WEBVTT 00:00.451 --> 00:10.633 [SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church, located in Plano, Texas, for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry, please visit CitizensChurch.com. 00:11.333 --> 00:11.813 [SPEAKER_01]: Good morning. 00:11.833 --> 00:18.815 [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a Bible turn to John chapter one and in a little bit we will make our way there. 00:19.015 --> 00:21.675 [SPEAKER_01]: If you are new to Citizens Church, welcome. 00:21.715 --> 00:22.776 [SPEAKER_01]: My name is Jayman. 00:22.996 --> 00:26.616 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm one of the pastors here and to those who call Citizens Home. 00:26.656 --> 00:27.577 [SPEAKER_01]: It's good to see you, Church. 00:31.030 --> 00:50.286 [SPEAKER_01]: I think it was May, maybe June of 2020, and we had just gathered back for in-person services in response to COVID from March to I think May, we just did online, and then in May, maybe June, we gathered back for in-person. 00:50.707 --> 00:53.009 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's the middle of the work week. 00:53.749 --> 00:56.612 [SPEAKER_01]: I have two emails in my inbox. 00:58.011 --> 01:10.916 [SPEAKER_01]: Both emails from Godly, well-meaning church members who love this church, both emails were about masks and the efficacy of masks in controlling the spread of COVID-19. 01:12.016 --> 01:20.359 [SPEAKER_01]: We were doing one service at a time and we were requiring everyone who came to that service to social distance and to wear a mask. 01:20.979 --> 01:23.600 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was an incredibly popular decision. 01:25.692 --> 01:27.453 [SPEAKER_01]: There were extreme reactions to it. 01:28.194 --> 01:33.177 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a reaction over here where some just thought it was a bad idea to gather at all. 01:33.237 --> 01:35.599 [SPEAKER_01]: Masses are not distance or not. 01:36.419 --> 01:42.083 [SPEAKER_01]: And then there was a group over here that were upset that we required masks and distant thing. 01:42.103 --> 01:44.945 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, there was one guy who would come to service. 01:45.545 --> 01:50.269 [SPEAKER_01]: And when I would walk up here to preach, as soon as I started preaching, he would take his mask off. 01:50.949 --> 01:57.072 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he would hold it up in the air to let me know that he wasn't wearing it and it was like his way of protesting. 01:57.872 --> 02:02.634 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, Adam, you work here, like we, you were part of the decision. 02:03.495 --> 02:05.996 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a confusing, is it confusing time? 02:07.609 --> 02:10.370 [SPEAKER_01]: We had voices helping us, you know, we did the best that we could. 02:10.650 --> 02:19.414 [SPEAKER_01]: I have these two emails, and these two emails were from people that didn't necessarily represent the extremes, and they were well-meaning and healthy about it and all that, and really they were sent in love. 02:19.474 --> 02:32.399 [SPEAKER_01]: But both emails had links to articles that were written by doctors, medical professionals, people who had letters next to their name, and the emails were saying to completely different things. 02:33.979 --> 02:49.408 [SPEAKER_01]: uh, both credentials, research, all of that, but painted two very different pictures and came to two very different conclusions where one was saying mass are essential and the other was saying that they're basically useless. 02:50.633 --> 02:54.297 [SPEAKER_01]: And beloved, I'm not trying to rehash all of that at all. 02:54.537 --> 02:55.358 [SPEAKER_01]: That's not the point. 02:56.018 --> 03:04.627 [SPEAKER_01]: I bring it up to tell you about what that experience was like for me in the moment, just sitting in my office, reading those emails, reading those articles. 03:07.850 --> 03:09.232 [SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't know what was true. 03:10.458 --> 03:11.459 [SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't know what was true. 03:12.219 --> 03:13.200 [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know what to believe. 03:14.020 --> 03:15.962 [SPEAKER_01]: And I felt stuck between these two voices. 03:16.022 --> 03:23.727 [SPEAKER_01]: And first blush is like both have the right experience and have the right credibility and all of that. 03:24.407 --> 03:28.090 [SPEAKER_01]: So how much of this is just like we don't know enough yet and we need to wait and see. 03:28.970 --> 03:38.677 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was this moment of confusion, not because of the absence of answers, but a moment of confusion because there were so many answers but so few people saying the same thing. 03:39.750 --> 03:42.712 [SPEAKER_01]: And here's what I didn't know then, that I do know now. 03:43.913 --> 03:50.338 [SPEAKER_01]: That experience felt new to me then, and it has become so common in the last six years. 03:51.053 --> 04:06.559 [SPEAKER_01]: where there's some issue, there's some decision needed, there's lots and lots and lots of voices, and not only just do not know what's true or what to believe or what is right, but even what deserves attention and what doesn't deserve attention. 04:07.559 --> 04:15.863 [SPEAKER_01]: And so if I were to try to say it simply and to state the tension simply, how do I know who to listen to? 04:16.818 --> 04:21.524 [SPEAKER_01]: That's the question I asked then, would felt like for the first time, at least in that kind of way. 04:22.004 --> 04:23.446 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm asking it a lot now. 04:23.566 --> 04:24.948 [SPEAKER_01]: How do I know who to listen to? 04:25.909 --> 04:26.589 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you felt that? 04:29.653 --> 04:35.019 [SPEAKER_01]: We live in the most content saturated moment in human history. 04:35.805 --> 04:39.288 [SPEAKER_01]: There's more to listen to now than there ever has been in human history. 