When Mammon Fails

Well, what's up, Pursuing Jesus homies? We need

a fan. We need a name. Like a Pursuing Jesus

people. Because one of the podcasts I listen

to, they call their audience the third chair.

The third chair. Because it's two guys talking,

and then the audience is in the third chair.

So it makes sense. Like the 11th man at Texas

A &M. Exactly. So, I mean, we can't do that.

They have it. They have it. They've trademarked

it. They have the chair. It's their chair. Yeah.

So we can't say that, but we need a name. Pursuers?

Fellow pursuers? Fellow pursuers. You know, I

don't hate it. Pursuers. Pursuers, because we're

pursuing Jesus. The purses? No, absolutely not.

Overruled. Vetoed. We are not purses. We're handbags.

Pursuers is not bad. I feel like I couldn't go

better than that. Is there a movie called The

Pursuers? All that's coming up in my mind is

scenes from The Rescuers Down Under, like the

animated little mouse movie. Dude, that's a throwback.

Of course it is. It probably came out when you

were a kid. Pursuers is on the Dark Souls wiki.

Isn't that a game? Yes. Maybe not a game I would

recommend for anybody. No, I have not played

it. Man, this is two podcasts in a row now. You

and I have reference. Parents are like, oh, kids,

let's figure out what that is. Somebody come

get Sean. So I want you guys to know. Okay, you

want us guys to know. Listen up, pursuers. I

was going to say that. All right, pursuers. So

I did mention Good Morning Vietnam on the last

podcast. I went and Googled it when we left.

Of course. And it is rated R. Oh, Sean. Now,

with that said, I went to the, oh, what's the

parent website? PluggedIn. I went to PluggedIn.

Yeah. And it said that compared to today's PG

-13 movies, it's tame. What? Is what it said.

Isn't it usually the opposite, though? So here's

the crazy thing. You are correct, because I've

watched PG movies from the 80s and 90s with my

kids, and I'm like, I would never have thought

that would be in a PG movie. No. So somehow,

this one did the opposite. Interesting. Because

it really got me weird. I thought I was asked

to come on here and apologize. Yeah. I really

did. Because Robin Williams, his comedy, because

he's the star of the movie, he's not known for

clean comedy. Yeah. Now, he became known as a

family actor later on. Jumanji. Yes. Although

that movie traumatized the living junk out of

me. Flubber? Flubber was a great movie. That's

an awesome movie. It's an awesome movie. Yeah.

Patch Adams. See, we could go down the family

movies of Robin Williams. Exactly. He did a great

job. So since we're already on this trail, I'm

going to keep on going. So I saw a documentary

a while ago that talked about how... So Robin

Williams was one of the very first big -named...

actors to do a character role in a cartoon oh

right because if you think about it before that

it was just it was voice actors that's true they

did not advertise the name of the actors because

it was about the movie yeah so in his contract

with disney he he specified like hey i don't

want you to use my name as a big thing for this

movie. Interesting. But they ended up doing it

anyways because it's Robin Williams. Classic

Disney. Yeah, yeah, of course. But yeah, so like

the trend now, I mean, because every movie, it's

no longer voice actors except for the tiny roles.

Right. Every main character now is an actual

actor that people know their voice. Right. Kind

of an interesting transition that we have, and

it's all because of Robin Williams. It's all

because of Robin Williams. I mean, that's why,

like with the live action Moana, that like Dwayne

Johnson is coming back as, what is his name?

Mata Nui. Maui. His name is Maui. Have you seen

the pictures of that? I saw just one of the posters.

It looks weird. That man should not have hair.

Especially the luscious hair of Maui. Because

Maui's got good hair. Maui's got phenomenal hair.

Great, long, curly, thick hair. It looks awkward

on The Rock. Now, do you think it looks awkward

on The Rock because we've known him as Dwayne

the Bald Rock Johnson for so long? I don't know,

man. I've looked at the photos and it's just

weird. So I don't know. We'll get used to it.

