Well, what's up, my Pursuing Jesus homies? It
is so good to have you with us today. Today on
the podcast, we're going to be looking a lot
about self -reflection and truly what is in our
hearts. So sit back, grab your cup of coffee,
and come join us. You want me to count us in
again? Yeah, you count us in. You kind of said
so that we're all on the same page about when
we're starting. No, I'm just kidding. Go ahead.
You still expected me to do it, didn't you? I
did. I did. I know. I was waiting for it. Welcome
to Pursuing Jesus. I'm Ben Smith. I'm Sean Griffin.
I'm John Ferguson. And we are, I think we're
a little slap happy today, guys. We've laughed
at some dumb stuff before hitting record. More
so than normal, I guess, is the way that I would
put it. Well, I had a Pokeball today, so that
makes me happy. You had a Pokeball today? What'd
you catch? Not a Pokeball. I did catch something
with Pokeball today, but that's a different story.
No, I had a Pokebowl. That was delicious. Deconstructed
sushi, man. Deconstruct your sushi, not your
faith. That should be our new slogan for our
church. Deconstruct your sushi, not your faith.
You know what? If someone brought a big Pokeball
for a potluck, I probably wouldn't touch it because
that's raw fish, and I don't know about that.
You know, that sentence went in a very different
direction than I was expecting it to. I was going
to be like, you know what, Sean, me too. I really
didn't. Gas station sushi kind of thing. You
know what? I trust our church more than that.
I bet. I was going to say, there are some people,
though, that I know if they brought it, I would
tear it up for sure. For sure. uh aldi sells
frozen sushi it's not great but it gets by in
a pinch yeah i guess that's fair yeah i guess
that's fair in a world where like like you can
get sushi so many places though now i feel like
the bar is higher like have y 'all had public's
sushi oh public's and harris teeter have amazing
great sushi yeah yeah of course i'm hungry again
in like an hour and a half but that's why you
get two things that's right one to eat now And
one to eat later, John's just shaking his head,
even though he knows it's true. No, just go to
Mr. Tokyo and eat all you can eat so you feel
sick afterwards. Yeah, that is true. Mr. Tokyo
is the place to go. Any buffet. I have not been
to Mr. Tokyo. It's a shame. I want to go to the
ones that have the conveyor belt sushi. I want
to go to one of those. I've never been to one
of those. I've heard there's one in Charlotte.
I don't know where it is or what it is. I've
heard there's one in Charlotte and I know that
there's one in the Raleigh area. There's a couple
in the Raleigh area. area i went to one at an
airport and it was amazing how did they bill
you is it all you can eat or based on the color
of the bowl depends on the price and so there's
like four pieces of sushi in each bowl yeah and
so they had different colored bowls and one was
like three dollars one was four dollars you know,
and so on and so on. Okay. So did you find yourself
in a position where you saw it come out that
you wanted on the conveyor belt? And then like
somebody got to it before you did, who was further
up the line? No, I didn't do that. Nor did I
look at the price. I just kept picking up bubbles.
I mean, that's a great, that's a great business
model, but that sounds dangerous. I think it's
exactly what it is. Exactly. I was blessed that
a guy from the church was with me and he goes,
I'll take care of yours. And I was like, thank
you. Oh man. John's over here sweating. I'm like,
how am I going to explain to Julie that I spent
$200? Well, I think I only had like $25 worth
of sushi, so I don't know. He paid, so I don't
know. Here I was thinking you were about to say,
I think I only had 25 helpings. I had seven bowls.
My man. That's crazy. We, as some of the staff,
Sean, you were so, I think it was when you were
on vacation. I must have been. Yeah, I was out.
We made the trek to Mr. Tokyo and Monroe. And
it's true. I think we all walked away sick. Put
that $14 .99 to good use. Yes, we did. That's
the dangerous thing about any kind of buffet,
though. Because once you pay your money, you're
like, I'm going to get my money's worth. Oh,
100%. And your money's worth always makes you
sick. 100%. Yeah. Makes you want to say, whoa.
Which means moving on to your text. There it
is. Yes. We're terrible at transitions. Oh, my
God. No, that was actually pretty good. Thank
you. These are getting worse and worse and worse.
What would you have said, Sean? Nothing. Nothing
at all. I would have said, that was wonderful.
Hey, we should talk about the Bible now. Well,
woe be unto you. See, there you go. Do you want
to say it again? No, we're going. No, I feel
like the moment's gone. We need you to transition.