04:39.848 --> 04:42.130 [SPEAKER_01]: More voices speaking now than ever. 04:42.691 --> 04:53.180 [SPEAKER_01]: The number beloved look at me, the number of people trying to get your ears is a crowded choir, mostly singing different songs. 04:54.501 --> 04:55.542 [SPEAKER_01]: Who should you listen to? 04:56.585 --> 05:19.302 [SPEAKER_01]: What voices should shape your theology and your politics and your health and what voices do you listen to in your free time and what voices do you listen to to get your news and what voice do you trust to actually tell you what's going on in the world and what do you consume when you're feeling stressed and what do you consume when you're feeling bored and and then how do you access all those things what's the means and medium through which you access those voices and so here let me just 05:20.679 --> 05:24.221 [SPEAKER_01]: full disclosure, I don't pretend that a sermon is going to answer all those questions. 05:25.021 --> 05:29.564 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't pretend that I'm the kind of person that could preach a sermon that answers all those questions. 05:29.644 --> 05:31.605 [SPEAKER_01]: I just want you to consider with me this morning. 05:32.965 --> 05:37.968 [SPEAKER_01]: In our series on May, what it means to be human, you were made to listen. 05:39.309 --> 05:47.312 [SPEAKER_01]: you were made to be dependent on an external voice so that you could know how to live and what it means to live wisely. 05:48.112 --> 05:57.555 [SPEAKER_01]: You're at, we said this before, whoever has your ears controls your life, your life is largely determined by your listening. 05:58.135 --> 06:03.717 [SPEAKER_01]: The voices you listen to are dramatically shaping the kind of human you're becoming. 06:04.838 --> 06:11.223 [SPEAKER_01]: And with respect to the voices in your life and the ears that you give, you're the listening that you do. 06:11.283 --> 06:15.567 [SPEAKER_01]: I wanna talk about God's design, sin's distortion, and Christ redemption. 06:16.307 --> 06:19.730 [SPEAKER_01]: Around the idea that we were made to hear, made us hearers. 06:20.511 --> 06:22.973 [SPEAKER_01]: God's design, sin's distortion, Christ redemption. 06:23.313 --> 06:24.094 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's God's design. 06:24.114 --> 06:27.416 [SPEAKER_01]: God's design is that you were made to hear, 06:28.489 --> 06:34.191 [SPEAKER_01]: and respond to God's clear, ever present voice. 06:34.331 --> 06:35.091 [SPEAKER_01]: That's how God said it up. 06:35.412 --> 06:46.656 [SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 128, and God blessed them, and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. 06:46.676 --> 06:52.218 [SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 1 and 2 is almost entirely God speaking. 06:53.979 --> 06:54.659 [SPEAKER_01]: Then God said, 06:55.942 --> 07:02.546 [SPEAKER_01]: then God said, God spoke to them and God said, it's it's it's full of divine speech. 07:03.487 --> 07:08.450 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how you imagine that moment, but as God speaks, there's no reason for them to cower or be afraid. 07:08.990 --> 07:10.111 [SPEAKER_01]: God is present with them. 07:10.151 --> 07:13.113 [SPEAKER_01]: His presence is glorious but not intimidating. 07:13.653 --> 07:34.345 [SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 3 says they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden, so before the fracture of sin in Genesis 3, you just have God present with His people, and when He spoke, it doesn't give the impression that God is shouting from the heavens, or God is giving commands from some like distant stage or something, somehow some way, God is just there. 07:35.507 --> 07:38.529 [SPEAKER_01]: He's speaking, just having divine conversation. 07:39.290 --> 07:45.634 [SPEAKER_01]: So humanity could just go into the presence of God and ask the questions and have the dialogue. 07:46.095 --> 07:49.837 [SPEAKER_01]: In the beginning, what you have is, you have God's clear, ever present voice. 07:50.618 --> 08:01.906 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that humanity was asking these kinds of questions before the fall, maybe they just knew and didn't doubt, but just imagine the gift of having that kind of access to God's voice. 08:02.826 --> 08:04.628 [SPEAKER_01]: God, how do I best care for this garden? 08:05.508 --> 08:07.609 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, he knows, he's the expert, he's there, he's just telling him. 08:08.990 --> 08:11.851 [SPEAKER_01]: Adam and Eve have kids, kids come along, God, how do I sleep train these kids? 08:12.071 --> 08:13.191 [SPEAKER_01]: What's the best way to do that? 08:14.072 --> 08:17.833 [SPEAKER_01]: God, we want to expand the garden should be good North, should we go South, should we go East, should we go West? 08:17.913 --> 08:18.754 [SPEAKER_01]: What's the best thing to do? 08:18.774 --> 08:20.074 [SPEAKER_01]: And God's just their name just talk. 08:21.295 --> 08:29.939 [SPEAKER_01]: Again, before the fall, they're probably not asking these kinds of questions, but just imagine with me, deeper questions, like God, what do you think about me? 08:31.379 --> 08:32.360 [SPEAKER_01]: Am I doing a good job? 08:33.537 --> 08:35.098 [SPEAKER_01]: Where does my worth come from, God? 08:35.778 --> 08:36.838 [SPEAKER_01]: What is the future hold? 08:37.439 --> 08:45.842 [SPEAKER_01]: And God's just there, like in face-to-face conversation, and he can speak, and he can reaffirm his blessing, and he can restate his grand purpose. 08:45.862 --> 08:59.888 [SPEAKER_01]: And so, how God designed it, we're made, we can ask these practical questions of God, we can ask these existential questions of God, and what you have is, do you have the clear, ever present, always speaking, voice of God, like so, as impressive, 09:00.688 --> 09:14.639 [SPEAKER_01]: And as helpful as chat can be or whatever AI you use, imagine, just imagine, uninterrupted access to divine, eternal, all-powerful intelligence to answer your questions. 