Dig Around the Roots

Welcome to today's podcast of Pursuing Jesus.

Today, we're going to spend time talking about

repentance, digging out the roots and fertilizing

those things. So let's dig right into the scriptures

and hope you enjoy. Well, hi -dee -ho, everybody.

How we doing? This is Pursuing Jesus. Hi -ho.

It's off the podcast we go. Hi -ho, hi -ho, hi

-ho, hi -ho. Hi -ho! I wasn't ready for that.

I don't know. I feel like I actually held that

note. You did. That was pretty good projection.

Dang. For my non -singing self. You do have a

singing voice. You just deny it. Okay. Okay,

we'll leave it there. John, I want to make sure

you caught that. He said okay, which is akin

to yes. So I expect to see you at choir practice.

It's 8 p .m. Wednesday night. That's the problem.

I'm busy. I've got to clean up the gym, the youth

building. Usually I'm out of here by like 8 .30

on most nights. This reminds me of a story in

the Bible where Jesus called his disciples, and

this guy's like, sorry, dude, I've got to go

bury my dad. And Jesus is like, let the dead

bury their own dead. And so I would say to you,

my ministry is don't go down this route. Don't

go down this route. It's not going to look good

for either one of us. John's just shaking his

head. Oh man. Well, John, I actually have a question

for you to kind of start out with. This is, I've

been pondering on this really all week. So, you

know, you have Holy Week. You know, you've got

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday. What is it? Something

Saturday. Silent Saturday. Silent Saturday, Eastern

Sunday. But on which day of Holy Week did Jesus

hand out high fives during his earthly ministry?

Huh? Hold on. It's a dad joke. Yeah, I figured

as much. I'm trying to figure it out. High fives

on Holy Week. Which day did he hand out high

fives? Taco Tuesday? Palm Sunday. Gosh, it's

so obvious. I'm so mad at myself now. It is so

obvious. I've been sitting on that for a while.

The amount of strength that it has taken for

me not to tell either of you that in person at

some point in the office today so that I could

get the real full... Oh, man. That's a good one.

It's so gratifying. No, that is not a good one.

Oh, it was good. Oh, man. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll be here all week. Oh, man. Well, I don't

know what to follow with that one. I think the

best way to follow it up is to dig into the passage.

It's to dig into the passage. Yeah. All right.

Well, I took Thursdays, the 21st, from Luke 13,

1 to 5. And I took this passage mainly because

it's dealing with the idea of repentance. And

it has a lot of... I don't know. I would say

it deals with a lot of things that we deal with.

And I guess the easiest way would be for me to

read the part that I'm talking about. And starting

in verse 2, it says, And Jesus responded to them,

Do you think that these Galileans were worse

sinners than all the other Galileans just because

they have suffered this fate? No, I tell you,

but unless you repent, you'll all likewise perish.

And oftentimes we think that... based on what's

going on in someone's life, that because of the

way they're being punished or because of the

difficulties they're going through, it's because

they're worse sinners than everybody else. what

Jesus was trying to imply here is that, no, we

all need to repent. We don't need to gauge it

or we don't need to categorize it because of

what happens to somebody thinking they have to

be a worse sinner than we are. And we're guilty

of that a lot of times, of looking at people

and thinking that they're worse than we are.

And Jesus is saying, even though these guys,

their blood was mingled, and then later because

of a tower falling on some people, verse four,

he says, no, he says, the truth is, is we all

likewise perish. We all must repent. It doesn't

matter how we go. It matters about how we live.

And so I just, you know, I look at that. I think

that sometimes we, we want to gauge somebody's

life. based on what's going on in their lives.

In other words, if they're suffering, if they're

going through a hardship, it's got to be because

of sin. And that's not the reality. The reality

is different people go through different stages

in life because God is trying to teach us different

things. But the truth of the matter is we're

all sinful. We all fall short. We all need to

repent. Yeah. I mean, that is absolutely true.

