Hello everybody and welcome to the Pursuing Jesus
podcast. On today's episode, we're going to be
looking at a number of passages in Mark 9 that
all deal really at the heart of it about pride.
So we're glad you're here. Get buckled up, grab
some coffee and come join us. Well, good morning
or evening midday midnight happy 2 a .m. And
we ever follow up with those 4 a .m. Listeners
No, we didn't we didn't you just your intro reminded
me and I haven't thought about it since we talked
about it Yeah, no, I as of yet. I have nobody
at 4 a .m Yeah, I don't. I don't think we're
going to get those. I think this will be a personal
challenge to at least one person who I will not
name on the podcast. They've gotten a lot of
name drops lately from our church. Anyways, howdy.
It's a good like time neutral greeting. Welcome
to Pursuing Jesus. I am we in the West. Howdy.
We're in the South. Howdy. I've heard several
howdy's it's most of mostly from the older crowd
and if you say howdy to them They usually like
howdy duty do they have a ten gallon hat and
boots on no, but I assure you that if I had any
kind of Country in me. I would be showing up
in cowboy boots and a ten gallon hat, you know
That's I've never ever owned a single pair of
cowboy boots neither of either. However, however
I think I could wear cowboy boots. So I feel
like it's I've seen cowboy boots with everything
Like I've got a buddy from Texas and he wears
a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts everywhere.
And he's from Texas. And so on occasion, he will
wear a Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and cowboy
boots. Boots with the shorts. Boots with the
shorts. I can see Sean rocking that. It's impressive.
I guess it's better than boots with the fur.
Oh my head, the whole church was looking at her.
How's the next line go? John? Nope. This one.
Oh man, that's good. That's good stuff. guys.
I think I'm going to just kind of draw us right
back in here. I we got to get to our text. This
is a great idea. I haven't even said the title
of our podcast yet. This is pursuing Jesus with
Memorial Baptist. I'm Ben Smith and that is Sean
Griffin. Hello people, I see them and that is
a Dr. Johan Ferguson Jeff and I'm going to start
with our first text mercy. So, the day that I
zeroed in on was April the 19th. So, this is
one of those where it's like there are parallel
accounts here. We'll primarily pull from the
Mark account. So, this comes from Mark 9 and
it's right after Jesus has healed a demonized
boy here and they think he's dead and then he
raises the kid up. So, but it's starting in verse
30 and it says, they went on from there and passed
through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know
for he was teaching his disciples saying to them
The son of man is going to be delivered into
the hands of men and they will kill him and when
he is killed after three days He will rise, but
they did not understand the saying and were afraid
to ask him so This is one of those texts, and
Sean has talked about this before, where like,
first reading didn't really yield much for me.
I mean, it's a small little kind of interjection.
It's like a traveling side quest, you know? But
as I continue to read it and pray through it,
I felt like a couple of things stood out to me.
One is just like, Jesus's tenderness for his
disciples. Because like, this is not the first
time that he talks about like, hey, I'm going
to be executed. They're going to grab me. They're
going to kill me. And like, he goes through Galilee
and he's intentional to take that time with them.
Even if they still don't get it. And of course,
that's something that he would know that they
weren't going to get it. But my second thing
is like, how do we feel about the disciples,
like continuing not to understand? Like, Jesus
has said it, Jesus has said it, Jesus has said
it. Is this an opportunity to like... dunk on
them? Is this like I would do the same thing?
What do you guys think? Well, when you look at
the scriptures of the Old Testament, you know,
they're predicting a messiah to come and rule
and reign, and he's talking about death. They're
seeing it from the perspective the Pharisees
were looking for, and it's all they've been taught,
so it's... a course correction for them. Yeah,
I was actually going to, I mean, I was thinking
the same thing. It's expectations. You know,
it's, they had one thing, they had, as John was
saying, their minds were set on what they thought
the Messiah was going to be. And even getting
to know Jesus there, but I feel like, you know,
we don't know this exactly from Scripture, but
I feel like they still struggled. with that expectation
of wanting to have that ruler to come in and
take over Rome, to put Israel back, to be a king
again. They wanted a King David, you know? And
so yeah, so I think having those expectations
and now all of a sudden they're hearing that
he's going to be killed, you know? And it's like,
no, no, no, that's not what we want. We want
someone to come in here and rule and take over.
