Clean Cups and Divided Houses

Well, what's up, my Pursuing Jesus homies? It

is so good to have you with us today. Today on

the podcast, we're going to be looking a lot

about self -reflection and truly what is in our

hearts. So sit back, grab your cup of coffee,

and come join us. You want me to count us in

again? Yeah, you count us in. You kind of said

so that we're all on the same page about when

we're starting. No, I'm just kidding. Go ahead.

You still expected me to do it, didn't you? I

did. I did. I know. I was waiting for it. Welcome

to Pursuing Jesus. I'm Ben Smith. I'm Sean Griffin.

I'm John Ferguson. And we are, I think we're

a little slap happy today, guys. We've laughed

at some dumb stuff before hitting record. More

so than normal, I guess, is the way that I would

put it. Well, I had a Pokeball today, so that

makes me happy. You had a Pokeball today? What'd

you catch? Not a Pokeball. I did catch something

with Pokeball today, but that's a different story.

No, I had a Pokebowl. That was delicious. Deconstructed

sushi, man. Deconstruct your sushi, not your

faith. That should be our new slogan for our

church. Deconstruct your sushi, not your faith.

You know what? If someone brought a big Pokeball

for a potluck, I probably wouldn't touch it because

that's raw fish, and I don't know about that.

You know, that sentence went in a very different

direction than I was expecting it to. I was going

to be like, you know what, Sean, me too. I really

didn't. Gas station sushi kind of thing. You

know what? I trust our church more than that.

I bet. I was going to say, there are some people,

though, that I know if they brought it, I would

tear it up for sure. For sure. uh aldi sells

frozen sushi it's not great but it gets by in

a pinch yeah i guess that's fair yeah i guess

that's fair in a world where like like you can

get sushi so many places though now i feel like

the bar is higher like have y 'all had public's

sushi oh public's and harris teeter have amazing

great sushi yeah yeah of course i'm hungry again

in like an hour and a half but that's why you

get two things that's right one to eat now And

one to eat later, John's just shaking his head,

even though he knows it's true. No, just go to

Mr. Tokyo and eat all you can eat so you feel

sick afterwards. Yeah, that is true. Mr. Tokyo

is the place to go. Any buffet. I have not been

to Mr. Tokyo. It's a shame. I want to go to the

ones that have the conveyor belt sushi. I want

to go to one of those. I've never been to one

of those. I've heard there's one in Charlotte.

I don't know where it is or what it is. I've

heard there's one in Charlotte and I know that

there's one in the Raleigh area. There's a couple

in the Raleigh area. area i went to one at an

airport and it was amazing how did they bill

you is it all you can eat or based on the color

of the bowl depends on the price and so there's

like four pieces of sushi in each bowl yeah and

so they had different colored bowls and one was

like three dollars one was four dollars you know,

and so on and so on. Okay. So did you find yourself

in a position where you saw it come out that

you wanted on the conveyor belt? And then like

somebody got to it before you did, who was further

up the line? No, I didn't do that. Nor did I

look at the price. I just kept picking up bubbles.

I mean, that's a great, that's a great business

model, but that sounds dangerous. I think it's

exactly what it is. Exactly. I was blessed that

a guy from the church was with me and he goes,

I'll take care of yours. And I was like, thank

you. Oh man. John's over here sweating. I'm like,

how am I going to explain to Julie that I spent

$200? Well, I think I only had like $25 worth

of sushi, so I don't know. He paid, so I don't

know. Here I was thinking you were about to say,

I think I only had 25 helpings. I had seven bowls.

My man. That's crazy. We, as some of the staff,

Sean, you were so, I think it was when you were

on vacation. I must have been. Yeah, I was out.

We made the trek to Mr. Tokyo and Monroe. And

it's true. I think we all walked away sick. Put

that $14 .99 to good use. Yes, we did. That's

the dangerous thing about any kind of buffet,

though. Because once you pay your money, you're

like, I'm going to get my money's worth. Oh,

100%. And your money's worth always makes you

sick. 100%. Yeah. Makes you want to say, whoa.

Which means moving on to your text. There it

is. Yes. We're terrible at transitions. Oh, my

God. No, that was actually pretty good. Thank

you. These are getting worse and worse and worse.

What would you have said, Sean? Nothing. Nothing

at all. I would have said, that was wonderful.

Hey, we should talk about the Bible now. Well,

woe be unto you. See, there you go. Do you want

to say it again? No, we're going. No, I feel

like the moment's gone. We need you to transition.

