WEBVTT 00:00:02.029 --> 00:00:07.629 three, two... Welcome to Pursuing Jesus. I'm 00:00:07.629 --> 00:00:10.669 Ben Smith. That was Sean Griffin. And the snickering 00:00:10.669 --> 00:00:12.890 you hear in the background is Pastor John. What? 00:00:12.949 --> 00:00:14.810 Did you want me to be quiet as you were putting 00:00:14.810 --> 00:00:17.469 fingers down? Yes, I did. I always count in our 00:00:17.469 --> 00:00:22.800 recordings. Five, four, and then I mouth. Listen, 00:00:24.280 --> 00:00:27.260 I got to keep us on our toes. I got to make sure 00:00:27.260 --> 00:00:30.960 that we're ready to go. And like I said, I'm 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.719 ADD, man. I got to do some things every once 00:00:33.719 --> 00:00:35.340 in a while to make sure we're awake. That's fair. 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:38.070 And I'm grateful for that. Now, gentlemen, you 00:00:38.070 --> 00:00:42.289 know that we're filming this on May the 6th, 00:00:42.289 --> 00:00:45.509 but we actually missed the opportunity to film 00:00:45.509 --> 00:00:48.469 on a national holiday. Yes, we did. And I'm very 00:00:48.469 --> 00:00:49.909 disappointed about it. What was that holiday, 00:00:50.049 --> 00:00:52.829 Sean? May the 4th be with you. May the 4th be 00:00:52.829 --> 00:00:57.250 with you. Yeah. Or Revenge of the 5th. We missed 00:00:57.250 --> 00:01:01.109 them both. Oh, wow. We missed them both. Or you 00:01:01.109 --> 00:01:04.680 could also go today, Revenge of the 6th. That 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:09.120 one feels more forced. No pun intended. Pun heavily 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:11.280 intended. No, it really wasn't. I find the lack 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:16.420 of faith disturbing. May the 4th, yes, absolutely. 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:21.180 That is just classic now. That is the day. And 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:26.000 then Revenge of the Fifth. Yeah, it fits, but 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.000 you start going more and more, and it's becoming 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:31.319 forced. All right, so I've got to ask. Yes. Which 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:35.019 one is your favorite of all those movies? So 00:01:35.019 --> 00:01:38.859 I watched the original trilogy first because 00:01:38.859 --> 00:01:41.400 my parents had it on VHS. But once I saw Attack 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:43.140 of the Clones, that's where I lived for a long 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:45.120 time. That was my favorite as a kid, which is 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:48.879 like objectively the worst of those six. But 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:50.260 it's what you grew up with. It's what I grew 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.680 up with, yeah. I think maturing is realizing 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:54.780 that Revenge of the Sith is the greatest cinematic 00:01:54.780 --> 00:01:58.739 masterpiece of the original and the prequel trilogy. 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:02.000 I'm talking about all 11. I'm talking about throwing 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:06.989 their... Rogue One, Solo, all of them, the new 00:02:06.989 --> 00:02:09.930 three. Rogue One is a close second for me. I 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:12.030 really enjoyed Rogue One. So still Revenge of 00:02:12.030 --> 00:02:13.409 the Sith is your favorite. Revenge of the Sith 00:02:13.409 --> 00:02:15.629 is my favorite. I think Rogue One is number two 00:02:15.629 --> 00:02:17.189 for me. Don't worry. I got your back there because 00:02:17.189 --> 00:02:20.750 Rogue One is my favorite. Really? That's my top. 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:23.919 What stands out? So what about you, John? My 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:26.300 favorite's Return of the Jedi. Okay. Then it's 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.080 Revenge of the Sith. Okay. So is it just like 00:02:29.080 --> 00:02:31.460 the nice wrapping up of the ending for you? I 00:02:31.460 --> 00:02:33.919 just love Luke Skywalker. I think you like the 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:36.939 Ewoks. I do love the Ewoks. I had the Ewok village 00:02:36.939 --> 00:02:40.120 as a toy growing up, so I did. Yeah. That's fair. 00:02:40.199 --> 00:02:42.240 No, the Ewoks are great. Did y 'all ever see 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:45.620 the random spinoff Star Wars movie that never 00:02:45.620 --> 00:02:49.500 went anywhere? The cartoon one? No, no, no. The 00:02:49.500 --> 00:02:52.219 Ewok movie. Oh, the Ewok one. Where his whole 00:02:52.219 --> 00:02:55.599 family dies. It's terrible. And the way they 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:57.120 brush that off at the end is like, it's okay. 00:02:57.180 --> 00:03:00.340 You can just go live with the Ewoks, kid. Yeah, 00:03:00.340 --> 00:03:02.379 it was terrible. I was traumatized. It was awful. 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:05.259 My parents saw Star Wars on the cover at Blockbuster 00:03:05.259 --> 00:03:07.000 and they were like, oh, this will be fine for 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:09.340 my son to watch and did zero screening for content 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:11.319 as the dad gets dismembered with a long sword 00:03:11.319 --> 00:03:13.680 on screen. So are y 'all planning on going to 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.840 see The Mandalorian and Grogu in theater? Yeah, 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.300 I don't know. I honestly haven't decided yet. 00:03:19.419 --> 00:03:20.840 Oh, I am. I haven't decided. I'm not current. 00:03:21.060 --> 00:03:24.710 So I have seen... One episode of The Mandalorian. 00:03:24.729 --> 00:03:26.669 The Mandalorian. See, I really like the show. 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:28.689 I know. It is really good. I enjoyed the show, 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:30.550 but I don't know, man. I'm just, I'm almost, 00:03:30.710 --> 00:03:33.069 it's kind of like the same thing that was happening 00:03:33.069 --> 00:03:34.930 with Marvel for a long time. You just get burned 00:03:34.930 --> 00:03:38.710 out of so much content. I'm almost, I'm getting 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:40.629 burned out of Star Wars right now, so I don't 00:03:40.629 --> 00:03:42.349 know if I'm going to go see it in theaters. But 00:03:42.349 --> 00:03:44.330 he wouldn't get burned out if they did it with 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:47.340 Harry Potter. oh no the hbo show is coming out 00:03:47.340 --> 00:03:50.039 soon i am so excited but that's it's been years 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:52.979 and so years since new content how is that burnout 00:03:52.979 --> 00:03:55.060 i think both of you have a really good point 00:03:55.060 --> 00:03:58.099 i will say like so i felt very much the same 00:03:58.099 --> 00:04:00.300 with the marvel burnout right it's like so after 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:04.310 end game i was like this is a beautiful ending 00:04:04.310 --> 00:04:06.789 to the story. She -Hulk is what did it for me. 