Good morning, Vietnam! I'm going to have to cut
that. I'm going to leave that in. You should.
Oh, man. That's from Robin Williams. Robin Williams.
The late, the great Robin Williams. Listen, so
here's what I hate about whenever I start talking.
What you hate about Robin Williams? What I hate
about talking about movies I have not seen in
a long time. Okay. Because my memories of this
movie, incredible movie. Okay. It could have
horrible language. And I just don't remember,
right? But from what I remember about that movie,
it was like a really good, like Robin Williams,
he's a comedic guy, but it's more of a dramatic
role. But it's a good movie. Have you seen that
movie? No, I haven't. Really? No, I haven't.
That's one I think you should add to your list.
That's the what is going on. I saw a movie this
weekend. Yesterday. Yesterday. I watched a movie.
that is an American classic that I feel like
I am more American than I've ever been because
I had never watched this movie before. What movie
was this? For the very first time in my life.
Yeah. I watched Smokey and the Bandit. Smokey
and the Bandit. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Have you seen
this movie? No, I haven't seen this movie. So
it's one of those movies that I have heard just
in our culture. Okay. In the culture. I've heard
referenced countless times. I thought I knew
what it was about. I had no idea what it was
about. Now that you finished the movie, do you
know what it's about? Did you ever get to that
point? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a 70s movie.
So there was kind of a plot. Okay. And mainly
it involved CB radios. Interesting. Like truck
driving. I know what a CB radio is, Sean. You
know, one of the interesting things... One interesting
thing about coming to church here in Stanley
County, coming from my background, is the things
that people call stuff. There are different words
for the same thing. It's English vocabulary,
but it's different English vocabulary. It's regional
differences, right? So the sandals that I'm prone
to wear are called Chacos. It's the brand of
sandals that they are, right? Every time I wear
them in Stanley County, somebody will go, you
got your Jesus shoes on. You know, you're doing
what you can. So speaking of that, so like an
actual illustration of that as well. Okay. It's
like just one of those learning curves you get
when you move to Stanley County. because when
I moved here and I was learning all of the different
areas around Norwood, my community, and I was
very interested when I learned that there was
an Aquedale here. What? Exactly. I was told very
quickly, no, no, no, even though it is spelled
Aquedale, it is it. Aquedale. Aquedale. It is
Aquedale. So that was one that I got corrected
very fast because I don't remember who I was
talking to, but I remember referring to Aquedale
to someone, and they looked at me like I was
a foreigner because I was. Well, you've gotten
your Aquedale on. There's somebody I was talking
to as I was trying to get the dialect down that
told me that their dad called it Ackydale. Ackydale?
Ackydale. I'm not sure whether it was derived
from, like, and you're saying the Q, Accudale,
or if it's Accudale, A -C -K -Y -D -A -L -E.
So the interesting thing is someone will have
to brush me up on my Stanley County history.
I believe from what I was told it was called
that because there was an aqueduct running through
that area or something like that. So it actually
does have to do with water, and it really is
aqua, but you don't pronounce it that way. Okay.
You know what? That is good for me. That's good
for me to know. Yeah, and you know what? This
is good, because one of the things that I like
about you, Ben, since you've been here, is you
love to ask what you call culture questions.
That is true. All the time. I mean, I don't even
know if we've ever talked about this on the podcast.
I don't think we have. Just so for our Pursuing
Jesus listeners here, this is something that
Ben has become famous for in the office. Because
there's many times where he will walk into anyone
and everyone's office, and he will open the dialogue
by saying, I have a culture question. That's
true. That's true. But they're all good, and
they all make sense because it is. Because you
go from church to church. You go to a different
church. You go to a different region. There are
things that they do different culturally, and
it's good to learn those things. Well, I'll tell
you this. At our last Triple L gathering for
our - Triple L. Triple L. That's right. That's
right. I don't know if anybody - That's how they
refer to it all the time. Triple L. But at our
last Triple L meeting, the Josies - shout out
to the Josies, brought some delightful desserts.
Oh, shout out to the Josies and their desserts.
