What's up, Pursuing Jesus family? It is so good
to be back with you on another week of the Pursuing
Jesus podcast. Hello. What? I don't know. I don't
know. It was like an ad -lib. It was great. It
was great. No, it was fine. You said hello. There's
nothing wrong with what you just did. Why did
you react that way, Sean? Because I wasn't expecting
it. Dude, you got to work on your podcast technique
if you attempt to record with two people and
you get surprised when the other person says
something. Oh my gosh. Were you monologuing?
Is that what's going on here? No, I was actually
reaching the end of what I was planning on saying
and my brain was like, where do we take this
next? And then you helped. And I said hello.
You said hello. Is it me you're looking for?
I can see it in your eyes. I can see it in your
smile. I don't want to look at your eyes anymore.
You're making me uncomfortable. But when you
did sing it, the first thing I thought of was
trolls. I actually have never seen trolls. Oh,
well, it's good. Like I said, it's not something
like, oh my gosh, how dare you? Like, it's fine.
It's not like you haven't seen the Lord of the
Rings. It's got good music. It does have good
music. Okay, good music can absolutely carry
a film, though. Like, I'm a hot take here. Interstellar,
have you seen Interstellar? It's been a minute,
but yes, I've seen the movie. Would be an incredibly
slow, dry movie if Hans Zimmer hadn't wrote a
banger of a soundtrack. Yeah. Relies heavily
on church organ, incidentally. Like a lot of
the sounds you hear are... But I think it's like
the epicness of that movie, and it kind of needs
those epic sounds. Fair. Yeah. Fair. Well, Sean,
you know I always have a weird factor or a strange
question for you to start off. No, really? Is
that what you do? Don't give me that. I don't
need that today, okay? I'm sorry. I'm not caffeinated
enough for this. It is Monday. It is Monday for
us. Dude, they happen the same time every week.
No, we've been recording on Tuesdays. We've had
a whole day in the office. A whole two days in
the office because we would record at the end
of the day Tuesday, but now we're recording on
a Monday. It's a little different. It's a little
different. We're resetting. We're on a case of
the Mondays. I don't know that either. Okay,
what's your fact? Have you heard of Pando? Pandas?
Yeah, pandas are really cute. They have black
and white little bears. I've seen them in a zoo.
I will mute you. Oh, not panda. That's not what
you said. Pando, P -A -N -D -O. So is that a
male panda? No, it is not. But I appreciate the
throwback to Spanish word endings for now. I
don't know what a pando is, man. So the pando
is the largest living organism ever by weight
in the whole. world is this trees this is trees
but it is a tree so uh pando is the name of a
quaking aspen clone near seaver county utah and
like the fish lake national forest it is a single
organism all interconnected genetically identical
forest that all shares roots, that literally
stretches over 106 acres. It's a single organism.
So I'm pretty sure this was featured on one of
those National Geographic Discovery Blue Planet
documentaries that were really big a number of
years ago. Because I guess when you started talking,
I was like, I remember something about trees
and they're connected. Yeah, so I do know what
panda is. I just didn't know what it was called.
Yeah, it's a male panda. Thank you. Thank you.
No, I had never heard about it. And as I was
like doing some research on like cool wildlife
things, it came across my feet. I was like, this
is incredible. Like it's one living organism.
Cause like, like the question that I got it from
was like, what is the biggest living animal?
And I assumed it was like a, like a humpback
whale or something. And those, those bad boys
weigh tons and tons and tons. And then it was
like, no, that's not it. And it's like, okay,
well, is it like a dinosaur? Like we're assuming
by the fossils, how big was it? Like, no, dude,
it's a, it's a forest. Except for it's all one
big tree connected through roots. It's really
cool. Very, very cool. Very Avatar -esque. Very
Avatar -esque. Earth, wind, fire, water. Not
from that Avatar. Not the one you referenced.
Oh, you're talking about the blue people. Yeah,
because the whole planet's interconnected. Aren't
we all? You know, speaking of, so one thing I
found that was really interesting about Pando
is the way that it actually sustains itself.
So it's a forest, right? And so fires are a thing.
And so if part of the forest is destroyed, as
it has been by fires, the other parts of the
tree respond not like. separate trees, but a
little bit like our bodies respond to when we
have a cut. It sends resources from other parts
of the untouched forest into the burned parts
to heal it and sustain it. That's really cool.