No, it's done now. It's done. Now you're just
making it awkward. And I hope you cut none of
this out. There's so much power in the hands
of the guy who edits the podcast. So we're to
the woes. This is a really interesting passage
to me. I landed here May 14th, the Jesus's woes,
the scribes and the Pharisees. And y 'all kind
of get used to my rhythm of like, I like to read
the whole text and kind of pull different points
from it. But I had a major Sean moment where
like just one phrase. You wanted tacos and you
didn't have tacos. That happens to me a lot.
That is a major Sean moment. Yeah. But that's
not what you're talking about. Not this time.
Oh, my bad. The thing that stood out to me was
this one little verse 41. So I'm going to read
37 through 41. Oh, one of those moments. Yeah,
that is a Sean moment. Thank you, Sean. Verse
37, Luke 11. the inside also, but give his alms
those things that are within and behold, everything
is clean for you. It's the phrase that just like
rocked me as I read this passage. And like, I
tried to, I tried to move on down to 42 and all
that stuff. One, I want, cause you always want
to get context to the passage that you're studying.
I just kept coming back to verse 41, give his
alms to the, give his alms those that are within
and behold, everything is clean for you. Gents,
what does that mean? What does that make you
think of when you hear that? Give as alms those
things that are within. Well, mine says give
that which is within as a charitable gift. So
I would assume alms being a charitable gift,
our tithe unto the Lord or even beyond that.
I don't know. I hadn't studied this passage as
much as I probably should have. And going back,
like you said, going to the context, he's talking
to the Pharisees. He's talking about how they
are full of greed. And then so here's the interesting
thing, right? He says they're full of greed and
evil. And then in verse 42, but woe to you, you
give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of
herb. So he's talking about, all right, you're
greedy, but you make sure you give every little
tiny bit of your income. So even if you sell
some mint, that little bit of a tenth of that
coin that you get for your mint or your dill
or whatever, like you're going to sell. So what
he's showing is, hey, this has nothing to do
with like. what you think you should be giving
to the Lord, this is a heart. This is what your
heart is at. And so, like I said, in my translation,
verse 41, it says, but give what is within you
to the poor, and then everything is clean for
you. And so I think that's what it's... Like
so many areas with Jesus, he's trying to get
people to understand that... actions without
a clean heart are pointless. Yes. Right? Doing
things just so that you can say you did them,
like, what do you get out of that? That's self
-pride. It actually has a little bit of what
I'm going to talk about in my passage. And so,
it's like, it's all about you. It's like, that's
not, no, no, no, no, no. You need to do things
for others genuinely. When you give, give genuinely.
Well, it also makes me wonder, too, because it's
similar to a passage in Matthew, but it's not
on the same format. So I'm guessing it's kind
of going along with that, because when he does
that one where he talks about tithing of mint
and rue and the spices, he says, but do the weightier
things, mercy and grace and love. He's talking
about doing the things that are, I don't want
to say more biblical, but I mean, it's... more
of a heart issue versus a exterior issue. Yeah.
What I see here is kind of like what you talked
about when you preach through Jesus and Nicodemus'
conversation. Jesus is always trying to take
people from the physical to the spiritual. And
I think this is no exception. So I didn't look
at the other translations. I was reading ESV
because that's what I've grown up reading. But
that phrase, give his alms the things that are
within, I mean, Jesus is taking them from the
external, right? My clean or unclean hands, this
clean or unclean cup, and taking them to the
spiritual. The Pharisees have put so much attention
to external things, what they give in public.
It talks about them loving the best seats in
the synagogue, but not beginning. not even beginning
to care about the things that are internal realities.
The thing that stood out to me is that an external
focus becomes a vain attempt to deceive God.
Look what he says in 41. Don't you realize that
he who made the outside made the inside too?
And so when we focus on our externals, how good
we look, how people esteem us in the house of
God, how we're supposed to appear to the people
around us. And we don't look at what we're doing
internally. that hypocrisy is not lost on God.
I mean, Hebrews 4 talks about, right, like God's
word is sharper than a two -edged sword. And
it's like this all -seeing eye, you know, that
pierces bone and marrow and soul and spirit.
He can see everything. I think it says we're
laid naked and bare before him. And so like,
but I think in order to even make an attempt
at that deceiving God, by cleaning up our external
and not working on our internal, we have to deceive
ourselves first. I think we truly have to get
into this kind of delirious place where we are
looking to ourselves for our own righteousness.