09:15.320 --> 09:17.822 [SPEAKER_01]: You have to pay for it monthly and you have to worry if it's going to kill you one day. 09:18.402 --> 09:24.848 [SPEAKER_01]: So, let me make a point, it's worth saying I know it's simple, the core of all relationship is communication. 09:26.143 --> 09:27.884 [SPEAKER_01]: You cannot know someone that you never speak to. 09:28.644 --> 09:33.605 [SPEAKER_01]: You can know things about them, but without speaking, there's no relational intimate knowledge of someone without dialogue. 09:33.745 --> 09:34.325 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have that. 09:34.805 --> 09:45.208 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, God's design is he makes the world through his words, and then he found's relationship with humanity on his words, on his speaking. 09:45.909 --> 09:49.270 [SPEAKER_01]: And so if you were to ask Eve, why are you working the garden? 09:49.290 --> 09:50.330 [SPEAKER_01]: She would say, well, God said, 09:51.210 --> 09:53.392 [SPEAKER_01]: Eve, how do you know that God's pleased with you? 09:53.412 --> 09:55.514 [SPEAKER_01]: And she said, well, God spoke blessing over us. 09:55.794 --> 09:56.835 [SPEAKER_01]: Eve, why do you want a family? 09:56.855 --> 09:58.937 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, God said to multiply his image. 09:58.957 --> 10:00.438 [SPEAKER_01]: You would all point back to the words of God. 10:00.798 --> 10:08.685 [SPEAKER_01]: They're very existence from the very beginning, only knew the voice of God, and only lived on the words of God. 10:09.406 --> 10:12.989 [SPEAKER_01]: And as best we know, whenever they wanted, they could access that speech. 10:13.609 --> 10:15.250 [SPEAKER_01]: They could talk to God, since distortion. 10:16.091 --> 10:16.492 [SPEAKER_01]: Genesis 3. 10:17.831 --> 10:27.667 [SPEAKER_01]: The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made, he said to the woman, did God actually say? 10:28.658 --> 10:30.179 [SPEAKER_01]: You shall not eat of the tree of the garden. 10:30.199 --> 10:32.981 [SPEAKER_01]: And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. 10:33.601 --> 10:36.203 [SPEAKER_01]: But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree. 10:36.223 --> 10:37.203 [SPEAKER_01]: That's in the midst of the garden. 10:37.223 --> 10:47.069 [SPEAKER_01]: Neither shall you touch it less to you die, but the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God knowing good and evil. 10:48.190 --> 10:51.732 [SPEAKER_00]: What's the very first thing the enemy goes after? 10:52.641 --> 11:00.311 [SPEAKER_01]: The very first voice that is not the voice of God, and that is not the voice of a human, speaks in the story in questions what? 11:01.412 --> 11:06.799 [SPEAKER_01]: Did God actually say? 11:08.241 --> 11:10.524 [SPEAKER_01]: Whoever has your ears controls your life? 11:11.480 --> 11:15.242 [SPEAKER_01]: So the enemy tries to replace God's voice with his own voice. 11:15.703 --> 11:23.127 [SPEAKER_01]: And the beginning of that is calling God's word into question, casting doubt, speaking suspiciously about God's voice. 11:23.528 --> 11:28.371 [SPEAKER_01]: The heart of all temptation is to distort, diminish, or distract from God's spoken word. 11:28.531 --> 11:35.315 [SPEAKER_01]: Did God actually say, and then it says this, the serpent said that the woman you won't die, God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, you'll be like God, no, and good and evil. 11:35.375 --> 11:40.919 [SPEAKER_01]: So he calls into question, God's words, and then calls into question, God's character. 11:41.477 --> 11:43.359 [SPEAKER_01]: You won't die, you won't die. 11:44.019 --> 11:44.620 [SPEAKER_01]: God's lying. 11:45.761 --> 11:47.422 [SPEAKER_01]: God knows that if you eat it, you'll be like him. 11:47.462 --> 11:53.007 [SPEAKER_01]: And so he must be holding out on you, which means he doesn't want good for you, which means he must not really love you. 11:53.207 --> 11:56.590 [SPEAKER_01]: So see this, to be like God, knowing good and evil. 11:57.370 --> 12:00.593 [SPEAKER_01]: They already knew the command, they already knew good and evil. 12:00.833 --> 12:03.896 [SPEAKER_01]: So the idea is not about the ability to know good and evil. 12:04.216 --> 12:09.561 [SPEAKER_01]: What Satan is tempting them with is the ability to determine what is good and evil. 12:10.714 --> 12:12.057 [SPEAKER_01]: So here's the temptation this way. 12:13.240 --> 12:18.813 [SPEAKER_01]: If you disobey God's words, then your words will carry just as much weight as God's words. 12:19.716 --> 12:23.117 [SPEAKER_01]: What you say is right and wrong, we'll carry as much weight as what God says. 12:23.437 --> 12:23.938 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's J.I. 12:23.958 --> 12:24.798 [SPEAKER_01]: Packer on this moment. 12:25.418 --> 12:33.881 [SPEAKER_01]: It was precisely because man welcomed the prospect of becoming the measure and judge of all things that sin first entered the world. 12:34.582 --> 12:41.544 [SPEAKER_01]: The measure and judge that I can live in God's world in my words, carry just as much weight as God. 12:41.564 --> 12:43.005 [SPEAKER_01]: And so instead of listening to God, 12:43.765 --> 12:52.672 [SPEAKER_01]: I assume the role of God because I believed a voice that was not God's sin separates. 12:53.773 --> 13:01.598 [SPEAKER_01]: And so from this moment what we see as a consequence of sin is that humanity loses access to God's voice, the way that Adam and Eve experienced it. 13:01.759 --> 13:02.679 [SPEAKER_01]: And it cuts two ways. 13:03.400 --> 13:07.323 [SPEAKER_01]: God's voice is not as present in humanity if you follow the rest of the story. 13:08.063 --> 13:11.226 [SPEAKER_01]: And, and when God does speak, 13:12.325 --> 13:14.246 [SPEAKER_01]: Humanity largely just does not listen. 13:15.327 --> 13:20.070 [SPEAKER_01]: At some of the lowest points in the Old Testament, listen to the critique God has for his people. 13:20.110 --> 13:30.117 [SPEAKER_01]: Deuteronomy 2862, whereas you were as numerous as the stars of the heaven, you should be left few in number because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God. 13:30.938 --> 13:37.182 [SPEAKER_01]: Joshua 5-6 for the people of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness until all the nation, the men of war, who came out of Egypt, perished. 