Distracted by Many Things

three, two... Welcome to Pursuing Jesus. I'm

Ben Smith. That was Sean Griffin. And the snickering

you hear in the background is Pastor John. What?

Did you want me to be quiet as you were putting

fingers down? Yes, I did. I always count in our

recordings. Five, four, and then I mouth. Listen,

I got to keep us on our toes. I got to make sure

that we're ready to go. And like I said, I'm

ADD, man. I got to do some things every once

in a while to make sure we're awake. That's fair.

And I'm grateful for that. Now, gentlemen, you

know that we're filming this on May the 6th,

but we actually missed the opportunity to film

on a national holiday. Yes, we did. And I'm very

disappointed about it. What was that holiday,

Sean? May the 4th be with you. May the 4th be

with you. Yeah. Or Revenge of the 5th. We missed

them both. Oh, wow. We missed them both. Or you

could also go today, Revenge of the 6th. That

one feels more forced. No pun intended. Pun heavily

intended. No, it really wasn't. I find the lack

of faith disturbing. May the 4th, yes, absolutely.

That is just classic now. That is the day. And

then Revenge of the Fifth. Yeah, it fits, but

you start going more and more, and it's becoming

forced. All right, so I've got to ask. Yes. Which

one is your favorite of all those movies? So

I watched the original trilogy first because

my parents had it on VHS. But once I saw Attack

of the Clones, that's where I lived for a long

time. That was my favorite as a kid, which is

like objectively the worst of those six. But

it's what you grew up with. It's what I grew

up with, yeah. I think maturing is realizing

that Revenge of the Sith is the greatest cinematic

masterpiece of the original and the prequel trilogy.

I'm talking about all 11. I'm talking about throwing

their... Rogue One, Solo, all of them, the new

three. Rogue One is a close second for me. I

really enjoyed Rogue One. So still Revenge of

the Sith is your favorite. Revenge of the Sith

is my favorite. I think Rogue One is number two

for me. Don't worry. I got your back there because

Rogue One is my favorite. Really? That's my top.

What stands out? So what about you, John? My

favorite's Return of the Jedi. Okay. Then it's

Revenge of the Sith. Okay. So is it just like

the nice wrapping up of the ending for you? I

just love Luke Skywalker. I think you like the

Ewoks. I do love the Ewoks. I had the Ewok village

as a toy growing up, so I did. Yeah. That's fair.

No, the Ewoks are great. Did y 'all ever see

the random spinoff Star Wars movie that never

went anywhere? The cartoon one? No, no, no. The

Ewok movie. Oh, the Ewok one. Where his whole

family dies. It's terrible. And the way they

brush that off at the end is like, it's okay.

You can just go live with the Ewoks, kid. Yeah,

it was terrible. I was traumatized. It was awful.

My parents saw Star Wars on the cover at Blockbuster

and they were like, oh, this will be fine for

my son to watch and did zero screening for content

as the dad gets dismembered with a long sword

on screen. So are y 'all planning on going to

see The Mandalorian and Grogu in theater? Yeah,

I don't know. I honestly haven't decided yet.

Oh, I am. I haven't decided. I'm not current.

So I have seen... One episode of The Mandalorian.

The Mandalorian. See, I really like the show.

I know. It is really good. I enjoyed the show,

but I don't know, man. I'm just, I'm almost,

it's kind of like the same thing that was happening

with Marvel for a long time. You just get burned

out of so much content. I'm almost, I'm getting

burned out of Star Wars right now, so I don't

know if I'm going to go see it in theaters. But

he wouldn't get burned out if they did it with

Harry Potter. oh no the hbo show is coming out

soon i am so excited but that's it's been years

and so years since new content how is that burnout

i think both of you have a really good point

i will say like so i felt very much the same

with the marvel burnout right it's like so after

end game i was like this is a beautiful ending

to the story. She -Hulk is what did it for me.

Once I watched She -Hulk, I was like, oh, crap.

