May They Be ONE

What does it really mean to be ONE?

In the very first episode of the B1church Podcast, Pastor Blake and Mark sit down for an honest conversation about why this podcast exists, why our church is called ONE Church, and the heart behind the words “May they be one” from Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

We talk about the challenge of following Jesus in a divided world, why oneness isn't the same as sameness, and what it looks like for the church to become a place where people can belong before they behave or believe. We also continue the conversation from this week's message in Luke 19, looking at Jesus and Zacchaeus and what his willingness to pursue someone everyone else had written off teaches us about friendship, grace, belonging, and loving people who may be very different from us.

The goal isn't to have all the answers. It's to keep having the conversation—to go a little deeper than we can on Sunday, laugh a little, ask better questions, and figure out together what it really looks like to follow Jesus in everyday life.

If you're watching ONE Church online, keep the conversation going with us throughout the week. And if you're in Fayetteville, GA, we'd love to have you join us in person. There's always room for one more.

Watch ONE Church online, find service times, and learn more at beonechurch.com.

#ONEChurch #B1church #ChristianPodcast #John17 #MayTheyBeOne #FollowingJesus #ChristianCommunity #ChurchPodcast #FayettevilleGA #Zacchaeus

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Mark 0:00

Welcome to the very first episode of the Be One Podcast. First one. First one. It might be the last one. Maybe so. Are you nervous? I I mean, I don't know enough to be nervous. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't either. Um my name is Blake, and I'm the lead pastor here. Yes, I'm Mark, and I am the worship pastor here at OneCurch.

Blake 0:24

He's one of the most trusted voices in my life, and I love this guy deeply. And so to get to do this podcast with you is awesome. Yeah. It might be the only podcast we've got to do. Nobody will ever listen to it. It's just one of those. But thanks for joining in for our first one ever. We have a lot of nerves. We're excited. We've been talking about this for a long time. I mean, we've been planning, we bought a bunch of pretty lights and gear and all this stuff. And um, you know, that's sometimes you just have to start. You have to start. You have to begin.

Mark 0:57

What do you what do you say? You say ship it?

Blake 1:01

Well, that's from a book I read. It was like just ship something, ship something. And the idea is, you know, you're gonna figure out like how to box things and how you know the shipping process. You're gonna figure it out as you have to ship something, and the process comes as you start. So just start, yeah, begin somewhere. And so this is probably gonna be messy and and it might just be horrible, but but we're doing something.

Mark 1:25

So but one of our values here is try new things, try new things.

Blake 1:29

We say it all the time, and it's the heart of innovation. Um, but the heart of this podcast is really it started with I I was just saying, like, what if I said like, you know, say that again? Because I would say that when I'm preaching, say that, I'm gonna say that again. Uh or can I say that? The idea is like, well, uh, maybe I shouldn't say that, right? And so it's kind of off the cuff Blake. That Blake unfettered, uh, the with no chains, no baggage. It's just gonna be like a little bit more than the sermon, and it's not gonna be a sermon, but the conversation of why we think to teach what we teach is important. And so that's the heart of this is to let's let's bring the extra stuff that maybe that you know is off the sermon cutting board, and that's usually a lot. I I usually have like eight to twelve pages and it ends up at five pages. And so there's usually a lot of stuff that I don't have time to say and unpack. And so this would be a little bit of that, but it'd also be just stuff like um I think it's important for uh men to teach what it means to be a man, for men to teach uh what it means uh to be a father and a son and to what it means to be a grandpa now. I can speak with some power and authority on that. I have six grandkids, bro. That's crazy. Yeah. So talking about the importance of uh being a husband and the value of all that. So I I just think there's more that needs to be taught than what you can dive into on a 35-minute message on Sunday. So I'm excited to unpack some of those things and have a place for a little extra in-depth teaching, but also hopefully would make you laugh some too.

Mark 3:16

Yeah, I love that. So I mean, one thing that just comes to mind, just thinking through like even how we got here and stuff, but I get asked a lot of times, I know a lot of people on staff get asked, like, why be one? Why one church? Why why is it called one church? Why are we calling this thing be one podcast?