It is cool. And I couldn't help but think, as
I thought about different parts of the forest
sustaining the parts that need sustenance, I
couldn't help but think of the first part of
John 15. Because, you know, he is the vine and
we are the branches. And if we're cut off from
the life source, we would die. Just like if one
single tree from Pando was separated, you know,
put into a different part of the park or even
just cut off by nature somehow, not being connected
to the whole would mean it running out of its
resources. Okay, so I understand the transition
you're doing. It was so smooth. It was really
good. But now I want to go back to the science
of this. Okay. Because you just said something
I wasn't even thinking about. And I don't know
if, like, is this true? Because it's a forest.
It's a forest. So we see visually separate trees.
Yes. But they are connected. But one of these
trees cannot live by itself. Cannot live by itself.
Really? See, now there's a fact I didn't know.
You can specifically, like. like give it the
nutrients that it exactly needs. Right, like
you could uproot it and try to plant it somewhere
else and do all the stuff you're supposed to
do. It was made to exist as part. It would be
like cutting off a small chunk of our cells and
setting it on the counter. It'll live for a while,
which is freaky in and of itself, but then it
dies. Yeah. Pando. Vine. Vine. It works. It works.
Man. That's really cool. Thank you. I spent a
lot of time trying to figure out how to land
these into our text for today. Well, you are
landing on a passage that is near and dear to
my heart. It is one. Near and dear. Yeah. So
someone, I don't even remember who now, but it
was years ago. Years ago. Years ago when I was
a young college student, someone preached. That
was years ago. So long ago. John 15. Someone
preached John 15. Yeah. And it impacted me. I
had the way he described Jesus and abiding with
Jesus and breaking down this illustration that
Jesus did, it impacted me. And it impacted me
so much that when I came here and we were trying
to figure out the direction of our ministry...
this was the passage that I went to to help direct
us in what we were going to do as a student ministry,
and it became our theme verse, verse 5 specifically.
Thus united. Thus united, yeah. So what are some
of the pieces of this text? And we should probably
read it. It's a short little bout of text here.
Yeah, well, I mean, it goes pretty far because
it flows into the love and all that. This is
part of Jesus' farewell discourse. Yeah. I think
we were talking about that off mic a little bit
earlier. This section of Scripture right in here,
especially hearing John, is so powerful. Because
we know, reading this, that Jesus knew his time
with his disciples was short. Right. And the
things that he talks about in the upper room...
and then in 15 and 16, and as he's going on,
it's like, okay, he is leaving these disciples
with these nuggets of gold. You open your Bible
and throw a dart to anywhere on the page, and
it's like, okay, these two verses are a sermon.
I mean, yeah, and especially when I opened it
up and we were looking at the passages that we
could cover for this week's podcast, and you're
looking at... All of this from John 14 and then
going into John 15 a little bit is like, man,
every day we could record a 30 -minute podcast
for this week because it is just such good stuff.
Yeah, so what was your question? I just went
off on a tangent. Well, I said that we should
read it, and then I was going to ask about what
makes this chunk of passage so incredible. Cool,
so you want to read it, and then I'll talk about
the passage a little bit, and we'll kind of bounce
off each other. Here to beat the illiteracy allegations,
here I go. John 15, 1 through 8. If you're following
along in your book, this is from August the 20th.
Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my Father
is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does
not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch
that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may
bear more fruit. Already you are clean because
of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither
can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine,
you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and
I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For
apart from me you can do. Nothing. If anyone
does not abide in me, he is thrown away like
a branch and withers. The branches are gathered,
thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide
in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever
you wish and it will be done for you. By this,
my father is glorified that you bear much fruit
and so prove to be my disciples. So here's why
this impacted me so much, these verses. Because
I remember as a young Christian, I was familiar
with this. I remember going through college or
at some point and learning about the I am statements
of Jesus. Those are found in John. I think there's
seven or eight of them. I can't remember. So
either was one of those. And he makes these I
am statements where he uses a symbolism to describe
who he is. Here he's talking about I am the vine,
and there's different ones. He talks about I
am the bread of life, I am the door, I am the
resurrection. And so there's all these different
statements, and they're only recorded in John.
And so I remember when I read this one as a very,
very young Christian, I got down to the end,
verse 8, my father is glorified by this. that
you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
Yeah. So what I got out of that by getting and
reading the end of this is, okay, cool. All right.
So my job is to produce fruit because that's
what glorifies God. Right? Because, I mean, you
get down to verse eight. My father is glorified
by this. All right. Here's a directive from Jesus
that you produce much fruit. Okay, cool. that's
what I got to do. Right. But that's when, and
so I never really thought about it again. Yeah.