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:08.930 Once I watched She -Hulk, I was like, oh, crap. 00:04:09.050 --> 00:04:11.389 Yeah, it was pretty bad. I didn't even see it. 00:04:11.689 --> 00:04:15.849 But I think that they're trying to ride out Mandalorian 00:04:15.849 --> 00:04:17.850 and Grogu the same way that Marvel's riding out 00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:21.709 Spider -Man. Because I've only seen maybe one 00:04:21.709 --> 00:04:25.790 Marvel movie post -Endgame other than the Spider 00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:28.050 -Man movies. And can I tell you, when Tom Holland 00:04:28.050 --> 00:04:30.189 hits the silver screen again as our beloved Peter 00:04:30.189 --> 00:04:32.550 Parker, I will go see it. I love that man. Yeah, 00:04:32.550 --> 00:04:34.810 yeah, yeah. Those were excellent movies. Those 00:04:34.810 --> 00:04:37.670 were excellent. And having to, well, it's been 00:04:37.670 --> 00:04:39.509 long enough. I think I could probably spoil the 00:04:39.509 --> 00:04:42.389 last person, the last live action Spider -Man. 00:04:42.449 --> 00:04:44.889 Having the three of them in there. Yes, so cool. 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.009 That was awesome. And seeing them interact and 00:04:47.009 --> 00:04:48.329 their different personalities. Actually, dude, 00:04:48.470 --> 00:04:49.990 it's so funny because I actually recently used 00:04:49.990 --> 00:04:51.750 this as a sermon illustration. You're kidding. 00:04:51.910 --> 00:04:54.250 Like, I'm talking about like two or three Wednesdays 00:04:54.250 --> 00:04:58.529 ago. And I was just talking about, like, I was 00:04:58.529 --> 00:05:01.470 in the movie theater opening night for that movie, 00:05:01.509 --> 00:05:06.430 and the shouts in the theater when they came 00:05:06.430 --> 00:05:09.990 on screen were so, the energy was so thick. It 00:05:09.990 --> 00:05:12.170 was so amazing. It was a cool experience. I mean, 00:05:12.189 --> 00:05:14.910 I remember that with Endgame, too. Like, oh, 00:05:15.029 --> 00:05:18.500 yeah. On your left. That was the other one I 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:21.959 mentioned in that exact same illustration. Yes, 00:05:21.959 --> 00:05:25.620 dude. I'm not a hooting and hollering at the 00:05:25.620 --> 00:05:27.819 movie theater kind of guy. That's just not my 00:05:27.819 --> 00:05:29.220 vibe. Different people are different ways and 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:32.720 that's cool. You didn't bring a live chicken 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:36.689 to the Minecraft movie? Is that a thing? You 00:05:36.689 --> 00:05:39.009 don't even know about this? What? No, they've 00:05:39.009 --> 00:05:41.769 made commercials about it. Chicken jockey. Because 00:05:41.769 --> 00:05:45.629 kids were bringing live chickens to the Minecraft 00:05:45.629 --> 00:05:49.470 movie. And now it's part of their advertising. 00:05:49.529 --> 00:05:54.730 It got so famous. Can I tell you, I did not go 00:05:54.730 --> 00:05:57.509 see that in theaters because I thought this is 00:05:57.509 --> 00:06:00.930 going to be so goofy. On the way to Kenya, it 00:06:00.930 --> 00:06:03.670 was on the plane. I watched it, and I was dying 00:06:03.670 --> 00:06:07.490 laughing on the plane. It was good. It was goofy, 00:06:07.689 --> 00:06:11.709 but it was done perfectly, the theme of it. It 00:06:11.709 --> 00:06:14.250 was done in a good, goofy way. For me, it was 00:06:14.250 --> 00:06:16.790 like a love letter to my childhood. I remember 00:06:16.790 --> 00:06:19.569 just as I was getting into being able to actually 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:23.449 use a computer growing up. like minecraft beta 00:06:23.449 --> 00:06:26.149 like before the game was even released came out 00:06:26.149 --> 00:06:28.449 and like i had a buddy who was super into tech 00:06:28.449 --> 00:06:31.069 he probably was like like vaguely into tech but 00:06:31.069 --> 00:06:33.269 i thought he was like the epitome he was the 00:06:33.269 --> 00:06:36.310 man he was the man he was like hey you should 00:06:36.310 --> 00:06:38.490 try this game i'll get you into the beta and 00:06:38.490 --> 00:06:41.529 i was like really you know that was a good good 00:06:42.379 --> 00:06:44.379 Good game. And a pretty funny movie. I enjoyed 00:06:44.379 --> 00:06:46.439 that. How long have we been talking about random 00:06:46.439 --> 00:06:50.720 stuff? Seven minutes? 24 seconds. Star Wars? 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:53.740 We've hit Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter for 00:06:53.740 --> 00:06:55.860 a moment, going to Minecraft. You know what? 00:06:57.600 --> 00:06:59.500 There's a lot of editing going on now. I'm leaving 00:06:59.500 --> 00:07:03.000 all of this because I feel like that hits a lot 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.180 of our audience. Well, Sean, we're on your text, 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:10.860 so let's move into the text then. Yeah, all right. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:15.560 So yeah, so I'm going to be looking at actually 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:19.100 May the 4th. May the 4th be with you. So let's 00:07:19.100 --> 00:07:21.399 not go back to the conversations we just had. 00:07:21.500 --> 00:07:24.480 I'm going to skip forward. My ADD brain is really 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:27.379 trying to stay focused right now. It's jumping 00:07:27.379 --> 00:07:32.139 into lights. But yeah, this is honestly, it has 00:07:32.139 --> 00:07:35.199 become in the past few years, a passage that 00:07:35.199 --> 00:07:39.720 means a lot to me. And it's because I have preached 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:42.279 it a few times. And whenever you preach a passage, 00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:45.980 you really go deep into it and study it. For 00:07:45.980 --> 00:07:49.399 sure. And so this is the cool story of Martha 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:52.899 and her sister, Mary. and it's the story where 00:07:52.899 --> 00:07:56.360 Jesus comes to their house. And I just want to 00:07:56.360 --> 00:07:58.439 focus on one part, and it's the part that... 00:07:58.439 --> 00:08:01.000 So this is almost the opposite of what I talk 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:02.680 about a lot of times in the podcast. Okay. You 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:03.819 know, a lot of times in the podcast, I'll talk 00:08:03.819 --> 00:08:07.300 about how there's a verse we read a lot, and 00:08:07.300 --> 00:08:09.120 then like, oh, there's something new popped out, 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:11.879 or like, man, I don't need to... This one, no. 