Blake 3:35

Well, um, it really comes from John 17. And, you know, we we know the Lord's Prayer, our Father which art in heaven. But if you think about that, that was the disciples going to Jesus and saying, Teach us to pray. And so that's really I call it the disciples' prayer. It's them saying, We don't know how to pray, teach us how to pray. But when you talk about the actual Lord's prayer, it's in the Garden of Gethsemane, moments before he's murdered, murdered, he's overwhelmed to the point of grief. He's crying blood. Have you ever cried blood?

Mark 4:12

I never have blood.

Blake 4:13

The terror, the I don't know if he had terror, he wasn't afraid. I've cried because I was bleeding. Well, he was at a place of like just torment. And um the idea, I think, more than anything was being separated from God and when he had, you know, all of the world's sin, past, present, future, on himself. And the idea of that was the hardest part for him. Uh excruciating is the word.

Mark 4:39

Yeah.

Blake 4:40

And so uh here he is in that place, and he prays this beautiful prayer in John 17. And he prays six different times. Did you know he said it six times? May they be one. So this is the this is the heart of Christ, right? This is when you're going, what does he really feel? It's like, well, when people are fixing to die, they don't mince their words, right? They say what they mean. Yeah. And so when he says, may they be one, he I think that's that that's God, may they be one as we are one. So he loves the Father, right? He he wants them to understand how the world is to see him by the way we love each other, may, may, and be are unified to one another. So this idea of oneness is the heart of Christ. And I I think we're horrible at that. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's why we named our church one church. Um, and that's why this podcast is be one. And in fact, our website for our church is be1church.com. And so um it's it's not just one church. I think it's important to go. We're this is coming from John 17. Our whole heart and our beginning is to try and figure out this oneness thing, and we're horrible at it. Yeah, right. Um now, I think it's confusing because some people think it's well, are you trying to, you know, unity, uh, unification is a word that's kind of thrown out a lot in today's world, and it's misconstrued. And so I'm not talking about sameness, yeah, right?

Mark 6:16

Identical. Yeah. Yeah.

Blake 6:18

Right. We're we do we know that we're different than the world. Being a disciple of Christ means that we take on his values and we take on his morals, his integrity, and his teachings, and his teachings are really against a lot of the things that this world are about. And so he doesn't want us to be, you know, sinful and filled with darkness. And so it's not like an embracing, it's not inclusivity. That's not what we're talking about. Being one with him means that, man, I I want to have the same kind of love that he has, the same kind of spirit that he has, which is the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, gentleness, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. Like these are things the world doesn't have, right? And that's what the world's longing for is I want peace. Can I have peace? Well, only the father gives us that through his spirit. And so I that's the part of why I think this is so important. I'll give my life for the rest of my life to try and help us become one like the Father and the Son are one. And so that's why. There's the why behind be one. And so thank you for joining in. Thanks for saying, I'll yeah, I'm gonna listen. I'm gonna be a part of that. I want to hear the discussion. Yeah. And so uh the discussion behind the discussion, like how how did you land on why you wanted to teach Luke 19 and explain, you know, at the launch of a series that explains our heart, you you go with Zacchaeus. Why Zacchaeus, right?

Mark 7:52

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think even in the story that you shared on Sunday, that story of Zacchaeus, I mean, Jesus exemplified what you just talked about. I mean, uh you uh Zacchaeus wasn't necessarily someone that was easy to get along with. You mentioned, and I would love for you to dive in more, but uh that he didn't have a lot of friends, but Jesus chose to have company with him, you know, to go to his house didn't mean that he wanted to be like Zacchaeus, you know. What can you dive into that a little bit?

Blake 8:22

Yeah, so all we know is that you know, he immediately stops. He gets to this tree. We have this guy that Luke the writer, he goes into a whole lot of things that just goes, you're supposed to hate this guy. And the things he says are like, first he's Jewish, second, he um is not just a tax collector, but a chief tax collector, right? Yeah, so meaning he had people underneath him, he was in charge of a lot of people, he oversaw a lot of money and funds.