I don't know if I'll go see that one. The live

action ones don't always tend to do what I want

them to do. So you're not on TikTok. I am not

on TikTok. TikTok is one of the only social media

platforms I am currently on. Wow. I've got rid

of the rest of them. But you've kept the most

potent. Because it's the least dangerous for

me. Really? Yeah, it really is. Okay. Instagram

is my worst. Instagram, to me, borderlines on

sinful. And it is for me. This is for me. I could

not. I was on it way too much. I got you. I could

not. I just was on it way too much. I used student

ministry and church as an excuse to keep it.

But it was way too much. And so that went away.

Snapchat, I just got bored with Snapchat. So

that was easy to get away. Instagram was tough,

though. When I deleted it, there was many times

I wanted to... Redownloaded it. Yeah. Redownloaded

it. More redownloaded it again. I wanted to do

that. Yes. But I've had it off my phone now for

over a year, maybe even over two years now. Look

at you. I can't remember. And now it's like once

you get away from social media, you just don't

care. Yeah. Going back to TikTok, the whole reason

we went on another rabbit trail. So there was

a woman that got famous for a very short, like

TikTok famous for a very short, like 10 second

video. Okay. And it's her. And she went to, it

looks like she's in a target or something like

that. Interesting. And the rock is being used

as an advertisement for shampoo. And so her whole

post, the entire post is her basically saying

kids follow your dreams. One day you can be bald

and advertise for shampoo too. That's serious.

What intern was like, oh, we need a celebrity

feature for old spice. So about the rock. So

the funny thing is he is bald in the, in the

picture. Oh yeah. Right. So evidently the rock

like commented back but not only that like sent

her crates of shampoo and is sending her family

out to now for the to hollywood you're kidding

for the premiere of uh moana like i saw a follow

-up to it i was like for a 10 second video that

you put up thinking that no one would watch it

right Because I don't think this woman had any

kind of following or anything. It was just a

mama posting what she thought was funny, and

it was funny. And then all of a sudden, all these

people see it, and now she gets a free trip to

Hollywood and all kinds of stuff. It's kind of

crazy. It's crazy how social media works. So

I'm going to put on my tinfoil hat for a second

here. Oh, I'm so ready for this. I bet that was

a psyop. I bet that was a plant. Not her, but

I bet they were fishing for it. Like, let's put

the rock on the shampoo thing and let's see who

responds to it. And then it allows us to do more

publicity. Publicity stunt. That's what I'm looking

for. It's a publicity stunt for the movie. That's

what I, you know, I'm not going to argue with

you on that one because I think you're making

valid points. That's the thing. The scary part

with conspiracy theories, publicity stunts, all

these things is that the more you open your eyes,

the more that you see. It's very true. Speaking

of seeing too much, um, next week. So actually

we're actually recording this episode a little

early, right? Pretty early, pretty early because

next week you are going to be somewhere special.

Yes. Um, some people in the church would call

it a vacation and I slapped those people. You

slap those people in the name of the Lord. I

rebuke you. This is some church members. Listen,

the one thing you don't want to do to your youth

pastor, the one I'm here to help you. I'm here

to guide you. I'm here to shepherd you. Yep.

When I get back from a mission trip where I have

been on call for 24 -7 for seven days, please

don't say, how was your vacation? It has happened

before. It has happened in this church. And it

is good -hearted people that I will not slap

because I love them so much. But it still stings.

It still stings to call what I just did a vacation

because it was very far from it. I did not sleep

much because I was worried about what the boys

were going to be doing. while I was sleeping.

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair, Sean. Yeah, yeah.

So what actually are you doing? So for those

of you who don't know, so we are taking our students

on a trip called Mission Serve. So we don't do

a typical summer camp that many student ministries

do. I think summer camp has a great place. I'm

not knocking summer camp. We just do something

different. And so Mission Serve is kind of like

taking a mission trip and a summer camp. and

they had a baby together and out popped Mission

Serve. Okay. I know I could have said that a

different way, but I thought that was funny.

