Faith, Pride, and the Greatness Trap

Hello everybody and welcome to the Pursuing Jesus

podcast. On today's episode, we're going to be

looking at a number of passages in Mark 9 that

all deal really at the heart of it about pride.

So we're glad you're here. Get buckled up, grab

some coffee and come join us. Well, good morning

or evening midday midnight happy 2 a .m. And

we ever follow up with those 4 a .m. Listeners

No, we didn't we didn't you just your intro reminded

me and I haven't thought about it since we talked

about it Yeah, no, I as of yet. I have nobody

at 4 a .m Yeah, I don't. I don't think we're

going to get those. I think this will be a personal

challenge to at least one person who I will not

name on the podcast. They've gotten a lot of

name drops lately from our church. Anyways, howdy.

It's a good like time neutral greeting. Welcome

to Pursuing Jesus. I am we in the West. Howdy.

We're in the South. Howdy. I've heard several

howdy's it's most of mostly from the older crowd

and if you say howdy to them They usually like

howdy duty do they have a ten gallon hat and

boots on no, but I assure you that if I had any

kind of Country in me. I would be showing up

in cowboy boots and a ten gallon hat, you know

That's I've never ever owned a single pair of

cowboy boots neither of either. However, however

I think I could wear cowboy boots. So I feel

like it's I've seen cowboy boots with everything

Like I've got a buddy from Texas and he wears

a Hawaiian shirt and cargo shorts everywhere.

And he's from Texas. And so on occasion, he will

wear a Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and cowboy

boots. Boots with the shorts. Boots with the

shorts. I can see Sean rocking that. It's impressive.

I guess it's better than boots with the fur.

Oh my head, the whole church was looking at her.

How's the next line go? John? Nope. This one.

Oh man, that's good. That's good stuff. guys.

I think I'm going to just kind of draw us right

back in here. I we got to get to our text. This

is a great idea. I haven't even said the title

of our podcast yet. This is pursuing Jesus with

Memorial Baptist. I'm Ben Smith and that is Sean

Griffin. Hello people, I see them and that is

a Dr. Johan Ferguson Jeff and I'm going to start

with our first text mercy. So, the day that I

zeroed in on was April the 19th. So, this is

one of those where it's like there are parallel

accounts here. We'll primarily pull from the

Mark account. So, this comes from Mark 9 and

it's right after Jesus has healed a demonized

boy here and they think he's dead and then he

raises the kid up. So, but it's starting in verse

30 and it says, they went on from there and passed

through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know

for he was teaching his disciples saying to them

The son of man is going to be delivered into

the hands of men and they will kill him and when

he is killed after three days He will rise, but

they did not understand the saying and were afraid

to ask him so This is one of those texts, and

Sean has talked about this before, where like,

first reading didn't really yield much for me.

I mean, it's a small little kind of interjection.

It's like a traveling side quest, you know? But

as I continue to read it and pray through it,

I felt like a couple of things stood out to me.

One is just like, Jesus's tenderness for his

disciples. Because like, this is not the first

time that he talks about like, hey, I'm going

to be executed. They're going to grab me. They're

going to kill me. And like, he goes through Galilee

and he's intentional to take that time with them.

Even if they still don't get it. And of course,

that's something that he would know that they

weren't going to get it. But my second thing

is like, how do we feel about the disciples,

like continuing not to understand? Like, Jesus

has said it, Jesus has said it, Jesus has said

it. Is this an opportunity to like... dunk on

them? Is this like I would do the same thing?

What do you guys think? Well, when you look at

the scriptures of the Old Testament, you know,

they're predicting a messiah to come and rule

and reign, and he's talking about death. They're

seeing it from the perspective the Pharisees

were looking for, and it's all they've been taught,

so it's... a course correction for them. Yeah,

I was actually going to, I mean, I was thinking

the same thing. It's expectations. You know,

it's, they had one thing, they had, as John was

saying, their minds were set on what they thought

the Messiah was going to be. And even getting

to know Jesus there, but I feel like, you know,

we don't know this exactly from Scripture, but

I feel like they still struggled. with that expectation

of wanting to have that ruler to come in and

take over Rome, to put Israel back, to be a king

again. They wanted a King David, you know? And

so yeah, so I think having those expectations

and now all of a sudden they're hearing that

he's going to be killed, you know? And it's like,

no, no, no, that's not what we want. We want

someone to come in here and rule and take over.

