Welcome to today's podcast of Pursuing Jesus.
Today, we're going to spend time talking about
repentance, digging out the roots and fertilizing
those things. So let's dig right into the scriptures
and hope you enjoy. Well, hi -dee -ho, everybody.
How we doing? This is Pursuing Jesus. Hi -ho.
It's off the podcast we go. Hi -ho, hi -ho, hi
-ho, hi -ho. Hi -ho! I wasn't ready for that.
I don't know. I feel like I actually held that
note. You did. That was pretty good projection.
Dang. For my non -singing self. You do have a
singing voice. You just deny it. Okay. Okay,
we'll leave it there. John, I want to make sure
you caught that. He said okay, which is akin
to yes. So I expect to see you at choir practice.
It's 8 p .m. Wednesday night. That's the problem.
I'm busy. I've got to clean up the gym, the youth
building. Usually I'm out of here by like 8 .30
on most nights. This reminds me of a story in
the Bible where Jesus called his disciples, and
this guy's like, sorry, dude, I've got to go
bury my dad. And Jesus is like, let the dead
bury their own dead. And so I would say to you,
my ministry is don't go down this route. Don't
go down this route. It's not going to look good
for either one of us. John's just shaking his
head. Oh man. Well, John, I actually have a question
for you to kind of start out with. This is, I've
been pondering on this really all week. So, you
know, you have Holy Week. You know, you've got
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. What is it? Something
Saturday. Silent Saturday. Silent Saturday, Eastern
Sunday. But on which day of Holy Week did Jesus
hand out high fives during his earthly ministry?
Huh? Hold on. It's a dad joke. Yeah, I figured
as much. I'm trying to figure it out. High fives
on Holy Week. Which day did he hand out high
fives? Taco Tuesday? Palm Sunday. Gosh, it's
so obvious. I'm so mad at myself now. It is so
obvious. I've been sitting on that for a while.
The amount of strength that it has taken for
me not to tell either of you that in person at
some point in the office today so that I could
get the real full... Oh, man. That's a good one.
It's so gratifying. No, that is not a good one.
Oh, it was good. Oh, man. Thank you. Thank you.
I'll be here all week. Oh, man. Well, I don't
know what to follow with that one. I think the
best way to follow it up is to dig into the passage.
It's to dig into the passage. Yeah. All right.
Well, I took Thursdays, the 21st, from Luke 13,
1 to 5. And I took this passage mainly because
it's dealing with the idea of repentance. And
it has a lot of... I don't know. I would say
it deals with a lot of things that we deal with.
And I guess the easiest way would be for me to
read the part that I'm talking about. And starting
in verse 2, it says, And Jesus responded to them,
Do you think that these Galileans were worse
sinners than all the other Galileans just because
they have suffered this fate? No, I tell you,
but unless you repent, you'll all likewise perish.
And oftentimes we think that... based on what's
going on in someone's life, that because of the
way they're being punished or because of the
difficulties they're going through, it's because
they're worse sinners than everybody else. what
Jesus was trying to imply here is that, no, we
all need to repent. We don't need to gauge it
or we don't need to categorize it because of
what happens to somebody thinking they have to
be a worse sinner than we are. And we're guilty
of that a lot of times, of looking at people
and thinking that they're worse than we are.
And Jesus is saying, even though these guys,
their blood was mingled, and then later because
of a tower falling on some people, verse four,
he says, no, he says, the truth is, is we all
likewise perish. We all must repent. It doesn't
matter how we go. It matters about how we live.
And so I just, you know, I look at that. I think
that sometimes we, we want to gauge somebody's
life. based on what's going on in their lives.
In other words, if they're suffering, if they're
going through a hardship, it's got to be because
of sin. And that's not the reality. The reality
is different people go through different stages
in life because God is trying to teach us different
things. But the truth of the matter is we're
all sinful. We all fall short. We all need to
repent. Yeah. I mean, that is absolutely true.