And we talked about that last week with Jesus
talking to Peter and the disciples about it,
and Peter saying, nah. And then Jesus saying,
get behind me, Satan. That is Satan's agenda
for this world, not God's agenda for this world.
So I'm curious, with the line of talking about
expectations, what are some areas that you guys
feel like people have expectations of the church
or of the Christian life that just aren't true?
What is that? How have y 'all seen that? Well,
it depends on what bracket you are in your age
group. If you're a senior adult, you're looking
for a church that's got a great senior adult
program. If you've got children, you're looking
for a church with a great children's program.
It really depends on what part of life you're
in, I feel like. And so the expectation is based
on what season of life you're in and what you're
going through. I feel like one area that I've
seen expectations need shifted in not just our
church, but in the capital C church. community
here in the West is like, the expectation that
church is one of many extracurricular options.
Like, yeah, dude, we've got church scheduled
for, depending on when you meet, let's say, 830
or 11 o 'clock on Sunday morning. And this is
an addition to my life, not the Christian life
as a foundation of my life. I remember when I
was interning at a church. the pastor said that
in order for a church to thrive, it has to stand
on three legs, preaching, worship, and children's
student ministry. Okay. And so it's kind of,
and it shows the culture of what is expected.
We want good worship. We want good preaching
and I want something for my kids. It's a shoppers
mentality. Yeah. You know, it's so funny that
you say that when, when my grandfather, um, a
couple of years ago moved into a new area, he
wrote down a list of three things and it was,
he had this deep John Wayne voice and it was
like, I want to find a church with good preaching
something for the kids. and they got a place
in Southern gospel. And ironically, he never
found a church that did all three well. And so
he ended up settling on preaching and kids. See,
I think the expectations there is a big deal
for this text. But my other question is this,
have y 'all ever been told something that only
made sense later? Because I look at the disciples'
response here, and they're scared to ask him
further. And I think part of this is about disappointing
those expectations that you talked about, Sean.
Yeah. Well, you think about all the times your
parents probably told you, you'll get this when
you have your own kids. I've heard that many
a time. And then when you do have your kids,
you're exactly right. I mean, my parents used
to say that when they would spank me, you know,
this hurts me more than it hurts you. And I used
to think, well, give me the belt and I'll prove
it does. And, you know, that never happened.
But then I had to discipline my own kids and
I then understood exactly what they're referring
to. You know what always freaked me out about
that? What always freaked you out about that?
So I was, I was a hellion. Let's just let's just
leave it at that. I was a terrible I was a terrible
teenager And so one of the things that was stuck
in my brain for the longest time was the the
idea of reaping and sowing and then and basically
I was I was so afraid when me and Tiffany started
having kids that my kids were going to be Insane
and I'm like I apologize Tiffany. It is my fault
You are going to you are going to Tiffany She
she calls, you know, she even says again. She
was a goody goody in school Um, and so like but
i'm the one like i'm the rebellion one. I was
the one that that tried all the stupid stuff
And I was literally freaked out when we first
started having kids. My kids are going to be
terrible. And it was solely because I'm reaping
what I'm sowing. Not thinking that I'll also
get the chance to sow in good deposits to my
own children. That never came across my brain.