And we talked about that last week with Jesus

talking to Peter and the disciples about it,

and Peter saying, nah. And then Jesus saying,

get behind me, Satan. That is Satan's agenda

for this world, not God's agenda for this world.

So I'm curious, with the line of talking about

expectations, what are some areas that you guys

feel like people have expectations of the church

or of the Christian life that just aren't true?

What is that? How have y 'all seen that? Well,

it depends on what bracket you are in your age

group. If you're a senior adult, you're looking

for a church that's got a great senior adult

program. If you've got children, you're looking

for a church with a great children's program.

It really depends on what part of life you're

in, I feel like. And so the expectation is based

on what season of life you're in and what you're

going through. I feel like one area that I've

seen expectations need shifted in not just our

church, but in the capital C church. community

here in the West is like, the expectation that

church is one of many extracurricular options.

Like, yeah, dude, we've got church scheduled

for, depending on when you meet, let's say, 830

or 11 o 'clock on Sunday morning. And this is

an addition to my life, not the Christian life

as a foundation of my life. I remember when I

was interning at a church. the pastor said that

in order for a church to thrive, it has to stand

on three legs, preaching, worship, and children's

student ministry. Okay. And so it's kind of,

and it shows the culture of what is expected.

We want good worship. We want good preaching

and I want something for my kids. It's a shoppers

mentality. Yeah. You know, it's so funny that

you say that when, when my grandfather, um, a

couple of years ago moved into a new area, he

wrote down a list of three things and it was,

he had this deep John Wayne voice and it was

like, I want to find a church with good preaching

something for the kids. and they got a place

in Southern gospel. And ironically, he never

found a church that did all three well. And so

he ended up settling on preaching and kids. See,

I think the expectations there is a big deal

for this text. But my other question is this,

have y 'all ever been told something that only

made sense later? Because I look at the disciples'

response here, and they're scared to ask him

further. And I think part of this is about disappointing

those expectations that you talked about, Sean.

Yeah. Well, you think about all the times your

parents probably told you, you'll get this when

you have your own kids. I've heard that many

a time. And then when you do have your kids,

you're exactly right. I mean, my parents used

to say that when they would spank me, you know,

this hurts me more than it hurts you. And I used

to think, well, give me the belt and I'll prove

it does. And, you know, that never happened.

But then I had to discipline my own kids and

I then understood exactly what they're referring

to. You know what always freaked me out about

that? What always freaked you out about that?

So I was, I was a hellion. Let's just let's just

leave it at that. I was a terrible I was a terrible

teenager And so one of the things that was stuck

in my brain for the longest time was the the

idea of reaping and sowing and then and basically

I was I was so afraid when me and Tiffany started

having kids that my kids were going to be Insane

and I'm like I apologize Tiffany. It is my fault

You are going to you are going to Tiffany She

she calls, you know, she even says again. She

was a goody goody in school Um, and so like but

i'm the one like i'm the rebellion one. I was

the one that that tried all the stupid stuff

And I was literally freaked out when we first

started having kids. My kids are going to be

terrible. And it was solely because I'm reaping

what I'm sowing. Not thinking that I'll also

get the chance to sow in good deposits to my

own children. That never came across my brain.