Mark 8:54

Yeah. I mean, like, I know for me, April 15th is not my favorite day of the year, right? Right, you know, but like in that culture, it was even worse, right?

Blake 9:08

Yeah, um, so he's one of the people. So it's like it's not, it's it's like you're you're one of us and you steal from us. So that nice car you have, and that nice robe you have, and that nice house you have, that's all because you stole from my dad and my grandpa. Right. So you you're one of us that's taking from your own. And so they they hated that. And so this is like, you know, imagine the person you with the America says it's this is our arch enemy, and and then you become friends with them, whatever that is, right? Al Qaeda, you Muslim, whatever you want to say the term is, and and you're friends with them and you steal from us for them. You know what I mean? So it's like you, you're homies with Rome. And Rome was the big bully that came in and took and plundered and raped, did horrible things to anybody they wanted to. And so you're homies with them and you steal from us for them. So yeah, and he says, so you're a tax collector, you're a chief tax collector, and bro, you're short. Right? He goes and he's like drops that, like, and you're a little fella, you're a shrimp, and so it's like the the writer saying, We're supposed to hate this guy. And um, so it makes me, it makes you just go, why, why are, you know, why Zacchaeus? Why did you love him? And why did you immediately stop and look up and see him and say, Hey, I I want you to come down right now. Yeah. Uh I want you to, you know, be my friend. That's what it's a sign of friendship saying, I'm gonna be, you know, lock arms with you. I'm gonna go to your house, we're gonna have food together. Yeah. And that's just weird. Like, um, for a really rich guy that has climbed up a tree and then, you know, is looking because he wants to see Jesus, is why he did that, which tells us like uh he wasn't satisfied with his life. He was longing for something else.

Mark 11:03

That's what I was just thinking. I mean, he was a guy that had everything he wanted, right? I mean, but something in him was like it there's something about this guy that's in town. You know, that's interesting that he pursued Jesus even though he had everything that he could have wanted, right? You know.

Blake 11:18

Right. Um, I think that's awesome, but I also think we can't miss that it wasn't just him pursuing Jesus, Jesus stops and pursues him. That's good. I think it's important to recognize that we we often think, well, Jesus would never pursue me because of my life, and he doesn't want anything to do with me, right? I'm not gonna go to church, I'll be strike dead because I got so much sin. You know, you um I think that's how most people feel. And so he's pursuing him, but Jesus stops the entire, you know, this there's a whole bunch of people that are walking with him, and he stops and says, Hey, uh, we're gonna shut this whole thing down. I want you to come down and today I'm going to your house right now. We're gonna go and have dinner. And I think you know, that's something the heart of Christians have got to get better at um is making people feel like they belong before they get their stuff together. We we aren't we're not not great at that, yeah, right? Oh yeah. So we uh we kind of say um, if you behave and if you believe, then you can belong. But that's not the heart of Christ. He's like, hey, guess what? You belong right now, today I'm going to your house. And that's why back then people muttered, right? So they're like, right? They're stupid. Because Jesus is friends with the wrong guys and he's hanging out with the wrong people. And so, you know, I I'm raising kids and I'm raising grandkids, and um it's important that you know you're we're in the world, but we're not of the world. And it's this line of like, how how do I become friends with sinners? Because that's why they hated this Jesus. How do we come friends with sinners, but like your son, right? You don't want him around.

Mark 13:09

Yeah, the bad company corrupts good morals, right? Right?

Blake 13:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so if you're in those crowds, you you can tell what a person will be like by their three to five closest friends, right? And so you I'm not talking about like people that you lock arms with, that you're living life with, that you're becoming friends with. It's important to have godly, righteous friends around you to help you grow and become more like Christ. But I think there's a also this, but we're also on mission on earth. And at some point, light has to engage with darkness. And if we don't ever engage with darkness, then what's the point?

Mark 13:49

Yeah, right.

Blake 13:50

And so Jesus shows us how to do that. He's like, hey, I'm not just gonna be your friend. I I want to go to your house and we're gonna sit down. And somehow, because of the love that Jesus shows Zacchaeus, there's immediate, immediate change.