The universal nature of our need for a Savior
outside of ourselves. In reading this narrative,
though, it looks like to me that this was a current
event. While Jesus is teaching, people are like,
Jesus, have you heard? It's the water cooler
talk of the day. Yeah. And like classic Jesus,
he takes people from the physical to the spiritual.
But I also think that it's an interesting response
to what this very thing is. Pilate mingling the
blood of the Gentiles with their sacrifices would
have been shocking. Shocking. I mean, this is
akin to, what was the name of that Greek dude
who, in the intertestamental period? Antiochus
Epiphanius. Yeah. Sacrificing the pig. Sacrificing
the pig on the altar. Oh, yeah, that guy. At
the temple. But this would have been a desecrated,
like a desecrating thing. That would have been
considered unclean. Yeah. But Jesus. Jesus takes
the horror that they're feeling and kind of applies
it to everybody. I almost feel like there's mercy
in that. Jesus' call to repentance isn't him
standing up there, I'm going to get you, I'm
going to get you. His design here, I mean, he's
using a hard, awful, scary thing that happened
in his time where people saw it, people would
have talked about it. to show us all how hard
and scary our sin is. I mean, people assuming
here in asking Jesus about these Gentiles that
their bad fate, like you said, correlated with
their bad sin. But Jesus is like, dude, it's
all bad. Yeah. It's all bad. And so repentance
is offered to you. Because without that repentance
that he ends up making a way for, we would all
be dead as the tragedy with the Galileans or
the people that the tower fell on. And I think
it's interesting. Both of these current events
that he talks about were not of the fault of
the person directly. A sacrilegious act was performed,
and then these people just happened to die in
an accident. And so I think, you know, that is
once again on purpose of, as you said, Jesus
was taking these events and helping people to
see something that they've probably they're dealing
with in their hearts. But him like, hey, like
this is this is how you need to view this. And
then if we if Jesus is viewing it in this way,
we also need to realize that the opposite is
true, too, because one of the things I see today
is people blaming God. for their misfortunes.
They're like, oh God, if God was real, why would
he allow this to happen? And that's a dangerous,
hard question to go down. I mean, one of the
biggest questions that we know as pastors that
keeps people from Christianity, from believing
in God is why do bad things happen to good people?
Like that is just a big question that people,
when people can really, truly wrestle with that
question, but it's going here. It's like, hey,
just your actions does not mean. God is punishing
you for something you've done. We're all on the
same playing field, and we all need the grace
of God. Well, to answer that question that I've
heard many a time is why do bad things happen
to good people? Simple response is there really
are no good people. That's the problem. We're
sinful, and that's what this text leads us to.
Unless you all repent, we all fall short. So
I know what people are saying because, let's
be honest, we gauge. We gauge how good we are.
We gauge how bad people are. We gauge all of
these things. And the truth is we're all sinners
in need of repentance and need of a Savior. Plain
and simple. But, yeah, I mean, I've heard that
question a number of times why people don't want
to become Christian because they say, well, bad
things happen to good people. Bad things happen
to all people. That's the truth. That's the reality.
There is. And I think there's also something
to be said here of, like, we're in the middle
of the story. And I think Jesus would have said
this at the time too. The fall of the Tower of
Siloam, the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled
with their sacrifices, the people who died in
car accidents, even national tragedies like 9
-11. We know how this story ends. I was reading
this the other day. Jesus is going to come back.
He's going to plant his feet on the Mount of
Olives. He's going to walk right back into Jerusalem,
and he is going to claim his bride. And he promises
that there will be a day where he will wipe every
tear away from our eyes, and death and sin will
be no more. And then the last thing God the Father
says is, Behold, I am making all things new.
And so that's a twofold thing. One, when bad
things happen to, air quotes, good people, or
when bad things happen to people we care about,
because I feel like that's really the crux of
this. That's what it is. People we care about
or us. We can hold on to that promise for the
future, but we can also be part of God bringing
his kingdom in on this earth. Not in a sense
of we have ownership of when he does that, but
every time that we make a meal for somebody who's
hurting, every time that we mow a lawn for somebody
who... can't mow their lawn, every time that
we see somebody crying and we give them a hug,
every time that we know somebody's struggling
and we slip a 20 in their jacket, we are in small
ways a part of making all things new. And it's
those simple, simple acts that us as pastors,
as Christians, that we do, that is what makes
all the difference in people's lives. Like today's
Monday. Yesterday we had the graduation service.