But just that because of who I was, I'm going
to be paying for that. Thank God I was I sewed
great deposits into my kids and I have some amazing
kids so far shout out Griffin clan I will say
though. I think there's like a little so I've
heard that before right even even from pulpits
like, you know You don't don't make dumb decisions
because your kids will too and there's there's
some degree of like even biological precedent
for that this ends the father visited on the
Sun, but I I think there's a little bit of like
legalism and works built in there too. Like,
like, you know, it's, it's, it's fear among,
it can be fear mongering in that regard. Well,
and in the same sense too, I remember that when
I was, I had a really good friend. Yeah. He grew
up like incredible Christian from a young age
from like, you know, young middle school got
saved. I mean, evangelized, shared the gospel
at school, never slept with a girl. I mean, just
all this stuff. And then here I am, just the
complete opposite person in high school. And
then me and him, we got married around the same
age. And his marriage ended up not working out.
And once again, like this whole concept of like,
I'm the one that doesn't deserve this, you know?
Like I put that on myself of like, because of
how I acted, I should not be the one that has
a great marriage with a great wife that's lasted
this long. He's the one that did everything right,
but then didn't marry the right person, you know?
And it's just, but it's that whole concept of
this is what was ingrained in my brain of like,
no, I should suffer for what I used to do, not
realizing that I'm also on the grace of God.
Seriously. I mean, that's the gospel right there.
But we do that to ourselves, right? We think,
and it is, I deserve. I don't deserve Tiffany.
I don't deserve a good marriage. I don't deserve
any of these things because of the life that
I lived. But all of that was covered by the blood
of Jesus on the cross. Come on. You don't make
me think of the proverb that Israel used to use
in the book of Ezekiel. And it would say that
the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's
teeth are set on edge. And God had to come in
and say, listen, you're going to pay for your
own sins. Your sins are not going to impact your
children. their sins will impact them. Just as
the children's sins won't affect the father,
the father's sins won't affect the children.
And I am so thankful we live in an age of grace
and not rules, laws, and everything else in between.
Yeah. And it's easy to get back to that law place
in our head. Like, even your fear of having crazy
kids, like, you were saved. You knew the gospel.
You knew those things. But that... applying it
in a new category was something that you had
to come into. Yeah. I mean, going back to the
text you read, it was kind of like, you know,
I had these expectations in my brain of, yeah,
like, and even that, this was me post, you know,
going to Bible college, having been being trained
under these amazing professors and doing this.
But because I had this thought, because someone
in my past probably, maybe even only one time,
said, oh, just wait till you have kids. They're
going to be crazy. You know? We share that all
the time. You know, it might, it might just be
that someone said at one time it was stuck in
my head. And I think of, I don't know how many
of our podcast listeners, maybe there's something
in their life like that because someone said
something one time to them. Yep. Here's, here's
one. And I'll, and I'll keep it a little bit
vague. But our church people will know, but there's
someone that I pray with most every 11 o 'clock
service, right? When he comes down to pray with
me, there are two sins. that he asked for forgiveness
from every single Sunday. And I talked to his
mom about it, and the reason he does that is
because someone told him he was going to hell
because of those two sins. Come on man. Yeah,
but but you're exactly right And so it is and
then and then and then for those that don't under
the context, you know, he is He has a mental
disability and it has stuck with him for his
in for his and this was when he was younger Yeah,
and it is still stuck with him and he asked for
forgiveness every Sunday. Wow. Yeah power of
words. Yeah I've heard a pastor say one time
that our words create worlds. I mean, I think
the biblical version of that is the tongue is
a small little organ, but it can steer the whole
ship. It's a small little spark that can start
a forest fire. Man, I think for us who are ministers
of the gospel, there's a, I think that's one
of the reasons that there's higher accountability
for us. Because what we say, particularly what
we say and also hold up a Bible and say, thus
saith the Lord, really, really matters. But I
don't think it's just limited to us as pastors.
If you bear the name of Jesus, whether you say
that you're speaking on his behalf or not, people
will remember what you say. Yeah. So speak grace.
If you get nothing else from this, speak grace.
Well, John, you want to go ahead and pivot to
your text here? Sure. Yeah, I chose the one that's
on April 18th on my wife's birthday. But I love
this story. I could not wait to get this story.