Mark 14:05

Yeah, so what what he goes to his house and remind me what happens.

Blake 14:09

Yeah, I I don't know. You get like, did it happen on the way there? It seems like he says it in front of everyone right then in that moment. Like, hey.

Mark 14:18

When he was in the tree still, right?

Blake 14:19

You wonder, like, I'm giving away half of my stuff and I'm paying back four times what I owe anyone. Yeah, that's insane. So I don't know how much he made. Let's say it's a hundred grand. Okay. Let's say he's worth a hundred grand. So he's gonna give away 50 grand. Okay. This friendship just got very expensive. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And and I'm gonna give away four times what I owe anybody, right? So I don't know if he owes like, let's say he owe somebody a thousand dollars. So I'm giving, I'm giving you four grand.

Mark 14:49

Yeah.

Blake 14:50

You know what I mean?

Mark 14:50

Yeah.

Blake 14:51

And how many people has he done that to?

Mark 14:53

Yeah.

Blake 14:53

Right? You just go, he just gave away all your wealth. Yeah. Like everything. Wow. And so you don't know if he goes to the house, sits down, has a meal, and then gets up from the meal. I I want to believe that that's probably how it happened. It was like after time, after he spent time with Jesus, after he had some time to understand his heart and who he is, you know, there's a place where he gets to a place where he must believe you're indeed the Son of God. And I want to give my entire life and my cause and my worth and my value, everything I am to you. And so boom, it just happens. And so that kind of sacrifice is really remarkable. Um, but yeah, Zacchaeus didn't have one friend. There's nobody that wants to hang out with this guy. Yeah, nobody wants to be a friend of his. And so um, I I just think about that. Who who in our lives do you go, you don't belong with me, you don't belong with me, right? You know, if you would behave right, if you would believe right, then you could.

Mark 15:51

Yeah, right.

Blake 15:52

And I think a lot of churches operate like that. Christians operate like that.

Mark 15:55

Yeah.

Blake 15:56

Well, I'm not gonna go to dinner with that guy, yeah, right. And that's what makes the world mutter. Is like, well, you don't want to be that kind of Christian because they associate with sinners. Put the thing, the term or label down, whatever it is, like they they associate with the transgender society, or go the gays, or they they hang out with the liberals, or they love they love people that are you know on team red or team blue. Yeah, we we this world is so divided on everything, but the heart of Christ is God, may they be one. May they be one, may they be one, may be one. And that's what we need to give our life to is helping explain and teach the love of Christ with our own lives. The world will know and understand who Jesus is by the way we love. And and man, he does it in such a radical way that it's like, wow, I don't know if I can, you know, go that far. You know, it's like will it will it corrupt me? It reminds me of in this week there was a guy that walks up to me and said, Please pray for my son. He's an undercover cop. And you hear about undercover cops, how they're they get so it you know involved in that person. Yeah, they're playing a role, they're lying, they become a you know, the thug, they become the cheater, the liar, that they have to demonstrate, you know, that they're bad with the world. And so you're like, Am I gonna be so married to the world that I become like the world? How do you hang out with prostitutes and people that are far from God and very dark and doing evil uh in the world and not become evil? And so Jesus was so powerful in the moment people changed. And so the idea isn't to like mingle with people who have a hard heart and never gonna change. Somehow there has to be a transformation and you start to see the change as they understand the love of God. And so I think that's what radical discipleship looks like. When when you're on fire for God and you really love Jesus, people are like, I want more of that. I don't want less of that, I want more of that. Don't you agree?

Mark 18:16

Yeah, yeah. I mean, what I mean, it's incredible that he um he wasn't about Jesus wasn't about reputation management. I mean, that was right, he didn't care, you know. Um, and that he I'm sure he had to have heard the the mutterings of the crowd saying, what is he doing with that guy? But to take the most unpopular guy in that crowd, you know, the most hated guy, and to say, Hey, I I choose you. Um that's awesome. Yeah.