No, it's done now. It's done. Now you're just

making it awkward. And I hope you cut none of

this out. There's so much power in the hands

of the guy who edits the podcast. So we're to

the woes. This is a really interesting passage

to me. I landed here May 14th, the Jesus's woes,

the scribes and the Pharisees. And y 'all kind

of get used to my rhythm of like, I like to read

the whole text and kind of pull different points

from it. But I had a major Sean moment where

like just one phrase. You wanted tacos and you

didn't have tacos. That happens to me a lot.

That is a major Sean moment. Yeah. But that's

not what you're talking about. Not this time.

Oh, my bad. The thing that stood out to me was

this one little verse 41. So I'm going to read

37 through 41. Oh, one of those moments. Yeah,

that is a Sean moment. Thank you, Sean. Verse

37, Luke 11. the inside also, but give his alms

those things that are within and behold, everything

is clean for you. It's the phrase that just like

rocked me as I read this passage. And like, I

tried to, I tried to move on down to 42 and all

that stuff. One, I want, cause you always want

to get context to the passage that you're studying.

I just kept coming back to verse 41, give his

alms to the, give his alms those that are within

and behold, everything is clean for you. Gents,

what does that mean? What does that make you

think of when you hear that? Give as alms those

things that are within. Well, mine says give

that which is within as a charitable gift. So

I would assume alms being a charitable gift,

our tithe unto the Lord or even beyond that.

I don't know. I hadn't studied this passage as

much as I probably should have. And going back,

like you said, going to the context, he's talking

to the Pharisees. He's talking about how they

are full of greed. And then so here's the interesting

thing, right? He says they're full of greed and

evil. And then in verse 42, but woe to you, you

give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of

herb. So he's talking about, all right, you're

greedy, but you make sure you give every little

tiny bit of your income. So even if you sell

some mint, that little bit of a tenth of that

coin that you get for your mint or your dill

or whatever, like you're going to sell. So what

he's showing is, hey, this has nothing to do

with like. what you think you should be giving

to the Lord, this is a heart. This is what your

heart is at. And so, like I said, in my translation,

verse 41, it says, but give what is within you

to the poor, and then everything is clean for

you. And so I think that's what it's... Like

so many areas with Jesus, he's trying to get

people to understand that... actions without

a clean heart are pointless. Yes. Right? Doing

things just so that you can say you did them,

like, what do you get out of that? That's self

-pride. It actually has a little bit of what

I'm going to talk about in my passage. And so,

it's like, it's all about you. It's like, that's

not, no, no, no, no, no. You need to do things

for others genuinely. When you give, give genuinely.

Well, it also makes me wonder, too, because it's

similar to a passage in Matthew, but it's not

on the same format. So I'm guessing it's kind

of going along with that, because when he does

that one where he talks about tithing of mint

and rue and the spices, he says, but do the weightier

things, mercy and grace and love. He's talking

about doing the things that are, I don't want

to say more biblical, but I mean, it's... more

of a heart issue versus a exterior issue. Yeah.

What I see here is kind of like what you talked

about when you preach through Jesus and Nicodemus'

conversation. Jesus is always trying to take

people from the physical to the spiritual. And

I think this is no exception. So I didn't look

at the other translations. I was reading ESV

because that's what I've grown up reading. But

that phrase, give his alms the things that are

within, I mean, Jesus is taking them from the

external, right? My clean or unclean hands, this

clean or unclean cup, and taking them to the

spiritual. The Pharisees have put so much attention

to external things, what they give in public.

It talks about them loving the best seats in

the synagogue, but not beginning. not even beginning

to care about the things that are internal realities.

The thing that stood out to me is that an external

focus becomes a vain attempt to deceive God.

Look what he says in 41. Don't you realize that

he who made the outside made the inside too?

And so when we focus on our externals, how good

we look, how people esteem us in the house of

God, how we're supposed to appear to the people

around us. And we don't look at what we're doing

internally. that hypocrisy is not lost on God.

I mean, Hebrews 4 talks about, right, like God's

word is sharper than a two -edged sword. And

it's like this all -seeing eye, you know, that

pierces bone and marrow and soul and spirit.

He can see everything. I think it says we're

laid naked and bare before him. And so like,

but I think in order to even make an attempt

at that deceiving God, by cleaning up our external

and not working on our internal, we have to deceive

ourselves first. I think we truly have to get

into this kind of delirious place where we are

looking to ourselves for our own righteousness.