13:38.255 --> 13:40.796 [SPEAKER_01]: because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord. 13:40.916 --> 13:50.520 [SPEAKER_01]: Jeremiah 44, 23, it's because you made offerings and because you send against the Lord and did not listen to the voice of the Lord, they did not listen, they did not listen, they did not listen. 13:50.840 --> 13:56.542 [SPEAKER_01]: The book of Judges says that this way, everyone did what was right in their own eyes. 13:58.023 --> 14:00.644 [SPEAKER_01]: Whoever has your ear controls your life. 14:02.724 --> 14:06.326 [SPEAKER_01]: Who you're becoming is directly tied to who you're listening to. 14:07.283 --> 14:13.765 [SPEAKER_01]: And in the Bible, there is a direct line from your ears to your heart. 14:14.965 --> 14:21.127 [SPEAKER_01]: You're made to listen, made by God, to be dependent on the external voice of God. 14:21.167 --> 14:25.068 [SPEAKER_01]: We'll send to Storts that so that we don't listen to God's voice. 14:25.128 --> 14:33.471 [SPEAKER_01]: We desire other voices, especially if those voices promise us God like control over our life. 14:38.563 --> 14:39.584 [SPEAKER_01]: You know where this is going? 14:42.469 --> 14:50.861 [SPEAKER_01]: If you've been here for any length of time, or if you're familiar with church even, you could come up here and you could probably finish this sermon if you were brave or crazy. 14:51.862 --> 14:53.825 [SPEAKER_01]: Every week, every week we do this. 14:56.348 --> 15:05.497 [SPEAKER_01]: Every week we try and quiet the outside voices or even quiet the false internal voices and to hear the voice of God. 15:05.837 --> 15:14.085 [SPEAKER_01]: We preach the Bible at Citizens Church and so in most sermon series we're trying to hear the voice of God by what verse comes next and the book that we're preaching through. 15:14.545 --> 15:19.870 [SPEAKER_01]: Every Sunday we're trying to resist the distortion of sin and offer our ears and our hearts to God. 15:19.890 --> 15:22.092 [SPEAKER_01]: And so in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, in, 15:22.332 --> 15:46.508 [SPEAKER_01]: even in this series of series like Made, what we're doing is we're taking these topics about what it means to be human and we're trying to hear what God says about our bodies and about our worth and about our identity and about our worship and about our rest and about our ears and we want to know what there are a lot of things that a lot of people say falsely about all of those things and what we want is we want to know what God says and then we want to obey what God says. 15:46.548 --> 15:50.891 [SPEAKER_01]: So when I say you could finish the sermon from here, I mean you know the answers, most of the at least. 15:51.591 --> 15:58.075 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there is some part of application coming this morning where it's like trust God's word, read your Bible, humble yourself under God's word. 15:58.135 --> 16:14.045 [SPEAKER_01]: In light of all that I want to approach it this way, not just ask, do you know and listen to God's voice, but where does God's voice fall in your overall consumption of voices? 16:15.564 --> 16:26.929 [SPEAKER_01]: Because there's a way to know and be right about what God says, but still operate as the measure in judge of all things with just the amount of content that we consume. 16:27.669 --> 16:31.291 [SPEAKER_01]: And the way that we are the curators of what content we consume. 16:32.151 --> 16:33.032 [SPEAKER_01]: So I want to approach it this way. 16:34.528 --> 16:44.277 [SPEAKER_01]: If we think about the information, entertainment, reels, clips, access, and if we think about that as voices shaping our life. 16:44.758 --> 16:50.964 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you just consider how noisy our world is. 16:52.125 --> 16:53.887 [SPEAKER_01]: In his book, ScrewTipletters, CS Lewis writes, 16:54.880 --> 17:05.743 [SPEAKER_01]: The whole book is about a fictional conversation between a senior demon and an apprentice demon, and the senior demon is helping the apprentice demon tempt some poor guy. 17:06.023 --> 17:10.324 [SPEAKER_01]: He says this, and he's like, in his letters, he's instructing him and how to ruin his life. 17:10.344 --> 17:12.525 [SPEAKER_01]: And he says this, music and silence. 17:13.945 --> 17:15.185 [SPEAKER_01]: How I detest them both. 17:15.265 --> 17:20.607 [SPEAKER_01]: So this is written from the vantage point of the kingdom of darkness and what the kingdom of darkness values. 17:21.478 --> 17:25.122 [SPEAKER_01]: How thankful we should be that ever since our father entered hell. 17:25.983 --> 17:35.572 [SPEAKER_01]: No square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by noise. 17:37.377 --> 17:42.322 [SPEAKER_01]: Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile. 17:43.002 --> 17:52.391 [SPEAKER_01]: Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires we will make the whole universe a noise in the end. 17:53.732 --> 18:10.977 [SPEAKER_01]: in our noisy world, saturated with content and voices and unlimited access to videos and podcasts and Reddit and sub-stack and Spotify and YouTube and Paramount Plus and HBO and a whole list of things that exist now that I have to ask a younger person than me to know because I'm behind on all of it. 18:11.278 --> 18:16.179 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you consider with me, we need three critiques of our consumption of voices. 18:17.159 --> 18:21.121 [SPEAKER_01]: There are three critiques of the way we consume that make it hard to hear God's voice. 18:24.115 --> 18:27.918 [SPEAKER_01]: we consume too fast, and we consume only what we want. 18:29.479 --> 18:38.525 [SPEAKER_01]: If we're going to have a meaningful relationship to the voice of God, we need to confront the ways that we consume too much, we consume too fast, and we only consume what we want. 18:38.565 --> 18:48.993 [SPEAKER_01]: I got those categories from a book by a pastor named Brett McCrack, and he wrote a book called The Wisdom Pyramid and he's talking about our consumption of voices through the metaphor of a diet. 18:50.108 --> 19:02.274 [SPEAKER_01]: And his claim is if we ate food, the way we consume, information and entertainment and all that, we would get physically sick because eating too much, eating too fast and only eating what you want will make you sick. 19:03.095 --> 19:06.257 [SPEAKER_01]: So we have this unhealthy diet of voices. 