The universal nature of our need for a Savior

outside of ourselves. In reading this narrative,

though, it looks like to me that this was a current

event. While Jesus is teaching, people are like,

Jesus, have you heard? It's the water cooler

talk of the day. Yeah. And like classic Jesus,

he takes people from the physical to the spiritual.

But I also think that it's an interesting response

to what this very thing is. Pilate mingling the

blood of the Gentiles with their sacrifices would

have been shocking. Shocking. I mean, this is

akin to, what was the name of that Greek dude

who, in the intertestamental period? Antiochus

Epiphanius. Yeah. Sacrificing the pig. Sacrificing

the pig on the altar. Oh, yeah, that guy. At

the temple. But this would have been a desecrated,

like a desecrating thing. That would have been

considered unclean. Yeah. But Jesus. Jesus takes

the horror that they're feeling and kind of applies

it to everybody. I almost feel like there's mercy

in that. Jesus' call to repentance isn't him

standing up there, I'm going to get you, I'm

going to get you. His design here, I mean, he's

using a hard, awful, scary thing that happened

in his time where people saw it, people would

have talked about it. to show us all how hard

and scary our sin is. I mean, people assuming

here in asking Jesus about these Gentiles that

their bad fate, like you said, correlated with

their bad sin. But Jesus is like, dude, it's

all bad. Yeah. It's all bad. And so repentance

is offered to you. Because without that repentance

that he ends up making a way for, we would all

be dead as the tragedy with the Galileans or

the people that the tower fell on. And I think

it's interesting. Both of these current events

that he talks about were not of the fault of

the person directly. A sacrilegious act was performed,

and then these people just happened to die in

an accident. And so I think, you know, that is

once again on purpose of, as you said, Jesus

was taking these events and helping people to

see something that they've probably they're dealing

with in their hearts. But him like, hey, like

this is this is how you need to view this. And

then if we if Jesus is viewing it in this way,

we also need to realize that the opposite is

true, too, because one of the things I see today

is people blaming God. for their misfortunes.

They're like, oh God, if God was real, why would

he allow this to happen? And that's a dangerous,

hard question to go down. I mean, one of the

biggest questions that we know as pastors that

keeps people from Christianity, from believing

in God is why do bad things happen to good people?

Like that is just a big question that people,

when people can really, truly wrestle with that

question, but it's going here. It's like, hey,

just your actions does not mean. God is punishing

you for something you've done. We're all on the

same playing field, and we all need the grace

of God. Well, to answer that question that I've

heard many a time is why do bad things happen

to good people? Simple response is there really

are no good people. That's the problem. We're

sinful, and that's what this text leads us to.

Unless you all repent, we all fall short. So

I know what people are saying because, let's

be honest, we gauge. We gauge how good we are.

We gauge how bad people are. We gauge all of

these things. And the truth is we're all sinners

in need of repentance and need of a Savior. Plain

and simple. But, yeah, I mean, I've heard that

question a number of times why people don't want

to become Christian because they say, well, bad

things happen to good people. Bad things happen

to all people. That's the truth. That's the reality.

There is. And I think there's also something

to be said here of, like, we're in the middle

of the story. And I think Jesus would have said

this at the time too. The fall of the Tower of

Siloam, the Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled

with their sacrifices, the people who died in

car accidents, even national tragedies like 9

-11. We know how this story ends. I was reading

this the other day. Jesus is going to come back.

He's going to plant his feet on the Mount of

Olives. He's going to walk right back into Jerusalem,

and he is going to claim his bride. And he promises

that there will be a day where he will wipe every

tear away from our eyes, and death and sin will

be no more. And then the last thing God the Father

says is, Behold, I am making all things new.

And so that's a twofold thing. One, when bad

things happen to, air quotes, good people, or

when bad things happen to people we care about,

because I feel like that's really the crux of

this. That's what it is. People we care about

or us. We can hold on to that promise for the

future, but we can also be part of God bringing

his kingdom in on this earth. Not in a sense

of we have ownership of when he does that, but

every time that we make a meal for somebody who's

hurting, every time that we mow a lawn for somebody

who... can't mow their lawn, every time that

we see somebody crying and we give them a hug,

every time that we know somebody's struggling

and we slip a 20 in their jacket, we are in small

ways a part of making all things new. And it's

those simple, simple acts that us as pastors,

as Christians, that we do, that is what makes

all the difference in people's lives. Like today's

Monday. Yesterday we had the graduation service.