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:15.939 It's just there is a phrase in this passage. 00:08:16.939 --> 00:08:19.579 that has been impactful to me and has impacted 00:08:19.579 --> 00:08:23.240 me personally now for years. Okay. And so I just 00:08:23.240 --> 00:08:25.399 want to focus on that one phrase. So let me just, 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:27.980 but you know what? It's a short story. And so 00:08:27.980 --> 00:08:30.300 let me read the story and then we'll just focus 00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:32.639 on the passage. So here it is. It comes from 00:08:32.639 --> 00:08:35.159 Luke chapter 10 and it starts in verse 38. And 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:37.340 here's what it says. It says, while they were 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:39.740 traveling, he entered a village and a woman named 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:42.990 Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a 00:08:42.990 --> 00:08:45.789 sister named Mary who also sat at the Lord's 00:08:45.789 --> 00:08:48.769 feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha 00:08:48.769 --> 00:08:51.610 was distracted by her many tasks, and she came 00:08:51.610 --> 00:08:55.309 up and asked him, Lord, don't you care that my 00:08:55.309 --> 00:08:59.590 sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her 00:08:59.590 --> 00:09:03.009 to give me a hand. The Lord answered her, Martha, 00:09:03.210 --> 00:09:06.370 Martha, you are worried and upset about many 00:09:06.370 --> 00:09:10.799 things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:13.059 made the right choice, and it will not be taken 00:09:13.059 --> 00:09:15.399 away from her. So, like I said, I mean, just 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:17.279 what an incredible teaching moment there that 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:20.340 we see with Jesus. And such a personal moment, 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:23.679 you know, He's in their house, and, you know, 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.840 how He responds to Martha when she comes to Him 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:31.710 with some... We don't really get emotion in literature 00:09:31.710 --> 00:09:36.149 too much, in Scripture, but you can feel the 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:39.470 emotion of how she is presenting this question 00:09:39.470 --> 00:09:42.470 to the Lord. But it's actually right before that. 00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:43.950 It's at the beginning of verse 40, and it says, 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:47.950 Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So the 00:09:47.950 --> 00:09:51.210 first time I studied that, what I found out... 00:09:51.419 --> 00:09:53.580 was this whole phrase, distracted by her many 00:09:53.580 --> 00:09:58.039 tasks. The part that really hit me was that the 00:09:58.039 --> 00:10:01.919 original language, the phrasing that is used 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:06.159 here is to describe tasks that someone puts on 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:10.019 themselves. Meaning it isn't something that someone 00:10:10.019 --> 00:10:12.100 else has said, you need to do this, you need 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:15.919 to do this, you need to do this. It is something 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:20.440 that she has put on herself and no one is expecting 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:23.799 her to do. So this goes beyond, you know, this 00:10:23.799 --> 00:10:26.740 goes beyond just even tasks that you would do 00:10:26.740 --> 00:10:29.759 when someone's coming to your house, right? You 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:31.519 know, a lot of times we'll look at this first. 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:32.879 We'll talk about how we got to clean our house 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:34.679 before people come over and stuff like that. 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:37.799 Like those are kind of expected tasks. Like, 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.980 hey, you know, serve them food, do the, or whatever, 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:45.539 right? This goes beyond that. This goes to things 00:10:45.539 --> 00:10:48.980 that she's just doing because this is what she 00:10:48.980 --> 00:10:51.559 thinks is the most important thing to do. And 00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:54.340 I'm just going to do, do, do things for Jesus 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:58.860 because that's how I'm going to show my love 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:00.779 is by doing things for Jesus, doing things for 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:04.759 Jesus. And so it's all things she's putting on 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:08.399 herself, not that are expected of her. And that's 00:11:08.399 --> 00:11:12.279 when I love so much. She goes to Jesus and she's 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:16.700 like, hey, don't you care? There's a lot in that 00:11:16.700 --> 00:11:20.080 phrase right there. Don't you care that my sister 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:21.720 has left me to serve alone? Because once again, 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:26.279 in her brain, she's doing things that she feels 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:28.200 like this is what we're supposed to be doing 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:31.980 because you're in our home, right? But then the 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:34.379 Lord responds, Martha, Martha, you are worried 00:11:34.379 --> 00:11:37.509 and upset about many things, but one. thing is 00:11:37.509 --> 00:11:40.549 necessary. So, what I get out of this passage 00:11:40.549 --> 00:11:43.169 is there are so many things that I can put on 00:11:43.169 --> 00:11:47.169 myself. Things that I think are good ways to 00:11:47.169 --> 00:11:51.250 serve Jesus, things that I try to do to work 00:11:51.250 --> 00:11:55.039 for Jesus, but really the... First thing that 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:57.500 I need to do, the most important thing, the one 00:11:57.500 --> 00:11:59.320 thing that is more important than anything else 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:02.620 is spending time at the feet of Jesus. Genuinely. 