But just that because of who I was, I'm going

to be paying for that. Thank God I was I sewed

great deposits into my kids and I have some amazing

kids so far shout out Griffin clan I will say

though. I think there's like a little so I've

heard that before right even even from pulpits

like, you know You don't don't make dumb decisions

because your kids will too and there's there's

some degree of like even biological precedent

for that this ends the father visited on the

Sun, but I I think there's a little bit of like

legalism and works built in there too. Like,

like, you know, it's, it's, it's fear among,

it can be fear mongering in that regard. Well,

and in the same sense too, I remember that when

I was, I had a really good friend. Yeah. He grew

up like incredible Christian from a young age

from like, you know, young middle school got

saved. I mean, evangelized, shared the gospel

at school, never slept with a girl. I mean, just

all this stuff. And then here I am, just the

complete opposite person in high school. And

then me and him, we got married around the same

age. And his marriage ended up not working out.

And once again, like this whole concept of like,

I'm the one that doesn't deserve this, you know?

Like I put that on myself of like, because of

how I acted, I should not be the one that has

a great marriage with a great wife that's lasted

this long. He's the one that did everything right,

but then didn't marry the right person, you know?

And it's just, but it's that whole concept of

this is what was ingrained in my brain of like,

no, I should suffer for what I used to do, not

realizing that I'm also on the grace of God.

Seriously. I mean, that's the gospel right there.

But we do that to ourselves, right? We think,

and it is, I deserve. I don't deserve Tiffany.

I don't deserve a good marriage. I don't deserve

any of these things because of the life that

I lived. But all of that was covered by the blood

of Jesus on the cross. Come on. You don't make

me think of the proverb that Israel used to use

in the book of Ezekiel. And it would say that

the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's

teeth are set on edge. And God had to come in

and say, listen, you're going to pay for your

own sins. Your sins are not going to impact your

children. their sins will impact them. Just as

the children's sins won't affect the father,

the father's sins won't affect the children.

And I am so thankful we live in an age of grace

and not rules, laws, and everything else in between.

Yeah. And it's easy to get back to that law place

in our head. Like, even your fear of having crazy

kids, like, you were saved. You knew the gospel.

You knew those things. But that... applying it

in a new category was something that you had

to come into. Yeah. I mean, going back to the

text you read, it was kind of like, you know,

I had these expectations in my brain of, yeah,

like, and even that, this was me post, you know,

going to Bible college, having been being trained

under these amazing professors and doing this.

But because I had this thought, because someone

in my past probably, maybe even only one time,

said, oh, just wait till you have kids. They're

going to be crazy. You know? We share that all

the time. You know, it might, it might just be

that someone said at one time it was stuck in

my head. And I think of, I don't know how many

of our podcast listeners, maybe there's something

in their life like that because someone said

something one time to them. Yep. Here's, here's

one. And I'll, and I'll keep it a little bit

vague. But our church people will know, but there's

someone that I pray with most every 11 o 'clock

service, right? When he comes down to pray with

me, there are two sins. that he asked for forgiveness

from every single Sunday. And I talked to his

mom about it, and the reason he does that is

because someone told him he was going to hell

because of those two sins. Come on man. Yeah,

but but you're exactly right And so it is and

then and then and then for those that don't under

the context, you know, he is He has a mental

disability and it has stuck with him for his

in for his and this was when he was younger Yeah,

and it is still stuck with him and he asked for

forgiveness every Sunday. Wow. Yeah power of

words. Yeah I've heard a pastor say one time

that our words create worlds. I mean, I think

the biblical version of that is the tongue is

a small little organ, but it can steer the whole

ship. It's a small little spark that can start

a forest fire. Man, I think for us who are ministers

of the gospel, there's a, I think that's one

of the reasons that there's higher accountability

for us. Because what we say, particularly what

we say and also hold up a Bible and say, thus

saith the Lord, really, really matters. But I

don't think it's just limited to us as pastors.

If you bear the name of Jesus, whether you say

that you're speaking on his behalf or not, people

will remember what you say. Yeah. So speak grace.

If you get nothing else from this, speak grace.

Well, John, you want to go ahead and pivot to

your text here? Sure. Yeah, I chose the one that's

on April 18th on my wife's birthday. But I love

this story. I could not wait to get this story.

