where are your values. How do you allow that injustice? And the Lord says: “Marta, Marta you are very busy, very upset with many things, with the pots, with the spaghetti, with the marinara sauce, with the salad, with the garlic bread, and in reality that is too much. Right now what matters is that you celebrate me, that you enjoy me. If you want to give me a turkey and cheese sandwich, I'll eat it and open a bag of chips and that's enough for me. But enjoy my presence. María has understood, Marta, what is most important. Unfortunately you are busy with many chores.
The word chores prompted me and I looked it up in the Greek dictionary. And the word chores is “diakonia”. Diaconia is where the word deacon comes from and actually the precise translation would be: you are worried with a lot of service. We can understand the drama of what Christ says a little more because in other words what Martha was doing was good, it was service to the Lord. She was serving the Lord. He was doing something to please the Lord, to serve him, to feed him and his disciples who probably walked with him. It was something useful and necessary. And the Lord tells her: “Marta, you are very upset, very anxious, very concerned with serving me and you are missing the most important thing, which is to adore me and please me with the quality of your feelings and with your company and your undivided attention. stop with me. And María has understood what is most important and therefore Marta, I am sorry to tell you that I cannot take away what she has chosen. She has chosen the best.”
Brothers, I want us to stop there and examine our hearts and truly ask ourselves: what I do in my life I do to please the Lord, am I doing it in terms of what God wants and what Christ wants me to do? Or am I doing it in terms of what I want to do and how I want to do things?
Do you know what motivated me to choose this passage? Thinking about mother's day. Thinking of our sisters, not only mothers but women in general, of such excellence that we have in our church; who are hard-working women, efficient, dynamic and diligent women.
Many work on the street and come home and don't even take off their coats and immediately begin to take the food they are going to make for their family that night from the fridge and pantry. And they finish there and then they wash the dishes, and while the food is cooking they are sweeping the house and they are taking care of the children, and preparing so many things and they go to bed exhausted. And day after day they do the same thing, and sometimes they don't have time to enjoy life and do other things that are necessary. And I am also referring to all of us now, at the same time, that God is calling us to adjust our priorities in life, to put the things that come first, first and to measure in our hearts why we are doing what we are doing.
I believe, brothers, that at the end of the day, the eagerness, the worry, the anxiety comes from a mistake in judgment that we have made and sometimes it comes from not setting our sights where we should be setting it. And then, since we are off our axis, we are unbalanced, we cannot enjoy life as God wants. And so we are burdened, troubled, exhausted, tired, fearful and anxious and weak.
What God wants is an adjustment of the heart, an adjustment of the mind, an adjustment of priorities. When our priorities are correct, our life will proceed differently. Many times I believe, brothers, that anxiety comes from disguised selfishness and disguised pride.
I was talking to a woman who is a violinist, a very good violinist, a while back. A very old lady who actually lives busy and anxious, in a terrible way. It makes her unable to even live and move, and she told me that she recently went to a master class with a great violinist who came to the New England Conservatory and she would ask him, "How can I stop getting anxious when I go to play the violin?" violin before an audience? And this violinist told him: “Look, when you get anxious when you are going to play in front of an audience, it is a sign of pride, of excessive self-awareness. Because if you join the music and let the music guide you, you won't have time or opportunity to worry about how you're playing. The music will guide you.”
And that sounds very mythical, but it's very deep and very true. I believe that many times we get anxious in some way and it is because there is an excessive awareness of ourselves. I envy people who can stand up in front of a crowd and sometimes talk nonsense with the greatest of rest and relaxation and people celebrate them as if they are speaking great truths because they are saying it so fluently and with such lightness of spirit.
Many times, people who worry a lot and who are tense, do not allow God's grace to flow through us with the freedom that God wants. And so it happens in our chores and in our everyday actions. If we forgot about ourselves and just did things with simplicity of heart, with innocence, I believe that we would achieve much more, we would enjoy much more, we would get less tired and we would please the Lord much more.