19:06.497 --> 19:08.078 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to give a word on each. 19:08.938 --> 19:09.959 [SPEAKER_01]: We consume too much. 19:11.559 --> 19:16.202 [SPEAKER_01]: The brain was not designed to live the way that we live. 19:17.328 --> 19:20.909 [SPEAKER_01]: especially if you consider how manic our consumption can be. 19:21.630 --> 19:24.010 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's a new story about something happening in Seattle. 19:24.470 --> 19:29.252 [SPEAKER_01]: That's interrupted by a notification on your phone reminding of you of some tasks you have to get done. 19:29.572 --> 19:33.133 [SPEAKER_01]: You pick up your phone and the group chat is blowing up because cars can fly now. 19:33.634 --> 19:38.355 [SPEAKER_01]: A commercial comes on TV and the commercial sounds like a trailer to a scary movie. 19:38.395 --> 19:40.956 [SPEAKER_01]: So you stop and listen and it's actually just a political ad. 19:41.396 --> 19:46.018 [SPEAKER_01]: And then you forget what you're originally doing and so then you just check email. 19:47.818 --> 19:50.341 [SPEAKER_01]: All that can happen in five minutes. 19:51.762 --> 19:58.149 [SPEAKER_01]: In the book, he quotes a neuroscientist who describes what happens to the brain with that kind of in what he calls information multitasking. 19:59.170 --> 20:09.522 [SPEAKER_01]: Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another, causes the prefrontal cortex and another part of the brain to burn up oxygenated glucose. 20:11.338 --> 20:21.465 [SPEAKER_01]: The same fuel they need to stay on task, and the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time. 20:22.886 --> 20:25.007 [SPEAKER_01]: We've literally depleted the nutrients in our brain. 20:25.988 --> 20:36.055 [SPEAKER_01]: Among other things, repeated task switching leads to anxiety, which raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which in turn can lead to aggressive and impulsive behavior. 20:37.516 --> 20:39.317 [SPEAKER_01]: Another way your stomach feels when you eat more 20:41.483 --> 20:48.432 [SPEAKER_01]: The brain is bloated with information, strained and stressed by too much consumption. 20:49.333 --> 20:57.623 [SPEAKER_01]: And in our over-consumption, one of the things that happens is we end up knowing about things that we can do very little about. 20:58.915 --> 21:11.406 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a relatively new phenomenon in human history to know about tragedy, crisis, conflict, happening in places where not only we don't live, but we'll never go, we'll never visit. 21:12.347 --> 21:18.193 [SPEAKER_01]: And when we know about problems that we can't meaningfully do anything about, the only thing we can do is be angry or anxious. 21:18.993 --> 21:21.115 [SPEAKER_01]: We consume too much, we consume too many voices. 21:21.576 --> 21:22.797 [SPEAKER_01]: We consume too fast. 21:24.171 --> 21:36.095 [SPEAKER_01]: The voices that win the day are voices that will give quick, confident answers in a loud way, and that puts the expectation on us that we should come to quick, confident conclusions about everything. 21:36.896 --> 21:40.417 [SPEAKER_01]: In the book he says it like this, we are now all experts on everything. 21:41.285 --> 21:42.826 [SPEAKER_01]: and have platforms to publish our thoughts. 21:42.986 --> 21:47.068 [SPEAKER_01]: Actresses can launch lifestyle blogs that profit all manner of dubious health advice. 21:47.869 --> 21:56.894 [SPEAKER_01]: Some suburban moms declare themselves experts on vaccines, essential oils, alternative medicine, and special diets after reading a few blog posts written by non-professional experts. 21:57.915 --> 22:01.237 [SPEAKER_01]: Instagram influencers can confidently share opinions on political hot topics. 22:01.257 --> 22:02.518 [SPEAKER_01]: They know little to nothing about. 22:03.538 --> 22:05.980 [SPEAKER_01]: Expertise has fallen on hard times. 22:07.073 --> 22:13.142 [SPEAKER_01]: often driven by class antagonism and resentment toward elites dismissal of credential-based authorities widespread and troubling. 22:13.502 --> 22:17.848 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a world where one man's opinion about something is as valid as the next guy's. 22:18.349 --> 22:23.316 [SPEAKER_01]: Even if the first man only heard something on talk radio while the next guy has a PhD in the subject. 22:25.326 --> 22:30.028 [SPEAKER_01]: You remember, in our wisdom series, we said some things about wisdom over and over and over again. 22:30.088 --> 22:34.090 [SPEAKER_01]: Wisdom has a posture, it's low, we grow wise as we are humble. 22:35.131 --> 22:47.256 [SPEAKER_01]: Wisdom has a pace, it's slow, we grow wise over time, because wisdom is not just about information, wisdom is about character, and character change happens slowly. 22:48.357 --> 22:52.859 [SPEAKER_01]: The internet has no patience for the pace that wisdom requires. 22:54.222 --> 22:58.967 [SPEAKER_01]: So whoever is willing to talk loud and whoever is willing to talk first gets a lot of attention. 22:59.267 --> 23:02.551 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what kind of answer does not get any attention at all? 23:03.972 --> 23:07.616 [SPEAKER_01]: The kind of answer that just never goes viral, someone's being interviewed on a podcast or whatever. 23:07.956 --> 23:13.502 [SPEAKER_01]: And they're asked a question about some issue that's complicated and fraught with things and the responses I don't know. 23:14.803 --> 23:15.964 [SPEAKER_01]: I need more time to think about that. 23:16.885 --> 23:19.846 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know enough to give helpful thoughts, so I should be slow to speak. 23:20.506 --> 23:24.108 [SPEAKER_01]: That answer has zero views and five dislikes. 