Yeah, it was pretty bad. I didn't even see it.

But I think that they're trying to ride out Mandalorian

and Grogu the same way that Marvel's riding out

Spider -Man. Because I've only seen maybe one

Marvel movie post -Endgame other than the Spider

-Man movies. And can I tell you, when Tom Holland

hits the silver screen again as our beloved Peter

Parker, I will go see it. I love that man. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Those were excellent movies. Those

were excellent. And having to, well, it's been

long enough. I think I could probably spoil the

last person, the last live action Spider -Man.

Having the three of them in there. Yes, so cool.

That was awesome. And seeing them interact and

their different personalities. Actually, dude,

it's so funny because I actually recently used

this as a sermon illustration. You're kidding.

Like, I'm talking about like two or three Wednesdays

ago. And I was just talking about, like, I was

in the movie theater opening night for that movie,

and the shouts in the theater when they came

on screen were so, the energy was so thick. It

was so amazing. It was a cool experience. I mean,

I remember that with Endgame, too. Like, oh,

yeah. On your left. That was the other one I

mentioned in that exact same illustration. Yes,

dude. I'm not a hooting and hollering at the

movie theater kind of guy. That's just not my

vibe. Different people are different ways and

that's cool. You didn't bring a live chicken

to the Minecraft movie? Is that a thing? You

don't even know about this? What? No, they've

made commercials about it. Chicken jockey. Because

kids were bringing live chickens to the Minecraft

movie. And now it's part of their advertising.

It got so famous. Can I tell you, I did not go

see that in theaters because I thought this is

going to be so goofy. On the way to Kenya, it

was on the plane. I watched it, and I was dying

laughing on the plane. It was good. It was goofy,

but it was done perfectly, the theme of it. It

was done in a good, goofy way. For me, it was

like a love letter to my childhood. I remember

just as I was getting into being able to actually

use a computer growing up. like minecraft beta

like before the game was even released came out

and like i had a buddy who was super into tech

he probably was like like vaguely into tech but

i thought he was like the epitome he was the

man he was the man he was like hey you should

try this game i'll get you into the beta and

i was like really you know that was a good good

Good game. And a pretty funny movie. I enjoyed

that. How long have we been talking about random

stuff? Seven minutes? 24 seconds. Star Wars?

We've hit Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter for

a moment, going to Minecraft. You know what?

There's a lot of editing going on now. I'm leaving

all of this because I feel like that hits a lot

of our audience. Well, Sean, we're on your text,

so let's move into the text then. Yeah, all right.

So yeah, so I'm going to be looking at actually

May the 4th. May the 4th be with you. So let's

not go back to the conversations we just had.

I'm going to skip forward. My ADD brain is really

trying to stay focused right now. It's jumping

into lights. But yeah, this is honestly, it has

become in the past few years, a passage that

means a lot to me. And it's because I have preached

it a few times. And whenever you preach a passage,

you really go deep into it and study it. For

sure. And so this is the cool story of Martha

and her sister, Mary. and it's the story where

Jesus comes to their house. And I just want to

focus on one part, and it's the part that...

So this is almost the opposite of what I talk

about a lot of times in the podcast. Okay. You

know, a lot of times in the podcast, I'll talk

about how there's a verse we read a lot, and

then like, oh, there's something new popped out,

or like, man, I don't need to... This one, no.

It's just there is a phrase in this passage.

that has been impactful to me and has impacted

me personally now for years. Okay. And so I just

want to focus on that one phrase. So let me just,

but you know what? It's a short story. And so

let me read the story and then we'll just focus

on the passage. So here it is. It comes from

Luke chapter 10 and it starts in verse 38. And

Luke 10 · chapter mention

here's what it says. It says, while they were

traveling, he entered a village and a woman named

Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a

sister named Mary who also sat at the Lord's

feet and was listening to what he said. But Martha

was distracted by her many tasks, and she came

up and asked him, Lord, don't you care that my

sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her

to give me a hand. The Lord answered her, Martha,

Martha, you are worried and upset about many

things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has

made the right choice, and it will not be taken

away from her. So, like I said, I mean, just

what an incredible teaching moment there that

we see with Jesus. And such a personal moment,

you know, He's in their house, and, you know,

how He responds to Martha when she comes to Him

with some... We don't really get emotion in literature

too much, in Scripture, but you can feel the

emotion of how she is presenting this question

to the Lord. But it's actually right before that.