So Mission Serve is a combination of a summer

camp and a mission trip. And so the reason is

a whole bunch of churches come together. We usually

stay at a church. This year we're staying at

a brand new built middle school. So we should

have good AC and all that kind of stuff. Decent

showers? It'll still be shower trailers. I'm

assuming the new schools don't build showers

anymore. What? I would assume so. Under what

circumstances? Do kids not shower anymore? I

don't know. I mean, I just lather up an ax body

spray and move on. I don't think kids shower

at school anymore. I know when I was growing

up, my middle school had a shower room and it

was one big room with a whole bunch of shower

heads. Terrifying, honestly. Oh my gosh. Yeah,

I remember walking in there from elementary school

and walking to the locker room after PE, just

staring at that room like, does that, do I have

to use that? Maybe that's why they don't build

shower rooms. So anyways, we'll have shower trailers,

but usually they're pretty nice. But going back

to Mission Serve, and so it's an incredible time.

So we'll be there with about eight other churches.

And so I think there's over 200, maybe over 250

participants at the location we're going to.

We're going to be in Saluda, South Carolina.

So they're going to mix us all up. So they're

going to mix all the churches up. And I think

we've got about 12 that what they call squads

or teams. Okay. And so each team has its own

work site. And so like the squad that I'm on,

I'll have a couple people from our church, but

then a bunch of people from other churches too.

So I love that. So it gives our students the

opportunity where you're not just hanging out

with other kids. You're working alongside them

doing mission work. So the bonds that they create

next week or technically. We're going to be almost

at the end of it while y 'all are listening to

this. But the bonds they have created are going

to go with them for years. That's awesome. I

have students that still have Snapchat groups

or text groups from mission serve groups they

had years and years ago. And they all talk to

each other. Hey, where are y 'all going this

year? What did you do? And so it's really fun.

That's huge, dude. I love that. And so I'm very

excited. We're taking a great group. We've got

a little over 50 people going with us. Wow. And

it is going to be amazing. So church. Let's say

this is going to release on Friday. We are going

to be heading home on Saturday. And so really,

by the time you're listening to this, we could

possibly be done beyond the way back or, you

know, it's the last night. And so pray for safe

travels and Sean saying there you go and pray

for a good night's rest Saturday night. And you'll

know if I get it when you see me Sunday. That's

that's also fair. I can picture you coming up

on stage with a cup of coffee in your hand or

a Celsius. or something and it'll be father's

day so like i'm just i'm just gonna i'm gonna

act like i'm in character i'm like i'm like your

typical dad getting on stage with his coffee

everybody be like oh he's just doing a bit no

i just need my coffee do you have like a number

one dad bug that you could use dude i have a

dad i have a mug that says super dad on it and

i use it all the time so you're welcome so you're

welcome yeah yeah so i have to ask with mission

serve Yes. What? Like, do you have a funny story?

Scariest thing that's ever happened at Mission

Serve. Funniest thing that's ever happened to

Mission Serve. Now, scary. One year, this would

happen with the girls. So I can't comment fully

on this. Okay. But we stayed at a very old church

and the girls were like on the third floor, like

almost an attic. Maybe it was an attic at one

point, but now it's Sunday school classrooms.

And the adult leaders did like ghost stories

one night. And this was like 6 ,000 years ago.

This was a long time ago. And just scared. Ghost

stories on a mission trip is crazy. And evidently,

they planted a Bluetooth speaker somewhere. Oh,

come on. And it freaked out some girls. There

were some girls freaked out from that one. But

we'll have to get somebody that was there to

tell that story. Now, what I got to see. So pranks

is a part of mission serve. Okay. Right? And

we... Sometimes we have to reel it in. As teenagers

can do, it's always about one -upping. And so

if the pranks start really hard on Monday...

By Friday, it's more. So most of the time, it's

not bad. So this was four or five years ago.

So there was a young man named Ethan Smith. Okay.