00:12:02.620 --> 00:12:04.340 And one of the things that I've really noticed 00:12:04.340 --> 00:12:07.340 in my personal life as that has become more and 00:12:07.340 --> 00:12:11.240 more front and center in my mind is that the 00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:16.320 more time I spend with Jesus, the more serving 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:20.480 becomes natural. the more the tasks that I do 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.500 for Jesus no longer feel forced on me, but feel 00:12:24.500 --> 00:12:27.580 like this is what I want to do because I've already 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:30.200 spent time with Jesus, and now I want to show 00:12:30.200 --> 00:12:34.100 that love for Jesus everywhere I go. And so, 00:12:34.100 --> 00:12:36.500 yeah, so that's what I got. I mean, what a human 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:42.139 response, though. Like, Martha's... response 00:12:42.139 --> 00:12:45.759 to like her genuine love for Jesus is to do all 00:12:45.759 --> 00:12:48.360 the things for Jesus. Yeah. Cause I think in, 00:12:48.379 --> 00:12:52.120 in that way, like we, I think we all do all do 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:53.779 this, or at least I see this tendency in myself. 00:12:54.820 --> 00:12:56.879 And then I'm exporting that to all of you guys. 00:12:56.899 --> 00:12:58.600 If that's not the case. No, I think you, I think 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:01.840 you have something there. But we treat Jesus 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:04.580 like, like we would treat other humans and we 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:06.259 treat Jesus like he has the same expectations 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:09.139 of us that the people that are in our life do. 00:13:10.090 --> 00:13:13.690 which like is a very normal thing to do, but 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:16.610 we forget how different he is. And so like one 00:13:16.610 --> 00:13:18.970 of the ways, one of the primary ways that we 00:13:18.970 --> 00:13:23.259 show love as humans is to do. right? We do this. 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:24.740 We do this. We do this. I mean, like we've got 00:13:24.740 --> 00:13:26.879 Mother's Day coming up, right? Yep. One of the 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:30.620 many ways that the men of our church are going 00:13:30.620 --> 00:13:34.039 to show their wives that they love them is through 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:36.679 doing. Maybe they're going to cook a meal. Maybe 00:13:36.679 --> 00:13:39.320 they're going to get them flowers. Maybe they'll 00:13:39.320 --> 00:13:43.659 get in the choir and sing on Sunday. Maybe. I 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:45.200 see where you're going with this. Maybe they'll 00:13:45.200 --> 00:13:47.360 get in the men's choir and sing on Sunday, which 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:51.279 is like tertiary on tertiary. Yeah, I know. but 00:13:51.279 --> 00:13:54.820 we focus so much on the doing that we don't focus 00:13:54.820 --> 00:13:57.500 on the why for sure. And I think, I think God 00:13:57.500 --> 00:14:01.039 cares about our heart before he cares about our 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:03.200 actions. Like, I mean, a hundred percent, like 00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:04.879 in the prophets, like God rebukes his people. 00:14:04.899 --> 00:14:07.120 Like, I don't want your sacrifices. Like, I don't 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.179 want your burnt offerings. Go learn justice, 00:14:09.379 --> 00:14:12.299 go learn mercy. And even the command that Jesus 00:14:12.299 --> 00:14:14.360 gives love the Lord with all your heart, soul, 00:14:14.440 --> 00:14:17.159 and mind and love your neighbor. that has nothing 00:14:17.159 --> 00:14:19.639 to do with anything that happens outside of you. 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:22.179 Loving the Lord first and loving your neighbor 00:14:22.179 --> 00:14:25.480 second is an internal reality before that's an 00:14:25.480 --> 00:14:29.759 external behavior of any kind. Yeah, when I look 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:32.200 at this passage, it's just a reminder to me that 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:34.700 you've got to feed yourself before you can feed 00:14:34.700 --> 00:14:38.980 others anyways. And you can go to two extremes 00:14:38.980 --> 00:14:41.039 with this. And I talked about it this morning 00:14:41.039 --> 00:14:44.039 with our group. There's the one extreme where 00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:48.240 you can, Feast and feast and feast and then never 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:50.519 feed others and you end up being a Christian 00:14:50.519 --> 00:14:53.860 couch potato. I said, or you can be like Martha 00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:56.460 here who serves and serves and serves. She's 00:14:56.460 --> 00:14:58.840 feeding everybody else but never takes care of 00:14:58.840 --> 00:15:00.679 herself. She never sits at the feet of Jesus. 00:15:01.919 --> 00:15:03.759 It's kind of like if somebody came into our house, 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:05.320 could you imagine if we had a guest come to our 00:15:05.320 --> 00:15:09.779 house and we're busy fixing plates, we're busy 00:15:09.779 --> 00:15:13.139 cleaning up, we're busy washing the dishes. We 00:15:13.139 --> 00:15:15.580 never sit down and fellowship with our guest. 00:15:15.899 --> 00:15:18.179 Right. And we do that in church a lot of times. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:20.399 We will come in and there are people that will 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:22.759 serve and thank God for people who serve because 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.700 we need that. But if they never get to sit at 00:15:25.700 --> 00:15:28.879 the feet of Jesus and worship and soak in the 00:15:28.879 --> 00:15:31.360 word and do all these things. And I had a couple 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:35.120 like that in my first church. They did children's 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:39.419 church. They did it every single Sunday. They 00:15:39.419 --> 00:15:42.629 were faithful. They never missed a Sunday. Even 00:15:42.629 --> 00:15:44.269 when they were on vacation, they'd come back 00:15:44.269 --> 00:15:47.649 to do children's church. But they never sat in 00:15:47.649 --> 00:15:50.350 church. They didn't come on Sunday night when 00:15:50.350 --> 00:15:51.629 we had service. They didn't come on Wednesday 00:15:51.629 --> 00:15:54.309 night when we had service. And I finally went 00:15:54.309 --> 00:15:57.190 and did the hardest thing I ever had to do. And 00:15:57.190 --> 00:15:58.649 I went to them and I said, listen, I said, you 00:15:58.649 --> 00:16:01.370 guys are not being fed, but you're constantly 00:16:01.370 --> 00:16:03.990 serving. Not that serving is a bad thing, but 00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:07.830 you need to be fed as well. And I said, we're 00:16:07.830 --> 00:16:10.440 going to do a rotation. In children's church. 00:16:10.580 --> 00:16:12.679 Yeah. Not fun, because that meant we had to go 00:16:12.679 --> 00:16:15.860 find more volunteers to serve and help. And these 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:19.259 guys were faithful, and they got mad, and they 00:16:19.259 --> 00:16:23.340 left the church for two years. Left the church. 