We are trying to put ourselves up, to make ourselves
feel good about ourselves by what we do, by how
we look. And in that, we're deceiving ourselves,
and then we try to pawn that deception off on
God. And so my question for you guys is this,
how can we as believers cultivate that? How can
I put this? How can we cultivate that inner knowledge
of ourselves? If the Pharisees were deceiving
themselves, their external righteousness was
enough to please God. And we can end up in the
exact same position. What can we do as believers
to increase that understanding of who we are,
our flaws, our tendencies, so that we can bring
those things before the Lord as He's working
on them in us? The very first thing I thought
of when you were saying that is something that
I say often whenever I preach God's Word, and
that is make sure that whenever you're reading
God's Word, it's a mirror and not a window. Make
sure it's not something that you're reading it,
looking through it, looking at somebody else.
But whenever you're reading it, that you're actively
thinking, all right, Lord, what are you teaching
me? What is in my life that you have to teach
me in this moment? And I have found myself doing
that more and more strategically, not just a
background thought, but on purpose, like, okay,
Lord, here's a difficult passage. And if my instinct
is to think of somebody else, I'm thinking about
this wrong right now. Show me what I need to
learn in this passage. And so it's, I mean, the
Pharisees, like you said, everything they did
was for show. They didn't want to get to the
heart. It was all about themselves, all about
what they could do to show off how good they
were for God in their eyes. But when we have
an attitude of when we come to the Lord of like,
all right, humble me. show me the areas in your
words, show me the areas of my life that I need
to be worked on, and to be honest with ourselves
and be willing to see our own flaws, because
that's difficult. We don't want to admit those
things. We don't want to admit the areas that
we're struggling with. And so to come and to
open God's Word truly, truly as a mirror, with
that as our forethought as we are reading God's
Word, I think that's a great place to start.
I think for me, it's sitting in the stillness
and silence and just asking God to reflect on
my heart. Just open it up, kind of like David
did in the Psalms, you know, search me, God.
I don't want anything hidden. I've been down
that path before thinking I could hide something,
just not worth it. I'd rather God reveal everything.
Just God show me, because there are times that
I don't intentionally. It's just you forget.
If you didn't repent right when you did it, you
may forget about it later, and then you want
God to show it to you and say, hey, buddy, you
need to get this right. So for me, it's really
just being in the stillness and saying, okay,
God, look at me. Show me. Help me see what I'm
missing. And if there's something I need to repent
of, please reveal it so that I can get this out
of my life. You know what I love about that?
is that he's doing that for our benefit, not
for his. Because when we accept Jesus as the
Lord of our life, our sins are paid for, dead,
gone, done. We are justified before him. But
when he is ready to deal with a specific area
of our lives, he's not calling us to repent of
those things. Um, so that he can be satisfied.
He, he is already satisfied. It's actually so
that we can get closer to him in relationship.
And so like God's designed for us, even in the
repentance process is not to like, it's not just
a, I told you cosmic, I told you so us into guilt,
tripping us into feeling better. It's actually
for him. It's, it's him restoring just that little
bit of lost goodness and creation, um, in us.
Little bit by little bit. That's the sanctification
process. Sitting in the stillness and letting
him sift your heart and change you. At least
in my own life, guys, I have found that I've
come to a place of peace, and then the Lord will
show me something else that he wants me to work
on. Or something else that he specifically wants
to do battle with in my heart. And I'm like,
oh, I thought I, you know. The younger Ben said,
you know what, I thought I was all right. And
then you get settled again, and he's got another
thing for you. And you get settled again, and
he's got another thing for you. But God does
that at his pace. And as we continue to present
ourselves before him, sometimes he's got things
to work on, and other times he is already and
still working, but we just can't see it yet.
The last thing I will say about this, I looked
a little bit into almsgiving, where Jesus says,
give his alms, those are things within. you could
say a lot about what giving alms are, that charitable
giving that Jesus is talking about, that he criticizes
the Pharisees for doing incorrectly. But at the
end of the day, almsgiving is a volitional act
of worship that the people of Israel did. It's
a choice that they made that they were obligated
to do as worship. And so us coming to the Lord
with that genuine heart, that willingness to
be changed, is an act of worship. And I just
love that he's at the beginning and the end of
it. He's the one who brings the things in. He's
the one who shows you, hey, your cup is clean
on the outside but dirty on the inside. He's
the one who cleans the cup, and he's the one
who is receiving the worship and the glory from
the cup being clean. He's at the beginning, the
middle, and the end, and I just love it. I just
love it. Well, John, do you want to share from
your passage a little? Yeah, sure. I chose to
do May 11th, which would have been Monday's passage.