It is. One of my favorites. And I'm really just

going to touch on two things out of the story.

There's so much to unwrap here. Is there a particular

passage you're going to with, or are you just

kind of bringing them all together? Mark 9 is

the one that's got a lot more in it. Mark 9,

14 through 29. So what we have is this falls

on the heels of the transfiguration. In fact,

the first part of it actually happens while the

transfiguration is taking place. James, Peter,

and John are all up on the mountain with Jesus.

And the father comes to these nine disciples

and he asks them to heal his son. His son is

demon possessed, throws him in the water, throws

him in the fire, tries to hurt him. And he asks

the disciples to heal him. Now, they can't. And

so I want to ask you guys, why do you think that

this was? Because they've already been sent out.

We've talked about them being sent out as the

twelve. They've cast out demons. They've healed

blind people. They've made lame people walk.

Why do you think they couldn't do it? Why could

these nine not heal this young boy? I was trying

to read this passage as you were talking so I

can get caught up in it, but I don't think it

was this passage, but there is one where the

disciples couldn't heal and it was sold because

it was their faith. They didn't have faith. And

I think that's the passage where it goes on and

says where Jesus says, if you had the faith of

a mustard seed, you could move a mountain. That's

the Matthew account of this? Okay. So that is

this one. It's just a different one. Okay. So,

I mean, I'm going to go with Jesus' words there,

but at the same time, I don't know. I mean, you

know. just hearing that from Jesus, that if we

have the faith of a mustard seed, I think about

my faith, and I think about the times that I

fail personally, right? About the times that

either I have fallen to sin in the past, or I

think about times where I didn't trust the Lord

like I knew I should have. And, you know, sometimes,

like, I've talked about how I've been in a season

where I feel like I'm waiting on the Lord to

do things in my life, and And sometimes when

you're in those seasons, you want to try to rush

God. So I used the example, I used a stupid example

with our students in our small group. We were

kind of talking about the same kind of concept.

And I was like, you know, and we were talking

about how it was actually, oh, it was the virgin

birth. And we went back to the original prophecy

of, you know, of Jesus being born from a virgin.

And it was this whole thing of being asking for

a sign. And, you know, I was telling like, hey,

you know, when the then that when the king would

have heard this, it's kind of like this, like

really, this is the sign I'm waiting for, something

that's absolutely impossible. And I kind of,

it's kind of like, you know, hey guys, if you

were asking the Lord for something and he's like,

well, when a purple horse runs out in front of

you, then you know that it's time. You know,

it's kind of like some of the things like some

of you. you're going to go find a horse. You're

going to paint that sucker purple. You're going

to smack its butt and try to get it to run in

front of you, you know, like because we're trying

to rush what the Lord is doing when it's like,

but no, but that's not, that's not what the Lord

wants. You know, there's, so there's that lack

of faith element. And I think the lack of faith

matters because like at the end of this text,

like the disciples ask him like 27 and 29, like

when they enter into the house that he's going

to, why can't you cast it out? And he says, this

kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

But that ties with the beginning of the passage

to me. Look at what happens as Jesus walks up

on the scene. They're arguing. And I picture

this here. There's the commotion. There's the

commotion. And somebody from the crowd just shouts

out, teacher, I brought you my son. And I asked

your disciples to cast it out. And they were

not able. How on earth did it get from I can't

do this to arguing? And I think about times where

I have tried to do ministry in my own strength.

times where I've not included the Lord in things

as simple as song choice or decisions that I

feel like He's leading me one direction, and

I've gone the other way. I wonder, and tying

that with the theme of prayer, I wonder if this

was the disciples got a little cocky, or I wonder

if this was the disciples trying to do something

that is supernatural from a place of their own

physical strength, or just not being tapped into

the Lord because... It not being cast out by

prayer is a real thing. I mean, I have participated

in deliverance ministry where we've prayed over

people who have dealt with spiritual oppression.