It's at the beginning of verse 40, and it says,

Martha was distracted by her many tasks. So the

first time I studied that, what I found out...

was this whole phrase, distracted by her many

tasks. The part that really hit me was that the

original language, the phrasing that is used

here is to describe tasks that someone puts on

themselves. Meaning it isn't something that someone

else has said, you need to do this, you need

to do this, you need to do this. It is something

that she has put on herself and no one is expecting

her to do. So this goes beyond, you know, this

goes beyond just even tasks that you would do

when someone's coming to your house, right? You

know, a lot of times we'll look at this first.

We'll talk about how we got to clean our house

before people come over and stuff like that.

Like those are kind of expected tasks. Like,

hey, you know, serve them food, do the, or whatever,

right? This goes beyond that. This goes to things

that she's just doing because this is what she

thinks is the most important thing to do. And

I'm just going to do, do, do things for Jesus

because that's how I'm going to show my love

is by doing things for Jesus, doing things for

Jesus. And so it's all things she's putting on

herself, not that are expected of her. And that's

when I love so much. She goes to Jesus and she's

like, hey, don't you care? There's a lot in that

phrase right there. Don't you care that my sister

has left me to serve alone? Because once again,

in her brain, she's doing things that she feels

like this is what we're supposed to be doing

because you're in our home, right? But then the

Lord responds, Martha, Martha, you are worried

and upset about many things, but one. thing is

necessary. So, what I get out of this passage

is there are so many things that I can put on

myself. Things that I think are good ways to

serve Jesus, things that I try to do to work

for Jesus, but really the... First thing that

I need to do, the most important thing, the one

thing that is more important than anything else

is spending time at the feet of Jesus. Genuinely.

And one of the things that I've really noticed

in my personal life as that has become more and

more front and center in my mind is that the

more time I spend with Jesus, the more serving

becomes natural. the more the tasks that I do

for Jesus no longer feel forced on me, but feel

like this is what I want to do because I've already

spent time with Jesus, and now I want to show

that love for Jesus everywhere I go. And so,

yeah, so that's what I got. I mean, what a human

response, though. Like, Martha's... response

to like her genuine love for Jesus is to do all

the things for Jesus. Yeah. Cause I think in,

in that way, like we, I think we all do all do

this, or at least I see this tendency in myself.

And then I'm exporting that to all of you guys.

If that's not the case. No, I think you, I think

you have something there. But we treat Jesus

like, like we would treat other humans and we

treat Jesus like he has the same expectations

of us that the people that are in our life do.

which like is a very normal thing to do, but

we forget how different he is. And so like one

of the ways, one of the primary ways that we

show love as humans is to do. right? We do this.

We do this. We do this. I mean, like we've got

Mother's Day coming up, right? Yep. One of the

many ways that the men of our church are going

to show their wives that they love them is through

doing. Maybe they're going to cook a meal. Maybe

they're going to get them flowers. Maybe they'll

get in the choir and sing on Sunday. Maybe. I

see where you're going with this. Maybe they'll

get in the men's choir and sing on Sunday, which

is like tertiary on tertiary. Yeah, I know. but

we focus so much on the doing that we don't focus

on the why for sure. And I think, I think God

cares about our heart before he cares about our

actions. Like, I mean, a hundred percent, like

in the prophets, like God rebukes his people.

Like, I don't want your sacrifices. Like, I don't

want your burnt offerings. Go learn justice,

go learn mercy. And even the command that Jesus

gives love the Lord with all your heart, soul,

and mind and love your neighbor. that has nothing

to do with anything that happens outside of you.

