Welcome back to Pursuing Jesus. This is episode
31. We are your hosts, Ben Smith and... Hi guys,
I'm Sean. He's going through some things. I just
felt like you were going like... I was like,
what is the exact opposite thing I can do? Hi,
guys. Hi, guys. Oh, my goodness. Thank you for
that. That's great, dude. And they have no idea,
though, but why you were doing your little thing.
I was just bouncing up and down. He was rocking
out. I was dancing in my chair to your little
theme music. It was reminiscent of his days in
the club, in the club. True, because my feet
didn't move then either. You're not inclined
to choreography, are you, Jonathan? No, not at
all. I love to move. That was one of the funniest
things. like post VBS a couple of weeks ago,
people were like, you were really getting into
the dancing and stuff like you actually like
we're fun. And I was like, number one, ouch.
And number two, dude, I love to dance like, like,
you know, not, not to go against my Baptist cultural
roots, but it is in the Bible. So I, I had to
warm up to dancing. I was, I did. I was not a
dancer, did not like dancing. Mainly I was very
self -conscious and I felt, I mean, and you have
to just not care. To be a fun dancer. Who cares
if you're good? Just to have fun. Just if you
want to have fun on the dance floor, you have
to not care. I cared for way too long about what
people thought of me. I'm talking about even
in my marriage, and I regret that. I regret that.
But I remember it's the last couple times, though.
I've been willing to go out there. I remember
the first time I really had fun in a public dance
floor, like really had fun, was only a couple
years ago. Really? Yeah, so we have a student
here. uh, Lila who had her quinceanera and miles
was a part of it. So we got invited. Nice. Such
a fun party. Um, but they had a dance floor and
like after the whole ceremony, just people, I
just went out there and just had fun and dance.
I love that. Why wasn't I doing this earlier
in my life? Well, I mean, but like that, it's
such a perspective shift from like, everybody's
looking at me too. Yeah. Everybody's looking
at everybody. That's kind of just the thing.
Exactly. It really, like, I feel like it's best
said in the words of the prophet, Miley Cyrus.
You put your hands up. They're playing that song.
The butterflies fly away. Not in your head, like,
yeah. Move in your hips, like, yeah. You put
your hands up. They're playing your song. You
know it'll be okay. Yeah. It's a party in the
USA. I was wondering how long you were going
to go with that one. Of course. You just kept
going and going and going. But, yeah, that is
definitely, like, I don't like to think of, like,
regrets in my life. But, like, you know, like,
that's like a... I'm like, man, why couldn't
I have been more fun with that? Hindsight's 40
-40. It sure is. Yeah. Speaking of hindsight.
Hindsight. And probably singing and dancing,
too. It's a nice little tie together. So this
is your first check -in on the PJ podcast. Wow.
After Central Kids Camp. How was that? Just give
them a 30 -second, like, how we got here. 30
seconds. And then tell us what happened. So I
was at camp last week. Correct. With our fourth
through sixth graders. Fourth through sixth.
And we had a blast. We took 14 kids. I had four
guys in my room, and I just had fourth and fifth
graders, incidentally, in my room. But, man,
we just had a blast. It was so much fun. And
so this camp, it's unlike anything we do with
student ministry. Because, I mean, during the
day, they've got things called tracks. where
first thing in the morning, there's a hype -up
worship rally where they play games, and there's
songs, and they're dancing. And then they go
do a Bible study with their Bible group leader.
And then they go do rec time, and they're winning
points and stuff. And then after lunch, they
do track time. And so whatever they signed up
for, like we had kids that signed up for soccer
and basketball, weird science. Weird science.
They made slime and Play -Doh and all kinds.
They had fun. Dude. So there's sports tracks,
but then there's other tracks too. There was
one that a couple of girls of ours were in called
No Boys Allowed. And I think from what they were
saying, it was like... They provided like nail
polish and stuff and they just, they hung out
and, and did girly. Wow. No boys allowed is crazy.
They did all kinds of fun stuff. Like, you know,
they asked for adult leaders to kind of help
out sometimes with some of these. So I was like,
can I go help out with that one? Just to be,
just to disrupt everything. Cause that's my motto.
But anyways, so to keep myself occupied, uh,
mentally and just to do something. crazy on this
trip. Uh, yeah, myself and a guy named Scott
that went with us, an adult leader, we decide,
and this is, it's a, the origin story of this
is so vague. We are still not a hundred percent
sure exactly how this challenge began. Okay.