As they have been prone to do. Yes. What Oren
and Nancy made this time was homemade cherry
ice cream. Now, I have never had homemade ice
cream before. Wait. What? This was my first time.
In your entire life? In my miserable little life.
You've never had homemade ice cream? Your reaction
is the reaction that 20 separate people have
to be saying that. And it was a dollar at once.
It was a chain. Like I was sitting at a table.
This didn't happen in front of everybody. No,
I was sitting at a table with Cornelia Hatley
and a couple other folks. And I was like, man,
this is so good. I've never had homemade ice
cream before. And Cornelia goes, you've never
had homemade ice cream before? And she called.
somebody else to the table and she's like ben's
never had homemade ice cream before and that
person said you've never had homemade ice cream
before and like they kept it was a chain it was
like a phone tree like they kept calling over
more people and finally i was like no i'm not
cultured like you guys i'm working on it homemade
ice cream and by the way delightful delightful
okay church church church okay we're having a
moment right now church here's i need your help
right now i need i need some people to come make
homemade ice cream in different flavors and bring
it to Ben. Now, when you do that, I'm going to
request some too. But I'm not doing this selfishly
all the way. I feel like you're doing this selfishly.
This man needs to experience peach homemade ice
cream for sure. For sure. At least peach. That
is like a summer tradition. Really? Peach homemade
ice cream. So this isn't new for you either.
No. Interesting. Yeah. Hey, you know what? I
think there was someone in the church that had
like a cookies and cream homemade ice cream.
That was really good. If I remember, I can't
remember, but, uh, all right, church, y 'all
got to help me culture this guy. Well, so, so
here, so counteroffer. Okay. The next, the next
church gathering, the next time that we have
like a potluck or something, like, I think that
we should announce to all the folks at the church,
like, like for desserts, bring your homemade
ice cream. We can have a homemade ice cream competition.
So I'm pretty sure. I want to be one of the judges.
We can have the staff judge it. Yes. Yes. 100%.
I'm behind this idea now. You know, but if you're
going to do that, you're going to have a homemade
ice cream competition. We're going to have a
good prize. I don't know what that would be.
Ooh. All right. We're going to have to think
on that one. We have to think with them. Yeah.
For the time being, are you ready to dive into
a little bit of scripture, Sean? You know. That
is why we're here. We're here to pursue Jesus.
Through homemade ice cream. Through homemade
ice cream. Listen, Jesus put us on this earth
to enjoy some of the things of the earth, to
enjoy. I mean, even like you look at the Psalms.
Yeah. I mean, you look at the Psalms and the
joy that they received from different parts of
nature. Oh, taste. And see that the Lord is good.
Man, you know. But like, if you think about it.
If you think about it, God didn't have to make,
and I'm being legitimately serious, God didn't
have to make our world in color. 100%. I understand
where you're going with this. There are animals
that you have rods and cones in your eyes. The
cones are how you see color. The rods are how
you see black and white. There are animals that
live perfectly functional lives. I think maybe
dogs are some of them. I've heard dogs. That
they see in black and white. God didn't have
to make color. God chose to make color as part
of his creative expression. God didn't have to
make taste. There are plenty of other organisms
in this world that either don't have a tongue
or don't taste or any of these things. They are
ways of enjoying his goodness and his creativity.
Those can be spiritual things. I think that's
part of eating and drinking to the glory of God.
I think it's in 1st or 2nd Corinthians where
we actually can engage in worship by enjoying
good things. I noticed this in some church traditions
where renouncing things just for the sake of
renouncing them is spiritualized. The historical
word for that is asceticism. Not anesthetism
or aesthetics, but asceticism. Yes. But they
renounced everything like, that is good, I don't
want it. That is good, I don't want it. That
is good, I don't want it. One of the ways that
we enjoy God is enjoying the good things that
he's given us, including homemade ice cream.
Amen and a -women, as you would say. I've never
said that before. I'm pretty sure you have. Luke
14, 25 through 33. Let's get into the text, Sean.