Loving the Lord first and loving your neighbor

second is an internal reality before that's an

external behavior of any kind. Yeah, when I look

at this passage, it's just a reminder to me that

you've got to feed yourself before you can feed

others anyways. And you can go to two extremes

with this. And I talked about it this morning

with our group. There's the one extreme where

you can, Feast and feast and feast and then never

feed others and you end up being a Christian

couch potato. I said, or you can be like Martha

here who serves and serves and serves. She's

feeding everybody else but never takes care of

herself. She never sits at the feet of Jesus.

It's kind of like if somebody came into our house,

could you imagine if we had a guest come to our

house and we're busy fixing plates, we're busy

cleaning up, we're busy washing the dishes. We

never sit down and fellowship with our guest.

Right. And we do that in church a lot of times.

We will come in and there are people that will

serve and thank God for people who serve because

we need that. But if they never get to sit at

the feet of Jesus and worship and soak in the

word and do all these things. And I had a couple

like that in my first church. They did children's

church. They did it every single Sunday. They

were faithful. They never missed a Sunday. Even

when they were on vacation, they'd come back

to do children's church. But they never sat in

church. They didn't come on Sunday night when

we had service. They didn't come on Wednesday

night when we had service. And I finally went

and did the hardest thing I ever had to do. And

I went to them and I said, listen, I said, you

guys are not being fed, but you're constantly

serving. Not that serving is a bad thing, but

you need to be fed as well. And I said, we're

going to do a rotation. In children's church.

Yeah. Not fun, because that meant we had to go

find more volunteers to serve and help. And these

guys were faithful, and they got mad, and they

left the church for two years. Left the church.

Now, all they were doing was doing children's

church. And you would think, well, that was a

burden that took off of other people. Yes, but

they were never being fed. They came back to

the church two years later and said, we understand

why you did it, and we thank you. And they started

serving once a month but in church the rest of

the time. Yeah. And I just said, listen, you

can't serve on empty. And that's where Martha

would have gotten to. And a lot of people in

our church, they end up serving on empty because

they're never being filled up. Well, I feel like

particularly with your story. And even from my

own testimony of starting ministry and ending

up in a place where I was serving, serving, serving,

and never being fed. I feel like maybe the biblical

word for this is pride. I would love y 'all's

help kind of parsing this out. An identity can

form around your service, even to God, that is

not healthy. Yes. When I was at Cedarville, the

college that I went to, I was a worship major.

And I cuffed my jeans, my painted on tight jeans

because I was a worship major. I did my hair

shaved on the sides and that little floopy thing

on top because I was a worship major. And man,

any chance I could get to be on a stage and play

a guitar or a bass or sing, I took. Because my

identity became about my service. The Lord let

me do that for a little while, but then I became,

as Martha was, distracted with much things, burdened

down with much toil and care. And I even had

some of those emotions as I was relationshiping

with the Lord of like, why aren't there other

people that are stepping up for stuff like this?

And in a very real sense, it was because I was

taking their spots. But I had developed an identity

around my service. to God rather than from my

relationship with Jesus serving. And I guarantee

you he would have had me do less. I guarantee

you he would have had me do less. Because it's

not about the, it is not to him, his first priority

is our hearts with him, not necessarily the effectiveness

or the depth and breadth of the areas that we're

serving. Those are for him to decide at the end

of the day. Now, I want to get practical with

this, guys. So we were talking about the contrast

between Mary flying around the house like a whirling

dervish. Nope. Martha flying around the house

like a whirling dervish and Mary sitting at Jesus'

feet. A whirling dervish? Like a tornado. Tasmanian

devil. Is a dervish a real thing? Yeah, it's

a real thing. Is it an animal? No, I think it's

a Middle Eastern word for a whirlwind or a sandstorm.