00:16:23.419 --> 00:16:26.460 Now, all they were doing was doing children's 00:16:26.460 --> 00:16:28.100 church. And you would think, well, that was a 00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:31.000 burden that took off of other people. Yes, but 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.860 they were never being fed. They came back to 00:16:33.860 --> 00:16:36.899 the church two years later and said, we understand 00:16:36.899 --> 00:16:39.690 why you did it, and we thank you. And they started 00:16:39.690 --> 00:16:42.250 serving once a month but in church the rest of 00:16:42.250 --> 00:16:44.669 the time. Yeah. And I just said, listen, you 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:49.389 can't serve on empty. And that's where Martha 00:16:49.389 --> 00:16:50.710 would have gotten to. And a lot of people in 00:16:50.710 --> 00:16:52.850 our church, they end up serving on empty because 00:16:52.850 --> 00:16:55.169 they're never being filled up. Well, I feel like 00:16:55.169 --> 00:17:01.480 particularly with your story. And even from my 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:04.519 own testimony of starting ministry and ending 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:07.680 up in a place where I was serving, serving, serving, 00:17:07.779 --> 00:17:11.180 and never being fed. I feel like maybe the biblical 00:17:11.180 --> 00:17:13.779 word for this is pride. I would love y 'all's 00:17:13.779 --> 00:17:18.819 help kind of parsing this out. An identity can 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:22.240 form around your service, even to God, that is 00:17:22.240 --> 00:17:28.829 not healthy. Yes. When I was at Cedarville, the 00:17:28.829 --> 00:17:31.509 college that I went to, I was a worship major. 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:38.190 And I cuffed my jeans, my painted on tight jeans 00:17:38.190 --> 00:17:41.250 because I was a worship major. I did my hair 00:17:41.250 --> 00:17:43.329 shaved on the sides and that little floopy thing 00:17:43.329 --> 00:17:46.549 on top because I was a worship major. And man, 00:17:46.609 --> 00:17:49.509 any chance I could get to be on a stage and play 00:17:49.509 --> 00:17:54.559 a guitar or a bass or sing, I took. Because my 00:17:54.559 --> 00:17:58.339 identity became about my service. The Lord let 00:17:58.339 --> 00:18:01.259 me do that for a little while, but then I became, 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:03.940 as Martha was, distracted with much things, burdened 00:18:03.940 --> 00:18:07.480 down with much toil and care. And I even had 00:18:07.480 --> 00:18:10.740 some of those emotions as I was relationshiping 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:13.220 with the Lord of like, why aren't there other 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:15.079 people that are stepping up for stuff like this? 00:18:15.819 --> 00:18:17.700 And in a very real sense, it was because I was 00:18:17.700 --> 00:18:20.660 taking their spots. But I had developed an identity 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:27.019 around my service. to God rather than from my 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:31.720 relationship with Jesus serving. And I guarantee 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.579 you he would have had me do less. I guarantee 00:18:34.579 --> 00:18:37.400 you he would have had me do less. Because it's 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:41.460 not about the, it is not to him, his first priority 00:18:41.460 --> 00:18:45.539 is our hearts with him, not necessarily the effectiveness 00:18:45.539 --> 00:18:47.640 or the depth and breadth of the areas that we're 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:49.599 serving. Those are for him to decide at the end 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:52.289 of the day. Now, I want to get practical with 00:18:52.289 --> 00:18:55.930 this, guys. So we were talking about the contrast 00:18:55.930 --> 00:18:58.509 between Mary flying around the house like a whirling 00:18:58.509 --> 00:19:01.329 dervish. Nope. Martha flying around the house 00:19:01.329 --> 00:19:04.549 like a whirling dervish and Mary sitting at Jesus' 00:19:04.650 --> 00:19:08.450 feet. A whirling dervish? Like a tornado. Tasmanian 00:19:08.450 --> 00:19:11.650 devil. Is a dervish a real thing? Yeah, it's 00:19:11.650 --> 00:19:14.369 a real thing. Is it an animal? No, I think it's 00:19:14.369 --> 00:19:16.849 a Middle Eastern word for a whirlwind or a sandstorm. 00:19:17.579 --> 00:19:19.640 The knowledge you have, I mean, it's just so, 00:19:19.640 --> 00:19:21.819 okay. Anyway, moving on. I mean, fact check me 00:19:21.819 --> 00:19:23.980 on it for sure. I've heard the phrase before. 00:19:24.099 --> 00:19:25.980 All that to say, we're talking about Mary and 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:28.920 Martha. Martha's working, Mary's sitting. Jesus 00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:31.740 says the one thing necessary is to sit at his 00:19:31.740 --> 00:19:33.779 feet. The good portion is to sit at his feet. 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:37.319 What does it look like for a 21st century disciple 00:19:37.319 --> 00:19:39.980 of Jesus, just trying to follow their rabbi, 00:19:40.019 --> 00:19:44.819 to sit at Jesus' feet? So I think that this is 00:19:44.819 --> 00:19:47.599 where it does become individualistic a little 00:19:47.599 --> 00:19:50.839 bit. 100%. Because we each connect with the Lord 00:19:50.839 --> 00:19:53.579 in different ways. Agreed. And I think that's 00:19:53.579 --> 00:19:57.099 what it is. It's finding how you connect with 00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:00.240 the Lord, right? And so all I can talk about 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:03.380 is myself. And the rhythm that I'm in of life 00:20:03.380 --> 00:20:08.519 right now. So the thing that has me just... And 00:20:08.519 --> 00:20:11.339 I don't want this to sound cliche, but it's true. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.759 Falling more in love with Jesus every day. That's 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:18.200 where my heart's been the past few months, and 00:20:18.200 --> 00:20:22.039 it has been such a wonderful experience. But 00:20:22.039 --> 00:20:24.660 it has come from a couple places. And one, I 00:20:24.660 --> 00:20:31.960 start my day with a worship devotional. We've 00:20:31.960 --> 00:20:34.420 talked about it on the podcast before. And so 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:38.779 I'm starting my day with what seems to be a genuine 00:20:38.779 --> 00:20:42.440 worship in my ears, right? And then I listen 00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:45.500 to a sermon. And I listen to a sermon, and then 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:49.579 that feeds my soul. And then it gets me right 00:20:49.579 --> 00:20:51.240 there at the beginning of the day. And I do that 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:54.000 before I start reading my Bible. Wow. So it's 00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.519 like my