We did a lot of great things for these graduates
to honor them and to do different things. And
I stood up there for 20 minutes giving them a
sermon. But I guarantee you the thing that meant
the most to them was the prayer at the end. It's
those little small acts of people showing that
we care for you. And doing those things, that's
what matters. Like you said, it's just those
little things that we do for people that shows,
hey, that's what it means to be a pastor. That's
what it means to be a Christian. That's what
it means to minister to other people, is to show
them these little acts of love. And that's exactly
what Jesus did. Of course, he had the power to
do more than these little acts, these big acts,
but he met people where they were. And even in
this text, he sees the deadness of their hearts
and the rebellion and the sin and the sickness,
and he says, you guys got to repent. And so this
is a harsh act of kindness, but it is an act
of kindness. Nonetheless. Yeah. Now it does beg
the question. So like, what does repentance look
like? And can we learn about repentance from
this text? Cause I, I feel like there's a, there's
a tension here. And I've, I've, I've got a friend
who relatively recently has come out of kind
of the new age religion. like like um like mysticism
eastern like we are god like we are god i am
god god is us um and then like even as their
process of like becoming a believer like they
held on this thing they called the christ consciousness
like jesus is in us all jesus is all and like
they're past that now which is great but when
you have a individualistic religion to that degree
i am god you know god is in us then your soul
focus is glorifying yourself genuinely yeah um
But I think sometimes in Christendom, we can
overcorrect and like, okay, no, no, no, no, I'm
trash. I'm worse than trash. I'm scum. But you're
really just kind of waiting for somebody to be
like, no, no, no, no, no, you're not scum. You're
winning. And as I've talked to this friend, they've
confessed that it's been a hard transition because
you kind of ping pong between opposite extremes.
So my question for this is a really long lead
up to a short question. How do we engage in real
repentance? without delving into self -flagellation,
beating yourself up, and seeing yourself as less
than God would see you versus seeing you than
more God would see you, keeping that consistent
with what he says about you. I'd say that Paul
gives us the answer in 2 Corinthians 7, verses
10 and 11. He says, produces repentance without
regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow
of the world produces death. For behold, what
earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow,
has produced in you, what vindication of yourselves,
what indignation, what fear, what longing, what
zeal, what punishment of wrong in everything
you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in
the matter. Paul says there's seven parts to
godly repentance. And to be honest with you,
I think that, I don't know, I don't feel like
we, grasp or really understand what repentance
is. I think we soften it a lot. And he says it
produces in us a sorrow. I mean, when was the
last time we cried over our sin? It produces
in us not only a godly sorrow, but it produces
a vindication. We want to get our names right
with God. We want to vindicate ourselves, not
to make ourselves look good, but to vindicate
our relationship with God, to make amends with
it. He says, what indignation. I mean, when's
the last time we got angry at ourselves for failing
yet again? What fear? I mean, do we really fear
God? Do we fear what that sin is going to cause?
What longing? You know, a longing to get things
right. What zeal? And zeal being a passion to
want to restore things. What punishment of wrong?
In other words, are we willing to accept what
God brings in our path? So I think Paul says
that our repentance, honestly, nowadays is not
what it ought to be. If we repented like what
Paul talked about there, I believe we'd see revival.
I really believe we'd see revival in the church
and in our own hearts. I think there's a genuineness
that needs to be present too. Oh, yeah. Both
a genuineness of self, like I, through the Holy
Spirit, can see myself as I am rather than as
I would like to be, or rather like I pretend
to be at church. But I think a genuineness with
others too, like, like one of the functions of
the church, I believe that, that has fallen by
the wayside is community confession. That if
you look at first century Christianity, like,
like confessing your sins to one another was
a thing they regularly did. Confessing issues
they had with each other was the thing they regularly
did. Can you imagine coming down to the altar
and the Lord convicted you of something and you
walk up to somebody right after church and you're
like, dude, I'm so sorry. I sinned against you.
