Don’t be Distracted

Missing Jesus with Much Serving
Aaron Lee | February 16, 2025 | Youth Service Leaders Devotional

Introduction: The Importance of Our Relationship with God

We have student leaders in our youth worship and I believe it’s important to focus on our relationship with God.

There’s a story in the Bible about Mary and Martha that highlights this. In the story, Mary sits at Jesus' feet, listening to His teaching, while Martha is distracted with serving. The Bible even says she was “distracted” by the work she was doing.


The Danger of Being Distracted by Service

It’s great to serve God, but the surprising thing is that we can become so focused on serving that we forget about nurturing our relationship with Him. That’s why it’s important to recalibrate our thinking. What we do as leaders and servants is important, but it’s not the point. The point isn’t the work; the point is worship.

So, how can we serve and worship God at the same time? Well, depending on where you spend most of your time with God, you may need to focus more on that. For example, you might need to dedicate more time to your personal devotions. Since we serve here at church, maybe you need to make time for Sunday School to learn about God and deepen your relationship with Him. We can easily get distracted by our service and forget the importance of actually having that relationship with God.

When Jesus spoke to Martha, He told her, “You are worried and distracted by many things, but only one thing is necessary.” He was telling her that spending time with Him and listening was more important than the service. I believe Jesus values our relationship with Him more than our service. He values our worship more than the work we do. Serving God is not wrong; it’s good to be leaders, but once we lose sight of the fact that God wants us to focus on our relationship with Him, we miss the point.


Examples: Worship Leading and Sermon Prep

Let me share a story from my own life. I’ve often served God by playing worship music, and for a while, it was easy to think that just playing songs meant my relationship with God was good. But I realized that if my devotional life was struggling, or I wasn’t paying attention in Sunday School, or I wasn’t praying regularly, I was missing the point. As musicians, we might think our service is what truly matters, but real worship happens when we sit and listen to Jesus, not just through our service.

One more example from my life: when I prepare my sermons, I often feel my relationship with God thriving the most—not necessarily during the act of preaching, but through the time I spend with Him in His Word. What we do on stage is just a few minutes, but the relationship comes from the time spent with God in prayer and study, alone in my room, reading His Word. Of course, learning together in church is important, but it all starts with our devotional life.


Big Idea: Worship Over Work

Jesus cares about our worship of him more than our work for him.