We did a lot of great things for these graduates

to honor them and to do different things. And

I stood up there for 20 minutes giving them a

sermon. But I guarantee you the thing that meant

the most to them was the prayer at the end. It's

those little small acts of people showing that

we care for you. And doing those things, that's

what matters. Like you said, it's just those

little things that we do for people that shows,

hey, that's what it means to be a pastor. That's

what it means to be a Christian. That's what

it means to minister to other people, is to show

them these little acts of love. And that's exactly

what Jesus did. Of course, he had the power to

do more than these little acts, these big acts,

but he met people where they were. And even in

this text, he sees the deadness of their hearts

and the rebellion and the sin and the sickness,

and he says, you guys got to repent. And so this

is a harsh act of kindness, but it is an act

of kindness. Nonetheless. Yeah. Now it does beg

the question. So like, what does repentance look

like? And can we learn about repentance from

this text? Cause I, I feel like there's a, there's

a tension here. And I've, I've, I've got a friend

who relatively recently has come out of kind

of the new age religion. like like um like mysticism

eastern like we are god like we are god i am

god god is us um and then like even as their

process of like becoming a believer like they

held on this thing they called the christ consciousness

like jesus is in us all jesus is all and like

they're past that now which is great but when

you have a individualistic religion to that degree

i am god you know god is in us then your soul

focus is glorifying yourself genuinely yeah um

But I think sometimes in Christendom, we can

overcorrect and like, okay, no, no, no, no, I'm

trash. I'm worse than trash. I'm scum. But you're

really just kind of waiting for somebody to be

like, no, no, no, no, no, you're not scum. You're

winning. And as I've talked to this friend, they've

confessed that it's been a hard transition because

you kind of ping pong between opposite extremes.

So my question for this is a really long lead

up to a short question. How do we engage in real

repentance? without delving into self -flagellation,

beating yourself up, and seeing yourself as less

than God would see you versus seeing you than

more God would see you, keeping that consistent

with what he says about you. I'd say that Paul

gives us the answer in 2 Corinthians 7, verses

2 Corinthians 7:10

10 and 11. He says, produces repentance without

regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow

of the world produces death. For behold, what

earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow,

has produced in you, what vindication of yourselves,

what indignation, what fear, what longing, what

zeal, what punishment of wrong in everything

you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in

the matter. Paul says there's seven parts to

godly repentance. And to be honest with you,

I think that, I don't know, I don't feel like

we, grasp or really understand what repentance

is. I think we soften it a lot. And he says it

produces in us a sorrow. I mean, when was the

last time we cried over our sin? It produces

in us not only a godly sorrow, but it produces

a vindication. We want to get our names right

with God. We want to vindicate ourselves, not

to make ourselves look good, but to vindicate

our relationship with God, to make amends with

it. He says, what indignation. I mean, when's

the last time we got angry at ourselves for failing

yet again? What fear? I mean, do we really fear

God? Do we fear what that sin is going to cause?

What longing? You know, a longing to get things

right. What zeal? And zeal being a passion to

want to restore things. What punishment of wrong?

In other words, are we willing to accept what

God brings in our path? So I think Paul says

that our repentance, honestly, nowadays is not

what it ought to be. If we repented like what

Paul talked about there, I believe we'd see revival.

I really believe we'd see revival in the church

and in our own hearts. I think there's a genuineness

that needs to be present too. Oh, yeah. Both

a genuineness of self, like I, through the Holy

Spirit, can see myself as I am rather than as

I would like to be, or rather like I pretend

to be at church. But I think a genuineness with

others too, like, like one of the functions of

the church, I believe that, that has fallen by

the wayside is community confession. That if

you look at first century Christianity, like,

like confessing your sins to one another was

a thing they regularly did. Confessing issues

they had with each other was the thing they regularly

did. Can you imagine coming down to the altar

and the Lord convicted you of something and you

walk up to somebody right after church and you're

like, dude, I'm so sorry. I sinned against you.