The knowledge you have, I mean, it's just so,

okay. Anyway, moving on. I mean, fact check me

on it for sure. I've heard the phrase before.

All that to say, we're talking about Mary and

Martha. Martha's working, Mary's sitting. Jesus

says the one thing necessary is to sit at his

feet. The good portion is to sit at his feet.

What does it look like for a 21st century disciple

of Jesus, just trying to follow their rabbi,

to sit at Jesus' feet? So I think that this is

where it does become individualistic a little

bit. 100%. Because we each connect with the Lord

in different ways. Agreed. And I think that's

what it is. It's finding how you connect with

the Lord, right? And so all I can talk about

is myself. And the rhythm that I'm in of life

right now. So the thing that has me just... And

I don't want this to sound cliche, but it's true.

Falling more in love with Jesus every day. That's

where my heart's been the past few months, and

it has been such a wonderful experience. But

it has come from a couple places. And one, I

start my day with a worship devotional. We've

talked about it on the podcast before. And so

I'm starting my day with what seems to be a genuine

worship in my ears, right? And then I listen

to a sermon. And I listen to a sermon, and then

that feeds my soul. And then it gets me right

there at the beginning of the day. And I do that

before I start reading my Bible. Wow. So it's

like my heart is prepared then to go to God's

Word because I've already been in a time of spending

time with Him in worship. I've listened to a

sermon that feeds my soul. And then now I'm opening

God's Word. And then all of a sudden, God's Word

after, because I've already done these other

two things, it is so much more bright and colorful,

if you will, right? And so I'm walking away and

I'm journaling because it's forcing me through

the pursuing Jesus and then through my... through

the Psalms. I journal all the stuff that I'm

learning about. And with all of that, it's just

getting me that next step closer to Jesus. And

so that's what feeds my soul. But there's people

that are more artistic than I am, and so they

might need a different creative route of getting

closer to Jesus. Some people might, listening

to a sermon every morning might not be the route

for everybody to take. So this is not the task

list. This is like, hey, what is it for you?

For sure. But a lot of people, it is worship

music. For some people, it's a place. There's

a specific place in their house or around their

house in nature. There's things like that. And

so for every individual listening, it's what

is it with you? Where is it with you? What are

the things that you can do that cause you to

fall more in love with Jesus? And like I said,

not that it's being forced. It's the same thing

with your spouse or with any other relationship.

Just the more time you genuinely spend together,

the deeper that love gets. And I'll use the illustration

from The Forge. And if you haven't seen that

movie, get on Netflix, watch it, go rent it,

whatever. Phenomenal, phenomenal movie on discipleship.

But towards the end, he gives the young man a

sword, and he asks him to hold it out. And so

he's holding out this sword, and it's about 10

pounds. And he starts to talk about the importance

of the Word of God because it's the sword of

the Spirit. So he's talking about the importance

of digging into the scriptures. And after he

talks for about a minute, he asked Isaiah how

he's feeling. And he said, well, it's getting

heavy. And he said, yes, as you try to carry

that on your own, it will. And he begins to talk

about community and the importance of community.

And finally, three of the men step up and they

help him hold the sword up. And he said, that's

what discipleship is. You need to be studying

the word on your own. but it gets lighter when

you do it with others. We need community to feed

on the word of God. And so whether that is a

small group where you sit down and you dig deep

into the word of God, whether that is, and hopefully

going to church is a part of that and being fed

from the worship and the prayers and the word

of God, hopefully you're doing all of that. And

the thing is, is to me, you can't feed too much.

You can't overeat on the word of God. Now, you

can eat the wrong stuff where you start to listen

to the wrong person and you study other books

that can take away from God's word. But I don't

believe you can feast too much. Now, the other

end of that is you then need to put it into action.

