Paul Binges Bible | Disruptive Presence 65

In which John and David consider  how Paul's "impromptu" sermon comes together. We know there's lots to debate about Paul, but we definitively know he loved the text of Scripture. When asked to speak without warning, guess what leaks out of him...the sacred text!

Episode 121 of the Two Texts Podcast | Disruptive Presence 65

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Transcript

Ai Generated Transcript 

[00:00:00] John: So David, Hey, we have eventually got to the sermon of Paul. We, we sort of, a couple of weeks ago. Thought we might get into the sermon of Paul and we got waylaid by the gorgeous verses 13 and 14 of Acts chapter 13 and saw a whole bunch of stuff there that was worth considering as a conversation. 

[00:00:26] But we are giving our listeners a definite we are really going to do the sermon of Paul. We're going to at least start it today and we'll see how far we get in our podcast. So, so are you ready to go with Paul's sermon? 

[00:00:40] David: I am. Yes, I am. I sometimes wonder what happens with our readers. Like, do they, do they look at verse 16 where it says, so Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak. And I wonder if our readers are like, Oh my goodness, how many weeks are they going to take on this? And because it says stood up and it says gesture, it says began. 

[00:00:59] And, yeah. And, and I don't even want to joke too much about it because I'm sure that if given the opportunity we could find something something interesting to say in there. But why don't we do this, John, I'm going to it's quite a long sermon. So let's, let me read it and you track along with my reading and then I'll pause at a natural point. 

[00:01:19] Why don't you do a bit of the reading of it as well? So we can share the reading of this text through, does 

[00:01:25] John: sounds like a plan, sounds like a plan. Go for 

[00:01:27] David: So verse 16 of Acts chapter 13. So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak you, Israelites and others who fear God, listen, the God of this people. 

[00:01:41] Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with an uplifted arm. He led them out of it for about 40 years. He put up with them in the wilderness. After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance for about 450 years. 

[00:02:01] After that, he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin who reigned for 40 years. When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him, he said, I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart who will carry out all my wishes. 

[00:02:23] Of this man's posterity, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. As John was finishing his work, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals of his feet. 

[00:02:49] John: Fellow children of Abraham and you God fearing Gentiles, It is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. The people of Jerusalem and the rulers did not recognize Jesus yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. Though they found no ground for a death sentence they asked Pilate to have him executed and when they had carried out all that was written about him they took him down from the cross and led him in a tomb. 

[00:03:24] But God raised him up from the dead and for many days he was seen by those who traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people. We tell you the good news. What God promised our ancestors has been fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus as it is written in the second Psalm. 

[00:03:49] You are my son. Today I have become your father. God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. And God said, I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David. So it is also stated elsewhere, you will not let your holy one see decay. 

[00:04:10] David: Now, when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. He was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 

[00:04:29] Through him, everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. Take care that what the prophets have said does not happen to you. Look, you scoffers, wander and perish, for I am going to do something in your days that you would never believe, even if someone told you. 

[00:04:55] John: What a sermon. 

[00:04:56] David: What a sermon. What a sermon. I should apologize to our listeners as well that I inadvertently read the first part in a different version than you were working from, John. I should have checked that. And then I switched halfway through just to really confuse everybody. 

[00:05:09] John: No, that's fine. No, no, it was, it was beautiful. It was beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. What, what version were you, were you reading 

[00:05:15] David: I was working from the new revised standard 

[00:05:17] John: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 

[00:05:18] David: I like for reading Paul in English. And I think you were working from the NIV weren't 

[00:05:22] John: I was, I was, 

[00:05:23] David: is also a classic, a classic sort of version to lean on. And I realized as soon as I got done, I was like, Oh, I know what I've done here, but Hey, we'll just, so I switched halfway through just to really confuse everybody. 

[00:05:35] John: No, it's good. I don't think anyone will have been confused. I think they will have joined that. That's good. That's 

[00:05:40] David: And actually, let me just say, to detour us right from the very start, have a couple of different translations of the Bible. 

[00:05:45] John: Indeed. 