23:26.509 --> 23:27.609 [SPEAKER_01]: Because there's not an appetite. 23:27.629 --> 23:28.909 [SPEAKER_01]: There's not an appetite. 23:30.310 --> 23:31.150 [SPEAKER_01]: I feel this is a leader. 23:31.170 --> 23:36.912 [SPEAKER_01]: If I could just be candid with you, I feel perpetually behind on most things. 23:39.977 --> 23:46.581 [SPEAKER_01]: They don't offer a whole lot of classes and Bible college on the things that people want answers for now. 23:46.601 --> 23:52.504 [SPEAKER_01]: I remember thinking that during COVID, it was like, I miss the infectious disease class in Bible college. 23:52.524 --> 23:53.965 [SPEAKER_01]: It must have been an elective or something. 23:54.445 --> 24:00.929 [SPEAKER_01]: I just feel unprepared in so many ways to lead to be one of the leaders of a church in a polarized moment like ours. 24:01.269 --> 24:06.732 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know how to hold the tension between the pace that wisdom requires in the demand for quick answers. 24:07.853 --> 24:12.656 [SPEAKER_01]: even the demand for quick answers around things that I wish I had I answer for, things that are actually consequential. 24:13.356 --> 24:28.445 [SPEAKER_01]: And with that comes this pressure to consume, I feel as a parent, unpre, when I think about this, when our kids ask questions about things going on in our world, we can feel anxiety that we're responsible to give them quick, airtight answers that settle it in their soul forever. 24:29.785 --> 24:41.855 [SPEAKER_01]: And when maybe what's actually needed is slow, ongoing, thoughtful conversation over a long period of time, where we consult God's Word together and give them space to ask more questions. 24:42.455 --> 24:49.501 [SPEAKER_01]: And it feels like if we don't have the right response right now that settles it right away, we're gonna mess them up forever. 24:49.901 --> 24:52.643 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you could draw from your own life to make this point. 24:52.663 --> 24:56.146 [SPEAKER_01]: My point is this, culturally we don't allow time. 24:57.744 --> 25:02.368 [SPEAKER_01]: for things to digest before we rush off to put another bite of content in our ears. 25:02.688 --> 25:03.529 [SPEAKER_01]: We eat too fast. 25:04.910 --> 25:09.174 [SPEAKER_01]: We consume too much, we consume too fast, we consume only what we want. 25:10.075 --> 25:25.167 [SPEAKER_01]: In a world of voices, in a world of voices, we can be measure and judge of the voices that we consume, where the curator of the voices we consume, and so we naturally have a human bent to only listen to things that are going to affirm us. 25:26.028 --> 25:32.596 [SPEAKER_01]: only listen to things that we want to listen to, only listen to things that agree with our preconceived biases about things. 25:33.357 --> 25:37.502 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we gravitate towards the kind of voices that are going to say things like things need to change. 25:38.423 --> 25:40.645 [SPEAKER_01]: Or they need to change. 25:41.506 --> 25:44.550 [SPEAKER_01]: But avoid the voices that say you need to change. 25:45.534 --> 25:49.715 [SPEAKER_01]: Which means, okay, there's a slow, unseen way. 25:51.176 --> 25:59.318 [SPEAKER_01]: When the impacts this has on us, is it creates gaps in our life between what we believe and what we want. 26:00.018 --> 26:01.558 [SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you a punchy example. 26:02.559 --> 26:07.480 [SPEAKER_01]: If last Sunday morning, I had announced that the end of service tonight, 26:08.703 --> 26:11.665 [SPEAKER_01]: Meaning, last Sunday night, we're going to gather at five. 26:12.866 --> 26:18.671 [SPEAKER_01]: In the elders of Citizens Church are going to tell you whether to vote for Tala Rico or Paxton in the upcoming election. 26:19.752 --> 26:27.158 [SPEAKER_01]: We've reached a consensus as elders, and we will tell you what we think the members of Citizens Church should do. 26:28.439 --> 26:29.780 [SPEAKER_01]: I have a serious question for you. 26:30.621 --> 26:33.663 [SPEAKER_01]: How full do you think the room would have been? 26:39.233 --> 26:43.756 [SPEAKER_01]: Most of us would at least emailed and asked if there's going to be a recording of that. 26:45.097 --> 26:45.718 [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't do that. 26:46.058 --> 26:47.139 [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't do that last Sunday. 26:48.019 --> 26:52.963 [SPEAKER_01]: Last Sunday, I announced we would gather at five to pray and to worship. 26:53.663 --> 26:55.024 [SPEAKER_01]: And we did, prayed for one another. 26:55.305 --> 26:56.005 [SPEAKER_01]: We took communion. 26:56.265 --> 26:56.846 [SPEAKER_01]: We worshiped. 26:59.227 --> 27:00.108 [SPEAKER_01]: The room is not full. 27:00.128 --> 27:02.830 [SPEAKER_01]: A couple hundred people at most. 27:05.712 --> 27:06.793 [SPEAKER_01]: Please don't misunderstand me. 27:08.292 --> 27:09.373 [SPEAKER_01]: Elections are important. 27:09.693 --> 27:10.413 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not naive. 27:11.234 --> 27:14.676 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad even for caring about what you should care about. 27:14.736 --> 27:17.178 [SPEAKER_01]: It matters, what's be thoughtful about all that. 27:19.740 --> 27:35.430 [SPEAKER_01]: But why many of us would come to a night like that and not a normal night of worship is because our lives are so dominated by partisan voices that we have developed a greater appetite for political discourse than for prayer. 27:37.041 --> 27:42.886 [SPEAKER_01]: And we believe that what is happening in state politics is more important than what God is doing in His local church. 27:43.787 --> 27:48.551 [SPEAKER_01]: As John Tyson says, we are anxious about politics because we're insecure about the kingdom. 