Ethan Smith is still part of our group and going

to be going to Mission Surf with us next week.

And Ethan Smith... Uh, the guys decided ahead

of time they were going to, and this was probably

a group of like eight. Ethan, I think was in

middle school at the time. Okay. And this was

like big football player, high school students

were like, we're going to duct tape him. What?

Yeah, like duct tape his legs together. Duct

tape his arms together. Like not his body, but

like basically like get him like trapped. Yeah.

Like his legs and then try it. And I think they

were even going to try to like get it where like

once they got his arms and once they got his

legs, like duct tape those together, his arms

and his legs. They're going to hog tie this poor

boy? Yes, yes. They're going to try. And so me

and a bunch of the other men, like they came

to us first and they're like, can we do this?

And we're like. Let's see how this goes. What?

Because we know the guys and we know their heart.

It was not out of meanness they were doing this.

So, the story. They get Ethan. Yeah. They start

trapping him. Yeah. They start putting duct tape

on him. Yeah. They cannot get him. The boy was...

He... was overpowering these eight high school

boys. You're kidding. No, they were never, they

were never able to get. And like, so it turned

into something where all of us adults and other

people in the room, like go, Ethan, go, go. Like

we're cheering him on. And like, you know, he's

starting to get a little, a little frustrated,

but it didn't get too far to control. So we were

just letting it go. And then finally the guys

were like, we're done. We can't do it. You're

kidding. And so like, we're high five and Ethan,

like, dude, that was amazing. I think I had a

video of it at one point. point and so it was

pretty fun little david and goliath it was it

exactly was and so that's what i'm saying you

you we know our guys yeah and if like some boys

would have come up to me asking me if they could

do that i've been like no under no circumstances

but because of the situation we're like let's

see how it plays out and i'm so glad i did because

like that is like That is a story that will live

infamously with Ethan forever. Yeah, he's going

to get to go to therapy for that, Sean. He won.

He won. Well, maybe those boys will get to go

to therapy because they were overpowered by a

middle school boy that they were trying to duct

tape. Yeah, that's their own fault. Fair enough.

Best of luck on Mission Serve. I guess in the

future, I hope Mission Serve has gone well? This

podcast operates outside of time. I don't know

what to do with that. Anyways, do you want to

dig into some scripture, pursuing Jesus this

week? I think we should now. I think we should

start looking at the devotional and some of the

passages, because there were some wild passages

this week. No doubt. No doubt. Do you mind if

I kick this thing off? I would like nothing else.

Nothing else? Well, you'll get more than that.

But here we go. So I want to talk about June

the 13th. Cause like this parable, like I spent

a lot of time here cause I felt like it was,

I had difficulty with my interpretation of this,

but once I felt, I'm assuming you're talking

about the very beginning. Uh, yes. Yeah. Cause

this one, it's all, it's a difficult one to understand.

Yeah, it is. You can wrestle with it. You can.

So let's, uh, let's, let's give the, the high

level summary of it. Cause it's, it's a pretty

big chunk of text. Yeah. Go ahead. Luke. starting

in verse 1, Jesus tells a parable where a rich

man has a manager who gets accused of wasting

his possessions. Rich man calls him in. It's

like, hey, you're done. Let me see your accounts.

In the process of settling the accounts, this

manager starts writing off the debts of the people

who owe the rich guy money, but shorting them.

Yeah, yeah. You owe 100, now you only owe 75.

Like that kind of thing. Correct. Yeah. The master

commended, and this is a direct quote from verse

8 now, the master commended the dishonest manager

for his shrewdness. Did you just say he commended?

Commended. Wow. And so Jesus is telling this

parable, and then he goes on to say, for the

sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing

with their own generation than the sons of light.

And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by

means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it

fails, they may receive you into the eternal

dwellings. Interesting. And I'm like, what? Yeah.