All we know is it was a challenge that was set
and we answered the call. And the challenge was
every single meal while we were at camp breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, we would have to turn that
meal into tacos and tacos. So Picture this. In
our brains, we're going to camp. So we're thinking
we're going to have to turn chicken nuggets and
french fries into tacos at least five times.
And it was just going to be frozen fried food
and crappy cheeseburgers and all this kind of
stuff. But that's not what it was. So we went
to Ridgecrest. And Ridgecrest is an incredible
retreat center out in the mountains of North
Carolina, right outside of Black Mountain. Dude,
they served incredible food. Really? Night one,
they served brisket. Whoa. Night one. What? Yeah.
So y 'all had brisket tacos. We had brisket tacos.
We set the bar high and they were delicious.
Of course they were. So, I mean, really, it wasn't
much of a challenge because the challenge was
not overeating. Like that was the challenge.
Dang. Because it was such good food. we had french
fries one meal and so and they were waffle fries
so they were like really good fries okay so at
that point it's like it's a feature it's not
a bug so like i mean every i mean so yeah there
was some weird tacos we made there was you know
they gave you options right and so i chose not
to pick up this item so i didn't have to put
it in a taco fair but scott was like no i'm gonna
do it and i'm proud of him for that but corn
dog He had a corn dog taco. And so he was at
least wise enough to take the stick out. Okay,
good. Very good. And then just slapped the corn
dog on a soft taco shell. And yeah, too much
breading. Yeah, that one's a little weird. So
I will tell you the most interesting one. Okay.
So like the one that surprised me the most. The
one that surprised me the most was meatballs.
What? Yeah. So like it makes me next time I go
to Subway. Usually I don't order a meatball sub,
but this really makes me want to order a meatball
wrap now. Because it was really good. We had
meatballs, extra sauce, Parmesan, and we threw
some banana peppers on there. And man, it was
delish. You're going to get some weird looks,
dude. It was so good. It was so good. So if you're
interested in this journey, for whatever reason,
I don't know why you were, I made the dumb decision
to... to record this process all week long. And
so I have a TikTok. I had a total of three videos
on my TikTok before last week. And then every
single meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I
put it on the TikTok saying what it was, showing
us eating it. And so if you're interested and
you want to see all the different tacos we ate,
I don't know how to find my TikTok. I have no
idea what my handle is because I don't care.
But it's on there. Go look for it. And the reason
I'm talking like this too is because literally
about halfway through the week, I looked at Scott
and was like, why did I set this precedent? Why
did I start recording every single meal? I am,
I could never be in a social media influencer.
Cause I just don't care. You just, I just don't
care, but I started, so I had to finish. So I
did get every single meal. Did you become like
a little local celebrity for the kid? Like where
did the kids see this and like approach you?
Like, like, Oh, I got to go see Sean and Scott.
They're the taco guys. Um, so within our kids,
we had a couple of that. We had a little bit,
like they'd come in, like be interested. We did
get, some of the summer staff involved. In fact,
even the director of the camp. We were talking
with the director of the camp, and finally, the
last day, last meal, breakfast, she finally came
and ate a taco with us. You know what? That's
good. That's good. Well, you know, Sean, I can't
help but be reminded. So our text today. is really
centered around an encounter of somebody becoming
known for something and people wanting to approach
them, wanting access to this famous person. And
then we see that famous person's response, right?
I mean, it's a stretch, but yeah, we'll to go
with it. I'm working on it. Okay, listen, well,
you're talking about putting food in taco shells.
How on earth am I going to get this to land?
So I was thinking you were going to go with because
he uses a grain of wheat as an example in his.
So I didn't know if you were going to do something
with wheat being turned into taco shells. I thought
maybe you're going to go that route. No, I'm
a corn taco guy. I know I enjoy when I'm eating
like street tacos. Dude, you got to go corn.
You got to go corn every tradition. If I'm if
I'm doing tradition, Traditional tacos, corn
taco every time. If it's white people taco night,
we're going flour. We should get into our text.
Because you know we could talk about tacos forever.
I'm not the one with a taco emblazoned on my
left thigh. Hey, can I say one more thing? Sure.