heart is prepared then to go to God's 00:20:57.519 --> 00:21:01.259 Word because I've already been in a time of spending 00:21:01.259 --> 00:21:03.539 time with Him in worship. I've listened to a 00:21:03.539 --> 00:21:07.279 sermon that feeds my soul. And then now I'm opening 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.420 God's Word. And then all of a sudden, God's Word 00:21:09.420 --> 00:21:11.460 after, because I've already done these other 00:21:11.460 --> 00:21:15.750 two things, it is so much more bright and colorful, 00:21:15.970 --> 00:21:20.809 if you will, right? And so I'm walking away and 00:21:20.809 --> 00:21:23.089 I'm journaling because it's forcing me through 00:21:23.089 --> 00:21:25.609 the pursuing Jesus and then through my... through 00:21:25.609 --> 00:21:28.509 the Psalms. I journal all the stuff that I'm 00:21:28.509 --> 00:21:31.890 learning about. And with all of that, it's just 00:21:31.890 --> 00:21:35.950 getting me that next step closer to Jesus. And 00:21:35.950 --> 00:21:38.690 so that's what feeds my soul. But there's people 00:21:38.690 --> 00:21:41.890 that are more artistic than I am, and so they 00:21:41.890 --> 00:21:45.490 might need a different creative route of getting 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:49.720 closer to Jesus. Some people might, listening 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:54.339 to a sermon every morning might not be the route 00:21:54.339 --> 00:21:59.279 for everybody to take. So this is not the task 00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:01.500 list. This is like, hey, what is it for you? 00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:03.740 For sure. But a lot of people, it is worship 00:22:03.740 --> 00:22:09.890 music. For some people, it's a place. There's 00:22:09.890 --> 00:22:13.109 a specific place in their house or around their 00:22:13.109 --> 00:22:16.150 house in nature. There's things like that. And 00:22:16.150 --> 00:22:18.970 so for every individual listening, it's what 00:22:18.970 --> 00:22:21.089 is it with you? Where is it with you? What are 00:22:21.089 --> 00:22:24.269 the things that you can do that cause you to 00:22:24.269 --> 00:22:26.349 fall more in love with Jesus? And like I said, 00:22:26.390 --> 00:22:28.609 not that it's being forced. It's the same thing 00:22:28.609 --> 00:22:31.410 with your spouse or with any other relationship. 00:22:31.670 --> 00:22:35.089 Just the more time you genuinely spend together, 00:22:35.369 --> 00:22:39.339 the deeper that love gets. And I'll use the illustration 00:22:39.339 --> 00:22:42.819 from The Forge. And if you haven't seen that 00:22:42.819 --> 00:22:46.039 movie, get on Netflix, watch it, go rent it, 00:22:46.059 --> 00:22:49.640 whatever. Phenomenal, phenomenal movie on discipleship. 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:53.259 But towards the end, he gives the young man a 00:22:53.259 --> 00:22:56.380 sword, and he asks him to hold it out. And so 00:22:56.380 --> 00:22:58.740 he's holding out this sword, and it's about 10 00:22:58.740 --> 00:23:02.299 pounds. And he starts to talk about the importance 00:23:02.299 --> 00:23:04.220 of the Word of God because it's the sword of 00:23:04.220 --> 00:23:06.670 the Spirit. So he's talking about the importance 00:23:06.670 --> 00:23:09.690 of digging into the scriptures. And after he 00:23:09.690 --> 00:23:12.309 talks for about a minute, he asked Isaiah how 00:23:12.309 --> 00:23:14.650 he's feeling. And he said, well, it's getting 00:23:14.650 --> 00:23:17.450 heavy. And he said, yes, as you try to carry 00:23:17.450 --> 00:23:21.450 that on your own, it will. And he begins to talk 00:23:21.450 --> 00:23:23.930 about community and the importance of community. 00:23:24.329 --> 00:23:27.329 And finally, three of the men step up and they 00:23:27.329 --> 00:23:30.289 help him hold the sword up. And he said, that's 00:23:30.289 --> 00:23:33.069 what discipleship is. You need to be studying 00:23:33.069 --> 00:23:36.759 the word on your own. but it gets lighter when 00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:40.779 you do it with others. We need community to feed 00:23:40.779 --> 00:23:43.740 on the word of God. And so whether that is a 00:23:43.740 --> 00:23:46.799 small group where you sit down and you dig deep 00:23:46.799 --> 00:23:49.799 into the word of God, whether that is, and hopefully 00:23:49.799 --> 00:23:52.200 going to church is a part of that and being fed 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:55.380 from the worship and the prayers and the word 00:23:55.380 --> 00:23:58.940 of God, hopefully you're doing all of that. And 00:23:58.940 --> 00:24:03.180 the thing is, is to me, you can't feed too much. 00:24:04.019 --> 00:24:07.420 You can't overeat on the word of God. Now, you 00:24:07.420 --> 00:24:10.579 can eat the wrong stuff where you start to listen 00:24:10.579 --> 00:24:13.819 to the wrong person and you study other books 00:24:13.819 --> 00:24:17.920 that can take away from God's word. But I don't 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:21.359 believe you can feast too much. Now, the other 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:24.180 end of that is you then need to put it into action. 00:24:24.579 --> 00:24:27.339 We can't just be hearers of the word. We have 00:24:27.339 --> 00:24:30.579 to be doers of the word. So, again, he doesn't 00:24:30.579 --> 00:24:33.130 get on to Martha for serving. It just has to 00:24:33.130 --> 00:24:36.569 have its proper place after the feasting. Yeah, 00:24:36.630 --> 00:24:39.509 that makes sense. And so what I'm hearing from 00:24:39.509 --> 00:24:43.109 both of you guys is that there are commonalities 00:24:43.109 --> 00:24:46.410 with spiritual growth, like with what it looks 00:24:46.410 --> 00:24:50.670 like to sit at Jesus' feet. But there are also... 00:24:51.710 --> 00:24:54.289 our uniqueness is based off of our own personalities 00:24:54.289 --> 00:24:57.029 and disposition. There's a book sitting in my 00:24:57.029 --> 00:25:00.369 Amazon cart. So this is not a show of support 00:25:00.369 --> 00:25:02.490 for the book, but I just heard about this recently. 00:25:02.690 --> 00:25:04.930 It's called Sacred Pathways. Have y 'all heard 00:25:04.930 --> 00:25:08.470 of this? I have not. Nope. It is a pastor of 00:25:08.470 --> 00:25:11.650 a church who did a study on people's individual 00:25:11.650 --> 00:25:15.529 walks with Jesus over like 10, 15 years. And 00:25:15.529 --> 00:25:19.119 the gist of his thing is like, hey. We all are 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:21.019 following Jesus. Some of these things are the 00:25:21.019 --> 00:25:23.640 same, but here's how different quote unquote 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:28.839 personalities tend to connect with him. You know, 00:25:28.839 --> 00:25:30.900 just based off of, you mentioned some artsy fartsy 00:25:30.900 --> 00:25:33.160 people or artisan fartisan as the whole phrase 00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:36.480 goes. I never said those words. Who tend to lean 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:38.740 more, come to the whimsical side, people who 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:41.640 like sermons, people who like don't, but we all 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:45.970 need. The word discipleship, together as brothers 00:25:45.970 --> 00:25:51.329 and sisters. That sitting at Jesus' feet, it's 00:25:51.329 --> 00:25:54.150 costly though. And we've gotten into a little 00:25:54.150 --> 00:25:57.069 bit of this earlier on at some point episode 00:25:57.069 --> 00:26:02.049 -wise. I don't know when. But it takes effort 00:26:02.049 --> 00:26:05.970 to put yourself in a place where you are emotionally 00:26:05.970 --> 00:26:10.609 available, physically capable, and intellectually 00:26:10.609 --> 00:26:15.519 ready. to sit at Jesus' feet. I think about this. 