It is. One of my favorites. And I'm really just
going to touch on two things out of the story.
There's so much to unwrap here. Is there a particular
passage you're going to with, or are you just
kind of bringing them all together? Mark 9 is
the one that's got a lot more in it. Mark 9,
14 through 29. So what we have is this falls
on the heels of the transfiguration. In fact,
the first part of it actually happens while the
transfiguration is taking place. James, Peter,
and John are all up on the mountain with Jesus.
And the father comes to these nine disciples
and he asks them to heal his son. His son is
demon possessed, throws him in the water, throws
him in the fire, tries to hurt him. And he asks
the disciples to heal him. Now, they can't. And
so I want to ask you guys, why do you think that
this was? Because they've already been sent out.
We've talked about them being sent out as the
twelve. They've cast out demons. They've healed
blind people. They've made lame people walk.
Why do you think they couldn't do it? Why could
these nine not heal this young boy? I was trying
to read this passage as you were talking so I
can get caught up in it, but I don't think it
was this passage, but there is one where the
disciples couldn't heal and it was sold because
it was their faith. They didn't have faith. And
I think that's the passage where it goes on and
says where Jesus says, if you had the faith of
a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. That's
the Matthew account of this? Okay. So that is
this one. It's just a different one. Okay. So,
I mean, I'm going to go with Jesus' words there,
but at the same time, I don't know. I mean, you
know. just hearing that from Jesus, that if we
have the faith of a mustard seed, I think about
my faith, and I think about the times that I
fail personally, right? About the times that
either I have fallen to sin in the past, or I
think about times where I didn't trust the Lord
like I knew I should have. And, you know, sometimes,
like, I've talked about how I've been in a season
where I feel like I'm waiting on the Lord to
do things in my life, and And sometimes when
you're in those seasons, you want to try to rush
God. So I used the example, I used a stupid example
with our students in our small group. We were
kind of talking about the same kind of concept.
And I was like, you know, and we were talking
about how it was actually, oh, it was the virgin
birth. And we went back to the original prophecy
of, you know, of Jesus being born from a virgin.
And it was this whole thing of being asking for
a sign. And, you know, I was telling like, hey,
you know, when the then that when the king would
have heard this, it's kind of like this, like
really, this is the sign I'm waiting for, something
that's absolutely impossible. And I kind of,
it's kind of like, you know, hey guys, if you
were asking the Lord for something and he's like,
well, when a purple horse runs out in front of
you, then you know that it's time. You know,
it's kind of like some of the things like some
of you. you're going to go find a horse. You're
going to paint that sucker purple. You're going
to smack its butt and try to get it to run in
front of you, you know, like because we're trying
to rush what the Lord is doing when it's like,
but no, but that's not, that's not what the Lord
wants. You know, there's, so there's that lack
of faith element. And I think the lack of faith
matters because like at the end of this text,
like the disciples ask him like 27 and 29, like
when they enter into the house that he's going
to, why can't you cast it out? And he says, this
kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.
But that ties with the beginning of the passage
to me. Look at what happens as Jesus walks up
on the scene. They're arguing. And I picture
this here. There's the commotion. There's the
commotion. And somebody from the crowd just shouts
out, teacher, I brought you my son. And I asked
your disciples to cast it out. And they were
not able. How on earth did it get from I can't
do this to arguing? And I think about times where
I have tried to do ministry in my own strength.
times where I've not included the Lord in things
as simple as song choice or decisions that I
feel like He's leading me one direction, and
I've gone the other way. I wonder, and tying
that with the theme of prayer, I wonder if this
was the disciples got a little cocky, or I wonder
if this was the disciples trying to do something
that is supernatural from a place of their own
physical strength, or just not being tapped into
the Lord because... It not being cast out by
prayer is a real thing. I mean, I have participated
in deliverance ministry where we've prayed over
people who have dealt with spiritual oppression.