And I can say from my own personal experience,

there are times that I have walked into that

and have not done the hard work beforehand. And

it's been ineffective. Even people having like

mocking attitudes or dispositions towards me

where like you hear it in the New Testament,

you know, Paul I know, Jesus I know, who the

heck are you? And so I wonder here if this was

another example of like kind of their lack of

faith, lack of connection with the Lord, because

the power for things like this comes from Him,

apart from Him we can do. nothing. Yeah. And

I think they finally get it right, you know,

when it comes to the book of Acts. But here,

I think that's it. I think it was an overconfidence,

an overconfidence in themselves because they've

done this before. You know, Peter in the book

of Acts, he realizes that it's all about Christ.

And when he looks at the man who's lame at the

house, he says, silver and gold have I not, but

what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ,

rise up and wall. And so, I think that that's

exactly what it was, is they just found themselves

Trusting in themselves. We've done this before

this should be easy We should be able to accomplish

this and then it doesn't happen And so when Jesus

comes there and he makes a statement about belief

He says it several times and but the last one

he says in verse 23 says but Jesus said to him

if you can all things are possible for the one

who believes But my favorite part of this is

his response the father's response. I do believe

help my unbelief. And I am fascinated with this

guy because I lose faith sometimes. I lose sight

sometimes. And I want to believe and I really,

really know who God is, but there are those moments,

those fleeting moments where it just kind of,

you know that you're not like all there. And

so this guy is just... genuine, truthful admission

to God is mind -blowing. And I think the problem,

we treat prayer sometimes like Pharisees where

we're like, Lord, I believe. I believe. I believe.

And we go in with that mindset that, yeah, we're

not going to falter. We're not going to fail.

But this guy is just genuine. He's real. He's

truthful. I do believe, but help my unbelief.

If there is some miniscule part in me that is

keeping this from happening, this is my child,

I am begging you, you are the only one I so desperately

need you. And I wish we as Christians would get

to that point of desperation where all we do

is trust God for every situation in life. I think

it's also an attitude of humility too, where

he's coming, like, he's admitting to Jesus, like,

I'm not there. I'm not there. And I think that's

what Jesus wants from all of us as well, is to

come to him and be like, hey, you know, none

of us are ever going to say, yay, I made it.

I have reached the pinnacle of Christianity.

And if we ever do have that attitude. You're

probably entering the gates of heaven. Yeah,

it's not the gates of hell. Oh yeah. Very true.

But so that's, that's really what I see here

is this, this man's like, Hey, I don't have it

all together. I don't know it all. I'm just trusting

you. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that belief

and that attitude, I believe help my unbelief

is a case by case in our lives. Like, I feel

like the Lord shows us that like the first thing

we learn is the gospel in genuine faith and the

next 70, 80, however long you live years, is

though I think the gradually broadening expanse

of how that touches different things. And so

he allows things to happen in our lives where

it's like, I believe, ooh, help my unbelief.

Okay, I believe. Oh, not in that area, help my

unbelief. And so that's one of the ways that

I think he works us, you know, talks about working

out our salvation with fear and trembling, for

it is the Lord who works in you. It's both halves

right there. We are believing. We're making the

effort. We're coming to Jesus, but he's the one

who is continuing to work in and on our hearts.

One other thing that was interesting about this

text when I found it, I'm curious what you guys

think about this. I see Satan at work in two

distinct ways here. One is with the boy, right?

And it's super duper obvious. Verse 21 and 22.

Jesus asks, how long is this happening to him?

And he said, from childhood, it is often cast

him into fire and water to destroy him. Very,

very simple. That is Satan's goal for us, to

destroy us. But do you see that also in the disciples,

if it is lack of faith, that the temptation towards

pride and leaning on our own strength is another

way that Satan is trying to destroy us? That's

a, that's a, it's a more insidious way, but it's

that, it's that little bit of ego that you got

this. You know what? You don't need to, like,

you don't need to pray about that, dude. Just,

just make the best decision. You know what's

going on. And I think that, that if we get too

comfortable as believers, we can become like

the disciples in this regard and do the things

that look like faithful actions without faith.

