three, two... Welcome to Pursuing Jesus. I'm
Ben Smith. That was Sean Griffin. And the snickering
you hear in the background is Pastor John. What?
Did you want me to be quiet as you were putting
fingers down? Yes, I did. I always count in our
recordings. Five, four, and then I mouth. Listen,
I got to keep us on our toes. I got to make sure
that we're ready to go. And like I said, I'm
ADD, man. I got to do some things every once
in a while to make sure we're awake. That's fair.
And I'm grateful for that. Now, gentlemen, you
know that we're filming this on May the 6th,
but we actually missed the opportunity to film
on a national holiday. Yes, we did. And I'm very
disappointed about it. What was that holiday,
Sean? May the 4th be with you. May the 4th be
with you. Yeah. Or Revenge of the 5th. We missed
them both. Oh, wow. We missed them both. Or you
could also go today, Revenge of the 6th. That
one feels more forced. No pun intended. Pun heavily
intended. No, it really wasn't. I find the lack
of faith disturbing. May the 4th, yes, absolutely.
That is just classic now. That is the day. And
then Revenge of the Fifth. Yeah, it fits, but
you start going more and more, and it's becoming
forced. All right, so I've got to ask. Yes. Which
one is your favorite of all those movies? So
I watched the original trilogy first because
my parents had it on VHS. But once I saw Attack
of the Clones, that's where I lived for a long
time. That was my favorite as a kid, which is
like objectively the worst of those six. But
it's what you grew up with. It's what I grew
up with, yeah. I think maturing is realizing
that Revenge of the Sith is the greatest cinematic
masterpiece of the original and the prequel trilogy.
I'm talking about all 11. I'm talking about throwing
their... Rogue One, Solo, all of them, the new
three. Rogue One is a close second for me. I
really enjoyed Rogue One. So still Revenge of
the Sith is your favorite. Revenge of the Sith
is my favorite. I think Rogue One is number two
for me. Don't worry. I got your back there because
Rogue One is my favorite. Really? That's my top.
What stands out? So what about you, John? My
favorite's Return of the Jedi. Okay. Then it's
Revenge of the Sith. Okay. So is it just like
the nice wrapping up of the ending for you? I
just love Luke Skywalker. I think you like the
Ewoks. I do love the Ewoks. I had the Ewok village
as a toy growing up, so I did. Yeah. That's fair.
No, the Ewoks are great. Did y 'all ever see
the random spinoff Star Wars movie that never
went anywhere? The cartoon one? No, no, no. The
Ewok movie. Oh, the Ewok one. Where his whole
family dies. It's terrible. And the way they
brush that off at the end is like, it's okay.
You can just go live with the Ewoks, kid. Yeah,
it was terrible. I was traumatized. It was awful.
My parents saw Star Wars on the cover at Blockbuster
and they were like, oh, this will be fine for
my son to watch and did zero screening for content
as the dad gets dismembered with a long sword
on screen. So are y 'all planning on going to
see The Mandalorian and Grogu in theater? Yeah,
I don't know. I honestly haven't decided yet.
Oh, I am. I haven't decided. I'm not current.
So I have seen... One episode of The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian. See, I really like the show.
I know. It is really good. I enjoyed the show,
but I don't know, man. I'm just, I'm almost,
it's kind of like the same thing that was happening
with Marvel for a long time. You just get burned
out of so much content. I'm almost, I'm getting
burned out of Star Wars right now, so I don't
know if I'm going to go see it in theaters. But
he wouldn't get burned out if they did it with
Harry Potter. oh no the hbo show is coming out
soon i am so excited but that's it's been years
and so years since new content how is that burnout
i think both of you have a really good point
i will say like so i felt very much the same
with the marvel burnout right it's like so after
end game i was like this is a beautiful ending
to the story. She -Hulk is what did it for me.
Once I watched She -Hulk, I was like, oh, crap.