[00:05:45] David: It's good to freshen up your Bible reading. Sometimes it's also a really good way to spot where there might be something to do. A bit of study. If you have two or three different translations and you notice that one translation does something. 

[00:05:59] Substantially different than another translation, that's often a space to go and grab a commentary and have a look and say, Oh, okay. There's some, there's some interesting learning to do here. And so, and I would often say the NRSV, the NIV would be two great translations to start with in terms of the sort of text that you have. 

[00:06:18] There's, there's plenty of data out there about, Okay. Different translations and the concepts behind how they were translated. But those two have sort of carried around for a long time now as trustworthy. 

[00:06:32] John: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. David, I, I, I, I'm just struck by how ready Paul was 

[00:06:39] David: Aren't, aren't you? 

[00:06:41] John: you know what I mean? In fact, I, I, I cause he's in his introduction in this little sermon, he sort of summarizes 450 years of history. And I, I went back to the Greek text and work this out. He summarizes 450 words of history in 69 words. It's like, I mean, seriously, you, you gotta be ready to go, man. If you can, if you can sort of do that, but it, it did, it did strike me how ready he was on it. It doesn't feel like he's had to go, hold on a minute. I just need to, I just need to do a wee bit of prep. Just give me 10 minutes and get my notes together. 

[00:07:16] It's like this 

[00:07:17] David: documents. 

[00:07:18] John: indeed. It's like this story is in him. I mean, is that a fair, just initial reaction to the sermon? It's just, wow.  

[00:07:27] David: I'd be pretty happy with that sermon after a week of study. Like, like if I produced that sermon ever, if anyone from my congregation is like, yeah, if you ever did a sermon like that mostly just how short it is. 

[00:07:39] But, 
 

[00:07:39] John: Yes. 
 

[00:07:40] David: but, but there's this definite sense that, I was, I, as, as we were reading it, I was thinking about that text in first Peter three, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks, for the reason of the hope that you have. And like, Paul lives and breathes. Always being ready to have an answer, but I love that. 

[00:08:02] He, I love this as a, as a sort of somebody in the kind of postmodern period that we're in where stories so important to us that Paul sees it in terms of a story. Like he's able to go. Like I, I'm looking back from Jesus and I think it's important to know that's always what Paul does. He looks back from Jesus and says, and now this is how this story makes sense to us. 

[00:08:26] I know this story. I think by implication, he's saying, this story, but let me point some things out in the story that you've not seen before that, that are significant to make sense of why for Paul, Jesus is so. Obviously the answer to the question that we weren't asking, and, and so, yeah, I, I love the, just that deep sense in Paul that, that it's that it's 

[00:08:52] John: It's in 

[00:08:53] David: and. 
 

[00:08:53] Also, I love how, and these are just side points really, but, but I also love how it sounds like Paul, there are accusations amongst scholars sometimes about, how much creative license does Luke have in his retelling of these stories, but my goodness, there's moments where there's moments where it just sounds like you're reading for, like literally reading from 

[00:09:19] John: Yep 
 

[00:09:20] David: Romans like like verse 30 when you were reading verse 30, verse 29 when they had carried out everything that was written about him They took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb, but God raised him from the dead I mean, it feels like Paul is just riffing off an early version of Romans 3 here And And so I, I, I just love all of this sense of the, the, not the lack of preparation. 

[00:09:45] This is clearly Paul has done a lot of study here, but the ability to do this apparently extemporaneously and the fact that you hear all of the. Threads of what we now know become Romans and Ephesians and first Corinthians and Galatians. Like it's all in there. All of the classic Pauline patterns. I am going to talk about scripture. 

[00:10:09] I am going to connect the story. I mean, we see this so strongly in Paul, that this, that I think this, even to the point that we talked about in the. In the last episode about just the importance of being in church, there's almost a subtlety here of the importance of teaching that, that, that. 

[00:10:28] One of the things we do when we gather together as the Christian community is we turn to scripture and we remember the story that we're part of, and we, we become fluent in the story. We read the Psalms, we read the prophets, we read the gospel and And these things, again, like are important parts of the church service for many reasons. 