Yeah. Wow. That's good. Well, Sean, how about

you? What about your passage this week? So we've

done it again, guys, um, where we've all got

our passages that line up together right after

each other. We all kind of settled in Mark, um,

except we went way out of order this time. So

Ben took the middle passage. John then took the

passage before that. And now I'm going to go

right back to right after Ben, but what's so

cool about this is even though we are out of

order here, um, it's all got these underlying

same kind of themes and principles, especially

from what we just picked up from John's passage.

Yeah. And so, um, so I've got, I picked this

really fun passage where the disciples are arguing

about who's the greatest, which once again, we

were talking about the failings of the disciples

and why are they doing this? And here you go.

You've got these guys that couldn't Cast out

a demon. We just talked about maybe there's some

pride issues going on there And then what do

we see but not not too long after this? We don't

know exactly how much time maybe it's right here

in the same kind of time frame It says and so

yeah, that's what I'm saying. I think it's right

there at it and they're like man We couldn't

cast out that demon. Hey, who's the greatest

first things first? That was good. I enjoyed

that one. And so yeah, so you have these guys

and they're arguing about who's the greatest

and then Jesus gives this incredible response

of if anyone wants to be first he must be left

and be servant of our and then he takes a child

and he has a child come among them and taking

him in his arms and what a just the most beautiful

picture of Jesus to me in this time with the

disciples, where he just brings a child, right?

I mean, because really, when you see this question,

I mean, we're talking about, I mean, these guys

are arguing about something stupid. But extremely

human at the same time. Extremely human. And

so he just takes the child and then Jesus says

in Mark 9 37, whoever welcomes one little child

such as this in my name welcomes me and whoever

welcomes me. does not welcome me but him who

sent me. I think this is another case for why

I believe the disciples were very young, because

I think the whole pride or the whole question

of who's the greatest is a young man's thing,

right? Because it reminded me of when I was younger,

and I worked at Corning in Wilmington at the

fiber optic plant. And at our job at the end,

I think it was at the end of the week, we would

get metrics for how well we were doing, and they

would do those metrics, and they would print

it out on a colored sheet of paper, or a colored

printout, and you would either have, you'd have

your numbers, but then there was also green,

yellow, and red with the numbers. And so if the

number was highlighted green, you're in the top

percentage of your group. Yellow, you did pretty

good. Red, you did terrible, right? And me and

two other guys, every time we got those papers,

it was a who is the greatest conversation. We

got together and we wanted to be the ones that

had the most green on the paper. Now we had to

be really quiet about this as well, because this

was a union and people didn't like seeing a lot

of green on the paper. Because they're like,

stop it, you're going to make us work harder.

And so we just kind of got together. We had our

own little who's the greatest. But we couldn't

brag about it to other people because they didn't

like that at all. But we'll move on from that

one. That's hilarious But what I love here is

really and what I what I was writing as I was

looking at this is there is an issue of pride

here that Jesus is dealing with. And because

you get a child, and what I love is when I look

at this, and I look at a child, I look at someone

that is dependent on everything. They are dependent

on their parents to provide them food, to provide

them clothing, to provide them safety and shelter.

And truly, when you come, and you have a child

that is like, you are completely relying on someone

else to keep you alive. Seriously. And so what

type of faith does a child have? A child has

just unending faith because they can't provide

for themselves. They can't do anything for themselves.

They have to rely on their parents. I mean, even

now, like I've got, you know, Judah, my, my youngest,

you know, we're, we're, we're trying to get him

to start preparing food for himself. You know,

like he's still at that age where it's like,

dude, you can put the chicken nuggets in the

air fryer, right? You can do it. Oh man. You

don't need, cause like the thing is like, like

mommy doesn't have to do everything for you.

We're trying to start to instill independence

on him. But as a young child, that's not what

it is. as a young child, you're still relying

on mom and dad to do everything. And so, your

faith is in your parents for everything. And

so, you can't, you look at the world and we look

at this and who wants to be first must be last.