Yeah, it was pretty bad. I didn't even see it.
But I think that they're trying to ride out Mandalorian
and Grogu the same way that Marvel's riding out
Spider -Man. Because I've only seen maybe one
Marvel movie post -Endgame other than the Spider
-Man movies. And can I tell you, when Tom Holland
hits the silver screen again as our beloved Peter
Parker, I will go see it. I love that man. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Those were excellent movies. Those
were excellent. And having to, well, it's been
long enough. I think I could probably spoil the
last person, the last live action Spider -Man.
Having the three of them in there. Yes, so cool.
That was awesome. And seeing them interact and
their different personalities. Actually, dude,
it's so funny because I actually recently used
this as a sermon illustration. You're kidding.
Like, I'm talking about like two or three Wednesdays
ago. And I was just talking about, like, I was
in the movie theater opening night for that movie,
and the shouts in the theater when they came
on screen were so, the energy was so thick. It
was so amazing. It was a cool experience. I mean,
I remember that with Endgame, too. Like, oh,
yeah. On your left. That was the other one I
mentioned in that exact same illustration. Yes,
dude. I'm not a hooting and hollering at the
movie theater kind of guy. That's just not my
vibe. Different people are different ways and
that's cool. You didn't bring a live chicken
to the Minecraft movie? Is that a thing? You
don't even know about this? What? No, they've
made commercials about it. Chicken jockey. Because
kids were bringing live chickens to the Minecraft
movie. And now it's part of their advertising.
It got so famous. Can I tell you, I did not go
see that in theaters because I thought this is
going to be so goofy. On the way to Kenya, it
was on the plane. I watched it, and I was dying
laughing on the plane. It was good. It was goofy,
but it was done perfectly, the theme of it. It
was done in a good, goofy way. For me, it was
like a love letter to my childhood. I remember
just as I was getting into being able to actually
use a computer growing up. like minecraft beta
like before the game was even released came out
and like i had a buddy who was super into tech
he probably was like like vaguely into tech but
i thought he was like the epitome he was the
man he was the man he was like hey you should
try this game i'll get you into the beta and
i was like really you know that was a good good
Good game. And a pretty funny movie. I enjoyed
that. How long have we been talking about random
stuff? Seven minutes? 24 seconds. Star Wars?
We've hit Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter for
a moment, going to Minecraft. You know what?
There's a lot of editing going on now. I'm leaving
all of this because I feel like that hits a lot
of our audience. Well, Sean, we're on your text,
so let's move into the text then. Yeah, all right.
So yeah, so I'm going to be looking at actually
May the 4th. May the 4th be with you. So let's
not go back to the conversations we just had.
I'm going to skip forward. My ADD brain is really
trying to stay focused right now. It's jumping
into lights. But yeah, this is honestly, it has
become in the past few years, a passage that
means a lot to me. And it's because I have preached
it a few times. And whenever you preach a passage,
you really go deep into it and study it. For
sure. And so this is the cool story of Martha
and her sister, Mary. and it's the story where
Jesus comes to their house. And I just want to
focus on one part, and it's the part that...
So this is almost the opposite of what I talk
about a lot of times in the podcast. Okay. You
know, a lot of times in the podcast, I'll talk
about how there's a verse we read a lot, and
then like, oh, there's something new popped out,
or like, man, I don't need to... This one, no.
It's just there is a phrase in this passage.
that has been impactful to me and has impacted
me personally now for years. Okay. And so I just
want to focus on that one phrase. So let me just,
but you know what? It's a short story. And so
let me read the story and then we'll just focus
on the passage. So here it is. It comes from
Luke chapter 10 and it starts in verse 38. And
here's what it says. It says, while they were
traveling, he entered a village and a woman named
Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a
sister named Mary who also sat at the Lord's
feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha
was distracted by her many tasks, and she came
up and asked him, Lord, don't you care that my
sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her
to give me a hand. The Lord answered her, Martha,
Martha, you are worried and upset about many
things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has
made the right choice, and it will not be taken
away from her. So, like I said, I mean, just
what an incredible teaching moment there that
we see with Jesus. And such a personal moment,
you know, He's in their house, and, you know,
how He responds to Martha when she comes to Him
with some... We don't really get emotion in literature
too much, in Scripture, but you can feel the
emotion of how she is presenting this question
to the Lord. But it's actually right before that.