Because in context here, the chapter before this,

you've got the parable of the lost sheep, you've

got the lady with the lost coin, and the parable

of the prodigal son, all of which the master

figure, the father, the judge, the shepherd,

is in the parable. Yes. And it's portrayed as

Jesus or the Father. Yeah, Jesus is that main

hierarchical character in each of those stories.

So initially I tripped on this passage because

it was like... So Jesus condones lying? So you're

saying at first reading, you could think that

Jesus is the rich man. Correct. At first reading,

you could think Jesus is the rich man. Yeah,

and I'm sure many people might have done that.

Yes, and so I really struggled with this one

initially because it's like, but this goes against

everything I've seen in Scripture up until this

point. What do I do with this? And usually that's

a good indication. Whenever something like that

is happening, I would say every time it's not

scripture that's wrong, it's our interpretation

of scripture. Correct. So that should cause us

to dig deep and not just be like, oh, that's

weird. Right. So you dug deep. So yes, more than

maybe I would have liked to for this passage.

So when Jesus says crazy stuff. usually I feel

like there's a deeper message that's really,

really good under there. Um, and man, I was digging

for it, but, uh, one of the passages. So one

of the things that I often do that I learned

this from my time at Cedarville, uh, the college

that I'm shout out mascot of Cedarville, um,

go yellow jackets. Really? Yes. You could have

given me 10 guesses and that would have not been

anywhere in there. At another point, I will tell

the story of where a language barrier made that

really, really funny. Okay. This is a big story.

I don't want to get a sidetrack, but yes. Wow.

I want to bring that back up. Go bees. Okay.

Anyways. Yes. So one of the things that I learned

at Cedarville, shout out to the Yellow Jackets,

is that when you have a passage you're struggling

to interpret, you want to always interpret scripture

with scripture. Absolutely. That's a principle

that's helpful when you're coming across a hard

path. Good job, prof. Exactly. Yeah. So two things

that helped me get a different lens for this

passage. One of them I landed was Micah 6 .8.

What does the Lord require of you but to seek

justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your

God? And so I feel like that sets up a framework

that feels prohibitive for the practice of selling

short somebody else's debts just to get yourself

out of trouble. The second piece of scripture

that I found that was helpful for my interpretation

of this passage is the latter portion of our

reading for this day, verses 10 through 11. The

one who is faithful in very little is also faithful

in much. And the one who is dishonest in very

little is also dishonest in much. If then you

have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth,

who will entrust you to the true riches? And

if you have not been faithful in that which is

another's, who will give you that which is your

own? And so like it reframed this whole passage

for me as a question of faithfulness. Yeah. So

you look at the dishonest manager and you see

that even before he's accused of dishonesty.

he was not being faithful with his master's assets.

Correct. Right? And so that's what leads to this

problem. That's why he's being fired. Yes. But

even in his removal, you see more of his character.

Think about it. He's never been faithful with

this guy's stuff. Why would he start now? Yeah,

my translation in verse 1 says he was squandering

his... They're squandering his possessions. Correct.

Yeah. And so you see a character thing of faithfulness

versus unfaithfulness. And that's the lens with

which I read this. And I can even hear Jesus

maybe tongue in cheek, sarcastically saying,

and I tell you, make friends for yourselves by

means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails,

because it will fail, they may receive you into

the eternal dwellings. That sounds a little bit

to me like you better make friends with the people

that you're going to spend eternity with. I don't

know. One other thing that is super interesting

to me is the word that we see here. Jesus repeats

the phrase often, unrighteous wealth. Yeah. There's

a little footnote in my Bible. Okay. The direct

Greek here for wealth is called mammon. which

is a Greekification of a Jewish word that can

mean money or possessions, right? Yes. But it

most literally translates to that which is trusted

in. Interesting. So reframe that in verse 10.