Or can we talk through this? Because I'm trying
to let this go, but the Lord wants me to address
this with you. And I'm not sitting here saying
that I do that perfectly either because I don't.
I think that's a cultural facet where maybe just
because we're in a more individualistic culture,
that's not really a, a scene as important or
a thing, but I do think that there is seriousness
that comes repentance. And I think the freedom
in the, in Christ that we feel as a part of that
too, it's this, it's this wonderful, mysterious,
double -edged sword of our sin sent Jesus to
the cross, but Jesus went to the cross because
of our sin, you know? We were destined for the
wrath of God, but now because of what Jesus did,
we're his children. And every punishment that
we deserved fell on Christ. And so, yeah, that
repentance has to be serious business. Yeah.
And the big thing is also getting to the point
that you realize there's something you need to
repent of. I think one of the things that's hard
in... modern church is we're so fast to point
out the sins that anger us yeah it's so easy
for us to point out sins and other people that
we don't like or even sins in ourselves that
are just those ones that really like hit those
hot topic buttons right But I think sometimes
by doing that, we can also hide the fact in our
lives that we have sins that we're not willing
to deal with. And that's the scary part, is thinking
that, okay, is there something in my life that
I'm trying to hide from myself so that I don't
feel like I can keep doing what I'm doing without
feeling bad? And going back to everything y 'all
just said, it starts with that relationship with
God of allowing the Holy Spirit to speak into
you and realizing, okay, there is something here
that I need to be bringing before the Lord. And
it's that heart posture of doing those things
that John was listing off in 2 Corinthians with
a posture of the heart of true repentance. It's
not like if it's this checklist thing, like,
oh, yeah, oh, man, I fell to that again. God,
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for this. I'm sorry for
this. I know I'm going to do it again in a couple
of days, but I'm so sorry right now. Like, no,
like that's, that's not it. There's truly like
he was saying, grieving over whatever that is
that's going on in your life. Like there's a
difference there. But the grief that you produce
by yourself is not real grief over your sin.
That is correct. You have to be walking in the
spirit for him to give you that. a true understanding
of how he sees it. Because if you produce it
within yourself, that is just as fake and just
as detestable to him. Well, that's why Bertha
Smith says, ask God to search your heart, to
search out the secret recesses. Did she go to
our church? No, she did. Old missionary, but
she did. She used to make that proclamation.
She would go in and she'd say, ask God to search
your heart. But you talked about public confession.
I thought this was an interesting thing when
I was at Liberty University. Go Flames. Yeah.
When I was there, they had kind of a revival
going on at a university in Texas. And they talked
about it in one of our services. And they had
talked about how students just started going
up to the microphone and confessing their sins.
I mean, just openly confessing. Pornography,
all these different things, just out there confessing
it and how it went on for days at this university.
And they had to even shut down classes and they
were seeing a great experience. And it was funny
because they tried to, I don't want to say manipulate
it at Liberty, but they wanted to reproduce it.
And so they talked about it and it's almost like
they had a few students lined up to come up there
and do it. Yeah. And like after like five or
six, it was over and it was kind of like, oh,
this isn't what we were hoping for. It's like
you can't. recreate what the Spirit's trying
to do. You can, I think it was Henry Blackaby
said, find where God is at work and get on board.
In other words, don't try to create it for yourself,
but find where God's at work. And I just, you
know, I feel like that would be something that
would be powerful if it came from the heart and
it came from the Spirit of God. I mean, that's
like Saul getting, you know, waiting for Samuel
to come to offer the sacrifices. waiting for
Samuel to come to offer the sacrifices. No, I
got this. It's like, no, no, no, no. I'm the
king. That's like close enough, right? Yeah.