Right. I did my study and whatever it was for.
And I was like, cool. And so I remember when
the guy came up there to preach this sermon and
in his sermon, he didn't know, but he was calling
me out for how wrong I was, you know? And, and,
and, but when those things happen and you can't
argue and you see the truth, you're like, wow,
like, man, I had, and then for him to explain
what happened. And so Really, when you look at
this and you don't just focus on the last verse,
the last verse makes sense when you look at it
as a whole. And so you have this really cool
picture where Jesus is saying he's the vine.
And so there's got a couple different parts.
One, so let's define the characters of the story,
right? So Jesus is the vine, the true vine. The
true vine. God is the gardener. Yep. Vine dresser
is what my translation says. Vine dresser. Way
cooler. And then... That is actually really cool,
right? Even that, and we'll get to another word
here in a couple of the verses. Anyways, and
then we are the branches, and that specifically
is talking about those who are believers in Jesus,
right? Which is part of the cool illustration
of how we can be grafted in, right? But anyways,
and so when he goes through here, really the
crux of this is verse 5. Verse 5 succinctly helps
define... What is our role, right? And he says
it actually a couple of times, but in verse 5,
he says, I am the vine, you are the branches.
The one who remains in me and I in him produces
much fruit. So now there's a little definition
or there's a little caveat. It's like, yes, you
are to produce much fruit, but there's only one
way you can produce fruit, and that's to remain
in. Jesus, or as verse 4 says, remain in me and
I in you, just as a branch is unable to produce
fruit by itself. So going back to your wonderful
illustration earlier, if we're not connected
to Jesus, We are not going to produce fruit.
So is producing fruit really the most important
thing? No. The most important thing is to remain
with Jesus. Yeah. Going back to how other translations
put this, I love when it uses the word abide.
Yeah. It is such a cool word, and I did research
on this word years ago, and it's really talking
about this place of... That's your home almost,
right? This is where you live. This is everything
for you. And so... really the most important
part of our life is I like, you know, I picture,
you can picture a grapevine, but for me, we live
in North Carolina and it's easier to picture
pine trees because I mean, that's why he used
a vine because they were everywhere. Anybody,
even if you weren't a farmer, grapevines were
everywhere. And so as soon as he used this illustration,
he was using something that people would have
known exactly. Oh, I can picture this in my brain.
Yeah. Right. So for me, I'm from North Carolina.
I picture evergreens. They're everywhere, right?
Yes. And so when I picture this and I see this
trunk, the vine, the main source right there,
and then I see the branch connecting to that
trunk, that connection right there, that's abiding.
Yeah. That's exactly where the branch and Jesus
meet, the branch and the vine meet. That's what's
most important. And what I've been able to learn
practically in my life is that when I focus on
Jesus, when everything in me is I'm just focusing
on Him, living for Him, trying to stay connected
in Him in everything I do, then the fruit comes
natural. When I take my focus off of Jesus...
and I start living for myself, or I start no
longer living for and trying to live the way
that Jesus wants me to, or I'm just losing focus,
just losing focus, then that's when the fruit
begins to fail, because I am now trying to be
my own source of life and not getting my source
of life from the only one who can truly give
me life, and that is Jesus. Right. Yeah, so...
I think this is just an incredible picture. But
you know what I love about this too? Yeah. Is
it's also a picture of the church because a vine
connects multiple branches. Yeah. You know? Absolutely.
And this is actually, so this is part of where
when we get united, it comes from that word abide.
That's why our student ministry is called United.
It's from John 15. And I tell our students, I
said, here's our purpose. I said, we want to
be, well, number one, we want to be united to
Jesus. So that's number one. We just talked about
that. Absolutely. And the next is we want to
be united to each other. Because if we're united
to Jesus and we're united to him, then guess
what? We're going to be united to all the other
branches as well. Absolutely. And so that's the
purpose statement of our ministry is unite to
Jesus, unite to others. And I feel like in uniting
to Jesus, like... that allows you uniting to
others to be through Jesus. Yes. We as humans
connect on many levels, like shared sports teams.
Go sports! Shared interests, being from the same
Hogwarts house there. I said one that involves
you. Thank you. And we can connect in various
ways, and that's good. Those are all good things.
But connecting through Jesus looks different
than that. Yes. I mean, even to use the Hogwarts
house as a bit of a silly analogy. No, but you're
a Slytherin and I'm a Gryffindor. It shouldn't
work. It shouldn't work. But because we have
the vine, we're not connected to each other.
We're connected to each other through the vine.
We're connected to each other through mutual
submission to the vine. Because Jesus is the
one who gets to decide how we connect. Jesus
is the one who instructs us to prefer one another.
Jesus is the one that instructs us to lay our
lives down for our brothers. And so you, though
a Gryffindor, I can vibe with. And I, though
a Slytherin, can make crafty plans still and
yet for your demise, Sean Gryffindor. I will
say this. One thing that stood out to me in reading
this again, even sitting down here, is the Father's
role as the vine dresser. Like elsewhere in Scripture,
and I was desperately trying to Google it while
you were talking a minute ago, but Paul talks
about the vines. He builds on Jesus' vine analogy
and talks about how the Father prunes the vines.
And not just prunes in a sense of like... Like,
oh, you're not bearing fruit, chop. Although
we should talk about that. But also in a sense
of like living vines that overgrow in the wrong
areas need to be pruned for the good of the overall
tree and for the good of the individual health
of the branch. It is hard to go through pruning.
One of the ways that I've been spending my time
lately is before work, I'll drive into Charlotte
and I'll go to a climbing gym. Oh, I thought
you were going to say you went to a garden and
you pruned stuff. No. Dude, I live in an apartment.
I go into a climbing gym in Charlotte, like rock
climbing. And can I tell you the process of pruning?
me to be better at climbing. Looks like Ben needs
to drop some weight and to be able to hold the
weight that he has with his hands. Both of those
things, both of those things are not enjoyable
for Ben Smith. It means a lot of cardio and a
heavy calorie restriction and a lot of hanging
on my hands. God bless him. Danny Mabry and I
were talking about this and he's like, we were
talking about me hanging a climbing trainer in
my office for my lunchtime. Dude, you just hang.
Until your fingers and your wrists burn out and
it's like, this is awful. I can't write anymore.
But that's physical pruning. Spiritual pruning,
I think, could be even harder. Absolutely. And
I see an impulse both in human nature in general
and in my own self to when I encounter things
that prune me, it's usually through pain. And
usually my first response is anger at the vine
dresser. Yeah. Like, God, this hurts. Ow! I don't
want to do this. Like, why does it have to hurt?
Didn't you promise me life and life abundantly?
And he did, but that pruning is the path to get
there. And that's hard, but we can trust our
father because though he is the vine dresser,
he also knows what we need before we ask. Yeah.
Have you ever watched videos of people making
bonsai trees out of just all kinds of different
kinds of trees? No, I haven't. It's really interesting
because I've seen... I was in a time where all
these internet videos that were going on, like
my TikTok or whatever, it was, for some reason,
tons of bonsai trees. It was just, because it
was fascinating to me. And what you notice is
you've got these people making decisions, and
when they're starting to do these cuts, it does,
to me, being someone that has no idea how to
make a bonsai tree or any of this stuff, it's
like, why would, like, that looked so good. Why
are you cutting that? Why are you doing that?
And it's relating back to what you're saying
is sometimes we look at our lives and we look,
it's like, God, why are you doing this to me?
This was going so well. That's what we feel.
Yeah. But we don't have the eternal perspective
that God does. We're able to look in the past,
and when we get through those difficult times
of pruning that we don't like, that's when all
of a sudden we go, aha. I now know why you were
preparing me for what you did. But that's only
at the end. But it's during those times that
sometimes we just say, God, what are you doing?
Why are you doing this in my life? I really enjoyed
having that in my life. I really enjoyed this,
whatever it is, and the different situations
we go through. And even as I've been preparing
for my sermon for Acts this week, I'm in chapter
16 where... Paul finally picks up Timothy and
they were going to head somewhere. And God's
like, no, you're not going there. Like they were
going somewhere to preach the gospel. Right.
And he's like, nope. And then they try to go
somewhere else. And he's like, ah, think again.
And then they, he ends up sending them to this
other part where they go into Asia and Asia is
able to start hearing the gospel. But it's like,
sometimes we even, there are good things that
we want to do in life. There are good desires.
Yep. Them going to these areas to preach the
gospel and to go encourage... Objectively good.
Objectively good. But sometimes God's going to
say, we need to get rid of good things in our
life because he's got a better plan for us. And
it's us being open and willing to listen to those
things. And better looks different for us than
it does to him. Oh, 100%. So that's exactly what
you're talking about in verses 5 and 6. Trying
to bear fruit apart from him, you can do nothing.