We are trying to put ourselves up, to make ourselves

feel good about ourselves by what we do, by how

we look. And in that, we're deceiving ourselves,

and then we try to pawn that deception off on

God. And so my question for you guys is this,

how can we as believers cultivate that? How can

I put this? How can we cultivate that inner knowledge

of ourselves? If the Pharisees were deceiving

themselves, their external righteousness was

enough to please God. And we can end up in the

exact same position. What can we do as believers

to increase that understanding of who we are,

our flaws, our tendencies, so that we can bring

those things before the Lord as He's working

on them in us? The very first thing I thought

of when you were saying that is something that

I say often whenever I preach God's Word, and

that is make sure that whenever you're reading

God's Word, it's a mirror and not a window. Make

sure it's not something that you're reading it,

looking through it, looking at somebody else.

But whenever you're reading it, that you're actively

thinking, all right, Lord, what are you teaching

me? What is in my life that you have to teach

me in this moment? And I have found myself doing

that more and more strategically, not just a

background thought, but on purpose, like, okay,

Lord, here's a difficult passage. And if my instinct

is to think of somebody else, I'm thinking about

this wrong right now. Show me what I need to

learn in this passage. And so it's, I mean, the

Pharisees, like you said, everything they did

was for show. They didn't want to get to the

heart. It was all about themselves, all about

what they could do to show off how good they

were for God in their eyes. But when we have

an attitude of when we come to the Lord of like,

all right, humble me. show me the areas in your

words, show me the areas of my life that I need

to be worked on, and to be honest with ourselves

and be willing to see our own flaws, because

that's difficult. We don't want to admit those

things. We don't want to admit the areas that

we're struggling with. And so to come and to

open God's Word truly, truly as a mirror, with

that as our forethought as we are reading God's

Word, I think that's a great place to start.

I think for me, it's sitting in the stillness

and silence and just asking God to reflect on

my heart. Just open it up, kind of like David

did in the Psalms, you know, search me, God.

I don't want anything hidden. I've been down

that path before thinking I could hide something,

just not worth it. I'd rather God reveal everything.

Just God show me, because there are times that

I don't intentionally. It's just you forget.

If you didn't repent right when you did it, you

may forget about it later, and then you want

God to show it to you and say, hey, buddy, you

need to get this right. So for me, it's really

just being in the stillness and saying, okay,

God, look at me. Show me. Help me see what I'm

missing. And if there's something I need to repent

of, please reveal it so that I can get this out

of my life. You know what I love about that?

is that he's doing that for our benefit, not

for his. Because when we accept Jesus as the

Lord of our life, our sins are paid for, dead,

gone, done. We are justified before him. But

when he is ready to deal with a specific area

of our lives, he's not calling us to repent of

those things. Um, so that he can be satisfied.

He, he is already satisfied. It's actually so

that we can get closer to him in relationship.

And so like God's designed for us, even in the

repentance process is not to like, it's not just

a, I told you cosmic, I told you so us into guilt,

tripping us into feeling better. It's actually

for him. It's, it's him restoring just that little

bit of lost goodness and creation, um, in us.

Little bit by little bit. That's the sanctification

process. Sitting in the stillness and letting

him sift your heart and change you. At least

in my own life, guys, I have found that I've

come to a place of peace, and then the Lord will

show me something else that he wants me to work

on. Or something else that he specifically wants

to do battle with in my heart. And I'm like,

oh, I thought I, you know. The younger Ben said,

you know what, I thought I was all right. And

then you get settled again, and he's got another

thing for you. And you get settled again, and

he's got another thing for you. But God does

that at his pace. And as we continue to present

ourselves before him, sometimes he's got things

to work on, and other times he is already and

still working, but we just can't see it yet.

The last thing I will say about this, I looked

a little bit into almsgiving, where Jesus says,

give his alms, those are things within. you could

say a lot about what giving alms are, that charitable

giving that Jesus is talking about, that he criticizes

the Pharisees for doing incorrectly. But at the

end of the day, almsgiving is a volitional act

of worship that the people of Israel did. It's

a choice that they made that they were obligated

to do as worship. And so us coming to the Lord

with that genuine heart, that willingness to

be changed, is an act of worship. And I just

love that he's at the beginning and the end of

it. He's the one who brings the things in. He's

the one who shows you, hey, your cup is clean

on the outside but dirty on the inside. He's

the one who cleans the cup, and he's the one

who is receiving the worship and the glory from

the cup being clean. He's at the beginning, the

middle, and the end, and I just love it. I just

love it. Well, John, do you want to share from

your passage a little? Yeah, sure. I chose to

do May 11th, which would have been Monday's passage.