Blake 18:46

So let's make this personal mark.

Mark 18:48

Okay.

Blake 18:49

Do you have anybody in your life that you think I would never associate with that guy? I don't want that person in my life. And and do you have any like bigotry or do you have do you label people or is there hatred in you that you need to work on?

Mark 19:09

Yeah. Um I I honestly I I don't feel like there's hate hatred, but there may be some feeling of like, ooh, I don't know if I don't want to be like associated with them um just because of what maybe other people might think.

Blake 19:25

Right. Um you know, I think it's important that we there's there's people in your life that they've run you over with the train. And maybe you've tried to, you know, you've done the forgiveness thing, you've forgiven them, but you know, reconciliation and forgiveness aren't the same thing. Right. So I I think it's important to be reconciled, right, and to forgive, but to trust again takes time. Yeah. Right. And so uh to to be completely reconciled to someone, it takes two people. And if the other person isn't willing to reconcile, then you you have to just go, you know, I I forgive you and I love you. Yeah. Um, however, I'm not gonna be friendship with you or associated with you. So I'm not I'm not trying to go down that road right now. Um, but I I do want to be able to say that I uh I welcome all people. I I'm I want to be a place where people belong before they behave or believe.

Mark 20:31

Yeah.

Blake 20:32

And um I'm not always great at that. Um, I I want everyone to feel like, man, that guy loves like Christ. You know, I just want to be a great example and representation of Christ. And I I want to invite those that the world might throw the way aside, the people that are marginalized and don't matter to the world. Well, they're welcome here. They're welcome with me, they're welcome with this church. And um I I think that's uncomfortable for some people. Like some people might be like, nah, I ain't going to that church. There's too many tattoos. They wear hats. Like there's lots of things that we go out. They're they don't, you know, have nice clothes on. And they you know, the outward appearance stuff. And then there's also like, and you know, we the Christians are so nitpicky about everything. They they pick apart like, well, you know, they their bass is too loud. Yeah. Come on, this is the music guy, right?

Mark 21:26

What's some of the things you hear that divide Christians? Can we not repeat that chorus so many times? Yeah. Which I get, you know, it is far just as far as the music is. It's too loud, it's too quiet, right?

Blake 21:39

Turn the drums down. Right. Yeah.

Mark 21:41

But I heard um there's a pastor I I heard he was talking to some Christians in a in a closed country, it might have been China, and he they were asking, what is the church like in America? And and this pastor was saying, Hey, there's a church on every corner. And like, if you don't like the color of the car, you can't do it. Then you can choose to go to a different church. And the people that he was talking to was like, that's that's insane because that's not what they were experiencing in their lives, nor is it the way they see church in scripture, you know. And so it especially being in the the Bible buckle, the belt buckle of the Bible belt, you know. Um it's like we there are so many things that we can pick apart, you know, here and it's easy to allow little stupid little issues to divide us, you know?

Blake 22:34

Yeah. You know, let's think back to when we launched this church. We changed the name, uh, didn't launch it. We launched the name of the church.

Mark 22:41

Yeah.

Blake 22:42

It was March of 2020.

Mark 22:43

Yeah, right. Oh man, I remember. Right. Oh yeah.

Blake 22:46

And the question that I was just like kept pounding, I still just asked this question over and over. In a world so divided, can we be united? Yeah. And I think that's the question we've got to figure out. Yeah. Because man, just think back to COVID, you know, mask, no mask.

Mark 23:08

Yeah.

Blake 23:09

Did you vax or did you not vax? Everything was so charged and people were so filled with anger and vitriol, and they just wanted to it was it was like if I've ever seen the enemy of darkness go, this is what you need to be separated about. Right? Yeah. And whispering, we need we need to hate these people. Yeah. It was then, and it was like everyone hated everybody. And it was like how you couldn't win as a pastor, it was the worst. Because it's like this people that you normally can read the crowd. I can you go, I kind of know where people stand on things, but during that it was like, I don't know where anybody stands. Yeah. And I felt so like you just then because of that, we got quiet. Yeah. Mark, we can't get quiet.