All right. Well, Sean, how about you? What's
your passage this week? Well, we're going to
continue to roll on right into the next few verses
of Luke chapter 13, verses 6 through 9. It's
a short story, so let me just read it. So, you
know, we're in Scripture. We're not just jumping
into a different topic. We're flowing right there
through this idea of repentance. And what does
that look like? And specifically here, what happens
if it takes a while for you to repent? It's interesting.
It's a really cool parable. So listen to this.
It says, and he told this parable, a man had
a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard.
He came looking for fruit on it and found none.
He told the vineyard worker, listen, for three
years I have come looking for fruit on this fig
tree and I haven't found any. Cut it down. Why
should it even waste the soil? But he replied
to him, Sir, leave it this year also until I
dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will
produce fruit next year, but if not, cut it down.
The parable itself is referring to Israel. Israel
is the fig tree here. And a lot of people will
even talk about how the three years was talking
about three years that Jesus' ministry was trying
to reach out to these people, trying to reach
out to the Israelites and get them to produce
fruit. And so that is first and foremost the
direction that the parable was going for the
audience of the time. But I think there's also
a lot that we can learn from this as well. And
so you have Jesus here. and you've got this fig
tree, and it's not producing figs. Now, this
is not the one that Jesus saw and was like, no,
dude, you're done. This is a parable. This is
a story that Jesus is making up. But I love this
idea because what it shows me is really the grace
of God. That's what this story is all about,
that there is... There is grace that God has
for us in desiring, continuing to desire for
us to repent. And even the open -endedness of
the parable here. Like, we don't know. We're
not told if the fig tree continues to produce
fruit or not. Once again, showing that there
is grace of God. Like, God's desire, first and
foremost, is to keep on giving us those chances.
There is a time that that's going to end. Yes.
And that's also an important part of this, knowing
that, hey, God has grace for us. He wants to
continue to bring people around us to fertilize,
to dig around, to do the things to get us to
begin to bear fruit. But there is coming a time
where all of that's going to stop. You know what
stands out to me about this verse? What's that?
In my translation, because I'm rocking ESV, it's
just what I grew up reading. Are you CSB? Yes,
right now. Right now. I go back and forth between
a lot. And John, you're NASB, yeah? Yep. I preached
NLT on Sunday. My man. So I go back and forth.
What my translation says, going into verse 8,
when the dude's advocating for the fig tree,
Sir, let it alone also this year, until I dig
it out. Dig out around it and put on manure.
Not fertilize, but put on manure. And I know
that you can use... It's the best kind of fertilizer.
Best kind of fertilizer. And sometimes I drive
to work and I can tell when the farmers are fertilizing
their fields. Stanley County loves to manure
for their farms. Amen. Amen. The best fertilizer
I have ever used on my shrubs has been chicken
manure. Chicken manure? No lie. My bushes bloomed
tremendously. Did you have to buy that separately
or did you have chickens? Yeah, I bought it at
Tractor Supply. Only that's awesome. I've never
been to a tractor supply. I need to go. I'm getting
distracted. Yes. Sorry. In my own life, sometimes,
and so this is, this, this pairs interestingly
with our conversation about the tower of Salome.
Yeah. There have absolutely been times though,
where God has need to put crap around my roots.
I'm serious to, for, to show me repentance, to
show, to finally show me like this, like, things
get bad enough. It's like, Oh, you know, like,
uh, CS Lewis has this quote in mere Christianity,
like pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world.
Um, and I've experienced that in my own life
where, you know, whether I understood God was
calling me towards repentance or not. Um, uh,
that's what happened. Like, like I'll tell you
a story and I, maybe I've mentioned this before
on the podcast or not. I don't really know. Um,
I made a profession of faith as a child. But
the gospel that I responded to was not a real
gospel. Ben had no understanding of what he was
doing. The lady that presented it said, among
many other things, that there's cake in heaven
and not cake in hell. And little pudgy 10 -year
-old Ben thought, I know what I'm going to do.
Oh, you've talked about this before because I
was about to do the same joke I did last time
and talk about breakfast in heaven. Oh, that's
right. So I got baptized shortly after. And once
I actually became a believer much later in my
life, I really resisted the Lord on getting baptized.