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:19.720 If Maddie and I have planned a date and Ben has 00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:23.259 eaten before we get to the restaurant and I'm 00:26:23.259 --> 00:26:26.759 watching a Hurricanes game on my phone and I 00:26:26.759 --> 00:26:31.619 got my AirPods in, I am not physically or emotionally 00:26:31.619 --> 00:26:35.960 ready to get closer to Maddie, to sit with her 00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:39.750 in a booth in Chili's or wherever. And I think 00:26:39.750 --> 00:26:42.690 that our relationship with Jesus is the same 00:26:42.690 --> 00:26:45.210 in that regard. Just like you said, Sean, there 00:26:45.210 --> 00:26:47.869 is a very real sense of getting your heart ready. 00:26:48.170 --> 00:26:51.109 Yes. I feel the same. I'm not going to lie to 00:26:51.109 --> 00:26:54.890 you guys. In the morning when I wake up, I have 00:26:54.890 --> 00:26:57.690 better quiet times when I'm caffeinated. Oh, 00:26:57.710 --> 00:27:00.349 absolutely. That probably says something about 00:27:00.349 --> 00:27:02.470 Ben's sleep schedule that the neuroscientists 00:27:02.470 --> 00:27:05.099 listening to this. i'm talking to you mads uh 00:27:05.099 --> 00:27:07.740 would uh would have um would have something to 00:27:07.740 --> 00:27:10.920 say about but um i am more alert and awake and 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:12.759 that is something that i have figured out about 00:27:12.759 --> 00:27:19.700 myself um but it is less costly for me to scroll 00:27:19.700 --> 00:27:21.839 on my phone than it is for me to get into a heart 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:24.559 posture where I can connect with Jesus. It is 00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:27.000 less emotionally costly for me to throw on my 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:29.559 Lord of the Rings audio book on the way here 00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:31.900 than it is for me to throw a sermon on or to 00:27:31.900 --> 00:27:35.460 spend that drive in silence and pray. And so 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:38.140 recognizing, so one of the things that I feel 00:27:38.140 --> 00:27:43.200 like I'm still learning is that To sit at Jesus' 00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:46.779 feet is not a passive action. And I have to pay 00:27:46.779 --> 00:27:50.119 the upfront fee emotionally or physically or 00:27:50.119 --> 00:27:53.319 whatever to get to that spot. And I think that 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:55.359 that's a sacrifice. I think that's a sacrifice 00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:58.460 of worship on my part that I'm still learning 00:27:58.460 --> 00:28:00.200 to make every time, gents. I don't always get 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.579 that one right. Yeah, but when you do, what a 00:28:03.579 --> 00:28:06.380 blessing it is. I mean, there are times where 00:28:06.380 --> 00:28:08.579 I get up after spending time with Jesus that 00:28:08.579 --> 00:28:14.000 I just feel so full. Man, I don't ever regret 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.039 it. Now, I wish I'm like you. There are days 00:28:17.039 --> 00:28:20.140 I struggle. I mean, there are days that I don't 00:28:20.140 --> 00:28:23.740 do what I ought to do. But, man, when I do. And 00:28:23.740 --> 00:28:25.799 I think that's what helps keep us coming back 00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:30.359 as well. Yeah, the joy of relationship. Well, 00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:33.859 so slight kind of change in focus from sitting 00:28:33.859 --> 00:28:35.380 at the feet of Jesus. We've got time for one 00:28:35.380 --> 00:28:39.839 more text. Pivot! Sorry, I had to. I knew you 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:41.400 had to. I said pivot earlier, and I was like, 00:28:41.460 --> 00:28:44.460 I'm shocked that I haven't gotten that from John. 00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:48.180 I know you pretty well, man. So I'm going to 00:28:48.180 --> 00:28:50.279 go to the May 3rd date. No Star Wars analogy 00:28:50.279 --> 00:28:53.819 for this. But this is the woman caught in adultery. 00:28:53.980 --> 00:28:55.480 And there's a lot that we could talk about in 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:59.220 this text, even in terms of like, you know, my 00:28:59.220 --> 00:29:01.119 Bible says earliest manuscripts do not include 00:29:01.119 --> 00:29:02.759 this text and all that. And so we can get into 00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:06.950 that. but, but my main question I wanted to ask 00:29:06.950 --> 00:29:09.049 you guys. So Jesus's response to this woman, 00:29:09.109 --> 00:29:10.769 I'm not even going to read the text. You got 00:29:10.769 --> 00:29:12.950 the Pharisees. They dragged this woman in front 00:29:12.950 --> 00:29:15.170 of Jesus. She's been caught in the act of adultery. 00:29:15.230 --> 00:29:18.750 Jesus, what should we do? Yeah. Um, he bends 00:29:18.750 --> 00:29:21.630 down, he writes in the sand, they keep bugging 00:29:21.630 --> 00:29:23.089 him about it and they're, they're getting louder 00:29:23.089 --> 00:29:24.869 and louder. Jesus, what should we do with this 00:29:24.869 --> 00:29:27.289 woman? Um, and he, he hits him with that line. 00:29:27.349 --> 00:29:29.869 Let him who is without sin among you be the first 00:29:29.869 --> 00:29:33.299 to throw a stone at her, which is, Just chills, 00:29:33.359 --> 00:29:36.500 like seriously. But his response to the lady 00:29:36.500 --> 00:29:38.599 after the Pharisees leave is kind of where I 00:29:38.599 --> 00:29:41.019 want to look. Woman, where are they? Has no one 00:29:41.019 --> 00:29:43.839 condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And he 00:29:43.839 --> 00:29:46.759 said, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from 00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:50.960 now on, sin no more. And as I was reading this, 00:29:51.059 --> 00:29:54.200 one of the biggest questions that I wanted to 00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:56.940 ask you guys from this text. Because I think 00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:00.460 this is relevant to us as pastors and also tremendously 00:30:00.460 --> 00:30:03.920 relevant to anybody who claims to be on the path 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:09.680 of Jesus. How do we take Jesus's treatment of 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:14.880 sin and apply it to our lives today? Like, what 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:16.720 does it look like for us handling sin in the 00:30:16.720 --> 00:30:18.539 church? What does it look like for us handling 00:30:18.539 --> 00:30:20.960 sin in our own hearts? Like, how does that look? 00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:24.420 His, neither do I condemn you from now on, go 00:30:24.420 --> 00:30:27.029 and sin no more. I'll give you one simple statement. 