And the reason why I picked this one is just

because this is one that most people have a lot

of questions about. And I hate to say, I kind

of looked at a little bit of May 15th as well

to go along with it. because it kind of finishes

this passage, even though there is a lot of content

that goes in between them. It's okay. It's all

scripture. But it was really about when Jesus

cast out the demon, and then immediately they're

looking at him going, how did he do this? And

they're trying to villainize him because he did

something that people began to look at and celebrate.

And so they immediately said, well, this man

cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.

And He's on Satan's side is what they're basically

saying about Jesus. And so Jesus makes a couple

of statements that really stand out to me. He

says, knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them,

every kingdom divided against itself has laid

waste. No city or house divided against itself

will stand. And if Satan is casting out Satan,

he has become divided against himself. How will

his kingdom stand? And it's interesting because

Satan will not be disunified with his minions,

right? They're on the same page. Their page is

to steal, to kill, and to destroy. It is to basically

tear a relationship apart from God. And so for

them to even make the statement that Satan was

casting out his own minions was foolish, but

yet it's where they wanted to go to or where

they felt they needed to get to because they

had to villainize Satan. And he just makes the

point blank statement. He's like, a house divided

isn't going to stand. So then he comes up with

a note. He goes on, he says, but if I cast out

demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom

of God has come. And then he uses illustration.

We see it in Luke's gospel where he says, well,

what about your sons? How do they do it? So if

your sons cast out demons, then are they casting

them out by Beelzebub? And so he uses just all

these. different examples. And I call this, Jesus

comes to that conclusion of what I call the Spock

or Sherlock conclusion in this passage, because

he says, if these things aren't so, if Satan's

not divided and your sons are doing the same

thing, and then the logical conclusion is to

come to this, the kingdom of God is here. And

so the quote that I'm talking about that comes

from both Spock from Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes

is if you eliminate the impossible, whatever

remains, however improbable must be true. And

so what he does is he eliminates every excuse

they make. He eliminates everything that they're

saying. And he says, okay, this may seem improbable

to you, but if you recognize what I've done and

the only logical conclusion to come to is the

kingdom of God is here and there's no way you

can get around it. So I love the fact that Jesus

just throws the logic in there and says there's

nothing you can do. You can't disagree with what

I'm saying. So I like this passage, but if I'm

honest, we go down just a couple of verses later

in 31 and 32, and this is where the biggest question

comes. So I'm going to ask you guys this question,

and that is, what is the unpardonable sin? Right?

That's what everybody comes to because they see

this passage. They read it. They see that they're

speaking against Christ, against the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says it's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

So what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? That's

what most people want to understand. It's very

simple, John. It's getting a tattoo. That's some

good Southern Baptist theology right there. No.

Oh, man. Speaking a little tongue -in -cheek

here. I mean, the way that I've heard... No,

hold on. We need to clarify. That is why I said

no. This is Editor Ben. I am joking. Sean and

I both have tattoos, and we are not actively

blaspheming the Holy Spirit. No, we are not.

No, I've always heard this passage interpreted,

or I've heard this passage interpreted in several

ways. The way that I have seen it interpreted

is, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is when

you are actively resisting the call of the Holy

Spirit on your life. Yeah. Like when you hear

God's voice, when you recognize the gospel, and

you turn and look at him and you say, no, I don't

want this. Now, are more Calvinist brothers interpret

this differently? Because they believe in, what

is it, irresistible grace? Irresistible grace,

yeah. That when God calls, you cannot say no.

I am not of that persuasion. Does anybody know,

what did they, because like I said, I'm with

you guys on that one. I interpret this the same

way. But I also have some amazing friends that

are Calvinists that love Jesus. And so now I'm

curious because I'd never thought about that

from their perspective of how they would interpret

this passage. Do y 'all know? I don't know. So

they take the same line of logic and they turn

it a different way. Because like you, I've got

some good friends who are faithful to the Lord

and reform. And as a side note, I believe that

this is a tertiary issue. You've got your primaries,

your secondaries, and your tertiaries. Like,

that's another conversation for another day.