Oh, man. You know what? Yeah, let's get into
it. So this is June 8th's passage from the Pursuing
Jesus devotional. And the title, that the Bible
I was using gives this section is called The
Cost of Following Jesus. Yep. And there's a couple
things that I want to point out. First off, here's
the very first thing I noticed. So it starts
in Luke 14, verse 25, as you said, and literally
one of the first few words, right? It says, now
great crowds were traveling with him. Now that's
interesting to me. Okay. Right? Because Jesus...
Sometimes when we picture Jesus because of Sunday
school lessons or whatever, a lot of times I
feel like people just picture 12 dudes just chugging
along with him and just walking along. And there
was times when it was just him and his close
disciples or the apostles. And that's actually
something funny that I'm going to get off on
a tangent on real quick because I was talking
to my students the other day, and there was some
of them, and they were like, so Jesus had 12
disciples? And I was like... Kind of, you know,
and I had to explain to them that, you know,
we interchanged the word disciple and apostle
a lot just because of our culture and how we
refer to these guys. But I had to let them know,
like, no, there was 12 apostles. There was 12
dudes that were set aside for a specific purpose,
for a specific ministry. But Jesus had multiple
disciples and disciples, but also just people
that followed him because he did cool stuff.
And he had many faithful disciples outside of
the 12. I think it's Luke 8 that talks about
the three ladies that followed him that bankrolled
his ministry, which is a crazy thing. I had never
read that until recently. But maybe it's in Mark
when he sends out the 72. Yeah, exactly. He gives
them authority to cast out demons and to heal.
We talked about that 18 podcasts ago. But Jesus
had many disciples. He had 12 apostles. It's
just a good, healthy reminder as we interchange
terminology in our modern context through preaching
and teaching and things. Just remember, no, there
was a lot of disciples. Yeah. But here. There's
a specific word used, and it's not disciples.
Okay. It's crowds. Yeah. And so a lot of times
when you look at the Gospels, you're going to
see different terminology used to describe the
people that are following Jesus or that are around
Jesus at the time of whatever's taking place.
Whenever it refers to crowds, that means that
there are people with him. One, there are disciples
there. Yep. However many, we don't know, but
there's disciples. But that means there's people
that are following him at this moment that have
become awestruck by maybe we could call it the
entertainment of Jesus. Or just interested. The
miracles. Like he's doing stuff and they're like,
that was cool. I want to keep seeing more of
this, right? Or even just a seeking understanding
of like, how did this happen? I need to understand
more. But understanding that, now reading the
passage to see what he's about to say. is very
interesting. For sure. Especially in our modern
church context. So we'll get to that in a second.
But let me just read. Let me read the words in
red, if you will, and start in verse 26 and see
what he does when he turns around, looks at the
crowd, and then immediately turning around, looking
at the crowd, says this. Verse 26. If anyone
comes to me and does not hate his own father
and mother, wife and child, brothers and sisters,
yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
All right, let's just pause there. That's enough
for now. Pardon? I mean, just imagine you're
one of the crowds, not the disciple. You're the
interested. Like I said, multiple reasons you're
there. You could be very interested in wanting
to seek and learn more, or you could be just
following because you have no other thing else
to do in your life, and you're just following.
Like, whatever. I don't know. We don't know the
reasons, but it is a crowd of people. Correct.
And Jesus sees a crowd of people following him
and drops one of the most crazy lines in Scripture,
you know, and just says, hey. You really want
to follow me? All right, cool. Hate your family,
hate all this, hate all this, hate all this.
And we know from looking, this is why it's important
to look at Scripture, even the Gospels, as a
total story. Yeah. Right? Because this could
very easily be taken out of context. Yeah, this
is one of the passages that people struggle with.
They do, because they read just this. they'll
have someone on TikTok say, hey, go read that
one verse. And look, it's words in red. You see
what Jesus just said there? Oh my gosh, is that
the Jesus you want to follow? And they'll call
it a contradiction too because of the Ten Commandments.