I believe that at the root of all great art is the ability to relax. The athlete, the ballplayer, for example, who sees the batter hit a ball and runs looking at the ball with great ease and ease, waves his glove, runs and stops and waits for it and it seems that the ball falls directly, called by the glove that is waiting for her. How easily he does it! And yet, how complex is that action. If you were to break it down in your brain it would take pages and pages to describe what that man just did. But he has relaxed, he has learned to relax. If he was tense everywhere waiting for the ball, and when it comes he drops it. But he has the ability to rest.
And God wants us to find rest for our souls, brothers. These things are linked. I'm preaching like 10 sermons in one, because I'm preaching that we have to put our priorities where they belong, put them on God, love God above all things; and I am also preaching about finding rest for our souls and living life in peace. And you know what, the two things are linked. And forget about ourselves, too, in order to find rest: to put pride aside, to see ourselves in the presence of the Lord and look only at Him so that we can find rest in our lives.
When God becomes so real to us that we have no time or desire to look at other things, everything falls into place and we can live life more calmly. Remember that I am preaching this sermon to myself. Because this week I have been a little anxious about the ministry and my life, and where God wants me, and priorities and all these things that can be resolved with a good plate of rice with beans and stewed meat. And on three or four occasions during this week, that word has come to me: "Be anxious for nothing."
One of the ways it reached me was through my brother, Manuel Caravallo, who I don't know if he's here. He called me on the phone and told me: “Pastor, I just heard it on the radio this morning and it says “Do not be anxious for anything”. And I myself am preaching to myself over the radio through someone else. And it's true brothers, the eagerness comes from a look where it shouldn't be.
When you look at God, when your affection is on God first, all other things go much better in life. Or if we had the faith to make that principle the fundamental principle that directs all our actions and determines all our priorities and the things we do, and where we put things, in what order.
If we had the faith to do that, brethren, we'd be geniuses. We would live happily and in an instant we could neutralize any dart from the devil, any destructive thought, any destructive memory of the past, any wound that life has left us, any unpleasantness. We could quickly locate everything within the context of that God who says: “I am with you every day until the end of the world”
“A thousand will fall at your side, but ten thousand at your right hand, more will not come to you. Surely with your eyes you will look and see the reward of the wicked because you have put the Lord, who is my hope, the Most High for your habitation. Evil will not come upon you, nor plague will touch your dwelling, for his angels will command near you to guard you in all your ways. In the hands they will carry you, so that your foot does not stumble on a stone. You will tread on the lion and the asp, you will trample the lion cub and the dragon.”
How many Martas are there here? Raise your hand. I'm playing. I'm going to raise mine. In fact, I am going to preach this sermon to myself and if you want to listen, you are welcome to listen too.
But the Lord always wants to remind us of what the good part is. I would title this sermon itself: “The good part”. It's just that there are so many good things in the world that many times we don't have to choose only between the bad and the good, you know? It would be so easy for any of us if it were so. Simply choosing between black and white, but life is full of greys.
And many times we have to choose between the good and the best. Between what is truly important and what is relatively important. And there are things in fact that by their nature are so important, so essential, so central that other things that are quite good in their own league, in comparison with those essential things pale and are reduced to a category of third or fourth importance.
And I believe that of all the passages in scripture that tell us about priorities in life and what should be the main priority, the passage of Martha and Mary is the most graphic, the most illustrative, the most dramatic. , the most attractive and literary of all.
It is a call for all of us to set our sights on the things above first. Set your sights on things above. And so the Apostle Paul tells us: "Set your sights on things above." The Apostle Paul also says that "those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh."
Who are the people who are of the flesh? Those who do not know the Lord? Here he speaks of the Gentiles. He said: "the Gentiles worry about all these things" What will we eat, or what will we drink, what will we wear, where will we go? They live in a hurry The Lord meant the pagans, those who do not know God, those who do not know the word of God.