It's at the beginning of verse 40, and it says,
Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So the
first time I studied that, what I found out...
was this whole phrase, distracted by her many
tasks. The part that really hit me was that the
original language, the phrasing that is used
here is to describe tasks that someone puts on
themselves. Meaning it isn't something that someone
else has said, you need to do this, you need
to do this, you need to do this. It is something
that she has put on herself and no one is expecting
her to do. So this goes beyond, you know, this
goes beyond just even tasks that you would do
when someone's coming to your house, right? You
know, a lot of times we'll look at this first.
We'll talk about how we got to clean our house
before people come over and stuff like that.
Like those are kind of expected tasks. Like,
hey, you know, serve them food, do the, or whatever,
right? This goes beyond that. This goes to things
that she's just doing because this is what she
thinks is the most important thing to do. And
I'm just going to do, do, do things for Jesus
because that's how I'm going to show my love
is by doing things for Jesus, doing things for
Jesus. And so it's all things she's putting on
herself, not that are expected of her. And that's
when I love so much. She goes to Jesus and she's
like, hey, don't you care? There's a lot in that
phrase right there. Don't you care that my sister
has left me to serve alone? Because once again,
in her brain, she's doing things that she feels
like this is what we're supposed to be doing
because you're in our home, right? But then the
Lord responds, Martha, Martha, you are worried
and upset about many things, but one. thing is
necessary. So, what I get out of this passage
is there are so many things that I can put on
myself. Things that I think are good ways to
serve Jesus, things that I try to do to work
for Jesus, but really the... First thing that
I need to do, the most important thing, the one
thing that is more important than anything else
is spending time at the feet of Jesus. Genuinely.
And one of the things that I've really noticed
in my personal life as that has become more and
more front and center in my mind is that the
more time I spend with Jesus, the more serving
becomes natural. the more the tasks that I do
for Jesus no longer feel forced on me, but feel
like this is what I want to do because I've already
spent time with Jesus, and now I want to show
that love for Jesus everywhere I go. And so,
yeah, so that's what I got. I mean, what a human
response, though. Like, Martha's... response
to like her genuine love for Jesus is to do all
the things for Jesus. Yeah. Cause I think in,
in that way, like we, I think we all do all do
this, or at least I see this tendency in myself.
And then I'm exporting that to all of you guys.
If that's not the case. No, I think you, I think
you have something there. But we treat Jesus
like, like we would treat other humans and we
treat Jesus like he has the same expectations
of us that the people that are in our life do.
which like is a very normal thing to do, but
we forget how different he is. And so like one
of the ways, one of the primary ways that we
show love as humans is to do. right? We do this.
We do this. We do this. I mean, like we've got
Mother's Day coming up, right? Yep. One of the
many ways that the men of our church are going
to show their wives that they love them is through
doing. Maybe they're going to cook a meal. Maybe
they're going to get them flowers. Maybe they'll
get in the choir and sing on Sunday. Maybe. I
see where you're going with this. Maybe they'll
get in the men's choir and sing on Sunday, which
is like tertiary on tertiary. Yeah, I know. but
we focus so much on the doing that we don't focus
on the why for sure. And I think, I think God
cares about our heart before he cares about our
actions. Like, I mean, a hundred percent, like
in the prophets, like God rebukes his people.
Like, I don't want your sacrifices. Like, I don't
want your burnt offerings. Go learn justice,
go learn mercy. And even the command that Jesus
gives love the Lord with all your heart, soul,
and mind and love your neighbor. that has nothing
to do with anything that happens outside of you.