27:50.452 --> 27:51.233 [SPEAKER_00]: But think about this. 27:54.435 --> 27:56.337 [SPEAKER_01]: Most of us don't actually believe that. 27:57.198 --> 27:58.539 [SPEAKER_01]: We know better than that. 27:58.739 --> 27:59.460 [SPEAKER_01]: We know. 28:00.625 --> 28:08.052 [SPEAKER_01]: We know that long after senators and governors and presidents are no longer in off when kings and kingdoms have all passed away. 28:08.432 --> 28:11.555 [SPEAKER_01]: We know that Christ will reign over a kingdom that has no end. 28:12.196 --> 28:20.063 [SPEAKER_01]: And we know that one of the best things we could do on a Sunday night is gather and pray for God's kingdom to come and for God's people to be faithful. 28:20.103 --> 28:20.984 [SPEAKER_01]: We know that 28:22.212 --> 28:30.454 [SPEAKER_01]: But in a world where we over-consume and consume too fast, it shapes our desires so that we crave what the world tells us to crave. 28:31.074 --> 28:37.176 [SPEAKER_01]: And there is this gap between what our heads as is most important, and what our ears are actually hungry to hear. 28:38.096 --> 28:40.536 [SPEAKER_01]: And look, we could use so many other examples for this. 28:40.996 --> 28:43.477 [SPEAKER_01]: I used politics because I don't get enough emails. 28:44.057 --> 28:46.058 [SPEAKER_01]: But we are at great risk. 28:46.678 --> 28:47.958 [SPEAKER_01]: We are at great risk. 28:53.491 --> 28:57.473 [SPEAKER_01]: of constantly listening and never changing. 28:59.073 --> 29:04.775 [SPEAKER_01]: Having our priorities and our desires shaped by other voices so that we only hear what we want. 29:04.895 --> 29:06.516 [SPEAKER_01]: And we always stay the same. 29:07.416 --> 29:11.458 [SPEAKER_01]: If I were to put in a few phrases, what I'm really trying to get after, we were made to listen. 29:11.678 --> 29:22.622 [SPEAKER_01]: And yet even those of us who know the right answers, we live lives of too much consumption of other voices and too little communion with the voice of God. 29:24.380 --> 29:24.841 [SPEAKER_01]: What do we do? 29:27.407 --> 29:33.703 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to show you something very practical and then I just want to make an appeal that I think actually brings change. 29:34.565 --> 29:37.587 [SPEAKER_01]: In the book, he calls this image the wisdom pyramid. 29:37.647 --> 29:40.188 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a way to order, it's binding. 29:40.569 --> 29:44.951 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a way to order the voices in your life by priority and influence. 29:44.971 --> 29:48.033 [SPEAKER_01]: So just like you have food, that's more important than others. 29:48.313 --> 29:55.137 [SPEAKER_01]: A wise life will order voices and order consumption of voices based on what you most need to be healthy. 29:55.237 --> 29:57.839 [SPEAKER_01]: So the foundation is God's word. 29:58.359 --> 30:02.502 [SPEAKER_01]: God's revealed, written, preserved, inspired word. 30:03.302 --> 30:04.563 [SPEAKER_01]: above that is the church. 30:05.583 --> 30:11.886 [SPEAKER_01]: Beloved, there is a lot of great online content about the Bible and about God and about theology. 30:12.286 --> 30:19.329 [SPEAKER_01]: There is no substitute for learning God's word with actual Christians present in the room. 30:19.990 --> 30:26.473 [SPEAKER_01]: The reason why our Bible classes in our home groups are just better than you alone with your phone. 30:27.113 --> 30:31.636 [SPEAKER_01]: is because when we take in information, there's somebody there who can encourage us. 30:32.056 --> 30:40.221 [SPEAKER_01]: How often have you heard something about God and what you do in your own heart is you disqualify yourself from that thing that you heard or you judge yourself critically. 30:40.581 --> 30:45.624 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, what a blessing it is to have a brother or a sister who knows you to say no, no, no, that's true for you. 30:46.044 --> 30:48.345 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not just true for other Christians, that's true for you. 30:49.066 --> 30:50.307 [SPEAKER_01]: So we consume 30:51.207 --> 30:55.049 [SPEAKER_01]: in community from the church and then you have nature. 30:55.149 --> 31:07.274 [SPEAKER_01]: God, Romans 1 says, God's invisible attributes are available and communicated through what he has made and then books and then beauty and music and then at the very top you have internet and social media. 31:07.414 --> 31:13.017 [SPEAKER_01]: I intentionally I just want to lean in to that very first level. 31:13.922 --> 31:19.805 [SPEAKER_01]: If we start at the very bottom, the Bible as the foundation of voice, would you hear again the verses that Miss Robin read? 31:19.845 --> 31:24.848 [SPEAKER_01]: And the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. 31:26.052 --> 31:27.133 [SPEAKER_01]: He was in the beginning with God. 31:27.153 --> 31:36.199 [SPEAKER_01]: All things were made through him, and without him was on anything made that was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcome it. 31:36.319 --> 31:48.527 [SPEAKER_01]: In verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace, and truth, oh how kind of God. 31:49.463 --> 31:52.285 [SPEAKER_01]: how kind of God he speaks. 31:52.325 --> 31:53.506 [SPEAKER_01]: He does nothing wrong. 31:53.526 --> 31:54.667 [SPEAKER_01]: He makes this world. 31:54.707 --> 31:58.509 [SPEAKER_01]: He hands it over to his humanity that he wants relationship with. 31:58.569 --> 32:00.310 [SPEAKER_01]: And we disobey his voice. 32:00.871 --> 32:02.952 [SPEAKER_01]: And we gravitate towards other voices. 32:03.312 --> 32:06.214 [SPEAKER_01]: And God does not respond by going silent. 32:06.294 --> 32:07.195 [SPEAKER_01]: He still speaks. 32:07.235 --> 32:10.837 [SPEAKER_01]: But not only that, he sins his son as his very words. 32:11.478 --> 32:17.202 [SPEAKER_01]: Christ redeems what sin has distorted by coming as the very words of God wrapped in human flesh. 32:20.237 --> 32:26.542 [SPEAKER_01]: God's clear and ever present voice by showing us, God's word, lived out as a human being. 32:27.102 --> 32:29.284 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus talks about how His followers hear Him this way. 32:29.444 --> 32:32.566 [SPEAKER_01]: In John 1027, my sheep hear my voice. 32:33.907 --> 32:36.189 [SPEAKER_01]: It's this restoration of the way that we were made. 32:36.749 --> 32:38.110 [SPEAKER_01]: He welcomes us in. 32:39.811 --> 32:41.072 [SPEAKER_01]: I know them and they follow me. 32:41.112 --> 32:43.114 [SPEAKER_01]: I give them eternal life and they will never perish. 