00:30:27.890 --> 00:30:32.309 Restoration before condemnation. It's always 00:30:32.309 --> 00:30:36.230 about restoration. It's always about mercy before 00:30:36.230 --> 00:30:42.069 judgment. I preached this at a revival one time, 00:30:42.150 --> 00:30:45.390 and the title of the sermon was Drop Your Stone. 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:52.970 Drop Your Stone. Put down the rock. I think it's 00:30:52.970 --> 00:30:57.000 interesting to me. Jesus takes her sin seriously, 00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:00.299 right? Go and sin no more, but also neither do 00:31:00.299 --> 00:31:02.539 I condemn you. Because at the end of the day, 00:31:02.640 --> 00:31:04.940 based off of what he says, he who is without 00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:08.920 sin throw the first stone, he's the only one. 00:31:09.519 --> 00:31:12.880 He's the only one there who is eligible to sling 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:14.980 that first rock. Because Levitical law says the 00:31:14.980 --> 00:31:17.359 person who, if you caught the lady in the act, 00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:19.759 you're the dude who threw the first stone. Which 00:31:19.759 --> 00:31:21.759 also is interesting, like, hey, where's the man? 00:31:22.759 --> 00:31:25.420 Adultery is usually a two -party system. I don't 00:31:25.420 --> 00:31:27.900 know, man. This is sketchy to me on the part 00:31:27.900 --> 00:31:30.759 of the Pharisees. I did say it was a test. Yeah, 00:31:30.759 --> 00:31:32.099 that's true. So you think they were making it 00:31:32.099 --> 00:31:35.819 up? No, I think it was serious, but I think they 00:31:35.819 --> 00:31:40.559 set it up. It was a setup. Yeah, but that's just 00:31:40.559 --> 00:31:45.200 interesting to me. Jesus' real treatment of sin, 00:31:45.299 --> 00:31:51.170 but also mercy for the sinner. It's something 00:31:51.170 --> 00:31:54.009 that it's hard to apply to other people. It's 00:31:54.009 --> 00:31:56.369 also hard to apply to ourselves. I feel like 00:31:56.369 --> 00:31:59.309 we've all got that one thing that if we were 00:31:59.309 --> 00:32:02.750 dragged out into the light, that we would feel 00:32:02.750 --> 00:32:07.210 shame over. That's human nature, right? And so 00:32:07.210 --> 00:32:10.410 recognizing, almost like Jesus is saying, I know. 00:32:11.009 --> 00:32:13.450 I know exactly where you've been. I know what 00:32:13.450 --> 00:32:20.000 you've done. Neither do I condemn you. One of 00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:23.539 the phrases I wrote down in my devotion on this 00:32:23.539 --> 00:32:26.079 day was, my sin is great, but His love is greater. 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:32.039 And that was just reflecting on myself. This 00:32:32.039 --> 00:32:38.539 passage got me into a spirit of just, thank you 00:32:38.539 --> 00:32:41.980 for your mercy. Thank you so much, because I 00:32:41.980 --> 00:32:46.259 know what I deserve. And yet, you took the cost 00:32:46.259 --> 00:32:51.369 for me. and you no longer see my sin. And I can 00:32:51.369 --> 00:32:53.009 still remember. I can still remember reading 00:32:53.009 --> 00:32:57.329 this passage this past week and just being in 00:32:57.329 --> 00:32:59.369 a moment of just completely thanking God for 00:32:59.369 --> 00:33:01.509 the rest of my quiet time. I love for you how 00:33:01.509 --> 00:33:04.650 recognizing His mercy and grace for you, like 00:33:04.650 --> 00:33:07.470 His relationship with you in that way led to 00:33:07.470 --> 00:33:10.170 adoration for you. Yeah. I mean, that's really 00:33:10.170 --> 00:33:14.970 what we try to do as we come to worship. as a 00:33:14.970 --> 00:33:17.410 church, you know, it's, we're not trying to conjure 00:33:17.410 --> 00:33:19.789 something out of thin air of like, like, all 00:33:19.789 --> 00:33:23.730 right, y 'all sing. Um, is that, that our worship 00:33:23.730 --> 00:33:26.869 is a response. It's, it's never the, it's never 00:33:26.869 --> 00:33:30.730 the thing that starts our spiritual, um, our 00:33:30.730 --> 00:33:32.630 spiritual process. Worship is a response to who 00:33:32.630 --> 00:33:35.490 God is and what he has done. And so seeing Jesus's 00:33:35.490 --> 00:33:38.170 mercy for this lady and it reminding us of his 00:33:38.170 --> 00:33:41.650 mercy for us in that text is just huge. Just 00:33:41.650 --> 00:33:45.519 absolutely. Well, gents, this has been a good 00:33:45.519 --> 00:33:47.480 conversation here. John, I'm sorry we didn't 00:33:47.480 --> 00:33:49.000 get to get to your text to your boss. Well, we 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:51.500 spent the whole time on mine last week. It's 00:33:51.500 --> 00:33:54.980 all evening out. In all fairness, the church 00:33:54.980 --> 00:33:57.460 did need to know our preferences on Star Wars. 00:33:58.240 --> 00:34:00.720 Important conversations had to happen at the 00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:04.119 very beginning. Deeply, deeply theological. Deeply 00:34:04.119 --> 00:34:06.500 theological. Well, anything else you want to 00:34:06.500 --> 00:34:08.900 share? I got to give a shout out. My wife is 00:34:08.900 --> 00:34:10.639 going to probably listen to this on Saturday, 00:34:10.719 --> 00:34:13.880 so happy anniversary, honey. Oh! Look at y 'all. 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:17.940 28 years. 28 years. She's put up with a lot. 00:34:19.820 --> 00:34:21.699 She'll have many crowns and trophies in heaven. 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:24.320 Well, it's okay, John. You only said that on 00:34:24.320 --> 00:34:26.039 the internet and it'll be around forever. It's 00:34:26.039 --> 00:34:29.500 fine. She knows it. The Lord knows it. I hear 00:34:29.500 --> 00:34:31.199 you. Well, shout out to Julie. Congrats on the 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:32.719 anniversary, John. Thank you. Thank you. Well, 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:36.599 I have been Ben Smith. I have been Sean Griffin. 00:34:37.179 --> 00:34:39.940 And as always, I am John Ferguson. And this has 00:34:39.940 --> 00:34:43.380 been and will continue to be Pursuing Jesus. 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:50.460 We'll catch you guys next week. Goodbye. Pursuing 00:34:50.460 --> 00:34:53.460 Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church 00:34:53.460 --> 00:34:55.900 in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about 00:34:55.900 --> 00:34:59.920 our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.