Loving the Lord first and loving your neighbor
second is an internal reality before that's an
external behavior of any kind. Yeah, when I look
at this passage, it's just a reminder to me that
you've got to feed yourself before you can feed
others anyways. And you can go to two extremes
with this. And I talked about it this morning
with our group. There's the one extreme where
you can, Feast and feast and feast and then never
feed others and you end up being a Christian
couch potato. I said, or you can be like Martha
here who serves and serves and serves. She's
feeding everybody else but never takes care of
herself. She never sits at the feet of Jesus.
It's kind of like if somebody came into our house,
could you imagine if we had a guest come to our
house and we're busy fixing plates, we're busy
cleaning up, we're busy washing the dishes. We
never sit down and fellowship with our guest.
Right. And we do that in church a lot of times.
We will come in and there are people that will
serve and thank God for people who serve because
we need that. But if they never get to sit at
the feet of Jesus and worship and soak in the
word and do all these things. And I had a couple
like that in my first church. They did children's
church. They did it every single Sunday. They
were faithful. They never missed a Sunday. Even
when they were on vacation, they'd come back
to do children's church. But they never sat in
church. They didn't come on Sunday night when
we had service. They didn't come on Wednesday
night when we had service. And I finally went
and did the hardest thing I ever had to do. And
I went to them and I said, listen, I said, you
guys are not being fed, but you're constantly
serving. Not that serving is a bad thing, but
you need to be fed as well. And I said, we're
going to do a rotation. In children's church.
Yeah. Not fun, because that meant we had to go
find more volunteers to serve and help. And these
guys were faithful, and they got mad, and they
left the church for two years. Left the church.
Now, all they were doing was doing children's
church. And you would think, well, that was a
burden that took off of other people. Yes, but
they were never being fed. They came back to
the church two years later and said, we understand
why you did it, and we thank you. And they started
serving once a month but in church the rest of
the time. Yeah. And I just said, listen, you
can't serve on empty. And that's where Martha
would have gotten to. And a lot of people in
our church, they end up serving on empty because
they're never being filled up. Well, I feel like
particularly with your story. And even from my
own testimony of starting ministry and ending
up in a place where I was serving, serving, serving,
and never being fed. I feel like maybe the biblical
word for this is pride. I would love y 'all's
help kind of parsing this out. An identity can
form around your service, even to God, that is
not healthy. Yes. When I was at Cedarville, the
college that I went to, I was a worship major.
And I cuffed my jeans, my painted on tight jeans
because I was a worship major. I did my hair
shaved on the sides and that little floopy thing
on top because I was a worship major. And man,
any chance I could get to be on a stage and play
a guitar or a bass or sing, I took. Because my
identity became about my service. The Lord let
me do that for a little while, but then I became,
as Martha was, distracted with much things, burdened
down with much toil and care. And I even had
some of those emotions as I was relationshiping
with the Lord of like, why aren't there other
people that are stepping up for stuff like this?
And in a very real sense, it was because I was
taking their spots. But I had developed an identity
around my service. to God rather than from my
relationship with Jesus serving. And I guarantee
you he would have had me do less. I guarantee
you he would have had me do less. Because it's
not about the, it is not to him, his first priority
is our hearts with him, not necessarily the effectiveness
or the depth and breadth of the areas that we're
serving. Those are for him to decide at the end
of the day. Now, I want to get practical with
this, guys. So we were talking about the contrast
between Mary flying around the house like a whirling
dervish. Nope. Martha flying around the house
like a whirling dervish and Mary sitting at Jesus'
feet. A whirling dervish? Like a tornado. Tasmanian
devil. Is a dervish a real thing? Yeah, it's
a real thing. Is it an animal? No, I think it's
a Middle Eastern word for a whirlwind or a sandstorm.