Or can we talk through this? Because I'm trying

to let this go, but the Lord wants me to address

this with you. And I'm not sitting here saying

that I do that perfectly either because I don't.

I think that's a cultural facet where maybe just

because we're in a more individualistic culture,

that's not really a, a scene as important or

a thing, but I do think that there is seriousness

that comes repentance. And I think the freedom

in the, in Christ that we feel as a part of that

too, it's this, it's this wonderful, mysterious,

double -edged sword of our sin sent Jesus to

the cross, but Jesus went to the cross because

of our sin, you know? We were destined for the

wrath of God, but now because of what Jesus did,

we're his children. And every punishment that

we deserved fell on Christ. And so, yeah, that

repentance has to be serious business. Yeah.

And the big thing is also getting to the point

that you realize there's something you need to

repent of. I think one of the things that's hard

in... modern church is we're so fast to point

out the sins that anger us yeah it's so easy

for us to point out sins and other people that

we don't like or even sins in ourselves that

are just those ones that really like hit those

hot topic buttons right But I think sometimes

by doing that, we can also hide the fact in our

lives that we have sins that we're not willing

to deal with. And that's the scary part, is thinking

that, okay, is there something in my life that

I'm trying to hide from myself so that I don't

feel like I can keep doing what I'm doing without

feeling bad? And going back to everything y 'all

just said, it starts with that relationship with

God of allowing the Holy Spirit to speak into

you and realizing, okay, there is something here

that I need to be bringing before the Lord. And

it's that heart posture of doing those things

that John was listing off in 2 Corinthians with

a posture of the heart of true repentance. It's

not like if it's this checklist thing, like,

oh, yeah, oh, man, I fell to that again. God,

I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for this. I'm sorry for

this. I know I'm going to do it again in a couple

of days, but I'm so sorry right now. Like, no,

like that's, that's not it. There's truly like

he was saying, grieving over whatever that is

that's going on in your life. Like there's a

difference there. But the grief that you produce

by yourself is not real grief over your sin.

That is correct. You have to be walking in the

spirit for him to give you that. a true understanding

of how he sees it. Because if you produce it

within yourself, that is just as fake and just

as detestable to him. Well, that's why Bertha

Smith says, ask God to search your heart, to

search out the secret recesses. Did she go to

our church? No, she did. Old missionary, but

she did. She used to make that proclamation.

She would go in and she'd say, ask God to search

your heart. But you talked about public confession.

I thought this was an interesting thing when

I was at Liberty University. Go Flames. Yeah.

When I was there, they had kind of a revival

going on at a university in Texas. And they talked

about it in one of our services. And they had

talked about how students just started going

up to the microphone and confessing their sins.

I mean, just openly confessing. Pornography,

all these different things, just out there confessing

it and how it went on for days at this university.

And they had to even shut down classes and they

were seeing a great experience. And it was funny

because they tried to, I don't want to say manipulate

it at Liberty, but they wanted to reproduce it.

And so they talked about it and it's almost like

they had a few students lined up to come up there

and do it. Yeah. And like after like five or

six, it was over and it was kind of like, oh,

this isn't what we were hoping for. It's like

you can't. recreate what the Spirit's trying

to do. You can, I think it was Henry Blackaby

said, find where God is at work and get on board.

In other words, don't try to create it for yourself,

but find where God's at work. And I just, you

know, I feel like that would be something that

would be powerful if it came from the heart and

it came from the Spirit of God. I mean, that's

like Saul getting, you know, waiting for Samuel

to come to offer the sacrifices. waiting for

Samuel to come to offer the sacrifices. No, I

got this. It's like, no, no, no, no. I'm the

king. That's like close enough, right? Yeah.