Honor your father and mother that it may go well
with you and your days be long. Right. But when
we look even at this entire story and we look
at the other parables that he's about to share,
that's what he's doing. He's giving an example
of the cost of discipleship. And he's showing
like, hey, if you really want to follow me, if
you want to, I mean, you've got to be willing
to lay down your life for me is ultimately where
he's eventually going to go with this. And it's
showing that in comparison. To the love that
you have for your family, the love that even
you have for your wife. That was one of the things
that as you get deeper into Christian culture,
you forget some of the things that you say and
how wild they are. Because one of the things
that I say and that I truly believe is that my
relationship with the Lord is more important
than the relationship with my wife. And me saying
that within the church walls, people are like,
amen, right? Yeah, we get it. But people outside
the church don't understand that. Well, how could
they? Exactly. Because they're like, whoa, hold
on. That's pinnacle relationship right there.
That's a very intimate relationship, and all
of a sudden you're saying that there's another
relationship more important to that? Right. And
so I think that's also one of the things that
as we... as we Christianese so much stuff, and
as we speak within our Christian circles, it's
important to remember that sometimes we say things
and people don't understand what we're saying,
because just because we're used to it doesn't
mean... I mean, going back to the vocabulary
of Norwood and the culture questions, there's
things that we do within our Christian culture
that look really weird on the outside. And it's
kind of one of those things, but I love... And
it's true, and my wife will say the same thing.
And it is. And the reason we say that, the reason
that I say that my relationship with Jesus is
more important than my wife and the reason that
my wife will say the relationship with Jesus
is more important than me is because we have
fully realized within our 19 years of marriage
that we've gone through that the closer we are
to Jesus separately and then the closer we are
to Jesus together, the better we are together.
Yeah. I mean, I've heard that described as a
triangle, right? You're both moving towards Jesus,
and as you move towards Jesus, you move closer
to yourself, or to each other, rather. And it's
one of those things that it is, I think it's
hard to grasp. Until you experience it. And then
you realize, oh, I understand what they were
saying now. You can see the concept, and I think
you can have a knowledge of it, of a knowledge
understanding of that concept of growing closer.
But then when you really do it, and you really
make that a part of your marriage life, it's
like, oh, wow. I didn't realize that our marriage
could get this much better. I wonder, though,
doesn't that... premise also apply to the other
areas of our lives though. I mean, so as we are
following Jesus and pursuing Jesus, the other
areas of our lives change too. I mean, like if
you're working in the church or out of the church,
you're a better employee in some ways. You're
more honest. You're more willing to show grace
and mercy to people. You're willing to own up
to your wrongs because you recognize that you're
a sinful human being. the more that you pursue
Jesus. And so I think that premise is more evident
in marriage because conflict is more obvious
in marriage. You live with the person you're
fighting with. There is no escape. I think that's
real though. One of the other things about this
verse 25 that is interesting to me, because I
was reading up on this and... The Greek and Hebrew
here for the word hate is different than the
hate that we have in the English language. Ooh,
let's hear about this. I won't be able to say
the Hebrew words or the Greek words, but this
is a callback to when the book of Hebrews says
that God hated Esau but loved Jacob. The Hebrew
here doesn't indicate what we would indicate
as hate and love. It refers to... it refers to
dramatic choice. And so Jesus isn't saying, man,
I got to hate my dad, or you got to hate your
mom, or you got to hate your wife or your kids,
your brothers, because elsewhere in scripture,
we know it says love one another. Fathers don't
provoke your kids to anger. Husbands love your
wives as Christ loved the church, but it's a
question of priority. Yeah. how do I see my marriage
compared to this? How do I see my family compared
to this? How do I see my obedience to my parents
compared to this? Because if we love any of those
things more than Jesus, those become the gods
in our lives. And when there's a conflict between
what God wants me to do and what my idealized
relationship with my parents, my idealized kids.