The knowledge you have, I mean, it's just so,
okay. Anyway, moving on. I mean, fact check me
on it for sure. I've heard the phrase before.
All that to say, we're talking about Mary and
Martha. Martha's working, Mary's sitting. Jesus
says the one thing necessary is to sit at his
feet. The good portion is to sit at his feet.
What does it look like for a 21st century disciple
of Jesus, just trying to follow their rabbi,
to sit at Jesus' feet? So I think that this is
where it does become individualistic a little
bit. 100%. Because we each connect with the Lord
in different ways. Agreed. And I think that's
what it is. It's finding how you connect with
the Lord, right? And so all I can talk about
is myself. And the rhythm that I'm in of life
right now. So the thing that has me just... And
I don't want this to sound cliche, but it's true.
Falling more in love with Jesus every day. That's
where my heart's been the past few months, and
it has been such a wonderful experience. But
it has come from a couple places. And one, I
start my day with a worship devotional. We've
talked about it on the podcast before. And so
I'm starting my day with what seems to be a genuine
worship in my ears, right? And then I listen
to a sermon. And I listen to a sermon, and then
that feeds my soul. And then it gets me right
there at the beginning of the day. And I do that
before I start reading my Bible. Wow. So it's
like my heart is prepared then to go to God's
Word because I've already been in a time of spending
time with Him in worship. I've listened to a
sermon that feeds my soul. And then now I'm opening
God's Word. And then all of a sudden, God's Word
after, because I've already done these other
two things, it is so much more bright and colorful,
if you will, right? And so I'm walking away and
I'm journaling because it's forcing me through
the pursuing Jesus and then through my... through
the Psalms. I journal all the stuff that I'm
learning about. And with all of that, it's just
getting me that next step closer to Jesus. And
so that's what feeds my soul. But there's people
that are more artistic than I am, and so they
might need a different creative route of getting
closer to Jesus. Some people might, listening
to a sermon every morning might not be the route
for everybody to take. So this is not the task
list. This is like, hey, what is it for you?
For sure. But a lot of people, it is worship
music. For some people, it's a place. There's
a specific place in their house or around their
house in nature. There's things like that. And
so for every individual listening, it's what
is it with you? Where is it with you? What are
the things that you can do that cause you to
fall more in love with Jesus? And like I said,
not that it's being forced. It's the same thing
with your spouse or with any other relationship.
Just the more time you genuinely spend together,
the deeper that love gets. And I'll use the illustration
from The Forge. And if you haven't seen that
movie, get on Netflix, watch it, go rent it,
whatever. Phenomenal, phenomenal movie on discipleship.
But towards the end, he gives the young man a
sword, and he asks him to hold it out. And so
he's holding out this sword, and it's about 10
pounds. And he starts to talk about the importance
of the Word of God because it's the sword of
the Spirit. So he's talking about the importance
of digging into the scriptures. And after he
talks for about a minute, he asked Isaiah how
he's feeling. And he said, well, it's getting
heavy. And he said, yes, as you try to carry
that on your own, it will. And he begins to talk
about community and the importance of community.
And finally, three of the men step up and they
help him hold the sword up. And he said, that's
what discipleship is. You need to be studying
the word on your own. but it gets lighter when
you do it with others. We need community to feed
on the word of God. And so whether that is a
small group where you sit down and you dig deep
into the word of God, whether that is, and hopefully
going to church is a part of that and being fed
from the worship and the prayers and the word
of God, hopefully you're doing all of that. And
the thing is, is to me, you can't feed too much.
You can't overeat on the word of God. Now, you
can eat the wrong stuff where you start to listen
to the wrong person and you study other books
that can take away from God's word. But I don't
believe you can feast too much. Now, the other
end of that is you then need to put it into action.