We can't just be hearers of the word. We have

to be doers of the word. So, again, he doesn't

get on to Martha for serving. It just has to

have its proper place after the feasting. Yeah,

that makes sense. And so what I'm hearing from

both of you guys is that there are commonalities

with spiritual growth, like with what it looks

like to sit at Jesus' feet. But there are also...

our uniqueness is based off of our own personalities

and disposition. There's a book sitting in my

Amazon cart. So this is not a show of support

for the book, but I just heard about this recently.

It's called Sacred Pathways. Have y 'all heard

of this? I have not. Nope. It is a pastor of

a church who did a study on people's individual

walks with Jesus over like 10, 15 years. And

the gist of his thing is like, hey. We all are

following Jesus. Some of these things are the

same, but here's how different quote unquote

personalities tend to connect with him. You know,

just based off of, you mentioned some artsy fartsy

people or artisan fartisan as the whole phrase

goes. I never said those words. Who tend to lean

more, come to the whimsical side, people who

like sermons, people who like don't, but we all

need. The word discipleship, together as brothers

and sisters. That sitting at Jesus' feet, it's

costly though. And we've gotten into a little

bit of this earlier on at some point episode

-wise. I don't know when. But it takes effort

to put yourself in a place where you are emotionally

available, physically capable, and intellectually

ready. to sit at Jesus' feet. I think about this.

If Maddie and I have planned a date and Ben has

eaten before we get to the restaurant and I'm

watching a Hurricanes game on my phone and I

got my AirPods in, I am not physically or emotionally

ready to get closer to Maddie, to sit with her

in a booth in Chili's or wherever. And I think

that our relationship with Jesus is the same

in that regard. Just like you said, Sean, there

is a very real sense of getting your heart ready.

Yes. I feel the same. I'm not going to lie to

you guys. In the morning when I wake up, I have

better quiet times when I'm caffeinated. Oh,

absolutely. That probably says something about

Ben's sleep schedule that the neuroscientists

listening to this. i'm talking to you mads uh

would uh would have um would have something to

say about but um i am more alert and awake and

that is something that i have figured out about

myself um but it is less costly for me to scroll

on my phone than it is for me to get into a heart

posture where I can connect with Jesus. It is

less emotionally costly for me to throw on my

Lord of the Rings audio book on the way here

than it is for me to throw a sermon on or to

spend that drive in silence and pray. And so

recognizing, so one of the things that I feel

like I'm still learning is that To sit at Jesus'

feet is not a passive action. And I have to pay

the upfront fee emotionally or physically or

whatever to get to that spot. And I think that

that's a sacrifice. I think that's a sacrifice

of worship on my part that I'm still learning

to make every time, gents. I don't always get

that one right. Yeah, but when you do, what a

blessing it is. I mean, there are times where

I get up after spending time with Jesus that

I just feel so full. Man, I don't ever regret

it. Now, I wish I'm like you. There are days

I struggle. I mean, there are days that I don't

do what I ought to do. But, man, when I do. And

I think that's what helps keep us coming back

as well. Yeah, the joy of relationship. Well,

so slight kind of change in focus from sitting

at the feet of Jesus. We've got time for one

more text. Pivot! Sorry, I had to. I knew you

had to. I said pivot earlier, and I was like,

I'm shocked that I haven't gotten that from John.

I know you pretty well, man. So I'm going to

go to the May 3rd date. No Star Wars analogy

for this. But this is the woman caught in adultery.

And there's a lot that we could talk about in

this text, even in terms of like, you know, my

Bible says earliest manuscripts do not include

this text and all that. And so we can get into

that. but, but my main question I wanted to ask

you guys. So Jesus's response to this woman,

I'm not even going to read the text. You got

the Pharisees. They dragged this woman in front

of Jesus. She's been caught in the act of adultery.

Jesus, what should we do? Yeah. Um, he bends

down, he writes in the sand, they keep bugging

him about it and they're, they're getting louder

and louder. Jesus, what should we do with this

woman? Um, and he, he hits him with that line.