You know what's really funny? What? Is that,
so we had that, I ate tacos every day for five
days. Yeah. So 15 tacos or 15 meals worth of
tacos at least, probably more. Guess what? Which
I'm setting it up, so it's not going to be much
of a guess, but guess when I came home and I
had dinner that night, do you know what I had
for dinner that night at my house? Did you have
tacos? I had tacos. Did Tiffany do it intentionally?
No. It was a leftover night. I could have chosen
many different options. I chose tacos. Wow. That's
really something, Sean. I deserve the brand that
I gave myself. True facts. So John 12, 20 through
26. I think this is August 4th. Smooth transition.
It is August 4th. So Sean, do you want to read
our text for today? You know what? I would love
to, because this is such an interesting passage,
right? Because this is one of those times where
people want to talk to Jesus, and then Jesus
responds and just... Like it feels like it's
out of left field. Well, and he gives a speech.
Yes. Like, like the next, uh, like the next.
Five days of reading or a continuation of what
starts here. Oh my gosh, yeah. But we, I mean,
and I was, as we were kind of preparing for this
podcast, I was looking like, man, we could really
cover days worth and just really look, I was
like, man, let's zero in on this beginning part
because there's so much interesting stuff in
just the very beginning of what he says. Yes.
And I think there's a lot of application that
we can give to our pursuers. And so, yeah, let
me just read August 4th. And so I'm reading from
the CSB. You can have a different translation,
but as best you can, follow along with me. Here's
what it says. Now, some Greeks were among those
who went up to worship at the festival, so they
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and requested of him, Sir, we want to see Jesus.
Well, Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew
and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus replied
to them, The hour has come for the Son of Man
to be glorified. Truly I tell you, unless a grain
of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains
by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.
The one who lives his life will lose it, and
the one who hates his life in this world will
keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me,
he must follow me where I am. There my servant
also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father
will honor him. There it is. There's our passage
that we're going to look at today. So like first
blush on this text, dude, like I love the almost
cartoonish intro. Yes. Like Greeks come to Philip.
Philip comes to Andrew. Andrew comes to Jesus.
Jesus, we got some Greeks that want to talk to
you. Well, like it feels like a who's on first
kind of deal. Like, hey, Philip, can we see him?
Andrew, should we get these? Let's ask Jesus,
you know? It's such a fun introduction. It really
is. So, but like, let's talk about these Greek
dudes a little. Context of this passage, remember,
we're in Holy Week, which is like the week that
Jesus was crucified. This is also Passover week.
So, the Jewish festival where they would celebrate.
you know, the deliverance from Egypt and how
God passed over the sins of the people who were
in Egypt, who had the blood at the post of the
doors. This is also near to the day of atonement
where the high priest would go into the temple
and give, you know, give blood sacrifices for
the people of God. And so if the Greeks are here
for the festival, It makes me wonder, were these
believing Greeks? Because we have records of,
I think they call them proselytes. We talked
about that in an earlier passage, where people
from different ethnicities other than Judaism
would join the family of God and worship Yahweh
that way. Do you think that that's what's going
on here? Yeah, I mean... There's one of two choices,
I think, in this. And this is either they are
ones that have been converted or they are extremely
interested because, I mean, if they are seeking
out Jesus. They showed up to Passover, number
one. Exactly. And so they are absolutely interested,
but I would lean definitely towards, I believe
that these are ones that are converts. Yeah.
And so like they go to Philip and Philip goes
to Andrew and then Andrew and Philip together
go to Jesus. And Jesus straight up does not answer
their question. Not at all. Like, not at all,
not at all. The hour has come for the Son of
Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you,
this is the ESV. Unless a grain of wheat falls
on the earth and dies, it remains alone. But
if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves
his life loses it. Whoever hates his life in
the world will keep it for eternal life. And
I could see Philip and Andrew just kind of like
looking at each other like, so is that a yes
or a no? But I mean, I feel like what Jesus is
saying here is like, They want to see me? They
want to see me? They're about to. Because the
glorification of his name that he's talking about
is his crucifixion. Yeah, so what he's referring
to is, I mean, that's what he says. He says,
the hour has come. I mean, it is about to happen.
And that's a theme throughout the book of John,
like where something will happen and Jesus will
say, my hour has not yet come. My hour has not
yet come. Like at the wedding at Cana, like his
first documented miracle in the book of John,
Mary's like, hey, Jesus, can you help these guys?