We can't just be hearers of the word. We have
to be doers of the word. So, again, he doesn't
get on to Martha for serving. It just has to
have its proper place after the feasting. Yeah,
that makes sense. And so what I'm hearing from
both of you guys is that there are commonalities
with spiritual growth, like with what it looks
like to sit at Jesus' feet. But there are also...
our uniqueness is based off of our own personalities
and disposition. There's a book sitting in my
Amazon cart. So this is not a show of support
for the book, but I just heard about this recently.
It's called Sacred Pathways. Have y 'all heard
of this? I have not. Nope. It is a pastor of
a church who did a study on people's individual
walks with Jesus over like 10, 15 years. And
the gist of his thing is like, hey. We all are
following Jesus. Some of these things are the
same, but here's how different quote unquote
personalities tend to connect with him. You know,
just based off of, you mentioned some artsy fartsy
people or artisan fartisan as the whole phrase
goes. I never said those words. Who tend to lean
more, come to the whimsical side, people who
like sermons, people who like don't, but we all
need. The word discipleship, together as brothers
and sisters. That sitting at Jesus' feet, it's
costly though. And we've gotten into a little
bit of this earlier on at some point episode
-wise. I don't know when. But it takes effort
to put yourself in a place where you are emotionally
available, physically capable, and intellectually
ready. to sit at Jesus' feet. I think about this.
If Maddie and I have planned a date and Ben has
eaten before we get to the restaurant and I'm
watching a Hurricanes game on my phone and I
got my AirPods in, I am not physically or emotionally
ready to get closer to Maddie, to sit with her
in a booth in Chili's or wherever. And I think
that our relationship with Jesus is the same
in that regard. Just like you said, Sean, there
is a very real sense of getting your heart ready.
Yes. I feel the same. I'm not going to lie to
you guys. In the morning when I wake up, I have
better quiet times when I'm caffeinated. Oh,
absolutely. That probably says something about
Ben's sleep schedule that the neuroscientists
listening to this. i'm talking to you mads uh
would uh would have um would have something to
say about but um i am more alert and awake and
that is something that i have figured out about
myself um but it is less costly for me to scroll
on my phone than it is for me to get into a heart
posture where I can connect with Jesus. It is
less emotionally costly for me to throw on my
Lord of the Rings audio book on the way here
than it is for me to throw a sermon on or to
spend that drive in silence and pray. And so
recognizing, so one of the things that I feel
like I'm still learning is that To sit at Jesus'
feet is not a passive action. And I have to pay
the upfront fee emotionally or physically or
whatever to get to that spot. And I think that
that's a sacrifice. I think that's a sacrifice
of worship on my part that I'm still learning
to make every time, gents. I don't always get
that one right. Yeah, but when you do, what a
blessing it is. I mean, there are times where
I get up after spending time with Jesus that
I just feel so full. Man, I don't ever regret
it. Now, I wish I'm like you. There are days
I struggle. I mean, there are days that I don't
do what I ought to do. But, man, when I do. And
I think that's what helps keep us coming back
as well. Yeah, the joy of relationship. Well,
so slight kind of change in focus from sitting
at the feet of Jesus. We've got time for one
more text. Pivot! Sorry, I had to. I knew you
had to. I said pivot earlier, and I was like,
I'm shocked that I haven't gotten that from John.
I know you pretty well, man. So I'm going to
go to the May 3rd date. No Star Wars analogy
for this. But this is the woman caught in adultery.
And there's a lot that we could talk about in
this text, even in terms of like, you know, my
Bible says earliest manuscripts do not include
this text and all that. And so we can get into
that. but, but my main question I wanted to ask
you guys. So Jesus's response to this woman,
I'm not even going to read the text. You got
the Pharisees. They dragged this woman in front
of Jesus. She's been caught in the act of adultery.
Jesus, what should we do? Yeah. Um, he bends
down, he writes in the sand, they keep bugging
him about it and they're, they're getting louder
and louder. Jesus, what should we do with this
woman? Um, and he, he hits him with that line.