or my idealized marriage, when that conflict
comes, it's idolatry if we choose our family
over that. But through Jesus, we can love those
things in their right place. Yeah. Because they
are dramatically important. And the roles of
marriage, the roles of fatherhood and motherhood,
the roles of being faithful, honorable children
are all designed by God. And so I think that,
and obviously, Jesus sets up each of these stories
for a purpose. So he just laid the foundation,
right? He laid the foundation of, okay, this
is what a relationship with me looks like. And
then he really goes into a story of truly...
talking about counting the cost, right? So verse
28, he says, for which of you wanting to build
a tower does not first sit down and calculate
the cost to see if he has had enough to complete
it. Otherwise, after he has laid the foundation
and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will
begin to ridicule him saying, this man started
to build and wasn't able to finish. And so once
again, you've got this language with the crowd
present. Very important context of who he's speaking
to. And he's letting these guys know, hey, this
is what this relationship is going to look like.
And also, are you really willing to commit that?
Think about what I'm saying. Think about the
cost. Are you willing to go that far? And I think
that's so important. And once again, going to
our modern American Christian context, many times
we, even if it's like... Especially within the
SBC circles, we like to bash on prosperity gospel.
It is what it is. And I'm not saying I agree
with prosperity gospel, but it's just one of
those easy targets within our church culture.
But at the same time, I feel like there's those
little pieces of like, well, if I come to Jesus,
my life's going to be better. That happens within
even our church context. Yeah. We think all of
our problems are going to be solved. You know,
you hear like, oh, come to Jesus and everything's
going to be good. Everything's going to be right.
And there is a portion of that because of our
heart and because of how much we love him. But
that doesn't mean we're not going to go through
hard times. Well, that's workspace faith. Yes.
At the end of the day, that is transactional.
You give me what I need, so I give you what you
need. I do the right thing enough of the time
for you to bless me. I've got a dear friend of
mine who's wrestling with that right now. I don't
think he listens to this podcast, but I'm not
going to drop his name. But he's had some really
hard things happen over the past couple of years.
Dude lost his mom. He was in the hospital for
a couple of months. And he's like, why would
God let this happen even though I've been so
faithful? And it's hard because the principle
we see in this text, Jesus has a lot of ands,
right? Going back to 26. Does not hate his father
and mother and wife and children and brothers
and sisters. Yes, even his own life. The price
of discipleship involves our relationships with
our family, but the pinnacle of the price of
discipleship is our own lives. And so setting
those in Jesus' hands is really hard, particularly
when we go through hard things in his hands.
Yeah, man, that's a really good thought. I'm
glad you added that little bit on there. That's
good for us to think about. There is a cost.
There is a cost. There is a cost to following
Jesus. And that's something that we need to be
aware of. That the closer you get to Jesus, the
more you're going to see that cost. But the first
cost has been paid and will continue to be paid.
Yeah. Like Jesus paid the first cost for us.
With his lifeblood and his perfect life, he conquered
sin and death. And so as we are... What did you
say? Bearing our own cross? Yeah. Jesus took
the first cross and in a very real sense is still
bearing that cross with us and for us and in
us and through us. Jesus paid that cost for us,
and he continues to work in us. Because, I mean,
like, man, I don't know about you, I think that
he's the one who gives us the strength to die
to ourselves. That is not in my nature. And I
think that it is... Not in human nature. I'm
hoping that problem is not generic just to Ben
Smith. Because Jesus paid that cost, we can say,
Lord, I love you more than the rest of these
things. Will you help me love you more than the
rest of these things? And so this is kind of
getting to the point of what I believe is this
passage, because when I look at my life and I
look at things that maybe I have missed out on,
We'll say that in quotes, right? Because of my
love for Jesus, there has been sacrifices in
my life. Because I care more about following
Jesus than fulfilling whatever those things are.
But I don't care, right? So there's been a cost.
There's been things, and it was more obvious.
The cost was more obvious when I was younger.
when I was farther away from Jesus, when I was
beginning to leave my worldly life and I was
beginning to follow Jesus because as my desires
were changing, there's still that inkling of
going back that we all deal with, that we all
wrestle with. But the closer I get to Jesus,
the more those desires have changed and more
they are fulfilled in my relationship with Him.