Those who are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh. In the world, the cares, the work, the chores, the duties. But the Apostle Paul says that: "those who are of the spirit think about the things of the spirit." And with that the Apostle Paul does not necessarily mean that we are all going to be mystics, that we are only going to be thinking about ethereal and eternal and spiritual things. No, we are in the world and while we are in the world we have to work, we have to worry about our responsibility to pay the bills, take care of the boys, wipe the noses of the brats, etc. That has to be done, right?
But what the Lord is looking for is something different. Where do we have our affection? Where do we have our heart deposited? What are we giving primary importance to? Because ultimately that is God's primary concern. Where is our heart? Where have we deposited our affection?
The Lord said in a passage: “Where you have your treasure, there will be your heart.” Where we have our main affection, there will be our desire and our attention. And so the Lord is seeking, brothers, that we place our affection and our best priority in Him and only in Him. And anything, brothers, that competes with that passionate and radical affection that God wants from us is not going to work for Him. to like, even if it is something very good. Even if it is something as important as, for example, the ministry. One can say, but what else can please the Lord that I dedicate my whole life to the ministry and that I work and serve him and do this, and do that. But the Lord cares about only one thing and that is why He says here: "but only one thing is necessary." And as long as the Lord does not discern that single thing in us, nothing that we bring Him will be pleasing to Him.
I think that is also why the passage from First Corinthians, chapter XIII, comes to mind. where the Apostle Paul says: “if I gave all my goods to the poor, and if I gave my body to be burned and I do not have love, I am nothing. It's no use to me." Because? Because you can do many extraordinary and noble and praiseworthy things but do it for reasons that are not right with God. For secret motivations, even for selfishness. You can give your money out of selfishness? What do you think? Can you give your body out of selfishness? Because many people, by giving those things, derive a certain secret satisfaction from giving those things because it satisfies some compelling need in them. And then God, who is a great discerner of hearts, sees that black vein in a sacrifice that seems very beautiful, and he dislikes it. Because He knows how to discern and what interests Him is with what heart are you giving what you are giving?
That is why we can serve in the ministry and if our gaze has diverted from the Lord of the ministry, then our sacrifice, our offering is not pleasing to him. That is why Martha got into trouble with the Lord, in this case. It wasn't that the Lord didn't like that Marta was preparing the food and wanting to serve him and have things well. That's not the problem.
If it weren't for the Martas in the church, what would become of us? If it weren't for hard-working people, dedicated, sacrificed in their attitude, who are always volunteers. If it weren't for hujieres, deacons, praise leaders and ministry participants, what would this church be? I give glory to the Lord for people who work hard in the Kingdom of God, glory to God for them. But that was not the situation in this case. We have to discern the passage well. The problem was Marta's heart. The problem was the attitude with which she was doing what she was doing. The problem was the contrast between Mary's attitude and what her position before the Lord represented and what Martha was doing. The problem was the context, not the act.
Because God is a very complex being when judging human acts. God not only sees the naked action, He sees the context, He sees the attitude, He sees the purpose and all those things he puts them together and from there he draws his verdict regarding human acts.
And in this case, the Lord discerned something in Martha's complaint that He did not like and that He wanted to point out, and He took advantage of that moment to leave us a teaching that would last for two thousand years and will last until Christ comes again. And He discerned that moment, and He, as an illustrious teacher that He is, wanted to mark that point for our edification and to outline a very important aspect of the Christian life. And it is that matter of the heart and the offerings that we bring to the Lord and why we do it and what we give priority to and give importance to. Marta did not know how to discern the moment, she did not know how to discern the heart of the Lord.
In another passage, for example, the Pharisees complain that the Lord does not fast, that he does not keep a hair shirt, that he does not do this or that to afflict his soul. Then the Pharisees say: "The Lord is not spiritual." You are not going to have me all the time, when the owner of the house, the husband, is there, it is not a time to be sad or to be fasting or becoming sad. It's time to celebrate. I am leaving in a short time. I am here for a while, I will be here for a short time. While I am here rejoice, celebrate me, rejoice. When I leave then fast, then keep days of confession and this and the other. But while I am here discern the moment. You have me, rejoice and celebrate.