Let him who is without sin among you be the first
to throw a stone at her, which is, Just chills,
like seriously. But his response to the lady
after the Pharisees leave is kind of where I
want to look. Woman, where are they? Has no one
condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And he
said, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from
now on, sin no more. And as I was reading this,
one of the biggest questions that I wanted to
ask you guys from this text. Because I think
this is relevant to us as pastors and also tremendously
relevant to anybody who claims to be on the path
of Jesus. How do we take Jesus's treatment of
sin and apply it to our lives today? Like, what
does it look like for us handling sin in the
church? What does it look like for us handling
sin in our own hearts? Like, how does that look?
His, neither do I condemn you from now on, go
and sin no more. I'll give you one simple statement.
Restoration before condemnation. It's always
about restoration. It's always about mercy before
judgment. I preached this at a revival one time,
and the title of the sermon was Drop Your Stone.
Drop Your Stone. Put down the rock. I think it's
interesting to me. Jesus takes her sin seriously,
right? Go and sin no more, but also neither do
I condemn you. Because at the end of the day,
based off of what he says, he who is without
sin throw the first stone, he's the only one.
He's the only one there who is eligible to sling
that first rock. Because Levitical law says the
person who, if you caught the lady in the act,
you're the dude who threw the first stone. Which
also is interesting, like, hey, where's the man?
Adultery is usually a two -party system. I don't
know, man. This is sketchy to me on the part
of the Pharisees. I did say it was a test. Yeah,
that's true. So you think they were making it
up? No, I think it was serious, but I think they
set it up. It was a setup. Yeah, but that's just
interesting to me. Jesus' real treatment of sin,
but also mercy for the sinner. It's something
that it's hard to apply to other people. It's
also hard to apply to ourselves. I feel like
we've all got that one thing that if we were
dragged out into the light, that we would feel
shame over. That's human nature, right? And so
recognizing, almost like Jesus is saying, I know.
I know exactly where you've been. I know what
you've done. Neither do I condemn you. One of
the phrases I wrote down in my devotion on this
day was, my sin is great, but His love is greater.
And that was just reflecting on myself. This
passage got me into a spirit of just, thank you
for your mercy. Thank you so much, because I
know what I deserve. And yet, you took the cost
for me. and you no longer see my sin. And I can
still remember. I can still remember reading
this passage this past week and just being in
a moment of just completely thanking God for
the rest of my quiet time. I love for you how
recognizing His mercy and grace for you, like
His relationship with you in that way led to
adoration for you. Yeah. I mean, that's really
what we try to do as we come to worship. as a
church, you know, it's, we're not trying to conjure
something out of thin air of like, like, all
right, y 'all sing. Um, is that, that our worship
is a response. It's, it's never the, it's never
the thing that starts our spiritual, um, our
spiritual process. Worship is a response to who
God is and what he has done. And so seeing Jesus's
mercy for this lady and it reminding us of his
mercy for us in that text is just huge. Just
absolutely. Well, gents, this has been a good
conversation here. John, I'm sorry we didn't
get to get to your text to your boss. Well, we
spent the whole time on mine last week. It's
all evening out. In all fairness, the church
did need to know our preferences on Star Wars.
Important conversations had to happen at the
very beginning. Deeply, deeply theological. Deeply
theological. Well, anything else you want to
share? I got to give a shout out. My wife is
going to probably listen to this on Saturday,
so happy anniversary, honey. Oh! Look at y 'all.
28 years. 28 years. She's put up with a lot.
She'll have many crowns and trophies in heaven.
Well, it's okay, John. You only said that on
the internet and it'll be around forever. It's
fine. She knows it. The Lord knows it. I hear
you. Well, shout out to Julie. Congrats on the
anniversary, John. Thank you. Thank you. Well,
I have been Ben Smith. I have been Sean Griffin.
And as always, I am John Ferguson. And this has
been and will continue to be Pursuing Jesus.
We'll catch you guys next week. Goodbye. Pursuing
Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church
in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about
our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.