I just had a conversation with a dude this morning
at the gym. It was a guy that has gone to our
church. He still says he goes to our church,
but he hasn't been in months. That kind of situation.
And his life just fell apart. I mean, just stuff
was happening, stuff was happening. And you could
see how broken he was. And he says, you know,
I ran back to smoking. I've been dealing with
my anxiety because I went back to smoking. And
you could see him wrestling and knowing that
it was not the right choice, not the right thing
to run to. But to see just him just having an
honest moment in the parking lot of Planet Fitness
was interesting. Praise God for it. Absolutely.
Because you know what he's doing. Yes. Even in
that conversation, dude's counting the cost.
Yes. That internal battle of weighing. what do
I do with the circumstances that I've been presented
with, the things that I'm wrestling with? I mean,
that's verse 33. Therefore, if any one of you
who does not renounce all he has cannot be my
disciple. And once again, I've heard that said,
like give everything up, live a life of abject
poverty, all those things. And maybe there is
some... That is the call that Jesus puts on.
I think there's some truth there, but yeah, but
continue. But what I think it really is, is be
willing to renounce whatever he asks of you,
whether that is easy or hard for you. If there's
something that you're not willing to give up
for Jesus, you really need to check your heart
on what that thing is. Well, that's idolatry.
It is heart, love, and worship in a different
direction. And worship can look a million different
ways standing with your hands raised on a Sunday.
It looks like what you give with your time. It
looks like what you give with your money. It
looks like what occupies your space. It looks
like what occupies your mind. And that's why
it looks so different for each person. Yes. Because
we each have those things that we enjoy that
are not... are in and of themselves, not sinful
things, but they could be things that if they
could, they could, they have the possibility
of holding a higher place. Um, and they don't
have to be physical things, but just hold a higher
place than God. And that's like, okay, as you
said, that thing has turned into idolatry. Yes.
And it has turned into idolatry for you. And
that's where we get into the area of like not
causing a brother or sister to stumble. Right.
Because there can be something that's completely
fine. And maybe even like we talked at the very
beginning, like, like I'm glorifying God through,
through enjoying and enjoying and thanking him
for it, that for another brother, it might be
really hard. Yeah. So, I mean, let's go back
to what the, I mean, the very first movie we
mentioned at the very beginning, good morning,
Vietnam. I don't even remember what that movie
is rated. Right. And that's why, I mean, I had
to put caveats on there, be like, okay, it. been
more than five years since I've watched this
movie. I might've been in a different spiritual
mindset when I watched this movie. I think it
was cool. I think it was a good movie, but like,
there might be someone that this listening to
this podcast, that's a brother in Christ that
just watched this yesterday and was like, Oh,
I should not have watched that. And then they
get on here and hear their pastor being like,
yeah, you should go watch that movie. It's like,
well, hold on. You know, that's what I'm saying.
Like there's, and then There's going to be these
things that, you know, say there's a certain
thing that's mentioned in that movie that's a
really big struggle for someone. Like, I'm not
trying to hurt their spiritual life. But that's
what, like, we want to make sure that we are
glorifying the Lord in everything we're doing.
Absolutely. Absolutely. There's one other contrast
I want to point out in this text. Yeah. From
25 to 33. So you had highlighted the difference
between a disciple and the crowds. Yes. Right?
So 25. Now great crowds accompanied him. We're
firmly in the, there are some faithful, there
are some curious, there are some whatever, right?
Crowds. 33, Jesus says, if any of you who does
not renounce all he has cannot be my disciple.
That's right. And discipleship, and I'm not necessarily
talking about like the you or me sitting down
with a younger believer. But the discipleship
is a process that we all undergo of learning
about Jesus. There's a pastor I respect who refers
to it as the way of Jesus. He always capitalizes
the W. I like the way it looks on paper. Discipleship
is a process. I don't know. I feel like when
we say, oh yeah, we're disciples of Jesus, we
treat it as a synonym for I've been saved. Yeah,
I see what you're saying. Like I have been made
a disciple and the discipleship process is done.