[00:10:50] One of which is because the early Christians saw it as important that we, we must know this story and understand where this story calls us together. So yeah, I, I, like you, I find this, this quite a stunning piece of text for both the text itself and the things being implied. 

[00:11:09] John: Yeah, beautiful I I was reflecting with a young Person this week just trying to help guide them through an issue by helping them To think about that issue through the lens of the biblical text But what I don't want to do is tell them what to think I'm trying to help them how to think and one of the big conversations which lit up in Him 'cause I'd asked him to do a little bit of reading and research. 

[00:11:35] One of the, one of the conversations was a, a genuinely beautiful moment. He says, I, I, I never realized I could just read the Bible as narrative, that this is a big story. And and actually he, it was lovely 'cause in his reading, he'd, he'd said, I, I've been encouraged to understand the meta narrative of the text. 

[00:11:53] It's just gorgeous when you hear a young person sort of say that. And, and what I was trying to excite him about was the more you are saturated with the. big story of the text, the more we're able to lean into the beautiful ideas within that big story and connect the dots and connect the ideas. And I think one of the most beautiful things about Paul and and if if we could pick up a little practical provocation to each other and to our listeners is that in the same way we encourage the sitting down in the context of gathered community and synagogue, we would encourage allowing the text to get inside us, allowing spending time, understanding the big picture, spending time, understanding the narrative of the story. 

[00:12:40] Paul summarizes 450 years of history in a few sentences. Now he's able to do that because it's in him. He's, he's. Got this understanding that yes, there is a story, but now he's, he's layering Jesus into the story and he can layer Jesus seamlessly into the story because he knows two things. 

[00:13:02] Number one, he knows Jesus and he knows the story. And I think because of those two ideas, he's, he's masterful in, it seems like off the cuff, but of course this is not off the cuff. This is coming out of years and years and years of textual study. This is, this is coming out of memorizing. I mean, he quotes Habakkuk, he quotes Psalms, he quotes Isaiah, he, and he's quoting them off the top, off the top of his head. 

[00:13:28] He's quoting it as it gets out of his heart. This is memorization. at its best where he's quoting these amazing stories. So, so before we even dive into the detail, we are impressed by the ability of someone without an iPad and without the internet and without YouVersion Bible app to just literally stand up and rock the world with something that is inside him. 

[00:13:52] And that really, really grabs me when I think about. Paul's sermon here. I think, wow, now that's a challenge to me. If I was, if I was asked to stand up in, in my local supermarket, if I was asked to stand up in my local small group, if I was, like you referred to last time, if I was, if I was in a little service and they said to me, Hey, Hey, just come and share. 

[00:14:13] Am I, am I ready to bring something? Because there's a message inside me that's, that's, that's absolutely textually saturated and based. And I, I think the difference here is Paul's not just telling his story, he's telling the story. And, and I think, and I think that's the difference. It's great to be able to tell our story. 

[00:14:34] Oh, here's my story, how I met Jesus. And I think we should all be ready for that. But to be able to tell his story from the text, I think, is also something that's really, I think, aspirational for every follower of Jesus. 

[00:14:49] David: I I wanna say it like this, that you, you could do worse in life. . Then were you to treat the Bible like your favorite binge TV show? Right. Because here's the thing that I notice in my own life and the life of my friends, that what we're talking about in Paul here is not an ancient thing. It's a focus thing, right? 

[00:15:22] So like I have friends and there are TV shows that we love and we now can sit round the table. End. Even just make passing allusions to a particular line in one of those comedy shows that we like. And instantly, the other friend will catch exactly what you've alluded to and then will play back off it in a different way. 

[00:15:49] And like, those are great beautiful moments of friendship, right? And that's where humor, most humor is built on. I know that you know this and therefore I'm going to allude to it slightly differently and then that's what makes it funny, right? Which is why. There is such a thing as an inside joke and why none of us like being the outsider on an inside joke, right? 

[00:16:07] But what it tells us is our brain capacities are in no way failing us. What's failing us is our, is our focus that, that humans do still possess the ability to know a story well enough. Some of these. TV shows that I'm talking about are 10, 12 seasons long of 22, 40 minute episodes. It's a volume of data to commit to memory. 