And I can say from my own personal experience,
there are times that I have walked into that
and have not done the hard work beforehand. And
it's been ineffective. Even people having like
mocking attitudes or dispositions towards me
where like you hear it in the New Testament,
you know, Paul I know, Jesus I know, who the
heck are you? And so I wonder here if this was
another example of like kind of their lack of
faith, lack of connection with the Lord, because
the power for things like this comes from Him,
apart from Him we can do. nothing. Yeah. And
I think they finally get it right, you know,
when it comes to the book of Acts. But here,
I think that's it. I think it was an overconfidence,
an overconfidence in themselves because they've
done this before. You know, Peter in the book
of Acts, he realizes that it's all about Christ.
And when he looks at the man who's lame at the
house, he says, silver and gold have I not, but
what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ,
rise up and wall. And so, I think that that's
exactly what it was, is they just found themselves
Trusting in themselves. We've done this before
this should be easy We should be able to accomplish
this and then it doesn't happen And so when Jesus
comes there and he makes a statement about belief
He says it several times and but the last one
he says in verse 23 says but Jesus said to him
if you can all things are possible for the one
who believes But my favorite part of this is
his response the father's response. I do believe
help my unbelief. And I am fascinated with this
guy because I lose faith sometimes. I lose sight
sometimes. And I want to believe and I really,
really know who God is, but there are those moments,
those fleeting moments where it just kind of,
you know that you're not like all there. And
so this guy is just... genuine, truthful admission
to God is mind -blowing. And I think the problem,
we treat prayer sometimes like Pharisees where
we're like, Lord, I believe. I believe. I believe.
And we go in with that mindset that, yeah, we're
not going to falter. We're not going to fail.
But this guy is just genuine. He's real. He's
truthful. I do believe, but help my unbelief.
If there is some miniscule part in me that is
keeping this from happening, this is my child,
I am begging you, you are the only one I so desperately
need you. And I wish we as Christians would get
to that point of desperation where all we do
is trust God for every situation in life. I think
it's also an attitude of humility too, where
he's coming, like, he's admitting to Jesus, like,
I'm not there. I'm not there. And I think that's
what Jesus wants from all of us as well, is to
come to him and be like, hey, you know, none
of us are ever going to say, yay, I made it.
I have reached the pinnacle of Christianity.
And if we ever do have that attitude. You're
probably entering the gates of heaven. Yeah,
it's not the gates of hell. Oh yeah. Very true.
But so that's, that's really what I see here
is this, this man's like, Hey, I don't have it
all together. I don't know it all. I'm just trusting
you. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that belief
and that attitude, I believe help my unbelief
is a case by case in our lives. Like, I feel
like the Lord shows us that like the first thing
we learn is the gospel in genuine faith and the
next 70, 80, however long you live years, is
though I think the gradually broadening expanse
of how that touches different things. And so
he allows things to happen in our lives where
it's like, I believe, ooh, help my unbelief.
Okay, I believe. Oh, not in that area, help my
unbelief. And so that's one of the ways that
I think he works us, you know, talks about working
out our salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is the Lord who works in you. It's both halves
right there. We are believing. We're making the
effort. We're coming to Jesus, but he's the one
who is continuing to work in and on our hearts.
One other thing that was interesting about this
text when I found it, I'm curious what you guys
think about this. I see Satan at work in two
distinct ways here. One is with the boy, right?
And it's super duper obvious. Verse 21 and 22.
Jesus asks, how long is this happening to him?
And he said, from childhood, it is often cast
him into fire and water to destroy him. Very,
very simple. That is Satan's goal for us, to
destroy us. But do you see that also in the disciples,
if it is lack of faith, that the temptation towards
pride and leaning on our own strength is another
way that Satan is trying to destroy us? That's
a, that's a, it's a more insidious way, but it's
that, it's that little bit of ego that you got
this. You know what? You don't need to, like,
you don't need to pray about that, dude. Just,
just make the best decision. You know what's
going on. And I think that, that if we get too
comfortable as believers, we can become like
the disciples in this regard and do the things
that look like faithful actions without faith.