The Lord was there visiting Martha's house for a brief time. If you had the king of the universe in your house, wouldn't you want to spend every minute there clinging to him, asking him questions and hugging him and touching him and feeling his warmth and making sure his face is fixed in your minds for all eternity? That you can smell him and see how tall he is and see the configuration of his body? That is what one would do. One would be enraptured, watching. At least that's what I would do, I think and hope so.
However, Marta was missing that tremendous opportunity going from here to there: the pots, the spaghetti, the marinara sauce elsewhere, and that the salad, and the garlic bread stuck in the oven, and she was running all over the place. parts, sweating, and there time was running out and the Lord was going to leave to follow his path and she was going to lose the opportunity to know Him, to listen to the timbre of his voice and receive teaching for her life and she was putting his attention on what he shouldn't at that moment.
And Maria, who was possibly much simpler. The world brothers cannot exist only of the Marias. If the world was made up only of Marías, it would stop and nothing would be done. Maria has a different temperament and was a adorer, which is good. Worshipers are wonderful and important but the world doesn't run with worshipers. It takes business people, laborers, laborers, managers, and people with type A personalities in life, to make the world run. But at that moment Mary's attitude was to discern to see the glorious person before her, and to sit at his feet and melt before him and spend every minute adoring him with her lapdog look and wagging her tail and saying: "Lord, it's good that you are in our house."
And the Lord was pleased with that, because the Lord is pleased with our adoration and the Lord is pleased when he discerns a heart delivered to Him who loves Him above all things. That, brothers, pleases the Lord more than a hundred ml of oil that you give him or a thousand slaughtered lambs or a hundred fasts given with an official, religious, ritualistic heart that is not beating rapidly with passion for Him. it breaks the Lord's heart and unleashes His blessing.
And when Marta complains, she is scolding him, she says: “It doesn't bother you, my gosh, Lord, where are your values. How do you allow that injustice? And the Lord says: “Marta, Marta you are very busy, very upset with many things, with the pots, with the spaghetti, with the marinara sauce, with the salad, with the garlic bread, and in reality that is too much. Right now what matters is that you celebrate me, that you enjoy me. If you want to give me a turkey and cheese sandwich, I'll eat it and open a bag of chips and that's enough for me. But enjoy my presence. María has understood, Marta, what is most important. Unfortunately you are busy with many chores.
The word chores prompted me and I looked it up in the Greek dictionary. And the word chores is “diakonia”. Diaconia is where the word deacon comes from and actually the precise translation would be: you are worried with a lot of service. We can understand the drama of what Christ says a little more because in other words what Martha was doing was good, it was service to the Lord. She was serving the Lord. He was doing something to please the Lord, to serve him, to feed him and his disciples who probably walked with him. It was something useful and necessary. And the Lord tells her: “Marta, you are very upset, very anxious, very concerned with serving me and you are missing the most important thing, which is to adore me and please me with the quality of your feelings and with your company and your undivided attention. stop with me. And María has understood what is most important and therefore Marta, I am sorry to tell you that I cannot take away what she has chosen. She has chosen the best.”
Brothers, I want us to stop there and examine our hearts and truly ask ourselves: what I do in my life I do to please the Lord, am I doing it in terms of what God wants and what Christ wants me to do? Or am I doing it in terms of what I want to do and how I want to do things?
Do you know what motivated me to choose this passage? Thinking about mother's day. Thinking of our sisters, not only mothers but women in general, of such excellence that we have in our church; who are hard-working women, efficient, dynamic and diligent women.
Many work on the street and come home and don't even take off their coats and immediately begin to take the food they are going to make for their family that night from the fridge and pantry. And they finish there and then they wash the dishes, and while the food is cooking they are sweeping the house and they are taking care of the children, and preparing so many things and they go to bed exhausted. And day after day they do the same thing, and sometimes they don't have time to enjoy life and do other things that are necessary. And I am also referring to all of us now, at the same time, that God is calling us to adjust our priorities in life, to put the things that come first, first and to measure in our hearts why we are doing what we are doing.