[00:16:34] But you've not actually committed to memory. What you've actually done is loved it so much that you have immersed yourself in this. That you watch it when you have a free moment. You watch it before you go to bed, right? So similarly, how do I remember the Bible? John, I don't know. That's hard. But if you loved it so much that you just immersed yourself in it, you would find yourself realizing that you know much more of it than you realize, and, and so there's a part of me not wanting to sound preachy in any of this, but just, Like I'd want to say to our listeners, pick a gospel, like, don't, don't start with Genesis and aim to get to revelation and have all memorized, but, like if you took Mark and Ephesians, right. And so there's 16 chapters of Mark, six chapters of Ephesians. 

[00:17:23] If you took them and actually just committed to read them regularly, I'm going to read them through every week once my goodness. That stuff would start to ooze out of you. You would, you would find yourself speaking to people and you'd be praying to them and you'd be praying, Goodness, I hope that you grasp how big and wide and long the love of Christ Jesus is for you. 

[00:17:45] It would just start coming out of your pores. And this is what I see, and maybe I'm preaching now John, but this is what I see in Paul here, is I just love this story, and you read from the Law and the Prophets, and I was sat here listening to it, and I get the impression Paul is excited by the end of the reading in the synagogue, and and we don't know, like, did somebody spot the steam coming out of his ears, his excitement, and say, do you have anything you want to say? 

[00:18:10] That's another way to read brothers. If you have a word 

[00:18:14] John: yes, 
 

[00:18:15] David: of exhortation to the agitated man in row three, give the word that you have, but, but I get that like, I like that's you and me, John, at some level in this podcast is we just get excited talking about the Bible and not because we've set out our lives to say, let's be the type of people that really intensely become excited about this, but just over years of just being in the text, we love the text. 

[00:18:38] We know that if. People could read the text. They would love it too. So I can, I hope that is not a disrespectful way to frame it, but love the Bible like you love your favorite binge TV show. And I think you start to sound like Paul does here. 

[00:18:53] John: yeah, yeah, no, I think that's absolutely, absolutely brilliant. I loved, I love that as an analogy and totally get that. And of course, I think our listeners and certainly I did. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, I've done that. Yeah, yeah, I've done that where you, you just love something and do that. 

[00:19:10] And, and I think, I think the other thing, David, which you pick up, so this is the big picture reflection on Paul's sermon, is of course it's, it's Jesus, it's Jesus saturated as well. So, and, and I think that's the other side, in terms of our focus, what's really helped me as a follower of Jesus is not just to see the text as a text, but to, to see this text As a way of engaging with the magnificence of Jesus, with the awesomeness and the glory and the beauty, and the majesty, and the loving, kindness and faithfulness of Jesus. 

[00:19:45] So, so that all, so, so I, I, I often say to people, don't just, don't just read the text, but learn to romance it. So the idea is you're, you're wanting not just to get to know information, you're wanting to get to know a person. And, and, and you feel that with Paul's, Paul's sermon, it's just, once he gets to the Jesus bit, it just rocks, it just goes into a, a completely new level, where, where now all of those amazing Tanakh dots are connecting, and the amount of times he says, this is to fulfill what the prophet says, this was written about him, he's just all the time, connecting. 

[00:20:26] And again, and I know our listeners know this, but like Paul doesn't have the New Testament. It's been written as he speaks, sort of thing. So it literally, so, so he is, he is connecting to Noctate. He's connecting Habakkuk. to Psalms, to Isaiah, to, to, to the Torah, to what we would call in the Christian world, the history books, or they would sit within the writings or the prophets for a Jewish worldview. 

[00:20:55] He's connecting the three big elements of the Jewish text, and he's connecting them all together with Jesus. So I think you get someone who absolutely loves the text, and I think he probably loved that text before he met Jesus. But meeting Jesus has lit the text up, has turned the text into even more than the Word of God in terms of, yeah, this is the Word of God, but now it's, it's an understanding of that Word revealed in Jesus. 