Yeah. Wow. That's good. Well, Sean, how about
you? What about your passage this week? So we've
done it again, guys, um, where we've all got
our passages that line up together right after
each other. We all kind of settled in Mark, um,
except we went way out of order this time. So
Ben took the middle passage. John then took the
passage before that. And now I'm going to go
right back to right after Ben, but what's so
cool about this is even though we are out of
order here, um, it's all got these underlying
same kind of themes and principles, especially
from what we just picked up from John's passage.
Yeah. And so, um, so I've got, I picked this
really fun passage where the disciples are arguing
about who's the greatest, which once again, we
were talking about the failings of the disciples
and why are they doing this? And here you go.
You've got these guys that couldn't Cast out
a demon. We just talked about maybe there's some
pride issues going on there And then what do
we see but not not too long after this? We don't
know exactly how much time maybe it's right here
in the same kind of time frame It says and so
yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think it's right
there at it and they're like man We couldn't
cast out that demon. Hey, who's the greatest
first things first? That was good. I enjoyed
that one. And so yeah, so you have these guys
and they're arguing about who's the greatest
and then Jesus gives this incredible response
of if anyone wants to be first he must be left
and be servant of our and then he takes a child
and he has a child come among them and taking
him in his arms and what a just the most beautiful
picture of Jesus to me in this time with the
disciples, where he just brings a child, right?
I mean, because really, when you see this question,
I mean, we're talking about, I mean, these guys
are arguing about something stupid. But extremely
human at the same time. Extremely human. And
so he just takes the child and then Jesus says
in Mark 9 37, whoever welcomes one little child
such as this in my name welcomes me and whoever
welcomes me. does not welcome me but him who
sent me. I think this is another case for why
I believe the disciples were very young, because
I think the whole pride or the whole question
of who's the greatest is a young man's thing,
right? Because it reminded me of when I was younger,
and I worked at Corning in Wilmington at the
fiber optic plant. And at our job at the end,
I think it was at the end of the week, we would
get metrics for how well we were doing, and they
would do those metrics, and they would print
it out on a colored sheet of paper, or a colored
printout, and you would either have, you'd have
your numbers, but then there was also green,
yellow, and red with the numbers. And so if the
number was highlighted green, you're in the top
percentage of your group. Yellow, you did pretty
good. Red, you did terrible, right? And me and
two other guys, every time we got those papers,
it was a who is the greatest conversation. We
got together and we wanted to be the ones that
had the most green on the paper. Now we had to
be really quiet about this as well, because this
was a union and people didn't like seeing a lot
of green on the paper. Because they're like,
stop it, you're going to make us work harder.
And so we just kind of got together. We had our
own little who's the greatest. But we couldn't
brag about it to other people because they didn't
like that at all. But we'll move on from that
one. That's hilarious But what I love here is
really and what I what I was writing as I was
looking at this is there is an issue of pride
here that Jesus is dealing with. And because
you get a child, and what I love is when I look
at this, and I look at a child, I look at someone
that is dependent on everything. They are dependent
on their parents to provide them food, to provide
them clothing, to provide them safety and shelter.
And truly, when you come, and you have a child
that is like, you are completely relying on someone
else to keep you alive. Seriously. And so what
type of faith does a child have? A child has
just unending faith because they can't provide
for themselves. They can't do anything for themselves.
They have to rely on their parents. I mean, even
now, like I've got, you know, Judah, my, my youngest,
you know, we're, we're, we're trying to get him
to start preparing food for himself. You know,
like he's still at that age where it's like,
dude, you can put the chicken nuggets in the
air fryer, right? You can do it. Oh man. You
don't need, cause like the thing is like, like
mommy doesn't have to do everything for you.