And he goes, my hour has not yet come. Which
is an interesting thing in and of itself. Like
Jesus is a single dude sitting at a wedding feast.
And he says, my hour has not yet come. And I
wonder, what's going through his mind? So Jesus
never married on this earth. He didn't have a
romantic relationship with anybody during his
time on earth. But the times that I have been
single at weddings, like before I married Maddie,
there was something internal, at least in my
own heart. And this has definitely been like...
superimposing his thought process on Jesus. Dude,
when I've been single at a wedding, I have sat
and looked and thought about my own wedding.
I wondered what that was like. I wondered what
the person was going to be like, who the woman
was going to be standing across the aisle from
me. Who's going to be in my wedding party? There's
a longing that came with that for me. And I can't
help but wonder when Jesus says that to Mary,
like my time has not yet come, and now him saying,
this is the hour. Like, Jesus is about to ransom
his bride. Like, the hour has come where he makes
a way for the people of God to have relationship
with him. And so, like, this is actually a really
weighty, weighty thing for him to say here. I
agree. And so, you know, and that's why I said,
like, on the surface level, he's not directly
responding to the question, which... That's,
I mean, that's Jesus, you know. His thought process
is so above all else. Classic Jesus. But I do
love, like, once he establishes, like, hey, the
hour has not, or the hour has come for the Son
of Man to be glorified. And these times, he's
like, are you ready for this? It's kind of like
what we're seeing here. And I find the illustration,
it's almost like a mini parable he gives right
here. Really interesting. I really love what
he does here. And so he says, truly, I tell you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and
dies, it remains by itself. And so I'm picturing
this in my brain and I'm loving this visual because
it shows you like, okay, the idea that he's given
is that the grain of wheat, It could stay, you
know, it could be plucked off and stay grain
forever, right? It's the same idea of like, you
know, we have packages of seeds, right? Yeah.
And you can have those seeds and those seeds
could stay seeds forever. Or if they're willing
to die to themselves, because that's what has
to happen in order for a tree, a. for something
to come out of that seed, the seed has to go
away. It's essentially what Jesus is saying.
That seed is never seen again. Yeah, it's gone.
It's gone because then it produces something
new. And so what Jesus is saying is that truly,
I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to
the ground and dies, it remains by itself. So
it's going to remain. Unless it does it, it's
going to remain in its original form. But if
it dies... It produces much fruit. And so it
really reminds me. And then he goes in and he
talks about, you know, he kind of explains it
a little bit. But when I first read that, I was
like, it reminded me of who I once was. And like,
I could have chosen to stay my old lost self.
But if I would have done that, if I would have
stayed as a grain of wheat of who I was, and
I would have not died to myself to follow Jesus.
I would have never experienced what it was to
produce the fruit that Jesus has put into me.
Yeah. And just to put it in more practical terms,
when I think back to high school, Sean, and if
you would have told high school Sean where I'm
sitting at today, there's no way I would have
believed it. Right, yeah. Because my mindset
was so radically different. I was not following
Jesus. I was following my own ways. I was not
willing to die to myself. In fact, that was one
of my biggest issues. I had all these people
telling me, you need to change. You need to be
different. You need to follow Jesus. And I was
like, forget you. I'm not doing that. I'm going
to live the lust of my heart, and I'm going to
live for myself because myself is what's most
important. And that's it. That's what Jesus is
saying. Like, hey, I'm about to be glorified.
And then he goes on. It's like the one who loves
his life will lose it. Will lose it. So, hey,
you want to stay in your old ways? You want to
hold on to that life that you think is so precious?
Guess what? It's not going to end well for you.
Well, and so Jesus establishes the principle
here, right? The hours come for him to be glorified.
Then he gives an analogy to explain it in earthly
terms. For the new thing to come, the old has
to die. And then he gives kind of the theological
backing for it in 25. Whoever loves his life
will lose it, and whoever hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life. Now, it's
important to recognize the words love and hate
mean a little bit of different things to us than
they do to the first -century Jewish audience.
You see it in Hebrews, this same love and hate
dynamic where it says God loved Jacob and hated
Esau. It's not like an actual love and hate emotionally
thing. It's a question of priorities. Yes. And
he clarifies that, too, with the hate. Yeah.
Because it's not just hates his life. It's hates
his life in this world. Yes. Yeah. And so he's
saying... the thing I am about to go through,
like this glorification that Jesus is referring
to that involves being publicly flogged and mocked
and crucified and losing all of his friends and
all that stuff is part of the dying to self thing.