All right. Well, Sean, how about you? What's

your passage this week? Well, we're going to

continue to roll on right into the next few verses

of Luke chapter 13, verses 6 through 9. It's

Luke 13:6–9

a short story, so let me just read it. So, you

know, we're in Scripture. We're not just jumping

into a different topic. We're flowing right there

through this idea of repentance. And what does

that look like? And specifically here, what happens

if it takes a while for you to repent? It's interesting.

It's a really cool parable. So listen to this.

It says, and he told this parable, a man had

a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard.

He came looking for fruit on it and found none.

He told the vineyard worker, listen, for three

years I have come looking for fruit on this fig

tree and I haven't found any. Cut it down. Why

should it even waste the soil? But he replied

to him, Sir, leave it this year also until I

dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will

produce fruit next year, but if not, cut it down.

The parable itself is referring to Israel. Israel

is the fig tree here. And a lot of people will

even talk about how the three years was talking

about three years that Jesus' ministry was trying

to reach out to these people, trying to reach

out to the Israelites and get them to produce

fruit. And so that is first and foremost the

direction that the parable was going for the

audience of the time. But I think there's also

a lot that we can learn from this as well. And

so you have Jesus here. and you've got this fig

tree, and it's not producing figs. Now, this

is not the one that Jesus saw and was like, no,

dude, you're done. This is a parable. This is

a story that Jesus is making up. But I love this

idea because what it shows me is really the grace

of God. That's what this story is all about,

that there is... There is grace that God has

for us in desiring, continuing to desire for

us to repent. And even the open -endedness of

the parable here. Like, we don't know. We're

not told if the fig tree continues to produce

fruit or not. Once again, showing that there

is grace of God. Like, God's desire, first and

foremost, is to keep on giving us those chances.

There is a time that that's going to end. Yes.

And that's also an important part of this, knowing

that, hey, God has grace for us. He wants to

continue to bring people around us to fertilize,

to dig around, to do the things to get us to

begin to bear fruit. But there is coming a time

where all of that's going to stop. You know what

stands out to me about this verse? What's that?

In my translation, because I'm rocking ESV, it's

just what I grew up reading. Are you CSB? Yes,

right now. Right now. I go back and forth between

a lot. And John, you're NASB, yeah? Yep. I preached

NLT on Sunday. My man. So I go back and forth.

What my translation says, going into verse 8,

when the dude's advocating for the fig tree,

Sir, let it alone also this year, until I dig

it out. Dig out around it and put on manure.

Not fertilize, but put on manure. And I know

that you can use... It's the best kind of fertilizer.

Best kind of fertilizer. And sometimes I drive

to work and I can tell when the farmers are fertilizing

their fields. Stanley County loves to manure

for their farms. Amen. Amen. The best fertilizer

I have ever used on my shrubs has been chicken

manure. Chicken manure? No lie. My bushes bloomed

tremendously. Did you have to buy that separately

or did you have chickens? Yeah, I bought it at

Tractor Supply. Only that's awesome. I've never

been to a tractor supply. I need to go. I'm getting

distracted. Yes. Sorry. In my own life, sometimes,

and so this is, this, this pairs interestingly

with our conversation about the tower of Salome.

Yeah. There have absolutely been times though,

where God has need to put crap around my roots.

I'm serious to, for, to show me repentance, to

show, to finally show me like this, like, things

get bad enough. It's like, Oh, you know, like,

uh, CS Lewis has this quote in mere Christianity,

like pain is God's megaphone to a deaf world.

Um, and I've experienced that in my own life

where, you know, whether I understood God was

calling me towards repentance or not. Um, uh,

that's what happened. Like, like I'll tell you

a story and I, maybe I've mentioned this before

on the podcast or not. I don't really know. Um,

I made a profession of faith as a child. But

the gospel that I responded to was not a real

gospel. Ben had no understanding of what he was

doing. The lady that presented it said, among

many other things, that there's cake in heaven

and not cake in hell. And little pudgy 10 -year

-old Ben thought, I know what I'm going to do.

Oh, you've talked about this before because I

was about to do the same joke I did last time

and talk about breakfast in heaven. Oh, that's

right. So I got baptized shortly after. And once

I actually became a believer much later in my

life, I really resisted the Lord on getting baptized.

I was embarrassed. I was already serving in a

church. I was visible. And obviously baptism,

talk about corporate confession, you're up there

and you had a robe on and you're standing in

a pool of water and somebody's got to dunk you.

Depending on your denomination, they might pour

water on your head, but somebody's got to dunk

you here in the SBC. But the Lord had to put

menorah around my roots. Like my relationship

with him, once he was like, son, it's time, started

to atrophy because I kept pushing back on it.

Like I let my fear and my pride and my anxiety

about what people would think of me keep me from

stepping forward into obedience. And so God's

with you everywhere, but he kept moving his felt

presence in my life back a little further and

back a little further. and back a little further,

and back a little further, and then I started

losing sleep. And I couldn't sleep for a day,

for a couple of days, for a week. And finally,

I'm just like, Lord, I don't even care. I'm going

to go talk to my pastor. And I did. And so it

took God putting some manure around my roots

for me to understand, okay, I need to repent.

And it did bear fruit. That fruit was painful.

But it did bear fruit. Well, even on this side

of salvation, too, some of the most growthful

times of my life has been during the storms.

Yeah. During the dark, dark storms. I can remember

because I was not raised in church. I got saved

late high school years. And then within... a

couple of years of that, I was on the mission

field. I went to college in Argentina, did mission

work in Argentina, and I talk about how joyful

it was now, but at the time, I was dealing with

incredible homesickness. I was dealing with having

to learn theology around people that had studied

it for years, and I'm over here a dumb -dumb

not knowing anything. And so I was dealing with

a lot of mental issues during this because of

where I was, but I pushed through it, but God

grew my relationship with Him. In incredible

ways, I don't know if I did not go there just

for that one year. That one year grew me more

than probably 10 years would have if I would

have stayed in the States. Wow. And so it's through,

a lot of times, it's through those dark times,

through those times of manure, as you're saying

in your illustration. I didn't say it. The Bible

said it. That is true, that the ESV says, that

we can really experience incredible growth and

fruit. Seriously. Well, I also want to take it

from this perspective. To me, this is why discipleship

is important. How many times do people get saved

and then they're just told to come to church?

They don't really grow. They're not taught how

to read their Bibles. They're not taught how

to pray. They're not taught how to do these simple

things that we take for granted a lot of times.

And the digging around it and putting in fertilizer

can be also somebody taking you along on their

side, discipling you and growing you and helping

you. And I feel like that that's a lot of what

we're missing today. We are missing that discipleship.

avenue, that mentoring, that personal one -on

-one, helping somebody get closer. I see this

on Wednesdays. I'm thrilled with the group that

I meet with each Wednesday. It's funny because

I love the way Scott defines Jackie. She listens

to it. He listens to it. They come on Wednesday,

but he made this statement to her. He said, you're

like a sponge. You're just soaking. everything

up. I mean, she is asking a ton of questions.

And so the Wednesday study is just so amazing

because she's asking questions. I get to sit

back, watch Scott answer these questions, watch

him grow while he's answering these questions

and reflecting on it. It's so neat to see. This

whole group, just this small little group as

they are digging around the roots, fertilizing

it, and watching them grow. There's just, to

me, such an excitement in that Wednesday morning

group where I sit down with these guys at 9 a

.m. and just really dig into these passages.

And so I see it from that perspective. It's not

just God using difficulties, and He does use

difficulties in our life, but there's also some

good things that we can put into our lives. that

will help us to grow, teach us how to, I mean,

we have got to get to that point where we are

not just doing it on our own. We've got to have

that community. And I feel like that's just something

we miss so much today. Yeah. With that community

lens, talking about like adverse circumstances

and community, one of the things when we, when

I look back on I don't want to say more liturgical,

but like our older denominations or even like

denominations that aren't around anymore, like

first century, fourth century worship. One of

the practices that they had that was so compelling

to me is lament. talking about God shaping us

in adverse circumstances reminded me of like

Psalm 13, one of the minor key Psalms, as it

were, like it's four verses and it starts with

like, how long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me? How

long must I take counsel in my soul and have

sorrow in my heart? And then, you know, there's

a, and God, and the Psalmist presents his case

and he ends with, but I have trusted in your

steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in your

salvation. In like fourth century church gatherings,

once they had a codified Bible that people could

read or even snippets of it, they would do this

corporately. Like they would engage with each

other's difficulties in public. These psalms

would be recited. These psalms would be sung.

And I think that would make us tremendously uncomfortable

in our church context. Yes. But if we're willing

to get uncomfortable, that's when the Holy Spirit

is going to work. It's interesting how that's,

that there's a willing, like you have to be willing

to go there because God's not going to force

us. You know, like there is a day that every

knee will bow on heaven and earth, regardless

of your allegiance in this life. But for spiritual

growth, you have to be willing to grow. I know

he's the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And so the forward progress is him. But there's

a degree of willingness that I feel like we have

to step into. And I don't know what that would

look like for our church. I mean, I think it's

easier to lament when there's bigger tragedies,

right? Like 9 -11, you saw a big resurgence of

people going back to church after the Twin Towers

fell. But what it would look like in our church

context here in 2020, was it 26? 2026 here in

North Carolina. What limit would look like? I

don't know. It would take just being honest.

And we're so, gosh, we are so afraid these days

to be honest. Part of it is our culture has been

defined by social media, which is so fake. And

we feel like we always have to put on this facade.

And going back to what we said a long time ago

is this idea of this is why we don't. confess

as much anymore and we're not real and we don't

come to that the public confession of our sins

and what's going on because we would break the

glass ball that we've put around us if we did

that and that makes us vulnerable and if the

people around us aren't also willing to go there

all it's going to make you is a target but I

think regardless the Lord honors that kind of

vulnerability yeah some of the best times that

we've had at mission serve um you know there's

there's heightened emotions when you're on mission

trips with students and because of that they

are willing to be more vulnerable which is one

of the things i love um but there's been times

where one student will open up and begin to share

something and Be extremely vulnerable. And it's

in those moments where the entire night changes.

And then the rest of the week changes because

other students start to join. And it begins to

be this incredible moment of being real, of them

bringing down this facade. I remember last year,

a young man that went on mission serve came back

and was extremely vulnerable before the church.

And when he did that, I was just like, Wow. I

mean, it was powerful. It was really, really

incredible. Hey, I think I have a new tagline

for our discipleship ministry at the church.

Okay, are you ready? Yeah, we're going to dig

deep and fill you with crap. Oh, no. Sean, this

goes on the internet forever. I'm going to close

with something a little bit better than that,

just because we need a positive spin. I'm reading

this book by Robbie Galletti, and he talked about

how he goes out on his porch and he asks these

two questions because he wants to be filled with

the Holy Spirit. And he makes a statement in

there. He says, he prays, God, how have I quenched

you today? Lord, how have I grieved you today?

Or Holy Spirit, how have I quenched you today?

Holy Spirit, how have I grieved you today? And

just reading that today, just with what we've

talked about, just hit me like a hammer about

being vulnerable with the Holy Spirit, having

Him speak to us and moving us and change us.

So I don't know. I think if we'll get serious

and really wrap our minds around repentance,

what a transformation, what a change it would

make in our church. Yeah. Well, we can pray to

that end. So if you're listening for the first

time, we are grateful for your first -time listenership

to here at Pursuing Jesus. And if you're one

of our regulars, we'll see you back here next

week. I'm Ben Smith. I have been Sean Griffin.

And I'm John Ferguson. And this has been, is,

and will continue to be Pursuing Jesus. We'll

catch you on the flip side. Goodbye. Pursuing

Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church

in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about

our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.

So how should I introduce it? Today we're going

to talk about crap, crap, and more crap. No,

we'll talk about crap about a third of the time.

I only say it one time. Manure and fertilizer

is another thing, but crap once.