We're trying to start to instill independence
on him. But as a young child, that's not what
it is. as a young child, you're still relying
on mom and dad to do everything. And so, your
faith is in your parents for everything. And
so, you can't, you look at the world and we look
at this and who wants to be first must be last.
Once again, I think that Jesus is saying, hey,
do you want to be a leader? Hey, you want to
be the man? You want to be the man? This is where
that servant leadership comes into perspective
where you need to be willing to humble yourself
below anybody that you are with and just say,
Hey, I'm here with you and I am putting myself
below you. How can I serve you? Yeah. And going
back to like the metrics conversation, what are
some, Oh, I had a lot of green, you know, You
had the most green, right? I had the most green.
Of course you did. So I think we've all got that
metric tally running in the background. And I
think it's different for everybody, but I think
there's some cultural metrics that are just very
simple. Like we all, you know, like the metric
of how much money do I make? And then what kind
of car do I drive? Well, let's ask the question,
what are the Christian metrics? I think they're
some of the same ones. I think we dress them
up really pretty, but it's kind of the same,
you know? Even to what we... Look what I did
for the Lord. Look what I did for the Lord. Look
what I did for the Lord. Or look how nice I look
for the Lord today. Look how nice. Look how good
my kids are for Jesus, but it's actually for
me today. I think we can all end up there really
quickly. The scary part of those metrics, I mean,
like in the words of the prophet, Qui -Gon Jinn,
there's always a bigger fish. You end up comparing
and comparing and comparing, and suddenly you're
not chasing godliness. You might be chasing the
appearance of godliness, which is so insidious,
but you're essentially chasing yourself. Keeping
up with the chums, this man. Yeah, but there's
always somebody who's better at it than you.
Exactly. And the kindest, hardest thing God can
do for you at that point is to take that away.
There's a biblical word for that. an idol. Yeah.
Whether you get yourself on the throne, your
perception of others, but the child -likeness,
that dependence is the opposite of those things.
Idolatry says, I can do this. I can make myself
big. I can present well. I can provide for myself.
But to put your arms up and say, Father, I cannot.
I think that's truly countercultural and counter
flesh. Yeah, yeah. It's one of the reasons that
I love partnering with the organization Student
Leadership University with our students. SLU.
SLU, it's an incredible organization and we take
our students to their... Conferences, that's
what is hard. It's not a youth camp. It's a conference
each summer. And I tell my students, I want every
student to go to the first leg of that, which
is called SLU 101. Just one, I want every student
to try to go there because it gives you such
an incredible perspective of what it really means
to be a servant leader because SLU 101 is all
about finding out who you are as a person, your
identity, your personality, and using that for
Christ and using it with that servant leadership
mindset. And I absolutely love it. That's awesome.
Well, dude, this has been fun. It's funny. We've
been talked before. We pressed record here about
what text are we going to do and did not occur
to any of us or maybe just to you. Didn't occur
to me that we had picked three concurrent texts
again. Yeah, no. I know. We should have looked.
I feel like we need to do these in order. Forget
whatever order we've done, but we need to do
these texts in order. Birth order, reverse birth
order. Whatever it is. Who has the lowest social
security number? I think we've actually talked
about that before. Have we? the podcast, but
like in the office, we've just talked about the,
the distance in, in numbers between our, between
our, it was either like the starting, I think
it was the starting number, maybe the ending
numbers. Is it different in digits? Like John,
don't you have like a different number of digits
than we? Yeah, he's only got four. Listen, you
serve it up on a platter, and I can't let it
go. I did not serve that one up. I'm talking
about Ben over there. Ben served it up. I meant
no offense. I was just, it was genuine curiosity.
Oh man. Well, I have been your worship pastor.
I don't know if I'll have a job next week. I
don't know if you'll have a job next week, but
I am pursuing Jesus. I am Sean Griffin. And I'm
John. And we'll see, John may see you next week.
Pursuing Jesus. We'll catch you guys later. Pursuing
Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church
in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about
our church, please visit Memorial4Norwood .com.