Those who are faithful with little are also faithful

with much. And one who is dishonest with very

little is also dishonest with much. If then you

who have not been faithful with... The thing

you trusted in, who will entrust you to true

riches? And so part of the, one of the other

things that I drew out of this is where has been

putting his trust. Lack of trust is what can

lead us to the unfaithfulness that we see in

the servant. And so if we don't, because we can

trust in many things. Money is the example that

Jesus uses in this podcast, mercy malarkey. Money

is one of the things that Jesus uses in this

piece of scripture, but there is much that we

can trust in that can't actually bear the weight

of the trust that we're putting on it. So this

was kind of a theme of my message last night

with our students. Hit me with it. And we were

talking a little bit about idolatry. because

we're going through Acts, which is kind of fun.

I mentioned it a little bit, but we're going

through Galatians, and we're currently at the

part of Acts on Wednesday night with our students

where we're going through the churches of Galatia.

Yeah. And one of them, they show up in Lystra,

and they call Paul Hermes, and they call Barnabas

Zeus. Right. And so I use that to talk about,

well, hey, no one's calling us gods, but what

are the gods that we might have, and we have

idolatry. And it's really, and we are talking

about, okay, what are the things you placed your

trust in is where we ended up getting through

this passage. Yeah. And it's kind of that same

idea of, okay, are you trusting in the praise

of others? Right? Because that's a big thing.

And I didn't even say teenage culture. I just

said our culture because so many of us, we are.

We, instead of pursuing Jesus, we're pursuing

the praise of other people. Absolutely. But the

thing that I was trying to get them to realize

was that whenever you take anything besides Jesus

as the thing that you're placing your trust in,

I use the example of how all of these things

are like salt water when you're lost at sea.

Oh, that's a phenomenal example. Because when

you're lost at sea, one of the things that you

hear all the time is not to drink the salt water.

Because if you drink the salt water, it's actually

going to make you more thirsty and desire more

water. So that's exactly what it means to trust

in something that's not Jesus. If you put anything

in that place, whatever it is in your life, because

like you said, there could be so many things.

It's not just money. But whatever that is that

you're placing your trust in, the more you desire

it, the more you're going to want. And it will

never satisfy. In fact, it's going to make you

more hungry or more thirsty and more thirsty

and more thirsty. Isn't that such an interesting

pattern? Yeah. I feel like as humans, we intentionally,

unintentionally, like elements of both, we intentionally,

unintentionally seek ultimate fulfillment. Yeah.

Right? Like in anything. One example of this

I'll give in my own life is a beloved video game

that I loved to play as a young kid, Lego Star

Wars, A Complete Saga. I put that bad boy on

my Nintendo. We play it often. Mom would say,

okay, dude, one more level and then it's time

for dinner or then it's time to do your homework

or then it's time to stop rotting your brain

with this video game, right? And I would finish

that level and the very next thing, one more,

come on, please, please, one more, one more,

one more. We never find the ultimate fulfillment

of any desire that we have in the stuff that

we have on earth. I firmly believe that is because

it is made to point us to the greater fulfillment

in Christ. Yeah, absolutely. And like we see

that in this text too, verse nine, so that when

mammon fails, they may receive you into the eternal

dwellings. Like, dude. It doesn't matter how

high you stack your cards. Eventually, that card

tower is going to fall. But I also think that

sometimes you have to have a couple of card towers

fall to recognize the genuine article. Absolutely.

I think you're right. And I think this is a good

time for our pursuers listening to really take

self -reflection and think, because I think there

is something in all of our lives that is... we

struggle with trying to take the place of God

in our life. And so for everyone listening, it's

really this is that time to reflect and be like,

okay, what is that thing in my life? What is

that thing that I am tempted to continue to go

after more than Jesus? Absolutely. And for you,

when you discover what that is, that's where

you know you've got to be careful. Yeah. Because

a lot of times, because here's the scary part,

that a lot of these things in and of themselves,

like money, It's not a bad thing. No. Not a bad

thing at all. Nowhere is Jesus condemning someone

for being wealthy just because they're wealthy.