[00:21:24] And I think then, then we see Paul really connect for a Jewish Gentile audience, connect those two massive passions, a passion for the text and a passion for the Word made flesh. And, and those two things I think are colliding brilliantly in this sermon. 

[00:21:40] David: Oh, I mean, I love that. And, and there's, there's two things I want to say and they don't quite go together. So I'm going to try and do them in order and I'll leave the more important one till, till I'll bring that in first. But, but I was thinking as you were talking there and I was thinking about. Paul, and I, I just flicked the text next to me open. 

[00:21:59] I was thinking about Psalm 119, right? And you have this broken, this Hebrew acrostic, don't you? And there's the Aleph section, the bait section, the gimel section is the whole Psalm builds its way. And I was just, I just leafed. Cause you were saying that something came to mind and I saw it. So you look at, look at the first section of Psalm 119, blessed are those whose way is pure, who walk in the law of the Lord. 

[00:22:21] Blessed are those who keep his testimonies and seek him with their whole heart. The bait section, how sure young people cleanse their way to keep themselves according to your word with my whole heart. I have sought you, the, the Gimel section is very, this is part three, do good to your servant that I may live so that I may keep your word. 

[00:22:39] Open my eyes that I may see the wonder of your law. Section 4, my soul cleaves to the dust, give me life according to your word. Section 5, teach me, oh Lord, the way of your statutes. Give me understanding and I will keep your law with my whole heart. I mean, and you know this text, I know that you have some beautiful devotions around the Psalm 119. 

[00:22:59] But notice this. What the psalm 119 seems to be speaking to is what Paul apparently has actioned in his life 

[00:23:05] John: it did. Indeed. 

[00:23:06] David: going to love this, this, the law of the Lord. I'm going to love the word of God because I know that it's going to give me life. It's going to give me guidance. It's going to give me joy. 

[00:23:16] If I give my whole heart to it. I mean, I mean, I goodness, I'm slightly speechless to make a sensible point, but you, I'm scratching 

[00:23:24] John: Oh, no, absolutely. And I think even that opening, that opening statement, blessed are those whose way is blameless or upright who walk and a literal, you could literally translate who walk in the Torah of the Lord. And you've got, of course, two dynamic ideas there, David, in that the people of the way. Okay, which which of course that in the book of Acts the early Christians are known as the people of the way The followers of the way well, the way is not only associated with a person as far as the Christian worldview is concerned It's also associated with the truth of that way And of course direct this this idea of the way in a Hebrew thought was not just a pathway But it became a way of living and thinking directed by the Word of God So the idea of direct which which is, is connected to this people of the way idea is, is actually your way is shaped by Torah, your way is shaped. 

[00:24:24] So you are walking in the way, the way is in you, you are walking that way because the word of God lives in you and directs your path. So, so inexplicably linked in the, in the Psalm 19 reflection is the fact that the truth. of God's Word is in you, and that is the thing that creates your way. And actually, I, I, and I could be wrong on this, so I, I need to double check, but I, I remember reflecting on Psalm 119, and I think I found only six verses of the 176 that didn't have a direct reference in one form or another to the Word of God. 

[00:25:07] So it is a saturated Word centric text. It's absolutely at the heart Of this understanding and of course it sits at the very center of this, this incredible idea and I think you've got in Paul. I think you've got this idea. Here's a man. His way is literally being shaped by the word of God. It's in him because he has. 

[00:25:36] given himself to it. It's in him because he's in it. And, and these things, this apparent spontaneous moment is, is a reflection of years of walking in the Torah of the Lord. Be Torahed. I don't know, it's, it's, it's in the Torah of the Lord. 

[00:26:01] David: that's, yeah, that's, that's what I, I, I think we're exactly seeing here and, and, and Paul's life just elsewhere. Just, just. Proves that doesn't it? That it's, it's shaped and guided. He sees things, but to your really key point, he sees things through the lens of Jesus. Now that's the kind of final piece of the puzzle is that for God to make it clear to Paul, what's going on, it's the revelation of Jesus as, I think I said it earlier, that Jesus is the answer to the question Paul wasn't asking. 

