Where the Branch Meets the Vine

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.