I believe, brothers, that at the end of the day, the eagerness, the worry, the anxiety comes from a mistake in judgment that we have made and sometimes it comes from not setting our sights where we should be setting it. And then, since we are off our axis, we are unbalanced, we cannot enjoy life as God wants. And so we are burdened, troubled, exhausted, tired, fearful and anxious and weak.
What God wants is an adjustment of the heart, an adjustment of the mind, an adjustment of priorities. When our priorities are correct, our life will proceed differently. Many times I believe, brothers, that anxiety comes from disguised selfishness and disguised pride.
I was talking to a woman who is a violinist, a very good violinist, a while back. A very old lady who actually lives busy and anxious, in a terrible way. It makes her unable to even live and move, and she told me that she recently went to a master class with a great violinist who came to the New England Conservatory and she would ask him, "How can I stop getting anxious when I go to play the violin?" violin before an audience? And this violinist told him: “Look, when you get anxious when you are going to play in front of an audience, it is a sign of pride, of excessive self-awareness. Because if you join the music and let the music guide you, you won't have time or opportunity to worry about how you're playing. The music will guide you.”
And that sounds very mythical, but it's very deep and very true. I believe that many times we get anxious in some way and it is because there is an excessive awareness of ourselves. I envy people who can stand up in front of a crowd and sometimes talk nonsense with the greatest of rest and relaxation and people celebrate them as if they are speaking great truths because they are saying it so fluently and with such lightness of spirit.
Many times, people who worry a lot and who are tense, do not allow God's grace to flow through us with the freedom that God wants. And so it happens in our chores and in our everyday actions. If we forgot about ourselves and just did things with simplicity of heart, with innocence, I believe that we would achieve much more, we would enjoy much more, we would get less tired and we would please the Lord much more.
I believe that at the root of all great art is the ability to relax. The athlete, the ballplayer, for example, who sees the batter hit a ball and runs looking at the ball with great ease and ease, waves his glove, runs and stops and waits for it and it seems that the ball falls directly, called by the glove that is waiting for her. How easily he does it! And yet, how complex is that action. If you were to break it down in your brain it would take pages and pages to describe what that man just did. But he has relaxed, he has learned to relax. If he was tense everywhere waiting for the ball, and when it comes he drops it. But he has the ability to rest.
And God wants us to find rest for our souls, brothers. These things are linked. I'm preaching like 10 sermons in one, because I'm preaching that we have to put our priorities where they belong, put them on God, love God above all things; and I am also preaching about finding rest for our souls and living life in peace. And you know what, the two things are linked. And forget about ourselves, too, in order to find rest: to put pride aside, to see ourselves in the presence of the Lord and look only at Him so that we can find rest in our lives.
When God becomes so real to us that we have no time or desire to look at other things, everything falls into place and we can live life more calmly. Remember that I am preaching this sermon to myself. Because this week I have been a little anxious about the ministry and my life, and where God wants me, and priorities and all these things that can be resolved with a good plate of rice with beans and stewed meat. And on three or four occasions during this week, that word has come to me: "Be anxious for nothing."
One of the ways it reached me was through my brother, Manuel Caravallo, who I don't know if he's here. He called me on the phone and told me: “Pastor, I just heard it on the radio this morning and it says “Do not be anxious for anything”. And I myself am preaching to myself over the radio through someone else. And it's true brothers, the eagerness comes from a look where it shouldn't be.
When you look at God, when your affection is on God first, all other things go much better in life. Or if we had the faith to make that principle the fundamental principle that directs all our actions and determines all our priorities and the things we do, and where we put things, in what order.