But I think the way that I've heard them explain

this passage is the people that blaspheme the

Holy Spirit, that resist God's call, were predestined

to blaspheme the Spirit. And so it's kind of

like taking the same line of logic and just kind

of scooting it back one stop on the bus. That

makes sense. But see, I've heard it interpreted

so many different ways. Yeah, what have you heard?

Catholicism. will tell you suicide is an unpardonable

sin, right? I've heard that. And what it is is,

and this is the question that I had Wednesday

night, which I thought, you know. But they don't

get that from this passage. They just assume

that from other things. Well, if it's an unpardonable

sin, it has to be suicide. They really do use

this passage to bring that out. It's surprising.

And so, and the reason being, and I heard a lady,

she asked this question to me Wednesday night.

She said, you know, if I commit suicide, I don't

have time to repent. And so I just simply asked

her this question. I said, have you absolutely

repented of every single sin you've ever committed?

And she said, no. And I said, okay, well then

I guess according to that logic, you're going

to hell too. And I said, so it can't be based

on not being able to seek forgiveness after you've

done the act. I said, because we are forgiven.

We are justified, which means all of our sins

have been paid for. Now, we are still being sanctified.

We're still being turned away or turning away

from sin. I said, so it's not suicide. I said,

and I've heard another one. It's when we speak

ill of people like a Benny Hinn, some of these

faith healers, and we say. something that really

is of the Holy Spirit is not of the Holy Spirit,

that we're blaspheming. They weaponize that.

Oh, they weaponize that. Yes, yes. So if we speak

against anything that people quote -unquote call

the Holy Spirit, if it actually is the Holy Spirit,

we're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. And I said,

but here's the thing. When you look throughout

all of Scripture, the only thing that is unpardonable

that will send us to hell is not having a personal

relationship with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit,

like you said, is the initiator of that faith,

drawing us to the Lord. And if we refuse Him,

and if you read through Matthew, if you read

Matthew's Gospel in order, you'll see where the

Pharisees denied the Father, denied the Son,

and now they've denied the Holy Spirit. Who's

left to save them? Ain't nobody. Yeah. So, I

mean, they're in grave, grave trouble. So, I

just thought it would be interesting to talk

about this passage because it's the one that

really... other than the second most asked question

I get as a pastor. The first one being, how do

I know I'm saved? The second one is, what's the

unpardonable sin? And I think that's a very human

desire. It reflects what we believe and what

we care about as just the human race of like,

well, I want to make sure I don't get this one

wrong. But I mean, the answer to the unpardonable

sin is still is grace. The Lord makes a way for

us to know him. And in a very real sense, if

you're tweaking about having committed the unpardonable

sin, you probably haven't committed it. Yes.

You're not going to be concerned if you've done

it. Exactly. If you're actively resisting the

Spirit's work in your life, you're not going

to care. You're not going to call. Now, for us

who are believers, I firmly believe that there

is a, not salvation related, but a version of

this that we have to be careful. of, that as

we hear God's voice, as we clear out the noise

in our lives and we sit in the silence and we

present our heart to the Lord, didn't mean to

tie this together with the verse we were talking

about earlier, but here we go, the Holy Spirit

will move and he does speak and he does have

specific things for us to do. And we've got a

choice. I've encountered that in my own life

where he's asked me to do some hard stuff. And

we have a choice whether we're going to obey

or whether we're going to resist. And if we resist,

absolutely there is grace for us. And this is

not a salvation question, but it is a relationship

question. If Maddie keeps asking me to take out

the trash, my beloved wife Madison asks me the

very, very, very small favor of taking out the

trash, and I continue not to, Two things are

going to happen. One, that trash is going to

pile up and our house is going to start to stink.

And two, eventually she's going to ask me, stop

asking me to take out the trash because she knows

that I'm not going to do it. Our spiritual lives

can be like that too. When we resist the Holy

Spirit, when we resist what God is asking us

to do, the trash of our life starts to stink

and we start to lose on that felt presence and

relationship with the Lord. There's always room

though, always room and time. to repent, to make

that change into your account. Yep. All right,

Sean, how about you? What's your passage today?

So I'm looking at the day before. I'm looking

at May 10th. Hey, guess what? It's another one

of those times where Ben had a Sean moment. You

know what, Sean? There's a reason he called it

a Sean moment, because Sean had that moment too.