And the reason why I picked this one is just
because this is one that most people have a lot
of questions about. And I hate to say, I kind
of looked at a little bit of May 15th as well
to go along with it. because it kind of finishes
this passage, even though there is a lot of content
that goes in between them. It's okay. It's all
scripture. But it was really about when Jesus
cast out the demon, and then immediately they're
looking at him going, how did he do this? And
they're trying to villainize him because he did
something that people began to look at and celebrate.
And so they immediately said, well, this man
cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.
And He's on Satan's side is what they're basically
saying about Jesus. And so Jesus makes a couple
of statements that really stand out to me. He
says, knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them,
every kingdom divided against itself has laid
waste. No city or house divided against itself
will stand. And if Satan is casting out Satan,
he has become divided against himself. How will
his kingdom stand? And it's interesting because
Satan will not be disunified with his minions,
right? They're on the same page. Their page is
to steal, to kill, and to destroy. It is to basically
tear a relationship apart from God. And so for
them to even make the statement that Satan was
casting out his own minions was foolish, but
yet it's where they wanted to go to or where
they felt they needed to get to because they
had to villainize Satan. And he just makes the
point blank statement. He's like, a house divided
isn't going to stand. So then he comes up with
a note. He goes on, he says, but if I cast out
demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom
of God has come. And then he uses illustration.
We see it in Luke's gospel where he says, well,
what about your sons? How do they do it? So if
your sons cast out demons, then are they casting
them out by Beelzebub? And so he uses just all
these. different examples. And I call this, Jesus
comes to that conclusion of what I call the Spock
or Sherlock conclusion in this passage, because
he says, if these things aren't so, if Satan's
not divided and your sons are doing the same
thing, and then the logical conclusion is to
come to this, the kingdom of God is here. And
so the quote that I'm talking about that comes
from both Spock from Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes
is if you eliminate the impossible, whatever
remains, however improbable must be true. And
so what he does is he eliminates every excuse
they make. He eliminates everything that they're
saying. And he says, okay, this may seem improbable
to you, but if you recognize what I've done and
the only logical conclusion to come to is the
kingdom of God is here and there's no way you
can get around it. So I love the fact that Jesus
just throws the logic in there and says there's
nothing you can do. You can't disagree with what
I'm saying. So I like this passage, but if I'm
honest, we go down just a couple of verses later
in 31 and 32, and this is where the biggest question
comes. So I'm going to ask you guys this question,
and that is, what is the unpardonable sin? Right?
That's what everybody comes to because they see
this passage. They read it. They see that they're
speaking against Christ, against the Holy Spirit.
Jesus says it's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
So what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? That's
what most people want to understand. It's very
simple, John. It's getting a tattoo. That's some
good Southern Baptist theology right there. No.
Oh, man. Speaking a little tongue -in -cheek
here. I mean, the way that I've heard... No,
hold on. We need to clarify. That is why I said
no. This is Editor Ben. I am joking. Sean and
I both have tattoos, and we are not actively
blaspheming the Holy Spirit. No, we are not.
No, I've always heard this passage interpreted,
or I've heard this passage interpreted in several
ways. The way that I have seen it interpreted
is, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is when
you are actively resisting the call of the Holy
Spirit on your life. Yeah. Like when you hear
God's voice, when you recognize the gospel, and
you turn and look at him and you say, no, I don't
want this. Now, are more Calvinist brothers interpret
this differently? Because they believe in, what
is it, irresistible grace? Irresistible grace,
yeah. That when God calls, you cannot say no.
I am not of that persuasion. Does anybody know,
what did they, because like I said, I'm with
you guys on that one. I interpret this the same
way. But I also have some amazing friends that
are Calvinists that love Jesus. And so now I'm
curious because I'd never thought about that
from their perspective of how they would interpret
this passage. Do y 'all know? I don't know. So
they take the same line of logic and they turn
it a different way. Because like you, I've got
some good friends who are faithful to the Lord
and reform. And as a side note, I believe that
this is a tertiary issue. You've got your primaries,
your secondaries, and your tertiaries. Like,
that's another conversation for another day.