I was embarrassed. I was already serving in a
church. I was visible. And obviously baptism,
talk about corporate confession, you're up there
and you had a robe on and you're standing in
a pool of water and somebody's got to dunk you.
Depending on your denomination, they might pour
water on your head, but somebody's got to dunk
you here in the SBC. But the Lord had to put
menorah around my roots. Like my relationship
with him, once he was like, son, it's time, started
to atrophy because I kept pushing back on it.
Like I let my fear and my pride and my anxiety
about what people would think of me keep me from
stepping forward into obedience. And so God's
with you everywhere, but he kept moving his felt
presence in my life back a little further and
back a little further. and back a little further,
and back a little further, and then I started
losing sleep. And I couldn't sleep for a day,
for a couple of days, for a week. And finally,
I'm just like, Lord, I don't even care. I'm going
to go talk to my pastor. And I did. And so it
took God putting some manure around my roots
for me to understand, okay, I need to repent.
And it did bear fruit. That fruit was painful.
But it did bear fruit. Well, even on this side
of salvation, too, some of the most growthful
times of my life has been during the storms.
Yeah. During the dark, dark storms. I can remember
because I was not raised in church. I got saved
late high school years. And then within... a
couple of years of that, I was on the mission
field. I went to college in Argentina, did mission
work in Argentina, and I talk about how joyful
it was now, but at the time, I was dealing with
incredible homesickness. I was dealing with having
to learn theology around people that had studied
it for years, and I'm over here a dumb -dumb
not knowing anything. And so I was dealing with
a lot of mental issues during this because of
where I was, but I pushed through it, but God
grew my relationship with Him. In incredible
ways, I don't know if I did not go there just
for that one year. That one year grew me more
than probably 10 years would have if I would
have stayed in the States. Wow. And so it's through,
a lot of times, it's through those dark times,
through those times of manure, as you're saying
in your illustration. I didn't say it. The Bible
said it. That is true, that the ESV says, that
we can really experience incredible growth and
fruit. Seriously. Well, I also want to take it
from this perspective. To me, this is why discipleship
is important. How many times do people get saved
and then they're just told to come to church?
They don't really grow. They're not taught how
to read their Bibles. They're not taught how
to pray. They're not taught how to do these simple
things that we take for granted a lot of times.
And the digging around it and putting in fertilizer
can be also somebody taking you along on their
side, discipling you and growing you and helping
you. And I feel like that that's a lot of what
we're missing today. We are missing that discipleship.
avenue, that mentoring, that personal one -on
-one, helping somebody get closer. I see this
on Wednesdays. I'm thrilled with the group that
I meet with each Wednesday. It's funny because
I love the way Scott defines Jackie. She listens
to it. He listens to it. They come on Wednesday,
but he made this statement to her. He said, you're
like a sponge. You're just soaking. everything
up. I mean, she is asking a ton of questions.
And so the Wednesday study is just so amazing
because she's asking questions. I get to sit
back, watch Scott answer these questions, watch
him grow while he's answering these questions
and reflecting on it. It's so neat to see. This
whole group, just this small little group as
they are digging around the roots, fertilizing
it, and watching them grow. There's just, to
me, such an excitement in that Wednesday morning
group where I sit down with these guys at 9 a
.m. and just really dig into these passages.
And so I see it from that perspective. It's not
just God using difficulties, and He does use
difficulties in our life, but there's also some
good things that we can put into our lives. that
will help us to grow, teach us how to, I mean,
we have got to get to that point where we are
not just doing it on our own. We've got to have
that community. And I feel like that's just something
we miss so much today. Yeah. With that community
lens, talking about like adverse circumstances
and community, one of the things when we, when
I look back on I don't want to say more liturgical,
but like our older denominations or even like
denominations that aren't around anymore, like
first century, fourth century worship. One of
the practices that they had that was so compelling
to me is lament. talking about God shaping us
in adverse circumstances reminded me of like
Psalm 13, one of the minor key Psalms, as it
were, like it's four verses and it starts with
like, how long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me? How
long must I take counsel in my soul and have
sorrow in my heart? And then, you know, there's
a, and God, and the Psalmist presents his case
and he ends with, but I have trusted in your
steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your
salvation. In like fourth century church gatherings,
once they had a codified Bible that people could
read or even snippets of it, they would do this
corporately. Like they would engage with each
other's difficulties in public. These psalms
would be recited. These psalms would be sung.