And if, but here's the deal. If you love your
life on this earth, you're not willing to undergo
the process of crucifixion. Yeah. And physical
crucifixion is not what Jesus asks of all of
us, obviously, but he does say, if anyone would
come after me, let him take up his cross and
follow me. Yes. And I think we've all got our
own unique crucifixion -level agonies that we
wrestle with. Just based off of our own things
that we need to die to personally. And for everyone,
that's different. 100%. Right? We've got to look
at the things that, what is the thing that you're
holding on to dearly? Because I think there's
a lot of, there can be some things in different
people's lives that, you have not been willing
to give up for Jesus. Yeah. And that's the thing
that he's asking you to crucify. And, and it's
interesting. Like there's a real, there's a real
sense in which we put that on the cross. Jesus,
I lay this down. And there's a very real sense
where he helps you to do that as well. Oh, absolutely.
Like, cause, cause, cause I, it could be easy
to walk out of here being like, all right. I
have to find the seven things that I am refusing
to give up to give to God. It's like, no, no,
no, no, no. He's going to show you. He's going
to help you address those in his timing. And
he's going to show you what crucifying those
parts of your flesh. Well, and I truly believe
too that that's what you're saying. I mean, it's
not about like searching your heart because you're
not going to have to search your heart for these
things. Sometimes. I think that a lot of these,
especially if the Holy Spirit is dealing with
you in these, you're going to realize that this
is something that you are placing over the Lord.
It might not be something you've admitted out
loud, but you know that it is an idol in your
heart. Now, I do agree with you as well. There
could be times where we have mini idols, or miniature,
not mini, mini, M -I -N -I. We could have mini...
Not M -I -N -I -E, like Minnie Mouse? We could
have many. But there could be things that are
developing, and maybe we haven't realized that
this is going to be an issue yet. Blind spots.
But the Lord will show it to us. The Lord will
absolutely show it to us. You know, one of the
things I was thinking about, like the metaphor
of the seed that Jesus is talking about, one
of the things that I was thinking about with
the seed dying, multiplying great fruit, Practice
of dying to self is not just for individual spirituality.
This is one of the takeaways that I had for this.
Part of dying to ourselves is also how the church
functions. In a very real sense, if we all walk
in here with our own preferences, our own desires,
our own pet projects, and we refuse to die to
ourselves, around other believers, what you get
is a bunch of individual seeds in one bag that
don't grow. But if we are willing to die to ourselves
and let Christ be the one who sets that tempo,
like verse 26, if anybody serves me, he will
follow me. And where I am there, my servant will
be also. Then he will grow us together. Like
I think it's Colossians 1, growing up into Christ
who is the head of the church. But so, dude,
dying to ourselves in community, I think, can
be harder sometimes than dying to ourselves individually.
I can definitely see that in times where, especially
in church, that it can be so easy to become selfish
in how we want to worship God. And instead, the
church is a place to serve. We are the bride
of Christ, and we are to be here to help others
grow and to serve our Lord. And there could be
times that that can be difficult. I think it's
easy. to get in a church rut, you know, where
we do the same thing every week. And if we're
not careful, church does become tradition very
fast. You know, even just the getting up and
going, you know. And so that's something we have
to guard our hearts about, about like, is this
something where I have truly died to myself?
Yeah. And I am willing to go out there and realize
that I am here. The reason that I am at church
is to glorify God and to bring others closer
to him. Yeah, absolutely. And death to self is
the beginning. If it dies, it bears much fruit.
And I feel like that is definitely not a one
-time thing. Like, I'm not going to go out of
here and be like, Lord, show me all the idols
in my life so that I can die to myself. This
day, I'm dying to them all. Yes. Because, dude,
in the words of the prophet KB, your idols are
mimicking Jesus. You bury your sin in three days,
it's back up again. Huh? Your idols are mimicking.
I got it. I got it. I got it. Keep going. Keep
going. Like, I think that death to self is, I
mean, I think Jesus even says in the text we
quoted earlier, take up your cross daily and
follow him. You know what shows so clearly when
we're carrying our cross? Our weakness. Our inabilities
to carry it well. I think about Jesus. A couple
of days past our reading, we'll be into the passion
narrative where he buckles under the weight of
the wood on top of him. And I think that happens
to us sometimes too, man. as we're carrying our
cross, as we're doing the hard, heavy soul work
of asking the Lord to kill that flesh in us,
it can be really hard to carry that weight alone.