But I think the way that I've heard them explain
this passage is the people that blaspheme the
Holy Spirit, that resist God's call, were predestined
to blaspheme the Spirit. And so it's kind of
like taking the same line of logic and just kind
of scooting it back one stop on the bus. That
makes sense. But see, I've heard it interpreted
so many different ways. Yeah, what have you heard?
Catholicism. will tell you suicide is an unpardonable
sin, right? I've heard that. And what it is is,
and this is the question that I had Wednesday
night, which I thought, you know. But they don't
get that from this passage. They just assume
that from other things. Well, if it's an unpardonable
sin, it has to be suicide. They really do use
this passage to bring that out. It's surprising.
And so, and the reason being, and I heard a lady,
she asked this question to me Wednesday night.
She said, you know, if I commit suicide, I don't
have time to repent. And so I just simply asked
her this question. I said, have you absolutely
repented of every single sin you've ever committed?
And she said, no. And I said, okay, well then
I guess according to that logic, you're going
to hell too. And I said, so it can't be based
on not being able to seek forgiveness after you've
done the act. I said, because we are forgiven.
We are justified, which means all of our sins
have been paid for. Now, we are still being sanctified.
We're still being turned away or turning away
from sin. I said, so it's not suicide. I said,
and I've heard another one. It's when we speak
ill of people like a Benny Hinn, some of these
faith healers, and we say. something that really
is of the Holy Spirit is not of the Holy Spirit,
that we're blaspheming. They weaponize that.
Oh, they weaponize that. Yes, yes. So if we speak
against anything that people quote -unquote call
the Holy Spirit, if it actually is the Holy Spirit,
we're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And I said,
but here's the thing. When you look throughout
all of Scripture, the only thing that is unpardonable
that will send us to hell is not having a personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit,
like you said, is the initiator of that faith,
drawing us to the Lord. And if we refuse Him,
and if you read through Matthew, if you read
Matthew's Gospel in order, you'll see where the
Pharisees denied the Father, denied the Son,
and now they've denied the Holy Spirit. Who's
left to save them? Ain't nobody. Yeah. So, I
mean, they're in grave, grave trouble. So, I
just thought it would be interesting to talk
about this passage because it's the one that
really... other than the second most asked question
I get as a pastor. The first one being, how do
I know I'm saved? The second one is, what's the
unpardonable sin? And I think that's a very human
desire. It reflects what we believe and what
we care about as just the human race of like,
well, I want to make sure I don't get this one
wrong. But I mean, the answer to the unpardonable
sin is still is grace. The Lord makes a way for
us to know him. And in a very real sense, if
you're tweaking about having committed the unpardonable
sin, you probably haven't committed it. Yes.
You're not going to be concerned if you've done
it. Exactly. If you're actively resisting the
Spirit's work in your life, you're not going
to care. You're not going to call. Now, for us
who are believers, I firmly believe that there
is a, not salvation related, but a version of
this that we have to be careful. of, that as
we hear God's voice, as we clear out the noise
in our lives and we sit in the silence and we
present our heart to the Lord, didn't mean to
tie this together with the verse we were talking
about earlier, but here we go, the Holy Spirit
will move and he does speak and he does have
specific things for us to do. And we've got a
choice. I've encountered that in my own life
where he's asked me to do some hard stuff. And
we have a choice whether we're going to obey
or whether we're going to resist. And if we resist,
absolutely there is grace for us. And this is
not a salvation question, but it is a relationship
question. If Maddie keeps asking me to take out
the trash, my beloved wife Madison asks me the
very, very, very small favor of taking out the
trash, and I continue not to, Two things are
going to happen. One, that trash is going to
pile up and our house is going to start to stink.
And two, eventually she's going to ask me, stop
asking me to take out the trash because she knows
that I'm not going to do it. Our spiritual lives
can be like that too. When we resist the Holy
Spirit, when we resist what God is asking us
to do, the trash of our life starts to stink
and we start to lose on that felt presence and
relationship with the Lord. There's always room
though, always room and time. to repent, to make
that change into your account. Yep. All right,
Sean, how about you? What's your passage today?
So I'm looking at the day before. I'm looking
at May 10th. Hey, guess what? It's another one
of those times where Ben had a Sean moment. You
know what, Sean? There's a reason he called it
a Sean moment, because Sean had that moment too.