Mark 23:56

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I uh when you say that, it just I always think to uh the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking those he may devour, you know, First Peter. And uh when I think when I see National Geographic and the usually the the willde beast that gets picked off is the one that's isolated, you know. And so if he can keep us divided, that's the goal. You know, and and how about that being the direct opposite of John 17? You know, right? I mean unity and and uh community and but the enemy wants to divide, you know.

Blake 24:36

You know, I think there's something to say about the fact that when you come to church the church is a place where you actually go to find friends. And that's what the world is desperate for now. It's not it's not more content. The world doesn't need more words, yeah, doesn't need more sermon. Right. You can get on and watch the best of the best communicators all around the world every single day. Yeah, all day. You can consume content. Yeah, the world is not hungry for content anymore. What it's hungry for is a people group that are one. Yeah, relationships. Right. If you can find intimacy, friendship, relationships, that, that right there, yeah, that's what that's not going away. Yeah. And if we could especially be like Acts 2, let's talk about the early church. Yeah. They they met together daily, they broke bread, right? And they sang together, and and then they opened the word of God and learned together. Those things, those things are still the church.

Mark 25:49

Yeah.

Blake 25:49

And it's in all kinds of forms. And right now, I just feel like the church is under attack.

Mark 25:54

Yeah.

Blake 25:55

Um, it feels like people are especially coming after mega churches and megachurch pastors, and there's good reason for that.

Mark 26:02

Yeah.

Blake 26:03

There's things that have been scandalous and immoral, and things that are, you know, especially when it comes to money and finances, they've been misused and abused, and people have not been good stewards, and they're not transparent, right? They don't open up their books and say, hey, this is how we spend our money. You can know. And I I want more transparency, not less. Right. I I agree with that, those questions. However, when you make your whole platform about destroying the church, it's the bride of Christ.

Mark 26:33

Yeah.

Blake 26:34

It's his bride.

Mark 26:35

Right.

Blake 26:35

Like and people are coming to know the Lord, they're being baptized, they're understanding the word, they're finding friends. Let's not destroy that. Right? If we can get as close to Acts 2 as possible and try to be a place where Jesus is exemplified and glorified, he's lifted high. Then there's got to be more people doing that, not less.

Mark 26:56

Yeah.

Blake 26:57

And so don't, you know, come after the church and destroy the church when it's when Jesus died for the church. Right? If you're a friend of Jesus and you're his follower, then you have to be a friend of his church that he died for.

Mark 27:11

Yeah.

Blake 27:12

And so that was a big heart of why I said, you know, you'll never look into the eyes of someone that Jesus didn't die for.

Mark 27:17

Yeah.

Blake 27:18

Yeah. And so think about the eyes you look into day in and day out. Coworkers, friends, um, people on your block, maybe that are neighbors and you can't stand them. They blow their grass in your yard. They do things that just annoy, you know. They don't, they don't, you know, keep their, you know, all their stuff trimmed. And you there's reasons that we've got, I can't stand that guy. But we've got to realize you're looking into the eyes of someone that Jesus died for.

Mark 27:48

Yeah.

Blake 27:49

And so, you know, may we be one. Yeah. That's a hard goal. It's a hard, it's an impossible task.

Mark 27:56

Yeah.

Blake 27:57

It is.

Mark 27:58

Yeah.

Blake 27:58

But I think it's something we need to give our life to.

Mark 28:01

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's not a a problem to fix, a tent it's attention to manage, you know, and it's something that we constantly work on. Um it what you just said reminds me of, I think you said it on Sunday too, you know, we're we're a place made up of imperfect people, you know.