And I think that's another reason for community
in the church. The Lord is sufficient to kill
the idols in my life, to allow me to die to myself.
But as part of his design, he wants me to do
that in the community. Oh, we are absolutely
designed to be in community with each other,
especially in the church. Yeah. I mean, we are
supposed to be here to share each other's burdens,
to help each other through this journey. We can't
do it on our own. And even, I mean, is the church
imperfect? 100%. Are there people in the church
that are going to do something to upset you?
Guess what? We're all human. We're all flawed.
Absolutely. It's going to happen. And if it's
already happened, I'm here to tell you it's going
to happen again. That's what happens when you
have flawed humans. However, we're all on this
journey together from the top of the leadership
to the one that just walked in the door. We're
all in this journey together, and we are here
to be community and to guide each other as much
as we can. And so I think two takeaways that
I would love to give our people today and two
takeaways that I found for myself in this text
is, first of all, just very in line with what
we're saying, what are the areas that God is
calling you to die to yourself? Take that time
this week, maybe even hit and pause after this
podcast, and just asking the Lord, like, Holy
Spirit, will you show me the areas in my life
that you are calling me to be like this grain
of wheat? to fall to the earth and die? What
is choking out my relationship with you? And
actually, I was talking to somebody about this
passage earlier. And as a practical bit of advice
for those that are going through that, whatever
that thing is, when you've discovered what that
is, don't keep focusing on it. And what I mean
by that is, if you realize that you're struggling
with something, right? And you keep on telling
yourself, okay, don't do that, don't do that,
don't do that, don't do that, don't do that,
don't do that, don't do that. Well, guess what?
You're still thinking about it all the time.
Instead, focus on getting closer to Jesus. Because
what happens is whatever that thing you're struggling
with, it's good to recognize it, it's good to
pinpoint it, and it is great to realize this
is an area of struggle. We have to do that. After
that step, we go back to Jesus. Because what
happens is whatever that thing is, As you get
closer to Jesus and you get closer in his word
and the more that you abide in Jesus. the fruit
of the Spirit naturally comes. A hundred percent.
And as the fruit of the Spirit naturally comes,
that's when you're going to see those areas in
your life shrink. Where if you keep on waking
up every morning and instead of focusing on Jesus,
you're saying, okay, today I'm not going to do
this. Don't do this. Don't do this. Guess what?
You're going to be thinking about it all day
and you're going to struggle. Yeah. And I think
that's a very scriptural way to go about it.
The Book of Romans, like, do not be conformed
to the ways of this world. but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Or elsewhere, set
your mind on the things that are above where
Christ is. For to set your mind on the things
of flesh is death. It takes it that intense,
but to set your mind on Christ is life, and I
think a life abundantly. And so the other thing
that I wanted to point out to our people today
is this. If you see somebody around you, Like
a fellow brother or sister who is wrestling with
that dying process, who you see struggling to
bear their cross, help them carry it, man. Like
we were not made to do this alone. And if you
need some help carrying, take the courage through
the spirit to ask for help. Well, and that's
one of the things I was going to say to follow
up with that is that, especially when we go to
church, we're really good at putting on our happy
face. Cheese. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm
great. Living the dream. You're dying inside.
Straight up. And so, yes, we definitely, as ourselves,
we need to be honest with other people when they
ask us that question. But at the same time, if
we're genuine with the questions we ask people
and we're genuinely curious about the people
that we're around, we'll find out. 100%. So instead
of just doing the, oh, how are you doing this
morning? Why don't you ask some other questions
as well? And then the more questions you ask,
the more you'll get to the heart of how someone's
actually doing. And be willing to be brave with
safe people. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. Well,
strange benediction for a podcast at the end,
but I will say, you pursuers, go and die. Yeah,
I'll let you say that. It's a little intense,
isn't it? It is, but in the context of the podcast,
it makes sense. Yes, yes it does. It's been fun.
I'm Ben Smith. I'm Sean Griffin, y 'all. I don't
know. I definitely can't replicate whatever I
did in the beginning because I don't remember
what it was. Well, we'll have to edit that and
post it. I'll see you guys next week. All right.
Love you guys. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Pursuing Jesus
is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church in Norwood,
North Carolina.