Monday, April 29, 2013
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I like pizza. So, it's not totally uncommon for me to hit our local pizza place for a 15-minute lunch. Some years ago, we had a nice Italian restaurant near our office. And great food, not just pizza, and they were very busy from about 12:00 till 2:00. I was in there after the rush one day and I asked the owner how she was. She told me she was doing pretty well and then she asked me how I was.
Well I told her I'd be doing a lot better when I got my lunch. She said she understood and that if she waits too late to eat lunch she gets 'the shakes.' I laughed and I said, "Well, you're at the right place. You're surrounded by lunch." She said, "You know, it isn't always the right place. Sometimes we're so busy serving we don't have time to eat it ourselves." Well, I've never worked in a restaurant, but I know that feeling.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Serving But Starving."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Luke chapter 10. Jesus has gone to the home of these two sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary is sitting at the Lord's feet listening to Him. Well, let's let the word tell the story. "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." Finally after Martha's complaints about all the work and Mary not helping, Jesus says, "But only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her."
Oh, man, dear old Martha! So busy serving Jesus she has no time to be with Jesus. Hey, that danger reaches across two thousand years to anyone who is serving the Lord today; maybe to you, maybe to me. Like that pizza owner, we can get so busy serving spiritual food to others we're actually eating less of it than we ever have ourselves. That's backwards. The more people are looking to you, the more you have to be with the Lord yourself, the more you've got to be growing, and the more you have to be in His Word. But it's so easy to become a victim of your own ministry. In fact, serving God's Word without experiencing God's Word yourself is a prescription for burnout.
There's a danger of studying just to prepare lessons, and studies, and sermons, and to miss that personal application you did when you had less responsibility. There's a danger of becoming someone who leads others to experience the Lord, but in your own heart you didn't even realize you've become a spectator watching God work in others but not in your life. There's a danger of so filling your life with Christian meetings, and Christian positions, and Christian activity that it feels like you know the Lord. But, in fact, those activities have slowly crowded out that precious, private time with Jesus; the time that is your lifeline for effective ministry.
You may be serving others while starving yourself. Pretty soon that's going to lead to a Martha meltdown. Because that's what she did because she didn't take the time to sit at Jesus' feet. See, ministry is meant to be the overflow of your own growing time with the Lord, not a righteous substitute for it.
So, if you feel yourself growing weak, tired and frustrated while you're serving your Lord, it's probably not the fault of the customers. You just haven't been taking time to eat.