If we had the faith to do that, brethren, we'd be geniuses. We would live happily and in an instant we could neutralize any dart from the devil, any destructive thought, any destructive memory of the past, any wound that life has left us, any unpleasantness. We could quickly locate everything within the context of that God who says: “I am with you every day until the end of the world”
“A thousand will fall at your side, but ten thousand at your right hand, more will not come to you. Surely with your eyes you will look and see the reward of the wicked because you have put the Lord, who is my hope, the Most High for your habitation. Evil will not come upon you, nor plague will touch your dwelling, for his angels will command near you to guard you in all your ways. In the hands they will carry you, so that your foot does not stumble on a stone. You will tread on the lion and the asp, you will trample the lion cub and the dragon.”
Why? "Because he has placed his love in me, because he has placed his love in me, because he has placed his love in me, I will also deliver him, I will glorify him." Because we have placed our love in Him, that is the basis of all true success in life and all rest. Put our love, our gaze, our affection firstly on Him.
The Lord says: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all other things will be added to you.” In what context does He write it? I read it this morning in the context of "Don't worry about saying: what we will eat, what we will wear or what we will drink". Because the Gentiles seek all these things, but your Father knows that you have need of them. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and all these things will be added to you, added to you” They are not the priority, they are not what our first action, our first affection, our first impulse should demand. The first impulse must be to please the Lord and then all other things will follow.
The Lord says: "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you all the desires of your heart." Delight yourself in Jehovah! Delight means not only indulge yourself, please yourself, take advantage of it. No, it means, take full advantage, blessing and joy of God. Put Him in first place and He will give you the deepest things in your heart, even the ones you don't even know you want, the Lord will give you.
Many times there are things that we want but in reality the noble, wise and powerful being that we have within us wants other things because it judges differently. We desire sometimes with the surface of our consciousness, but there is a deeper being that desires more powerful things and God, if we delight in Him, reads the letters that that being sends and gives us those things and then when we have them we say : "It's good that they didn't give me what I wanted, they gave me what I really needed and wanted!" Because we delight in the Lord, because we seek first the things of the Lord.
Brothers, there is nothing that awakens the desire to bless someone from God, more than a heart that loves him above all things.
The word says in another passage that I love that: "the eyes of Jehovah run through the whole earth looking to discover those who have a perfect heart towards Him and show himself favorable towards them."
God is continually looking for, looking for, a man or a woman who loves him with all his heart to show himself faithful, good and favorable, in favor of that person. That is why my goal and our goal must always be, brothers, to purify our hearts of everything that is not pleasing to the Lord. There are people in this church and in other churches who give the Lord a lot of things but one discerns that their offering is not pleasing to the Lord, because there is a stain on the offering, because there is a heart, there is a mind and a sensitivity that it is damaged, which needs to be healed for your offering to be pleasing to the Lord.
We are like dirty and smelly beggars who give a piece of bread to someone wanting to please them, and that person with a healthy sensibility would like to take it and eat it but cannot because that bread is damaged, with sweat, with dirt, with a bad smell . And what we have to ask is: "Lord, examine me." Look at my heart, as the psalmist David says: "Search, God, my heart, try me and know my thoughts and see if there is any wickedness in my path and guide me on the eternal path."
We have to ask the Lord: “Lord, how is the heart with which I offer you my offering? How is my soul when I extend my hands to you and present my sacrifice to you? Because if there is something twisted in us, that will affect the quality of our sacrifice. And for this reason our search must always be: Father, purify me more and more each day. Purify my affection for you, Lord. May what I give you come from a treated spirit, purified by God so that I can please you with what I give you.
When Cain gave his offering to the Lord, the Bible says that God was not pleased with Cain's offering. And Cain later showed why God was not pleased with his offering, because there was something in it that did not please the Lord. There was a crooked heart in him. The offering is nothing. God does not need an offering. God doesn't need a ballot.
He says: “Look, if I were hungry I wouldn't tell you, because the whole universe is mine. I don't need you." Do you believe that God needs the $10 or $50 that you tithe? God doesn't need that. God is searching your heart and given through it. And if you give those 50 dollars to the Lord out of obligation or carelessness, or you give it mechanically, or you give it to feel happy, or you give it to fulfill a duty, or you give it to others to see you, immediately your offering ceases to be pleasing to the Lord. keep it. Examine yourself first and ask yourself how am I giving to the Lord? Father, help me every day to give you with love, to give you with joy, to give you with passion because that is what pleases you, Lord.