Once again, I think that Jesus is saying, hey,

do you want to be a leader? Hey, you want to

be the man? You want to be the man? This is where

that servant leadership comes into perspective

where you need to be willing to humble yourself

below anybody that you are with and just say,

Hey, I'm here with you and I am putting myself

below you. How can I serve you? Yeah. And going

back to like the metrics conversation, what are

some, Oh, I had a lot of green, you know, You

had the most green, right? I had the most green.

Of course you did. So I think we've all got that

metric tally running in the background. And I

think it's different for everybody, but I think

there's some cultural metrics that are just very

simple. Like we all, you know, like the metric

of how much money do I make? And then what kind

of car do I drive? Well, let's ask the question,

what are the Christian metrics? I think they're

some of the same ones. I think we dress them

up really pretty, but it's kind of the same,

you know? Even to what we... Look what I did

for the Lord. Look what I did for the Lord. Look

what I did for the Lord. Or look how nice I look

for the Lord today. Look how nice. Look how good

my kids are for Jesus, but it's actually for

me today. I think we can all end up there really

quickly. The scary part of those metrics, I mean,

like in the words of the prophet, Qui -Gon Jinn,

there's always a bigger fish. You end up comparing

and comparing and comparing, and suddenly you're

not chasing godliness. You might be chasing the

appearance of godliness, which is so insidious,

but you're essentially chasing yourself. Keeping

up with the chums, this man. Yeah, but there's

always somebody who's better at it than you.

Exactly. And the kindest, hardest thing God can

do for you at that point is to take that away.

There's a biblical word for that. an idol. Yeah.

Whether you get yourself on the throne, your

perception of others, but the child -likeness,

that dependence is the opposite of those things.

Idolatry says, I can do this. I can make myself

big. I can present well. I can provide for myself.

But to put your arms up and say, Father, I cannot.

I think that's truly countercultural and counter

flesh. Yeah, yeah. It's one of the reasons that

I love partnering with the organization Student

Leadership University with our students. SLU.

SLU, it's an incredible organization and we take

our students to their... Conferences, that's

what is hard. It's not a youth camp. It's a conference

each summer. And I tell my students, I want every

student to go to the first leg of that, which

is called SLU 101. Just one, I want every student

to try to go there because it gives you such

an incredible perspective of what it really means

to be a servant leader because SLU 101 is all

about finding out who you are as a person, your

identity, your personality, and using that for

Christ and using it with that servant leadership

mindset. And I absolutely love it. That's awesome.

Well, dude, this has been fun. It's funny. We've

been talked before. We pressed record here about

what text are we going to do and did not occur

to any of us or maybe just to you. Didn't occur

to me that we had picked three concurrent texts

again. Yeah, no. I know. We should have looked.

I feel like we need to do these in order. Forget

whatever order we've done, but we need to do

these texts in order. Birth order, reverse birth

order. Whatever it is. Who has the lowest social

security number? I think we've actually talked

about that before. Have we? the podcast, but

like in the office, we've just talked about the,

the distance in, in numbers between our, between

our, it was either like the starting, I think

it was the starting number, maybe the ending

numbers. Is it different in digits? Like John,

don't you have like a different number of digits

than we? Yeah, he's only got four. Listen, you

serve it up on a platter, and I can't let it

go. I did not serve that one up. I'm talking

about Ben over there. Ben served it up. I meant

no offense. I was just, it was genuine curiosity.

Oh man. Well, I have been your worship pastor.

I don't know if I'll have a job next week. I

don't know if you'll have a job next week, but

I am pursuing Jesus. I am Sean Griffin. And I'm

John. And we'll see, John may see you next week.

Pursuing Jesus. We'll catch you guys later. Pursuing

Jesus is a ministry of Memorial Baptist Church

in Norwood, North Carolina. To learn more about

our church, please visit Memorial4Norwood .com.