Blake 28:19

And what you say, like if everybody's welcome, nobody's perfect, anything's possible. Yeah. Right. And so if you're perfect, don't come here. You're right, right. Because you'll mess up what we have going. Right. Yeah. And so we want to be a place uh where people like Zacchaeus can come in and find friends. And I'll tell you something. Um, that is not normal. It's not a place where you can easily find it's like, can would I would I be welcomed there? Can I belong before I behave and believe? Can I find friendship there? And um, I think that's a goal that's a worthy goal to set out for. It's like, yeah, you can. If you'll come, we'll we'll listen, we'll try to understand, we'll seek to understand, and we'll try not to, you know, hate you so much that you feel like you're not welcomed in the bride of Christ with church, with his people. May we be people who go, man, we're we're fighting for the lost, to seek and save the lost. That was the whole point of that text is to seek and save the lost, be friend of sinners with the heart that you'll learn to become like Christ as well. And so, um, yeah, sameness isn't the goal, it's oneness. And so I don't want you to come in and feel like you have to be the same as us, right? Because that's not what the church looks like. It's every tribe, tongue, and nation, right? Every people group across the world. We want people to look like heaven, yeah, right. And so that's a hard goal just to get different colors of people inside the room. But God made them all and he loves them all. Our creator is super creative, right? And he makes the every kind of human. And we just got to figure out how to go. I'm gonna love all humans. Yeah, they're all welcome. Come on.

Mark 30:03

Yeah. I mean, I think one of the difficult parts is that that's not comfortable or the easy thing to do. You know, it'd be a lot easier just to stay with your own tri, you know, your own tribe, the people that look like, talk like, smell like, you know, like you, you know, but that's not what Jesus did. Yeah.

Blake 30:21

Yeah. So um, man, what a great goal. I'm convicted to ask people that might be listening. Um, who is it in your life that maybe you need to go? I I need to try to restore that friendship with. Who is it that maybe has felt ostracized or pushed away because of you? And who could you reach out to to go, hey, um I'm gonna be like Christ, and I want I want you to know that I love you and I want I want to work on reconciliation, forgiveness, right? And I want to invite you to my house because you belong with me. And um that's a that's a challenge for us, I think as Christians to go, I who in my life can I, you know, help them take one more step towards Christ? Or, you know, that everyone matters. And so if that's true, and we're gonna give our life to that, I think we need to go, okay, well then let's start now. Let's start today. How can I take up my cross daily and become a follower of Christ? Well, let's start, let's start with the friendships that we've destroyed or friendships that need to be restored. Yeah. Um yeah, so I feel convicted.

Mark 31:37

Yeah.

Blake 31:38

You know, that there's people that I I need to love on and do better with. Yeah. So that's good.

Mark 31:45

It reminds me of you know the two greatest commandments. He boiled it all down to love God and love people. You know, that's it.

Blake 31:52

Yeah. Our mission at our church is passionately love God, intentionally love people. So intentionality is a big word we talk about all the time. Yeah. And I I think that the more intention you show to take a step towards someone that maybe has been hurt by you, um, I think forgiveness happens fast. It doesn't take a long time if you'll just say, Hey, I I blew it and I I asked for your grace. Yeah, it can usually happen pretty quick. Oh, yeah. And things that we've been bitter and angry, and you know, we have unforgiveness, and it's just that's destroying you. It's destroying you. So taking a step towards people and asking for grace, that uh is how you find healing and freedom. Yeah. Right? You're the one in bondage, yeah. You're the one that's being poisoned and toxic because of your own bitterness and vitriol that's alive inside of that you're keeping alive, rent-free in your mind. And so taking a step towards people and offering grace, that's radical. And it's also the cross. It's what Jesus showed us is like, I'm gonna die so they can learn how to do that. I want people to understand that the most powerful thing in the world is what happened on the cross, and that's the word forgiveness that this world is horrible at. And so to learn to forgive and to learn to give grace is the most powerful thing that we do when we partner with heaven. And um, man, I I think we're not we're not great at that. I want to be better at that. Mark, you definitely need to get better at that.

Mark 33:20

I suck at it. Not really. I don't think I don't think Mark has one bad friend or like one bad person that doesn't like him. No, no. Truly. No. Well, when you say that too, it just reminds me of I'm not sure which proverbs, but a soft answer turns away wrath. Yeah. I feel like if we just if we hum just get low, you know, just be humble and just you know, if I've wronged you, man, I'm sorry. Like I didn't mean to do that.