Even good things can be distractions. Even us
trying to do good things can actually be us making
spoiled fruit. My brain kept saying frozen fruit
for some reason. Even good things can morph into
spoiled fruit. Absolutely. If we're not careful.
But that's what it goes back to the abiding thing.
If we're walking that closely with Jesus, his
Holy Spirit speaks and he gives us specific directions.
Well, if we're trying to produce fruit on our
own, guess what? That's going to be some nasty
fruit. nasty fruit. And I think God, hear me
out, I think God calls different people to produce
different fruits in different seasons. Yes. Oh,
I'm tracking with you. Keep going. And so for
me to project my calling on somebody else is
encouraging them to produce spoiled fruit. I'll
give you an example. I have a dear friend who
is a tremendously accomplished musician. It's
like super duper duper good music. He plays better
than I do. He sings better than I do. He's got
thousands of dollars worth of gear and guitar.
Does he have longer hair? No, he does not. You
got that? That's the only thing I got on him.
He's really good. You want to know what he isn't?
What's that? A worship pastor. Oh, okay. Dude
works in finance. Interesting. He serves at his
local church. Yeah. But that is it. For me to
go to this guy and say, God has equipped you
mightily for this task. you should be a worship
pastor, is not only kind of like, oh, that's
not good. That is me trying to encourage him
to produce fruit in his own strength, because
that's not the calling that God's put on him.
There you go. Which is crazy to think about how
a good thing that sounds good can actually be
the exact opposite of the thing, the kind of
thing that gets pruned off and thrown in the
fire. Yeah. I even know guys who have pursued
things like that, and the Lord has not blessed
them in it. Why? He didn't ask them to do it
in the first place. Yeah. And this is something
that I think we've discussed a few times, and
there's no better place that we should want to
be than in the Lord's will, right? When we try
to make things happen on our own because we have
a desire. I'll actually give you the illustration
that I'm going to give to my students on Wednesday
night. Spoiler alert. Well, I guess you will
have said it already. This is that weird inception
thing that happens by recording on Monday. This
is happening both before and after Friday. The
once in future illustration. So early on in ministry,
early, early, before I had children early on
in ministry. Before you had a beard? Yeah, possibly.
Pre -beard Sean. Possibly. I can't remember.
This is a sidetrack. I had a beard. I had a beard
when I got married. And then at my honeymoon,
I shaved my head. I shaved my head and my beard.
At your honeymoon? Yeah. You're crazy for that.
Yeah. How did Tiffany take that? She did it.
She buzzed my head. I grew my hair out so I could
have like nice, like, like early two thousands,
my spiky hair and everything and did all that.
But then on the honey, we are off topic right
now. Anyways. So are you surprised? No, not at
all. I think they like our stories. I hope so.
Anyways. So early on, before I had kids, me and
Tiffany almost became missionaries to Italy.
Yo, no way. Yeah. Dead serious. Like we, we found
an organization. Yeah. We got accepted by that
organization. We were about to do like the vision
trip kind of stuff. And I mean, so once again.
Good goals. Good goals. Good things that we were
all looking forward to. And then the Lord was
just like, nope, that's not what I have for you.
What did that no look like? I'm so curious. That
no, oh man, I mean, this is a long time ago to
figure out the specifics of that. Yeah, just
top of like 40 ,000 feet view. It was a heart
change. And for us, I think that there was definitely
a lot of... We were early in ministry. Yeah.
I was not a full -time pastor yet. We were looking
at what is the ministry God has for us. Yeah.
And we definitely, like, I was recent within
the last five years of coming back from Argentina,
from living on the mission field for a year.
So I was like, man, I missed being on the mission
field in a different culture, in that kind of
context. So there was a lot of personal desire
there. And then even landing on Italy. There
was a lot of personal desires of us wanting to
go just to Italy. And then it ended. And we were
going to be doing children's ministry and youth
ministry. So all this stuff was working out.
And then once we got accepted by this organization,
I don't even remember who the organization was,
but once we got accepted by this organization,
we're like, oh, man, this is real. This is awesome.