I intended no derision. I like what you pull
out of your passages. No, I get it. And I'm just
saying, I got another one. And so, because there's
a lot going on in this passage, and there's a
lot that we can look at. There's just one verse,
and I want to read this verse, because it's truly
like, I read this and I just stopped. And like,
you know, I don't know if y 'all have ever like
daydreamed on topic during a Bible study. You
know what I mean? Like I've definitely daydreamed
not on topic and I've been like, hold on, I got
to get back. Right. But this was one of those
moments where I just stopped and just my mind
just started going and going and going. And it
led me to just worshiping the Lord even more,
which is so cool when that happens. But verse
54. Verse 54 says this, if I glorify myself,
Jesus answered, my glory is nothing. My father
about whom you say he is our God, he is the one
who glorifies me. So here's what was going through
my brain as I was reading this early one morning.
I was reading this and Jesus says, if I glorify
myself, my glory is nothing. And the thought
immediately came to my brain of how much I am
always trying to lift up the name of Jesus. And
it was thinking of like, if the thought came,
if Jesus, if anyone could glorify themselves,
you would think it would be Jesus, right? Because
of what he was going to do for us, for what he
knew he was going to do for us, for what he had
already done, and just for everything, for who
he is. But even being in the position of the
one who's actually able to glorify himself. he
realizes that's not my position. That's what
the Father's for. So one, it's really cool. I
mean, just for Trinitarian theology, it shows
some interesting differences between the Father
and the Son. But without going down that rabbit
trail, to show right there, like going once again
back to our sinful human nature of... of the
things we do on the outside. And this just showed
me once again, just the carefulness, how careful
I need to be about any prideful decisions or
prideful things I am doing in my life. It's like
not even Jesus was going to lift himself up.
He was going to make sure the father did all
of that for him. And he wasn't going to boast
about himself. He was going to instead humble
himself. And it just shows me like, okay, I need
to make sure that everything I'm doing is not
about me. It's not about Sean's desires. It's
not about Sean's name. It's not about my legacy.
It's about what can I leave behind for Jesus?
What can I do for him? And it's so hard because
we do live in a time. where so many people are
worried about their name. What are people going
to remember me for? What of all this? And it's
just like, no, it's not about me. It's not about
me. I want people to know Jesus, and I want to
lift him up. So who am I? Who am I to try to
lift myself up if not even Jesus was going to
do it? That is huge. And I think that degree
of humility is really important for any believer
trying to do anything. Because like you said,
our world says succeed, succeed, succeed, succeed.
Dog eat dog world. Like at every turn, make your
name. Great. I heard a Tim Keller sermon one
time, and he pulled from the Lord's Prayer, where
thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He goes,
our hearts are constantly crying out, my kingdom
come, my will be done. But Sean, as you were
talking, it reminded me of a different part of
this discourse, where Jesus is talking to the
Pharisees more about, I don't do my own stuff,
the Father does. And I'm pretty sure he says,
I don't do my will, I do the will of my Father.
And so as we seek to glorify Jesus, not ourselves,
it is the Lord who works in us. I mean, heck,
we were talking about this, the three of us earlier,
when we were meeting as a staff, about gauging
our success not on numbers or on... or on something
visual, but on our faithfulness, about how sticking
with what the Lord has set before us and stewarding
the opportunities he has before us well in a
way that pursues faithfulness, not perfection.
And so as we seek not to glorify ourselves the
way that Jesus sought not to glorify himself,
it is our Father who works in us, not just us
out there on our own trying to figure it out
and make it. Good stuff. Well, I tell you, it
truly is a blessing to see God's Word opened
up in such a powerful way, especially when we're
talking about glorifying His name. Because that's
what we're all about, pursuing Jesus. And it's
about glorifying His name. It's not about making
a name for ourself. It's not about exalting ourself
or even our church. It's not about us getting
our name out in the community. It is about exalting
the name of Jesus Christ. And that's what we
want to be about. And as we pursue Jesus in everything
that we do, We're here to glorify him. Absolutely.
What a blessing it is. So take what you got from
this and go out. Remember that you're not glorifying
yourself and that the Father works in you. This
has been Pursuing Jesus. I have been Ben Smith.
I have been Sean Griffin. And I'm John Ferguson.
We really need to work on our have -beens or
ours. We need to get these lined up at some point.
But either way, we'll catch you guys next week.
Okay, bye -bye. Pursuing Jesus is a ministry
of Memorial Baptist Church in Norwood, North
Carolina.