I intended no derision. I like what you pull

out of your passages. No, I get it. And I'm just

saying, I got another one. And so, because there's

a lot going on in this passage, and there's a

lot that we can look at. There's just one verse,

and I want to read this verse, because it's truly

like, I read this and I just stopped. And like,

you know, I don't know if y 'all have ever like

daydreamed on topic during a Bible study. You

know what I mean? Like I've definitely daydreamed

not on topic and I've been like, hold on, I got

to get back. Right. But this was one of those

moments where I just stopped and just my mind

just started going and going and going. And it

led me to just worshiping the Lord even more,

which is so cool when that happens. But verse

54. Verse 54 says this, if I glorify myself,

Jesus answered, my glory is nothing. My father

about whom you say he is our God, he is the one

who glorifies me. So here's what was going through

my brain as I was reading this early one morning.

I was reading this and Jesus says, if I glorify

myself, my glory is nothing. And the thought

immediately came to my brain of how much I am

always trying to lift up the name of Jesus. And

it was thinking of like, if the thought came,

if Jesus, if anyone could glorify themselves,

you would think it would be Jesus, right? Because

of what he was going to do for us, for what he

knew he was going to do for us, for what he had

already done, and just for everything, for who

he is. But even being in the position of the

one who's actually able to glorify himself. he

realizes that's not my position. That's what

the Father's for. So one, it's really cool. I

mean, just for Trinitarian theology, it shows

some interesting differences between the Father

and the Son. But without going down that rabbit

trail, to show right there, like going once again

back to our sinful human nature of... of the

things we do on the outside. And this just showed

me once again, just the carefulness, how careful

I need to be about any prideful decisions or

prideful things I am doing in my life. It's like

not even Jesus was going to lift himself up.

He was going to make sure the father did all

of that for him. And he wasn't going to boast

about himself. He was going to instead humble

himself. And it just shows me like, okay, I need

to make sure that everything I'm doing is not

about me. It's not about Sean's desires. It's

not about Sean's name. It's not about my legacy.

It's about what can I leave behind for Jesus?

What can I do for him? And it's so hard because

we do live in a time. where so many people are

worried about their name. What are people going

to remember me for? What of all this? And it's

just like, no, it's not about me. It's not about

me. I want people to know Jesus, and I want to

lift him up. So who am I? Who am I to try to

lift myself up if not even Jesus was going to

do it? That is huge. And I think that degree

of humility is really important for any believer

trying to do anything. Because like you said,

our world says succeed, succeed, succeed, succeed.

Dog eat dog world. Like at every turn, make your

name. Great. I heard a Tim Keller sermon one

time, and he pulled from the Lord's Prayer, where

thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He goes,

our hearts are constantly crying out, my kingdom

come, my will be done. But Sean, as you were

talking, it reminded me of a different part of

this discourse, where Jesus is talking to the

Pharisees more about, I don't do my own stuff,

the Father does. And I'm pretty sure he says,

I don't do my will, I do the will of my Father.

And so as we seek to glorify Jesus, not ourselves,

it is the Lord who works in us. I mean, heck,

we were talking about this, the three of us earlier,

when we were meeting as a staff, about gauging

our success not on numbers or on... or on something

visual, but on our faithfulness, about how sticking

with what the Lord has set before us and stewarding

the opportunities he has before us well in a

way that pursues faithfulness, not perfection.

And so as we seek not to glorify ourselves the

way that Jesus sought not to glorify himself,

it is our Father who works in us, not just us

out there on our own trying to figure it out

and make it. Good stuff. Well, I tell you, it

truly is a blessing to see God's Word opened

up in such a powerful way, especially when we're

talking about glorifying His name. Because that's

what we're all about, pursuing Jesus. And it's

about glorifying His name. It's not about making

a name for ourself. It's not about exalting ourself

or even our church. It's not about us getting

our name out in the community. It is about exalting

the name of Jesus Christ. And that's what we

want to be about. And as we pursue Jesus in everything

that we do, We're here to glorify him. Absolutely.

What a blessing it is. So take what you got from

this and go out. Remember that you're not glorifying

yourself and that the Father works in you. This

has been Pursuing Jesus. I have been Ben Smith.

I have been Sean Griffin. And I'm John Ferguson.

We really need to work on our have -beens or

ours. We need to get these lined up at some point.

But either way, we'll catch you guys next week.

Okay, bye -bye. Pursuing Jesus is a ministry

of Memorial Baptist Church in Norwood, North

Carolina.