Let him who is without sin among you be the first

to throw a stone at her, which is, Just chills,

like seriously. But his response to the lady

after the Pharisees leave is kind of where I

want to look. Woman, where are they? Has no one

condemned you? She said, no one, Lord. And he

said, neither do I condemn you. Go, and from

now on, sin no more. And as I was reading this,

one of the biggest questions that I wanted to

ask you guys from this text. Because I think

this is relevant to us as pastors and also tremendously

relevant to anybody who claims to be on the path

of Jesus. How do we take Jesus's treatment of

sin and apply it to our lives today? Like, what

does it look like for us handling sin in the

church? What does it look like for us handling

sin in our own hearts? Like, how does that look?

His, neither do I condemn you from now on, go

and sin no more. I'll give you one simple statement.

Restoration before condemnation. It's always

about restoration. It's always about mercy before

judgment. I preached this at a revival one time,

and the title of the sermon was Drop Your Stone.

Drop Your Stone. Put down the rock. I think it's

interesting to me. Jesus takes her sin seriously,

right? Go and sin no more, but also neither do

I condemn you. Because at the end of the day,

based off of what he says, he who is without

sin throw the first stone, he's the only one.

He's the only one there who is eligible to sling

that first rock. Because Levitical law says the

person who, if you caught the lady in the act,

you're the dude who threw the first stone. Which

also is interesting, like, hey, where's the man?

Adultery is usually a two -party system. I don't

know, man. This is sketchy to me on the part

of the Pharisees. I did say it was a test. Yeah,

that's true. So you think they were making it

up? No, I think it was serious, but I think they

set it up. It was a setup. Yeah, but that's just

interesting to me. Jesus' real treatment of sin,

but also mercy for the sinner. It's something

that it's hard to apply to other people. It's

also hard to apply to ourselves. I feel like

we've all got that one thing that if we were

dragged out into the light, that we would feel

shame over. That's human nature, right? And so

recognizing, almost like Jesus is saying, I know.

I know exactly where you've been. I know what

you've done. Neither do I condemn you. One of

the phrases I wrote down in my devotion on this

day was, my sin is great, but His love is greater.

And that was just reflecting on myself. This

passage got me into a spirit of just, thank you

for your mercy. Thank you so much, because I

know what I deserve. And yet, you took the cost

for me. and you no longer see my sin. And I can

still remember. I can still remember reading

this passage this past week and just being in

a moment of just completely thanking God for

the rest of my quiet time. I love for you how

recognizing His mercy and grace for you, like

His relationship with you in that way led to

adoration for you. Yeah. I mean, that's really

what we try to do as we come to worship. as a

church, you know, it's, we're not trying to conjure

something out of thin air of like, like, all

right, y 'all sing. Um, is that, that our worship

is a response. It's, it's never the, it's never

the thing that starts our spiritual, um, our

spiritual process. Worship is a response to who

God is and what he has done. And so seeing Jesus's

mercy for this lady and it reminding us of his

mercy for us in that text is just huge. Just

absolutely. Well, gents, this has been a good

conversation here. John, I'm sorry we didn't

get to get to your text to your boss. Well, we

spent the whole time on mine last week. It's

all evening out. In all fairness, the church

did need to know our preferences on Star Wars.

Important conversations had to happen at the

very beginning. Deeply, deeply theological. Deeply

theological. Well, anything else you want to

share? I got to give a shout out. My wife is

going to probably listen to this on Saturday,

so happy anniversary, honey. Oh! Look at y 'all.

28 years. 28 years. She's put up with a lot.

She'll have many crowns and trophies in heaven.

Well, it's okay, John. You only said that on

the internet and it'll be around forever. It's

fine. She knows it. The Lord knows it. I hear

you. Well, shout out to Julie. Congrats on the

anniversary, John. Thank you. Thank you. Well,

I have been Ben Smith. I have been Sean Griffin.

And as always, I am John Ferguson. And this has

been and will continue to be Pursuing Jesus.

We'll catch you guys next week. Goodbye. Pursuing

Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church

in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about

our church, please visit memorial4norwood .com.