Right. It's not about the money. And so the same

is true with anything in our lives that is not

a sinful thing. There could be sinful things,

but where it's more dangerous is where it's not

a sinful thing. Yeah. It is something that is

morally acceptable. However... When you place

that thing above Jesus with importance and you

pursue that more than Jesus, that's where it

gets dangerous. Absolutely. So the question becomes,

how do we find it? I find it a rule in my own

life that, dude, it's so easy sometimes to point

out other people's blind spots, right? And that

in and of itself can be like... maybe not even

real blind spots, but elevating my preferences

to biblical standard and then holding somebody

else to it. Right. But like, so what does it

look like to find the blind spots in our lives

that where we realize like, Oh junk, this, this

is actually something that I give worship to.

You ever looked at a where's Waldo book? Yes,

I have. Yeah. They're really fun. Right. And,

and a lot of times, man, Waldo can be difficult

to spot, right? He really can. But once you find

him, you know where he's at. You can't unsee

him. No, you see that, right? You see him from

now on. You're going to see where Waldo is every

single time because you found him. The same is

true with this as well. And so a lot of it is

just really like, if this is truly the desire

of your heart, ask the Lord to help you. He will

show you these things. And then once you see

it, you're going to start to see the different

things in your life that say, oh, I got to be

careful with this. You know, I mean, going back

to what I talked about at the beginning with

social media in my life, you know, I started

to realize how much I was looking at the likes

on my posts and how many followers I was gaining

and all the different stuff. And like, it was

going down. Like I was searching for validation.

Yeah. within those things. And I realized, and

once I saw the danger, I was like, nah, this

has got to go. It's got to go. I mean, so what

you're saying, that searching for validation,

that's a question of your affections. That's

a question of your loves. And I feel like the

next Devo, like the, what is this, the 14th?

The 14th speaks to that too, right? At the very

beginning, Jesus says, It's Luke 16, 13 through

18. No servant can serve two masters, for either

he will hate the one and love the other, or he

will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God. And there it is again,

mammon, the thing that is most trusted in. It's

a question of your loves. And so maybe one of

the ways that we find what that small G God is

in our lives is to look at what we're devoted

to. Like the thing that when... you've planned

on it in your day and it goes awry that your

heart goes, no, you know, the thing that when

somebody asks you, Hey, is this, is this good

for you? That internally you have that rise up

and of you, of course it is. And who are you

to tell me what to do? You know, you look at

where you feel threatened in that regard. And

that could be one of the ways that the spirit

shows you what those gods are in your life. and

I believe that kind of like with the Where's

Waldo thing, once you get the glimmer of whatever

this thing is, it's going to become more obvious.

But a lot of times we are blinded. by our own

downfalls until we start to see it. And then

once we start to see it, we realize, oh, this

is a big problem. It's just getting to that point.

And it's allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to

you and to listen to what the Holy Spirit is

telling you. And then when you do that, man,

it's going to be so much better to start to realize,

okay, this is an issue. this is not necessarily

a sinful thing, but it has become a sinful thing

in my life. Yes, it has outgrown its natural

boundaries. So again, if you guys get kind of

nothing else from today, in spite of the mission

serve and the revisiting R -rated movies, take

a second in your car, on your couch, in your

cubicle, any of the other places that you might

be listening to this podcast, and ask the Holy

Spirit. will you show me the areas that I have

elevated to your place? Will you show me who

my two masters are? Because Lord, I know you.

You promised that my sheep hear my voice and

they will not listen to another. And I am beginning

to turn my ears. And so that's a prayer that

we, that Sean and I need to offer the Lord. That's

a prayer that you need to offer the Lord. And

I think that that's part of a regular practice

of pursuing. A hundred percent. Yeah. Well, it's

been fun, dude. Man, that was good. That went

by quick. Yeah, time flies when you're talking

about mammon. It doesn't work. It doesn't have

a good ring to it. No, I think we should just

end it there. You think we should just end it

there? I think we're done. Pursuing Jesus is

a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church in Norwood,

North Carolina. To learn more about our church,

please visit memorial4norwood .com.