In that same passage Abel says that he gave the Lord one of the fattest of his sheep and he gave him the firstborn, the choicest he gave Abel to the Lord and there he showed the quality of his heart. That is why the Lord was pleased. Cain, when his offering was rejected, was filled with hatred. The hatred, the neurosis that he had inside him, from his crooked heart, the bad mind that he had came to light, the animal that was giving the offering to the Lord came out right away and showed why he did not like God.
Marta was eagerly giving the Lord an offering, mechanically because it was what she did every day. Marta was a personality who, if Mussolini had been there, would have been working in the same way. The Lord understood that and told her: “No, Marta, that is not what interests me. I am interested in the quality of your heart.”
Brothers, sometimes I break my head trying to generate in you and in myself a passionate heart towards God. I believe that my greatest goal as Pastor is that each one of you and I be radically lovers of the Lord. People radically committed to God. People who love God desperately. People who are willing to go to hell itself, if they have to, for the love of the Lord. That is my great wish. I don't care about anything else because I know that if I achieved that, everything else would come in addition. I wouldn't have to tell them to come to prayer, I wouldn't have to tell them to tithe. You wouldn't have to tell them to sign up to serve in the different ministries because you would naturally want to, because your heart would be there.
The person who has solved the heart problem is now ready to do whatever God needs them to do. But in many of us, brothers, our priorities are twisted. Our affection is in other things and that is why we do not enjoy the peace that God wants for our lives.
We come to church, give the Lord a few praises. We do it sometimes while thinking: what are we going to do after we leave the church. Will the Red Socks be playing today or not? It will be Pedro who pitches or who. We are thinking about which restaurant I am going to go to and what I am going to order. Will I order the “chicken cordon bleue” or will I order “the garlic shrimp?” While we sing: "Bring me closer to you today."
And the Lord is discerning our hearts. Brothers, I would like to have much more time to break down this central teaching. Do you want to have peace and joy in your heart? Forget yourself. Die to your need to meet your needs and live for the Lord. Take your property, sell it, give it to the poor and follow the Lord, as the Lord told the rich young man. Why did the Lord say that to the rich young ruler? Why, when the rich young man came full of spiritual load, he said: "Well, teacher, what must I do to be saved?" and the Lord tells him: "Well, you know the commandments, do this, do that." And he said to him: "Sir, I have already done all that from my youth." “You only lack one thing, take what you love the most, which is your money, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then free, with nothing, follow me. You are going to find the peace that you need for your heart.”
And what does the Bible say: that the young man left sad because he had many possessions. And that is the central problem of humanity and of the church: that many of us come to church, like the rich young man. We are religious men, with a respectable life. We do many very good things worthy of respect and admiration, but we have not yet done what Christ wants, which is that we love Him above all things, and that we give Him our best affection and that we have given Him a letter blank with our signature at the bottom of the page saying: “Lord, here is everything I have, everything I am, all my dreams, all my dearest desires, my time, my affections, my plans, my projects, my wife, my daughters, my money, my bank account, my rest, everything, Lord, here it is. Now do what you want of it and give me back what you want because I am going to live only for you, and I am going to love you above all things.
When you do that, when you can reach that heroic act of crisis then God will begin to show himself as he truly wants to be seen by you. He wants to be known by you. But you won't be able to fool him. Until you give the Lord what he wants. Only one thing is what He wants. Do not give Him the pasta with marinara or salad. He is not interested in that, but you give it to him from a heart that adores him and that loves him desperately.
Don't give him a little bit of your time. Give it all your time. Don't give him a handout. Give him the APM card. Don't give the Lord an hour and a half of your time. Give the Lord 24 hours of your love and affection. Do not give the Lord a little piece of your children. Give the Lord all your children.