[00:26:37] John: Very 
 

[00:26:38] David: He had all the right data. He had all the right, I, I try to think about how to express this metaphorically. It's like he had all the jigsaw pieces but he didn't know what picture was, and and. And, and it's the, the, the revelation of Jesus. He, it's like, well, you actually need to turn all these, you've been building the pictures, Paul with the, the, the picture side on the wrong side, and once you turn it over, it's like, Oh, that's what's going on here. And I love how quickly Paul's deep saturation with, with the, the, the scriptures is then. It drops so quickly. I mean, look how early in his story he's dropping sermons like this because it's like, oh, it now makes perfect sense what's going on. 

[00:27:19] But I was asking the wrong questions. And there's a bit in here that I. Absolutely love John and I just, I can't help but mention it and it seems flippant, but I actually, I actually think it's beautiful. So, okay, people, here's the story. 40 years in wilderness, but you know, 450 years, David, son of Jesse, man after my heart, who will carry out my wishes. 

[00:27:41] Of this man's posterity, God has brought to Israel a saviour, Jesus, as he promised. And then, and then the next verse. Before his coming, John, like, let me just say, be so excited about Jesus that you mess up the narrative of your story to bring him in early and then realize, Oh wait, no, I need to talk about John before I talk about Jesus. 

[00:28:00] Right. And, and I'm, and I'm saying that, I mean, I think it's hilarious. I also think it's profound and beautiful that Paul in this amazing telling of the story of introduces Jesus. And it does seem a little bit like. earlier than he initially intended to, right? But isn't that just Paul that, that, that, like, I am telling this amazing articulate story, but you know, and you made the point, he does all of this history in 69 words. 

[00:28:28] How can you do all this history in 69 words, Paul? Because I am in a rush to get you to Jesus, 

[00:28:34] John: Yeah. So true. 

[00:28:36] David: and so. Like, let Jesus mess your story up. 

[00:28:40] John: Yeah, 
 

[00:28:40] David: It's okay to drop that spoiler in there. And, and maybe I'm making too much of that little moment, but when you were looking at it with me and I was, and I was hearing it read, I was like, Oh, I love that. 

[00:28:50] That it's like, he gets John and Jesus out of sequence having previously gotten his history. 

[00:28:57] John: yeah, absolutely, correct. And, and, and I do, I do love the idea that you've introduced there. I really like that of he's almost in a rush. He's, he's summarizing whole chunks of history because I'm really want to get to the point and the point of all of that history is him. The, the point of all of this incredible story is him. 

[00:29:19] And you can see how dramatically. the encounter with Jesus has transformed this brilliant scholar, this, this, this wonderful, like Hebrew of Hebrews, as he refers to himself and, and someone who, who in his previous CV, was when it came to, to the law was faultless passionate man, committed and yet, and yet the whole thing is transformed by Jesus in himself. 

[00:29:45] And, and that ability to see Jesus in this, this glorious, glorious story, but explain it so well, and I think he sets it up so well, it'll be interesting, maybe in our next podcast we'll do this, but Paul seems to have a bit of a pattern, he sets it up with a sort of a background, and he drops in these amazing direct quotes about Jesus, connects Jesus to those quotes, and then brings responsibility to the listeners almost then. 

[00:30:11] Ooh, oh, and by the way, we killed him sort of thing, and, and, and what are we going to do about that? So, so he does seem to have a pattern that he's working to, but it's such a good pattern for the audience because they will be excited about the story he's telling. Not to use your analogy of the, of the jigsaw, not knowing what picture he's building, so that they're assuming, oh, this jigsaw is about to look like this. 

[00:30:39] But actually he's about to, he's about to drop a piece in that's going to transform the whole picture, of course. And which gloriously of course, they are a part of, they're ex his audience is in the picture. But, but they just don't know that the Jesus who's gonna connect and transform this picture is, is. 

[00:30:58] is connecting their picture as well, not just a great meta narrative picture. So it's a, it's a glorious connectedness around this sermon. I think it's absolutely beautiful.