We started to do the plans. And then we really
started to pray separately. I can't remember,
but I think maybe we were even scared to talk
to each other about it. Understandable. Because
separately we were like, ooh, I don't know if
this is right anymore. But then I remember we
finally had that conversation, and it was like,
okay, the Lord is preparing us for something
else. This is not it. Wow. The reason I ask,
it's relevant for our people. Just from a perspective
of looking to do good, unsure of how to proceed
forward, what does a no? But we have to be abiding
in our true vine, have to be abiding in him and
walking with him so that we can discern the path
ahead. Yeah. And he's kind for when we wander,
when we stumble. Man, it's one of the things
that I love about our God so much because we
are prone to wander. Yeah. We are prone to fail.
And our God is so incredibly loving and generous.
And it's a great reminder for us because, especially
for our pursuers out there, I mean, it's one
of the things that I know that I do as a pastor
that Ben does as a pastor. We're honest with
letting you guys know that we're on this journey
just like you guys are. And so when you fail,
get back up, keep going. The Lord's got you.
Absolutely. You know, Sean, with that, there's
kind of one more idea I want to tease out of
John 15, just to ask you. So like, verse two,
every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
he takes away. And every branch that does bear
fruit, he prunes so that it may make more fruit.
And then verse six, you know, if anybody does
not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch
and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown
into the fire and burned. What do you make of
that in terms of like, so is God saying that
like, if we don't produce fruit all the time
that we're destined for the fire? Like, is this
a fruit as evidence of salvation thing? Like,
what do you see there? Yeah, no, I don't think
this is one of those things where like, oh, this
branch is not producing fruit. You're a Christian,
but there's no fruit here. You're gone. What
I view this as is even if you just go out and
like... you know, once you go out and you look
up and you look at trees, you see dead branches.
They stand out. And if the branch is up there
and it might be up there, but it's not connected
to the tree. Now where that illustration falls
short is if it's a big branch, it once was connected
to the tree. But what I see here is that if there
is a branch that has not. produced fruit, it
has never been truly connected to the vine. Isn't
that interesting? And so, no. So this is not
a matter of losing salvation. But in our church,
you know, I think that there are people in our
church that are lost. Yeah. In every church.
In every church, absolutely. And I think that
with that, there are people that are learning
and that are growing. But I also believe, to
use another illustration that Jesus uses, there's
also wolves. And the shepherd is going to protect
the sheep from the wolves. Absolutely. And none
of those are fixed categories. No, not at all.
I firmly believe that a wolf doesn't have to
stay a wolf unless it wants to stay a wolf. I
believe that a dead branch doesn't have to stay
a dead branch unless it wants to stay a dead
branch. What is it that Tim Keller said one time?
At the end of the day, there's only two kinds
of people. There's the kind of people that say
to God, thy will be done, or that God says to
them in the end. thy will be done. And it's not
Tim Keller. It's the goat, C .S. Lewis. It just
took me a minute to remember it. Yeah, it's such
a good quote, man. Such a good quote. Oh, man.
Dude, I finished The Great Divorce, the book,
the C .S. Lewis book, a couple of days ago. Church,
if you've never read The Great Divorce, it is
allegory, so you've got to remember he's not
speaking literally about... a lot of things.
It's a really great window into like the human
condition and what we value and what we love,
particularly like the idols that we put before
our lives, um, or put in our, particularly the
idols in our lives, the things that we put before
Jesus, but that bits for free. That's just a
little side note as we end here. I love it, man.
Okay. Also, but like, as we close Friday, the
21st, that's, that's when this is going to come
out. If you're listening on Friday, right? Yeah.
That's a pretty special day, right? Planning
center tells me that there's a really special
day on Friday. The 21st is, is that Tiffany's
birthday? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you're listening
to this on Friday, it is my wife's birthday.
Happy hecking birthday, Tiffany. Um, uh, Sean,
Sean would Sean, uh, John didn't put me up to
this, but you know, whatever. yeah no we're good
so yeah it's her birthday so we're actually uh
so we're gonna be going out to eat tonight all
right now is this a surprise or is she finding
this out in real time No, it's like with her
family. Oh, with her. Okay, so she knows. This
isn't a surprise. Like, happy birthday, Tiffany.
This is your present. It's not like a promposal.
No, no, no. I think she would hate that. Oh,
man. If she doesn't even hate this. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, she's not going to be happy, probably.
We're spending this much time, so we're just
going to cut this off. We're just going to cut
this off. Pursuers, thank you guys for listening.
Abide in Christ and join the pando of your church.
That's all we got to say today. Goodbye, pandas.
Goodbye, pandas. That's our new day! Pursuing
Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church
in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about
our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.
This is how this is going to go. Okay. This is
great. Okay. Inner peace. Inner peace. Can we
do that again? Yes, we can. Thank you.