Listen to me. Only one thing is necessary, says the Lord, and when you arrive at that moment, my brother, my sister, then everything falls into place. Then you can walk with joy, with ease of spirit, with lightness of spirit. Things begin to work in your life because God is going to be in your favor. God is going to bless you. God will open doors for you. God is going to make sure that your emotional life is balanced, that you reach the goal, that your problems are solved, that you do not lack food or clothing. Because if he takes care of the birds, how can he not take care of you too.
Oh! My God. If we could understand this, brothers, if we could forget ourselves and look only at the Lord.
"Consider the one who suffered such a contradiction of sinners so that your spirit does not grow tired until you faint."
If Peter had kept his gaze on Christ when he walked on the water, he would not have sunk.
There are many of us here, with love I tell you, who need to adjust their priorities. We need to adjust our priorities. There are many here who have not given the Lord what the Lord wants. And the Lord in his mercy loves you, blesses you and receives you, and receives your sacrifice but it is not completely pleasing to him. Because many of us have not reached that point of surrendering to the Lord. We have transferred our membership card from one church to another, from one religion to another. We believe that this is all and we want to continue with the same religiosity and the same pettiness in which we lived before entering the gospel.
That's not acceptable. Is not acceptable. Listen to me! From the person back there, at that end and in the middle. Is not acceptable. Only one thing is needed: to love the Lord with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls, all our strength. It is loving Him desperately and having died in Him.
When we do that, then life falls into its place, and the Lord blesses us, approves us, is pleased with our offering, opens paths for us. Many of us worry so much about rest and that's why we live tired. We worry so much about keeping money and that's why we live in poverty. We care so much about having fun and that's why we live bored. Nothing gives us joy: not the DVD player, not the CD player, not the tape-player, not any of the players we have.
Because all of those things only come together when we've first resolved the issue of where my person is and who I love the most. When we please the Lord like this, then everything else comes. Learn to get rid of yourself so you can find yourself. As long as you are concerned with finding yourself and preserving yourself, what you are looking for will escape you as water escapes when you try to grab it with your fist, it will slip through your fingers.
But when you forget about that point and concentrate on the Lord, and concentrate on pleasing Him, loving Him, giving yourself to Him, all other things come in addition. What you were wanting so much to find, God is going to give it to you.
“If the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground, it dies and remains alone, but if it does not die it bears many fruits”, says the Lord.
It says if Jehovah does not build the house, those who build it labor in vain. "It is useless that you work and load yourself and go to bed at dawn," says the Lord, "because God will give his beloved sleep." The other thing is that you are working and killing yourself and saving and you are not giving the Lord what he needs, and all your efforts will be as nothing, because you are not building on the rocks.
Rest in the Lord. Rest in the Lord. Love the Lord above all things. Put your priorities in Him and you will find rest for your soul. The Lord help us.
Let's put our heads down for a moment. Let's examine our hearts this morning. God wants you to find rest for your soul. God wants Roberto Miranda to find rest for his soul. He tells me don't worry so much, don't worry so much about what you will eat, what you will drink, where you will go, where you will be in ten years. Don't even wonder that much, don't even wonder that much if I like you or not. Don't try to figure that out. Just love me above all things. Love me. Focus on me Look for me and then I'm going to worry about you. Don't live life full of burdens of conscience and guilt, always worrying if this or that. The only thing that interests me is one thing: that you love me above all things and that you look for me first and that you delight in me and that you give me the best of you, your best time, your best energies , your best resources. That you always prefer me and then I'm going to give you what you need.
Father, we determined this morning to try again to love you above all else. We need you Lord. Forgive us for being anxious and doubting your promises, for putting ourselves before you. Help me to have a simple, contrite, humiliated heart, like Mary's, who loves you above all things. This morning, Father, we once again make an effort to please you and we examine our hearts and ask you: Enlighten us, if we have not given you everything we have to give you, we ask you again. So be it today. Surrender your life, surrender all your affections to the Lord. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. We adore you, we bless you Lord. Hallelujah hallelujah. God bless you, brothers.