Blake 33:47

Um or you do that great. I s I watch you do it all the time. You are good at that. You're one of the most humble guys I know. Yeah. Thank you. Which if I had your golf game, you'd be humble as well. I'd be humble as well. You have no golf your golf game is like Zacchaeus' friend game. Like you have no friends and there's no hope of friends. It's like you there's no hope for your golf game.

Mark 34:13

No, I know. Uh like it's never been there.

Blake 34:15

Do you think you'll ever work on it? Are you gonna get better? I don't I don't know.

Mark 34:18

Do you think you'll ever buy clubs? Well, I I've the fact that I've never had a lesson kind of gives me an excuse.

Blake 34:25

You know, it's like, well, I mean, we had a golf tournament here and he's known. He got the award. Yeah. The worst golfer in the history of the world. They name this the Mark Brown award.

Mark 34:35

I'm pretty proud of that.

Blake 34:36

You're proud of that. Well, I think there's hope. If there's hope for Zach Keyus's friend game, then I guess there's hope for your golf came.

Mark 34:44

Yeah.

Blake 34:45

Don't lose hope, Mark. Yeah. Okay. Duly noted. Part of his problem is he's blind. He's partially blind. He can't see, and so he always hits the ball, and then he's like, where'd it go? Well, I don't I know it. Did it go getting is it nort near the green? Is it or is it in the woods at home? You can't see it. You can't see it. So that is uh, you know, I'm making fun of a disabled person. Not really. But kind of. Yeah, no, I yeah. He has problems with his eyes. What is your corny or something? Or are you just corny?

Mark 35:23

Yeah, I definitely am corny. Keratoconus is what I have. A keratoconus. Keratoconus. Huh.

Blake 35:29

Yeah.

Mark 35:29

And what's that mean? I don't know. My eyes losing its shape or something like that.

Blake 35:34

Well, you've got really big eyes. They're beautiful. Oh, thank you. The big blue, pretty eyes.

Mark 35:39

And your big brown eyes.

Blake 35:40

So Mark recently preached and he got on stage and he goes, I asked him to preach, and he was, you know, like, I don't think you should ask me to preach. And he goes, I so I looked in his big brown eyes and I said to him, What'd you say?

Mark 35:54

I said, Blake, you've lost your mind. And then Blake said, Mark, I've called everyone else and they're all out of town.

Blake 36:02

So Mark preached. And he did a phenomenal job. My man could preach. Yeah. Well, Mark, our first podcast, we did it.

Mark 36:12

In in the books. This is it. I had fun. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's only gives up from here. Maybe I don't know. I think so. Yeah.

Blake 36:22

But I just want to say to all of our listeners, that's, you know, when I say all, I mean Yeah, two, three. But ten tens and tens of the two. There's a couple guys that are in the tech booth in here. There's two right now for sure. And so to all of our listeners, thanks for joining us. We love you. And hopefully you'll come back and enjoy some more of these episodes in the future. And we're going to try to just make them on Wednesday and drop them on, I don't know, Wednesday night, Thursday, something like that.

Mark 36:50

Yeah.

Blake 36:51

So uh we're making it up as we go. We don't know what we're doing, but thanks again for joining us. Uh we we love you. Have a great day. Hey, we want to thank you for joining the B1 podcast. It's great to have you here. Uh, no matter where you are in the world, we're glad that you joined us. And we'd like to get to know you better. So if you'll uh leave a comment or leave a review, uh that's a great way for us to get to know you and and share it with your friends if it was helpful and it blessed you. We'd love it if you would just pass it on. Uh that helps us a lot and helping grow this community. And so we would love it if you would do that. I also want to invite you to church. Um, our our church is a special place where uh we want to help people take one more step to get closer to Christ. And so that's our heart. We'd love for you to come and be a part of that. You can do that online by watching online at b1church.com, or you can come and visit us right here in Fayetteville, Georgia. So you've got to invite from the pastor himself. So come on out. We'd love to have you. But either way, we're just grateful that you joined us today and you were a part of this podcast. Hopefully, it blessed you. Have a fantastic week.