And I think that would make us tremendously uncomfortable
in our church context. Yes. But if we're willing
to get uncomfortable, that's when the Holy Spirit
is going to work. It's interesting how that's,
that there's a willing, like you have to be willing
to go there because God's not going to force
us. You know, like there is a day that every
knee will bow on heaven and earth, regardless
of your allegiance in this life. But for spiritual
growth, you have to be willing to grow. I know
he's the author and the perfecter of our faith.
And so the forward progress is him. But there's
a degree of willingness that I feel like we have
to step into. And I don't know what that would
look like for our church. I mean, I think it's
easier to lament when there's bigger tragedies,
right? Like 9 -11, you saw a big resurgence of
people going back to church after the Twin Towers
fell. But what it would look like in our church
context here in 2020, was it 26? 2026 here in
North Carolina. What limit would look like? I
don't know. It would take just being honest.
And we're so, gosh, we are so afraid these days
to be honest. Part of it is our culture has been
defined by social media, which is so fake. And
we feel like we always have to put on this facade.
And going back to what we said a long time ago
is this idea of this is why we don't. confess
as much anymore and we're not real and we don't
come to that the public confession of our sins
and what's going on because we would break the
glass ball that we've put around us if we did
that and that makes us vulnerable and if the
people around us aren't also willing to go there
all it's going to make you is a target but I
think regardless the Lord honors that kind of
vulnerability yeah some of the best times that
we've had at mission serve um you know there's
there's heightened emotions when you're on mission
trips with students and because of that they
are willing to be more vulnerable which is one
of the things i love um but there's been times
where one student will open up and begin to share
something and Be extremely vulnerable. And it's
in those moments where the entire night changes.
And then the rest of the week changes because
other students start to join. And it begins to
be this incredible moment of being real, of them
bringing down this facade. I remember last year,
a young man that went on mission serve came back
and was extremely vulnerable before the church.
And when he did that, I was just like, Wow. I
mean, it was powerful. It was really, really
incredible. Hey, I think I have a new tagline
for our discipleship ministry at the church.
Okay, are you ready? Yeah, we're going to dig
deep and fill you with crap. Oh, no. Sean, this
goes on the internet forever. I'm going to close
with something a little bit better than that,
just because we need a positive spin. I'm reading
this book by Robbie Galletti, and he talked about
how he goes out on his porch and he asks these
two questions because he wants to be filled with
the Holy Spirit. And he makes a statement in
there. He says, he prays, God, how have I quenched
you today? Lord, how have I grieved you today?
Or Holy Spirit, how have I quenched you today?
Holy Spirit, how have I grieved you today? And
just reading that today, just with what we've
talked about, just hit me like a hammer about
being vulnerable with the Holy Spirit, having
Him speak to us and moving us and change us.
So I don't know. I think if we'll get serious
and really wrap our minds around repentance,
what a transformation, what a change it would
make in our church. Yeah. Well, we can pray to
that end. So if you're listening for the first
time, we are grateful for your first -time listenership
to here at Pursuing Jesus. And if you're one
of our regulars, we'll see you back here next
week. I'm Ben Smith. I have been Sean Griffin.
And I'm John Ferguson. And this has been, is,
and will continue to be Pursuing Jesus. We'll
catch you on the flip side. Goodbye. Pursuing
Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church
in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about
our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.
So how should I introduce it? Today we're going
to talk about crap, crap, and more crap. No,
we'll talk about crap about a third of the time.
I only say it one time. Manure and fertilizer
is another thing, but crap once.