Look at me. I'm a disciple. I can wear the disciple
name tag. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Once you become a Christian, you begin the discipleship
process. So I have a really cool illustration
that I use with my students with this exact concept.
So I kind of even dropped a hint about this on
Sunday in my sermon when I talked about the word
sanctification. Right? Because there's a difference,
because I wanted to make sure that people were
clear, because we talked about how salvation
is through grace alone. Correct. Right? Like,
that is just a universal concept in Christianity.
Salvation is through grace alone. However, the
reason people talk about works so much is because
it is evidence through the sanctification process,
right? So, but here's... Are you a math guy?
Geometry. Do you remember geometry? Yes, I do.
I love geometry. Dude, so you remember? I liked
simple geometry. When I was just given an X coordinate
and a Y coordinate, and I put it on a map. When
they were giving you a shape with four sides,
and they're like, what is that? And you're like,
it's a square. That was the geometry I was good
at. When he started to have to learn sine and
cosine and things like that, and he started to
get into trigonometry geometry, no, I'm out.
Your boy is gone. I remember liking that, but
I don't remember anything that I learned in that
class. Well, good for you. I'm going back to
the simple part of geometry. In fact, I'm going
back to elementary school geometry, which is
why this illustration works so well. Here we
go. So do you remember that when you're plotting
points on a graph and there's two different points,
they had different terminology. And so like a
line has a dot, a dot, and there's a line going
between it. Yes. Right? Dot to dot. That's a
line. right? There's another terminology called
array. Yeah. All my students are familiar with
this terminology because like I said, elementary
school, whatever. And so array, there's a dot,
there is a definitive starting point, but the
line never ends. That is sanctification. Absolutely.
That is salvation. There is a time in your life.
Now, here's something very important that I need
to say to people like me. Okay. I don't have
a date. Yeah. I don't know the day I was saved.
Some people, some pastors, that'll trip them
up. If you don't know the time and the day that
you gave your life to Jesus, you need to check
your heart. Dude, even my salvation was a process.
Right. Because I didn't grow up in church, but
I started going to church as a teenager. I thought
I made the decision at 13, but I did not get
saved at 13. The Lord started working on my heart
at 13. And sometime between 13 and 18, the Lord
Jesus. absolutely transformed my life. You want
to know who else's salvation was a process? Yeah.
Peter. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And, oh, I don't know,
Paul. Yeah. Like, that's, I get the, yeah. So
I want to be clear, even though I'm using that
term point, that's definitive on a graph, like,
for some of you, that doesn't necessarily mean
there's a date, time, location. Yeah, yeah. Now,
for some people, It is very much a pinpoint.
But so a ray, you've got the point, and then
it goes on forever. You see, the point is salvation.
The ray, the line that goes on forever is sanctification.
We are getting closer to Jesus for the rest of
our life. We absolutely are. And in that, I completely
understand the ray example. All I'll say is this,
man, there is a end. That line keeps going on,
and it is a ray, but that third of those terms,
sanctification, justification, sanctification,
glorification. We are going to get to land, and
that one's symbolized by an arrow going in both
directions with magnitude, baby! It's a quote
from Despicable Me. vector vector i was like
he's orange he wears glasses and i was like trying
to remember his name and i was just lost man
that that one's gonna fall flat tonight we steal
the moon tonight we steal the moon It is a good
movie. It is a good movie. We've been movie heavy
today. A little bit. A little bit. It was a movie
sandwich, if you will. A movie sandwich. We began
with movies. We had the beginning bread and the
ending bread and a whole lot of pursuing Jesus
in the middle. I love it. You know, that's what
we're here for, pursuing Jesus. Talking about
real things like movies. And sandwiches. And
sandwiches. And pursuing Jesus in, through, and
sometimes around those things. I have been Ben
Smith. I have still been Sean Griffin. And this
has been Pursuing Jesus. We will catch you guys
next week. Love y 'all. See y 'all next week.
Pursuing Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist
Church in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more
about our church, please visit memorial4norwood
.com.