32:43.154 --> 32:45.916 [SPEAKER_01]: And no one will snatch them out of my hand. 32:48.104 --> 32:50.241 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm leaving much unsaid. 32:51.729 --> 32:59.913 [SPEAKER_01]: If I can appeal and all of this for anything, it is simply this in a noisy world, where we consume too much too fast. 33:00.914 --> 33:04.135 [SPEAKER_01]: Found your life on the voice of Jesus. 33:05.056 --> 33:06.697 [SPEAKER_01]: Found your life on the voice of Jesus. 33:07.137 --> 33:08.377 [SPEAKER_01]: You were made to listen to God. 33:08.397 --> 33:15.961 [SPEAKER_01]: God has given us His Son, has His very words to forgive our disobedience to open our ears, to guide us into eternal life with Christ. 33:16.021 --> 33:18.423 [SPEAKER_01]: Like what won't get us very far, 33:19.443 --> 33:23.046 [SPEAKER_01]: is to hear this into just make half-hearted resolutions. 33:23.226 --> 33:29.910 [SPEAKER_01]: I should get off my phone more, and yeah, I'll come to the next prayer night, and I'll go back to my Bible reading, or I'll double what I'm reading now. 33:29.930 --> 33:32.872 [SPEAKER_01]: There is good in that, but what I believe is with my whole heart. 33:33.413 --> 33:43.119 [SPEAKER_01]: What actually has a chance of capturing our ears is to remind you how much better the voice of Christ is than anything else you'll ever hear. 33:44.132 --> 33:50.197 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says things to you, and Jesus says things about you that you will not find anywhere else. 33:51.158 --> 34:02.427 [SPEAKER_01]: You are loved just as you are, and you have a future with him that you can't forfeit, and your life has value that your sins won't cancel out because you've been bought with a price. 34:04.209 --> 34:07.712 [SPEAKER_01]: Even now, or even now, Jesus is speaking. 34:09.013 --> 34:17.860 [SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 7, 25 says this, therefore he's able to save completely those who come through him, since he always lives to intercede for them. 34:18.240 --> 34:24.385 [SPEAKER_01]: This is the kind of high priest we need, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. 34:24.405 --> 34:32.091 [SPEAKER_01]: The holy, pure, guiltless word of God is speaking right now as your advocate. 34:32.292 --> 34:32.872 [SPEAKER_01]: This is morning. 34:36.046 --> 34:40.530 [SPEAKER_01]: even when your ears and your heart are filled with cheaper voices, he still speaks. 34:41.070 --> 34:44.573 [SPEAKER_01]: And he says about you in the presence of the Father, I love that one. 34:45.133 --> 34:46.374 [SPEAKER_01]: And I died for that one. 34:46.694 --> 34:50.297 [SPEAKER_01]: And I am unconditionally committed for the rest of their life to that one. 34:50.777 --> 34:51.618 [SPEAKER_01]: I am still. 34:53.159 --> 35:07.199 [SPEAKER_01]: I am still so unsure about so much, I still find myself around some things wondering who is right and who can I trust and who should I listen to, but the answers I most need, I already have. 35:08.183 --> 35:15.644 [SPEAKER_01]: and the voice that is best for me will never stop speaking to me about me interceding on my behalf. 35:16.064 --> 35:30.047 [SPEAKER_01]: And what I most need in all of this, I need to desire his voice, I need to desire his voice and trust and believe and build my life on his words above all others. 35:31.207 --> 35:35.568 [SPEAKER_01]: In a noisy world beloved, found your life 35:36.513 --> 35:37.413 [SPEAKER_01]: and the voice of Jesus. 35:38.134 --> 35:39.454 [SPEAKER_01]: Let's create some space to pray. 35:44.616 --> 35:46.777 [SPEAKER_01]: We need your wisdom and your discernment, O God. 36:04.385 --> 36:04.725 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus, 36:10.020 --> 36:11.842 [SPEAKER_01]: We will hear so many things today. 36:14.384 --> 36:30.197 [SPEAKER_01]: We'll hear games, and we'll hear bad news, and we'll hear conflict, and we'll hear things that break your heart, we'll hear lies, we'll hear things that aren't true. 36:32.499 --> 36:35.581 [SPEAKER_01]: So our own inner voice will say things about us, 36:39.781 --> 36:40.121 [SPEAKER_01]: What if? 36:44.645 --> 37:05.382 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Lord, if in this moment, if we could just eaves drop on what you're saying about us, if we were to hear now and believe now, you are priestly pure, holy, gracious, steadfast voice on our behalf. 37:06.243 --> 37:06.944 [SPEAKER_01]: If we could hear that, 37:09.917 --> 37:18.925 [SPEAKER_01]: And believe that, we would be changed. 37:20.366 --> 37:37.381 [SPEAKER_01]: And we wouldn't have to be giltered into less screens and we wouldn't have to be, we wouldn't need strategies or plans for, wait, wait, we would just 37:38.840 --> 37:46.549 [SPEAKER_01]: We would just naturally, passionately and sincerely want to hear more and more and more of what you say. 37:47.410 --> 37:48.411 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you do that, God? 37:48.431 --> 37:49.052 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you do that? 37:51.435 --> 37:53.957 [SPEAKER_01]: Spirit of God, would you speak? 37:55.279 --> 37:56.040 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you speak? 37:58.302 --> 37:59.524 [SPEAKER_01]: Your people are listening. 38:05.776 --> 38:08.957 [SPEAKER_01]: Remind us who we already remind us what you've done for us. 38:10.958 --> 38:22.802 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh God, in a world that we're so easy to believe that our maturity or our healing, our freedom is going to come on the other side of discovering something we've never heard before. 38:22.842 --> 38:30.325 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you take the good news of Jesus so many of us have heard so often and would you just 38:38.156 --> 38:40.258 [SPEAKER_01]: Give us the faith to believe it will our whole heart. 38:50.627 --> 38:53.289 [SPEAKER_01]: And help us be obedient in response to your word. 38:54.270 --> 38:56.112 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen.