1 00:00:08,750 --> 00:00:14,350 Today our teaching scripture is from Matthew chapter 13, verse 2 00:00:14,350 --> 00:00:18,510 33. He told them another parable. 3 00:00:19,390 --> 00:00:22,990 The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and 4 00:00:22,990 --> 00:00:27,470 mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was 5 00:00:27,470 --> 00:00:31,430 leavened. This is the word of the Lord. 6 00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:38,840 So an interesting outcome of the pandemic was a massive rise in 7 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:43,720 the practice of making bread. Trapped at home, people dusted 8 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:47,240 off their wedding present KitchenAid mixers and began 9 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:51,640 mixing and kneading and baking until the stores were literally 10 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:56,080 running out of flour. I think that one outcome of that 11 00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,520 was just a deeper appreciation for the rhythms and connection 12 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,160 with how our food is made and the value of Labor. 13 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:07,560 It seems that we're rediscovering the way in which, 14 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:11,360 if you take just a little bit of effort into your food, you can 15 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:16,160 have a way to interact in a way beyond physical movement being 16 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:20,440 so constrained. And we were not exempt from this 17 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,160 phenomena. While I had been making homebred 18 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:27,120 bread for a while, I worked at a hospital, so my work just kept 19 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:31,400 proceeding as mostly normal. But Tori, who is the extrovert 20 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:35,080 in our relationship, was stuck at home and decided to take up 21 00:01:35,320 --> 00:01:39,440 bread baking. But soon the stores began to run 22 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:42,480 out not only a flour, but also yeast. 23 00:01:42,720 --> 00:01:46,760 So Tori began the process of cultivating and caring for a 24 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:49,800 sourdough starter. If I had to guess, she was not 25 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,280 the only one in this room who did that. 26 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:57,400 If you are one of the many people who picked up a sourdough 27 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,600 habit in the midst of the lockdown, I think you're a 28 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:04,120 little ways ahead in the sermon. Because that's what our parable 29 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:06,240 is about. It's about the rising of bread. 30 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:09,720 But the leaven that the parable talks about or the yeast that it 31 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,000 talks about isn't those little tiny packets of things you can 32 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:16,080 buy at the store. It's a sourdough starter, a 33 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:21,480 living, breathing Organism that every week people take and mix 34 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:25,000 flour into until it is all leavened. 35 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:28,920 So we'll come back to those sourdough starters that are 36 00:02:28,920 --> 00:02:31,000 maybe still growing in your fridge. 37 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:35,000 But if you haven't been with us for a few weeks, since Easter, 38 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:38,400 we've been in the sermon series on the Kingdom of God, and we've 39 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:42,360 been looking at one of the parables of Jesus each week. 40 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:47,000 So the parables are one of the key ways that Jesus seems to 41 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,600 have taught people in his public ministry. 42 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:51,960 So we have a lot of them recorded in the Bible. 43 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,680 There are some examples in the Bible of sermons by Jesus, most 44 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:59,200 famously earlier in Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. 45 00:02:59,600 --> 00:03:03,560 But a very large portion of his teaching comes through these 46 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,880 parables. So right after our passage for 47 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:12,080 this morning, Matthew writes that Jesus told the crowds all 48 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:14,920 these things in parables without a parable. 49 00:03:14,920 --> 00:03:19,360 He told them nothing. So parables are just simply 50 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:24,280 short stories that have some like key observation or metaphor 51 00:03:24,480 --> 00:03:26,960 to kick them off. What I often imagine Jesus doing 52 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:29,960 is sitting and noticing something happening around him 53 00:03:30,240 --> 00:03:34,000 and saying the Kingdom of God is like this thing here. 54 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:37,760 This would have been a typical way in which a rabbi in Jesus's 55 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,000 time would have instructed his followers. 56 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:44,320 But why does Jesus speak in parables like this? 57 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,560 I think there are a number of answers to that question. 58 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,760 The first one I would note is just this is, in part, a 59 00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:54,840 pedagogical tool. Stories are more memorable than 60 00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:57,960 lectures. They capture our imagination. 61 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:02,120 When we hear a story, we begin to picture ourselves in it. 62 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,240 We begin to imagine like what happened next. 63 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:08,520 What's the motivation for all of these characters? 64 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:13,640 We can ask questions and wonder together, what could this mean? 65 00:04:14,240 --> 00:04:16,839 What could it mean for us? This is what all good 66 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:20,720 storytellers do. They draw, capture you, and they 67 00:04:20,720 --> 00:04:23,720 draw you in. If you want to evidence of that, 68 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,120 just listen to podcasts. They're full of this all the 69 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,560 time. New Testament scholar Amy Jill 70 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:34,240 Levine says that parables and the tellers of parables, we're 71 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:39,560 there to prompt the reader or the hearer to see the world in a 72 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:44,280 different way, to challenge and at times to indict. 73 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,520 And Jesus is a good teacher. He knows how to do all of this, 74 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:53,000 how to let the parables challenge what is hearers knew 75 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:56,120 to be true. I want to draw attention to 76 00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,520 another aspect of parables too, and that's in that they don't 77 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,800 mean only one thing. In a parable, there can be 78 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:07,320 different layers of meaning that you peel back, and sometimes if 79 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:09,880 you look at it a little differently, you might see 80 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,280 something else that might hit you differently depending on 81 00:05:13,280 --> 00:05:16,520 whatever is going on in your life when you come to the 82 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,480 parable. And it's easy to get anxious 83 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:21,760 about that. I know sometimes when people say 84 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:25,400 that a parable might mean multiple things, because so 85 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:29,200 often what we really want are these clearly logically laid out 86 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,240 systems where one thing leads to the next and leads to the next, 87 00:05:33,560 --> 00:05:37,880 and we can just put everything into its box and we can control 88 00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,000 it. We want to know what everything 89 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,760 means and how it relates to everything else. 90 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:46,440 And while that might be be good if you're writing like a 91 00:05:46,440 --> 00:05:50,600 systematic theology textbook, it's not really a great way to 92 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:54,080 make sense of these parables that Jesus has for us. 93 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,760 Because all of these parables are enigmatic and weird, and 94 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:03,840 they resist being nailed down to mean only one thing. 95 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:07,400 And that's OK. Because of what Jesus is doing 96 00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:11,200 in these parables isn't trying to get us to believe rightly 97 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:13,880 that if we get the right propositions and everything is 98 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,320 OK. What Jesus is trying to do is 99 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:20,600 invite us into a relationship with him, to enter into this 100 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,120 bigger story that he's trying to get us to grasp through these 101 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:26,960 little short stories that he tells. 102 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:32,200 The point of parables is not to be understood, but to be lived 103 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:36,120 out in our lives. So Amy Jo Levine, again, the New 104 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:39,440 Testament scholar, says that when we come to parables, we 105 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,400 might be better off thinking less about what they mean and 106 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:49,120 more about what they can do. They remind, provoke, refine, 107 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:54,720 confront, and disturb. So when we read the parables 108 00:06:54,720 --> 00:06:59,040 rightly, we don't always come up with this stable meaning for all 109 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:03,400 time, where we're sure exactly what it means and no matter 110 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:06,600 where you read it. But instead, as we read these 111 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:11,120 parables and listen to them, we let them transform our lives. 112 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:15,680 We let them confront the ways that we believe the world to be, 113 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,240 and ultimately, we let them bring us into encounter with the 114 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:23,920 Kingdom of God, which is what Jesus is talking about so often 115 00:07:24,320 --> 00:07:27,040 through his ministry. And I think the Kingdom of God, 116 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,400 just a simple way to think about it, is when the world is 117 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:35,080 organized and structured and going as Jesus would have it to 118 00:07:35,080 --> 00:07:37,320 go. And when we think about the 119 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:41,920 Kingdom of God, Jesus is always there at the center of it. 120 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:45,880 And so all of that that I'm saying about parables, I think 121 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:50,080 it's going to affect how we come to this parable this morning. 122 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:54,600 So rather than trying to say exactly what this parable means 123 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:58,320 for us, I want to invite you to come along with me looking at 124 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:01,560 the reality of the Kingdom of God through different ways of 125 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:05,000 reading this parable. We can be open to multiple 126 00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,520 meanings. We can gesture at something that 127 00:08:07,520 --> 00:08:10,440 might be there. It's a little strange, it's 128 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:13,600 mysterious. And maybe together we can just 129 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:17,520 trust that the Holy Spirit will lead us in the midst of all of 130 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:22,040 that wondering together. And so if we're trying to be led 131 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:24,640 by the Spirit, would you just pray with me this morning? 132 00:08:28,040 --> 00:08:32,799 Spirit, I do pray that you would guide our attention in this 133 00:08:32,799 --> 00:08:37,240 parable that Jesus told, that you would let the pieces of it 134 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:41,919 that each of us need to hear confront our hearts that we 135 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:47,120 might be challenged and changed and ultimately come to encounter 136 00:08:47,680 --> 00:08:50,920 Jesus in the midst of it. Amen. 137 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:57,080 So I'll read the parable just one more time, which, as Tory 138 00:08:57,080 --> 00:08:59,800 mentioned, won't take long. It's only one verse. 139 00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:05,320 So we told them another parable. The Kingdom of heaven is like 140 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:09,400 yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of 141 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:12,760 flour until all of it was leavened. 142 00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:17,560 You might hear that and think, why are you talking about all 143 00:09:17,560 --> 00:09:21,520 this mystery and enigma, and what's so strange about it? 144 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:24,040 It seems like a pretty straightforward story. 145 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,120 There's one character, there's a woman who's going about the 146 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:32,880 normal life in her household. And at one level that's true. 147 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:35,640 And that's the first thing that I do want to note about this 148 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:40,680 parable, how ordinary it is. So Parker spent the last two 149 00:09:40,680 --> 00:09:44,480 weeks talking about the Pearl of Great price and a treasure 150 00:09:44,480 --> 00:09:47,000 hidden in a field. They're both great sermons. 151 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:49,720 You should go listen to them in the podcast feed. 152 00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:54,080 But those are dramatic, new, exciting things that we talked 153 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:57,520 about running into something in our life that radically shifts 154 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:01,160 its direction and changes our lives in a complete way. 155 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,280 And even when pearls or treasures are something that did 156 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:09,240 happen in the world, they'd be so out of the ordinary kneading 157 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:12,560 bread dough. That's not really the quite the 158 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:16,360 adventure movie vibe, unless maybe you like those like art 159 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:19,920 house films where someone needs dough for a really long time and 160 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:23,480 it's really artistic. But I think part of what Jesus 161 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:27,360 is getting at here is talk about the Kingdom of God, is that the 162 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:32,680 Kingdom of God penetrates all of the areas of our life, not just 163 00:10:32,680 --> 00:10:36,600 those big dramatic moments that we can look back on and say, 164 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:38,720 This is why my life completely changed. 165 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:43,040 That's part of why I love that this parable is in the same 166 00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:46,400 chapter as the ones that Parker talked about, the Pearl and the 167 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:49,960 treasure. Yes, the Kingdom of heaven is 168 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,960 like a treasure and a Pearl that we sell our whole lives for, but 169 00:10:54,960 --> 00:11:00,360 it's also like the most ordinary things in our lives, Our Daily 170 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,520 Bread that we need to consume to sustain us. 171 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:08,640 It's like the ordinary work that probably at times feels like 172 00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:12,800 drudgery of a woman laboring in a kitchen to provide for her 173 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,360 family. Jesus, by holding these parables 174 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:21,120 together, interrupts us before we get too far down this path of 175 00:11:21,120 --> 00:11:24,640 only looking at the things that are really dramatic and 176 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:27,760 important, he said. Instead, he interrupts us and 177 00:11:27,760 --> 00:11:31,920 maybe he says, look at this ordinary part of your life. 178 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:35,440 Look at the dough that you probably had to make already 179 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:40,920 this week. So maybe in the last couple of 180 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:44,120 weeks you thought, oh, only these big important things 181 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,320 matters. But this parable of the 11 draws 182 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:50,960 our attention deeply to those parts of our lives we are prone 183 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:53,600 to discount. Let me say this morning that 184 00:11:53,680 --> 00:12:00,680 Jesus cares about all of that in your life beyond just this first 185 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:04,480 level of ordinariness. I think there's actually more 186 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:08,840 strangeness in this parable than we notice at first because we're 187 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:11,560 at a disadvantage because we're reading it in English. 188 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:15,480 So when I was talking about Amy Jill Levine, she, the New 189 00:12:15,480 --> 00:12:17,720 Testament scholar, she translates the parable like 190 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,040 this. Similar to the Kingdom of heaven 191 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:26,960 is leaven that a woman taking hid in three measures of flour 192 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:31,480 until was leavened all. Now, do you notice the 193 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:33,800 difference for the first difference is it sounds kind of 194 00:12:33,800 --> 00:12:36,760 weird and stilted, but that's what New Testament scholars do. 195 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:40,200 But what I would notice is the word hid. 196 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,360 Usually in all of our English translations it says mixed, but 197 00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:49,800 New Testament scholars say it really just says hidden there or 198 00:12:49,960 --> 00:12:53,800 she hid it in the things, which is a weird way to talk about it. 199 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:58,520 Sourdough starter is not something that is easily hidden. 200 00:12:58,760 --> 00:13:02,000 For one thing, it's so sticky it will cover anything that it 201 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:05,400 touches. So it's kind of hard to imagine 202 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,680 being at put somewhere unnoticed. 203 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,800 So why does Jesus choose this word hidden? 204 00:13:11,840 --> 00:13:14,360 I think at least part of the hiddenness is what I was talking 205 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:18,080 about a few minutes ago. These small hidden parts of our 206 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:22,600 lives are the areas we actually find the surprising work of God. 207 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:26,280 So that's one invitation that I want to give you this morning. 208 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:31,440 Take time to slow down and notice what God has hidden 209 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,880 inside of you. Don't feel like you have to be 210 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:36,920 on the lookout for this giant big thing. 211 00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:41,080 Sometimes the work that God is doing and you feels pretty 212 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:46,000 hidden or small, and sometimes that's what the Kingdom of God 213 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,080 is like. So if you're just not even sure 214 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,760 how to begin to go about settling in and looking for 215 00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:54,960 those hidden parts of your lives, one thing I would 216 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,320 encourage you is the prayer practice of examine. 217 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,320 If you were here last year, we had a series on prayer and Jared 218 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:04,800 gave a sermon on Examine. I'd go listen to it. 219 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:06,560 He's going to do much more than I can do. 220 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:10,360 And one minute, but a basic level and examine. 221 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:14,000 You sit down in prayer often at the end of the day, but if 222 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,400 you're really tired at night, it's OK to sit down in the 223 00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:18,720 morning and live, reflect on the day before. 224 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:22,880 And you sit and you imagine yourself in God's presence, 225 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,680 God's loving gaze shining upon you. 226 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,000 And then you review your day with God. 227 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:32,640 You look back over the day giving thanks for the places 228 00:14:32,640 --> 00:14:36,080 where you feel like you want to give thanks, noticing where you 229 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,960 felt close to God or where you felt distant, where you felt 230 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:42,600 yourself drawing close to God, or where you felt yourself 231 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:47,040 turning just a little bit away. And as you look back over your 232 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,480 day, notice those points the Spirit highlights for you and 233 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:56,200 then offer it all back to God. Scare as you lean into rest if 234 00:14:56,200 --> 00:14:57,400 you're doing it at the end of the day. 235 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:02,200 So it's really simple, but that can sometimes make us a more 236 00:15:02,200 --> 00:15:06,640 attentive to the places where God has hidden something in our 237 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:10,600 lives. For me at least, what I have 238 00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:14,720 often noticed when undertaking a practice of examine is gratitude 239 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:16,800 for really small things in my life. 240 00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:20,640 For ways the Kingdom of God is breaking in, in ways that I 241 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:23,680 wouldn't have paid attention to if I didn't slow down. 242 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:27,560 Maybe it's in the warmth of the sun when I'm sitting on my porch 243 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:32,120 and actually feeling at rest. Maybe it's the Co worker slowing 244 00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:36,200 down enough to ask a real and curious question in a 245 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:39,600 conversation. Maybe it's responding with just 246 00:15:39,600 --> 00:15:43,280 a little bit more grace to that person at work who really annoys 247 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:46,920 me. Those small pieces don't sound 248 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:52,280 like much, but for me to be made attentive to the Kingdom of God, 249 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:56,680 it's particularly helpful to see these small pieces because I at 250 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:00,040 least contend towards cynicism. When I look out at the world and 251 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:05,040 see all the ways in which things are so often falling apart, it's 252 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:07,000 really easy for me to see the negative. 253 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:11,080 I don't always slow down to see what is it that God is stirring 254 00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:16,240 up in me in these hidden ways. So there's a saying, often 255 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,720 attributed to the Catholic Worker movement activist Dorothy 256 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:23,640 Day, that says everyone wants a revolution, but no one wants to 257 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:28,080 do the dishes. It seems likely that probably 258 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:30,880 wasn't spoken by Day. It's more apocryphal, but it 259 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,720 gives us something important about the Kingdom of God. 260 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:37,840 We can big dream these big dreams of transformation for the 261 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:42,120 world, but if our relationship with Jesus doesn't affect the 262 00:16:42,120 --> 00:16:46,360 way we do things as simple as washing the dishes, then we 263 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,800 might be missing out on some of this hidden ordinariness of the 264 00:16:50,800 --> 00:16:55,440 Kingdom. But beyond just this small 265 00:16:55,440 --> 00:17:00,520 hidden thing, I think that the use of this word hide introduces 266 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:05,200 something more to the parable. The woman's actions become a 267 00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:08,119 little bit subversive or secretive. 268 00:17:08,800 --> 00:17:11,560 Maybe I'm just a suspicious person, but when I imagine 269 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:14,400 someone hiding something, I'm like, are they should be maybe 270 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:16,760 hiding that? Why is it hiding there? 271 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,200 You don't usually hide things that are life giving and good, 272 00:17:20,599 --> 00:17:23,839 like the Kingdom of God. What is it she's trying to 273 00:17:23,839 --> 00:17:27,040 conceal? Is this yeast supposed to be in 274 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:30,800 this flower? And the question becomes even 275 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:34,520 more real when you think about the way that yeast shows up in 276 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:37,720 the rest of the biblical narrative with an 277 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:41,040 oversimplification to say that yeast or leaven is always good 278 00:17:41,040 --> 00:17:43,880 or always bad. At times in the Bible, it's 279 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:46,480 mostly neutral. But the things you think about 280 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:49,960 are the Israelites in the Old Testament at Passover would 281 00:17:49,960 --> 00:17:52,840 remove all of the leaven from their houses. 282 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,880 Just a side note, that means it's not all bad because they 283 00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:58,320 had it in their house to begin with. 284 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,480 But for some reason, sometimes there's this leaven you have to 285 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:05,960 move out of your house. And just a few chapters later in 286 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,400 Matthew, there's this other saying of Jesus that the Gospels 287 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,880 records that says beware the leaven of the Pharisees and 288 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:18,080 Sadducees. So it seems that hidden leaven 289 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:23,000 isn't always a good thing. There can be something hidden in 290 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,320 our lives that's actually turned away from the Kingdom of God 291 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:31,320 that we're invited towards. We do have to be attentive to 292 00:18:31,320 --> 00:18:34,920 what is it that is bubbling up in our lives. 293 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,400 Is it the good of God's Kingdom? Does it lead more towards the 294 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:43,360 way God would desire for the world and our lives to look? 295 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:50,080 Or is it the leaven or the yeast of self-reliance of refusing to 296 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:52,560 see the work that God is doing in US? 297 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,680 Do we, like the Pharisees, not see the good work that God is 298 00:18:56,680 --> 00:19:01,120 doing by being caught up in our own ideas of what the Kingdom of 299 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:05,440 God should look like? And distinguishing between this 300 00:19:05,440 --> 00:19:10,240 good leaven and this bad leaven sounds really easy at 1st. 301 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:12,040 And sure, sometimes it's really simple. 302 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:14,640 You can look at something and say like this is the good thing, 303 00:19:14,960 --> 00:19:17,400 this is the bad thing. I should only I should do the 304 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,000 good thing. So a lot harder than that in 305 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:22,960 real life. But a lot of times I think 306 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:26,040 discernment comes in when we're choosing between two good 307 00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,000 things. Are we looking for the thing in 308 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,920 our life to the start of it's going to double and triple in 309 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,520 size. We're looking at this good other 310 00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:38,640 good thing that is not actually the thing God has hidden in our 311 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:40,880 hearts. This anemic one that doesn't 312 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:46,240 even have any oven spring. Once it goes in the fire, you 313 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:50,360 have to look for the thing that Jesus has actually hidden inside 314 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:54,480 of you. Because Jesus is telling us the 315 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:56,640 story. Let's just set aside this good 316 00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,280 and bad leaven and assume that it is good for a minute. 317 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,960 Something has been hidden deep inside of you. 318 00:20:04,200 --> 00:20:08,160 Something small, but something that is going to grow and be 319 00:20:08,160 --> 00:20:12,360 transformed until the whole 3 measures the flower are 320 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:15,200 leavened. And now I know there may be some 321 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,280 of you here. That just doesn't feel true. 322 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,040 Maybe this morning you feel aimless, like you've lost the 323 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,880 thread of your life. Maybe you feel like you had this 324 00:20:25,880 --> 00:20:28,920 really clear grasp of your purpose at one point, and that's 325 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,360 kind of faded away and you're not exactly sure what this next 326 00:20:32,360 --> 00:20:37,400 step is. Or maybe you just started to 327 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:40,760 doubt that there's really any point at all and we should just 328 00:20:40,760 --> 00:20:44,400 eat, drink, and be merry before our impending deaths. 329 00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:48,840 That feels true for you this morning. 330 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,440 If you resonate with some of those questions, I'd invite you 331 00:20:52,440 --> 00:20:57,720 back to this parable to see the action of the woman who I think 332 00:20:57,880 --> 00:21:01,880 from 1 lens, shows us what Jesus is like. 333 00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:06,760 Jesus is like the woman who has hidden something inside of you, 334 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,920 himself, his Kingdom. And even if you aren't aware of 335 00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:19,080 it, even if it feels like a secret to you, it is there and 336 00:21:19,080 --> 00:21:24,240 it's hidden and we can look for it, or at least look for its 337 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:28,160 results. I really do believe that inside 338 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:33,760 each of you, Jesus has placed a piece of himself that is drawing 339 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:38,720 you closer to Him. If that doesn't feel true for 340 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,720 you, though, I'd really encourage you to come and get 341 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,200 prayer after the sermon. We're going to have people on 342 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:46,840 the side to pray for you. And if you want to say I'd have 343 00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:50,600 no idea what this hidden thing is that Jesus has done for me, 344 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:55,120 we'd love to pray that God would just reveal that to you this 345 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:59,000 morning. So let's go back to the parable 346 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,800 again to take a look at a different part of the story. 347 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,760 Similar to the Kingdom of heaven is leaven that a woman taking 348 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:15,360 hidden 3 measures of flour until was leavened all until was 349 00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:19,200 leavened all. That's what I next want to focus 350 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:20,240 on. In this passage. 351 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,320 The leaven of heaven became mixed in with the flour until 352 00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:28,360 the whole dough is filled with this yeast. 353 00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:32,360 You know, I said we'd come back to those sourdough starters that 354 00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:34,640 you have in your fridge that you may have been neglecting for a 355 00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:39,120 few months. So sourdough starter needs to be 356 00:22:39,120 --> 00:22:42,840 fed regularly. When you feed a starter, you 357 00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,720 take a piece of the starter, you add more flour and water to it, 358 00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:50,400 and over time, just sitting on the counter, it starts bubbling 359 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:55,120 up until it's all starter. You can no longer pull back out 360 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:58,960 the flour that you added to it by putting the starter in. 361 00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:05,560 Eventually everything turns into the leaven, and I think that's 362 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,240 part of what Jesus is getting at in this parable. 363 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:14,400 Whatever it is that God has hidden inside your heart will 364 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:18,800 not stop growing until it consumes everything. 365 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:25,400 So in Luke, we read from Jesus that for nothing is hidden that 366 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:30,440 will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not 367 00:23:30,440 --> 00:23:37,080 become known and come to light. And this, I think, is one of the 368 00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:42,520 joys of this parable. So at times I think when people 369 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,400 hear this passage here about nothing is hidden that will not 370 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:49,280 be disclosed, we hear it with like a lot of fear and this 371 00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,280 negative voice of Oh no, what is going to come up that I don't 372 00:23:52,280 --> 00:23:57,080 want to be revealed to others. Maybe that's true. 373 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,760 I do actually think that in the fullness of the Kingdom, when 374 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:04,600 everything is revealed, it will feel a lot more like liberation 375 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:08,360 than shame because I don't think that's what Jesus is inviting us 376 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:12,640 towards. But I think that in the light of 377 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:17,600 this parable, this verse is actually a hopeful one too. 378 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:22,440 So I want you to know this morning that God has, like the 379 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:26,120 woman in the story, hidden some leaven in your life. 380 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:32,000 The Kingdom of God is working within you, and at times it 381 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,600 feels so small that you might not even notice it, but it's 382 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:40,200 there. And on top of that, the other 383 00:24:40,200 --> 00:24:43,520 good news that I want you to hear this morning is that God's 384 00:24:43,520 --> 00:24:46,200 not going to leave that piece of you hidden. 385 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:52,040 Rather, the thing that God has placed in you will come out and 386 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:58,880 grow and bear fruit eventually in the Longview, which I think 387 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,960 is the only view that God actually looks at our lives 388 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,520 with. God will take and consume 389 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:11,080 everything in your life until it reflects the Kingdom of God. 390 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:16,720 The work that God is doing in you is God's work and God will 391 00:25:16,720 --> 00:25:23,080 bring it to fruition and this journey will take the rest of 392 00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:28,400 your life, the growth of the Kingdom of God in your life. 393 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:33,120 This taking over of everything isn't about destroying the good 394 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,800 things in your life. This is not a cancer that is 395 00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:40,920 growing the multiplication of cells without purpose. 396 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:45,920 Rather, the growth of the Kingdom of God in your life is 397 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,680 organic and slow and cooperative. 398 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:53,440 When yeast grows, it's not destroying what was already 399 00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:55,840 there. It's growing alongside it, 400 00:25:56,120 --> 00:26:00,800 shifting and changing over time in a way that's often almost 401 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:04,920 imperceptible to us. So for anyone who has ever made 402 00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:09,200 bread, sitting and watching and waiting for it to rise is an 403 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:13,400 almost impossible task. But suddenly you look back and 404 00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:16,720 you realize, oh, it is doubled inside my kit in size. 405 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,400 My kitchen is warmer than I thought it was. 406 00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:24,400 So this is the kind of growth that God is building in your 407 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,560 life. At times it's unseen, but when 408 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:32,120 you look back over your life over the long haul, you're able 409 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:37,400 to notice it. For me personally, when I think 410 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,560 about looking back over things in my life, one way this has 411 00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,920 come up really clearly is in the way in which I pray. 412 00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:47,520 So this sounds very strange, and I think I've told this story in 413 00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:51,040 a sermon before, but I spent most of my early Christian life 414 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,640 having really no idea how to pray. 415 00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:57,480 It was not the spiritual discipline that felt like easily 416 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:02,560 accessible to me at all. But over time, through 417 00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:07,120 relationship with others, by trying on prayer and fits and 418 00:27:07,120 --> 00:27:11,640 starts, through conversation with a spiritual director, I 419 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,600 found myself at some point praying. 420 00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:18,000 And I can't really point to a particular time when it started 421 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,200 or it happened. This is the big time when 422 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,000 everything changed and suddenly it worked out. 423 00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:29,440 But when I look back at my life, at some point, the yeast bubbled 424 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,680 up in such a way that a deeper connection with God in prayer 425 00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:38,280 came to fruition. And I'm so thankful that God is 426 00:27:38,280 --> 00:27:40,520 the one who's doing that work, not me. 427 00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:44,880 And I would just invite you to think back over your life. 428 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,800 Is there things in your life where you've been wanting 429 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,880 something to change? And you might not have even 430 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:53,800 noticed it, but sometimes you just look and like, oh, that's 431 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:55,480 happened. And I didn't even know that it 432 00:27:55,480 --> 00:27:59,760 was coming. Sometimes the sort of slow 433 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:04,680 organic growth is really hard for us to grasp because we're so 434 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:11,240 used to images of power that consume and dominate rather than 435 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:14,120 cooperate. We're so used to limitless 436 00:28:14,120 --> 00:28:19,320 growth in a short time, as demanded by basically everything 437 00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:23,160 in our society. That's not what the Kingdom of 438 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:27,960 God is like. Rather, the Kingdom of God is 439 00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:32,800 particular to you. It's unique and slow and 440 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,120 organic, and it's not overpowering you. 441 00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:41,280 Rather, like the air bubbling up through dough, the Kingdom of 442 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:47,400 God is bubbling up in your life, forming into something new, but 443 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:53,480 not something unrecognizable. The Kingdom of God is patient 444 00:28:54,000 --> 00:29:00,320 and it takes time, just as the rising of bread takes time, and 445 00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:05,200 the work that God is doing in you will sometimes be slow. 446 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,040 I think sometimes there are these big dramatic moments. 447 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:11,360 That's why we had these sermons from Parker the last two weeks. 448 00:29:11,680 --> 00:29:14,920 But a lot of times it will take time for your life to be 449 00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:20,320 transformed into the image of Jesus, but it won't ever stop. 450 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:26,280 The thing that God has placed in you will continue to build and 451 00:29:26,280 --> 00:29:30,360 to grow until all of your life is leavened. 452 00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:35,800 I also think it's worth noting here that this organic growth of 453 00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:38,720 the Kingdom isn't because of something that you do. 454 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:44,200 Rather, especially in the ancient world, the bacteria that 455 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:46,760 leavens bred is kind of like a free gift. 456 00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:48,800 It's just floating around in the air. 457 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:52,280 It's probably gross to some of you in this room. 458 00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:55,200 There's bacteria and yeast floating around in the air. 459 00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:59,800 That's even how you make sourdough starter today. 460 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:04,320 You can buy these old like 400 year old sourdough starters, but 461 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,560 all you really have to do is put some flour and water on the 462 00:30:07,560 --> 00:30:11,520 counter, mix it together and give us some more flour over a 463 00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:15,200 couple weeks and then you will have your own sourdough starter. 464 00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,560 The yeast that's already floating through the air begins 465 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:24,960 to take hold and like a free gift, it will keep growing until 466 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:29,520 everything is leavened in the same way. 467 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:33,360 The thing that God has planted in you is not because you worked 468 00:30:33,360 --> 00:30:37,080 really hard. It's a free gift that will 469 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:42,720 transform your whole life. Eventually your whole life will 470 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:45,480 be leavened. It seems like most of our work 471 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,800 there is. Then opening the jar and letting 472 00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:55,920 the little bacteria in. Just as we close this morning, 473 00:30:55,920 --> 00:30:58,960 there's one more detail of the parable that I want to draw our 474 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:02,680 attention towards, and I also don't think we notice when we're 475 00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,920 reading it in translation. So the passage says that the 476 00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:11,800 woman hid the leaven in three measures of flour until it was 477 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,280 all leavened. So a strange fact here is that 3 478 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:19,320 measures of flour is actually a really large amount of flour. 479 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:26,520 It's like 40 to 60 lbs. And so this extravagant amount 480 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,320 of flour, I think, points outward towards the way in which 481 00:31:30,320 --> 00:31:34,360 the Kingdom of God is not only about what is going on in your 482 00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,160 life. It's actually bigger in this 483 00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:41,880 giant end of the work that is happening inside of us as God is 484 00:31:41,880 --> 00:31:45,800 moving outwards. The parable ends with everything 485 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:47,760 being leavened. It's not this one little tiny, 486 00:31:47,760 --> 00:31:51,360 small loaf of bread. It's this massive amount of 487 00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:54,280 flour that would not even fit in a normal oven. 488 00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:59,520 So that's also what the Kingdom of God is like. 489 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:04,920 The thing that Jesus has placed in you will work its way out to 490 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:09,240 transform your life. But as it works its way out in 491 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:13,040 your life, the thing that Jesus has placed in the world through 492 00:32:13,040 --> 00:32:17,720 the church will also work its way out to transform the whole 493 00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:21,320 world. What God begins in each one of 494 00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:28,400 us, in you, and in you, and in you and in you, will come to 495 00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,120 reform and reshape the entire world. 496 00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:39,640 All 40 to 60 lbs of flour, not through control, not through 497 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:44,920 power or domination, but like yeast and bread working its way 498 00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:49,960 through until everything looks more like the way God would have 499 00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:54,480 the world to be. And so as we close, I'd like to 500 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:57,240 have the band to start coming back up the worship team. 501 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,240 And I think what I want to draw your attention to here, just at 502 00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,200 the very end as we reflect on all of these parables of the 503 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,720 Kingdom of God, is God's patience. 504 00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:12,880 So I think a lot of times we can get really worried about the 505 00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:16,280 pace at which the world is changing or at which our own 506 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,080 life is changing. But the Kingdom of God is often 507 00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:24,880 slow and unnoticed until suddenly there is this massive 508 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:28,000 rise. God moves in God's own timing 509 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:32,960 and with patient deliberation. It takes a long time to have doe 510 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:37,600 yeast worked through 60 lbs of flour, but it doesn't stop. 511 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,840 And God's movement in you and through you isn't stopping 512 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:44,480 either. Just as we conclude, I want to 513 00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,360 put up this verse from Paul's letter to Philippians. 514 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:53,000 It says, I am confident of this, that the one who began a good 515 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:58,880 work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus 516 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:05,840 Christ, and we find ourselves watching for the signs of this 517 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:11,199 good work. I think there were a lot of 518 00:34:11,199 --> 00:34:15,960 invitations to prayer in, in the sermon today, even as I, I don't 519 00:34:15,960 --> 00:34:19,440 know that think about the the work of kneading the dough and 520 00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:22,880 the different ways of looking at the truths inside of the story. 521 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,040 But the one thing that stood out when Thomas was at the part he 522 00:34:26,040 --> 00:34:29,280 talked about like the Kingdom being inside of us, even when it 523 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:35,520 feels hidden, was the word belonging and the idea of of us 524 00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:39,440 belonging in God's Kingdom, of us belonging and God's family. 525 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:42,920 And so I just wanted to say that word specifically. 526 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:47,480 And if, if that's a word that I don't know, feels hard or feels 527 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:52,600 Invitational, maybe especially today, I'd love to pray for you. 528 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:52,760 Yeah. I. 529 00:34:54,159 --> 00:34:58,120 Think also just a couple more things that I think there's an 530 00:34:58,120 --> 00:35:00,560 invitation towards prayer for those who don't feel God's 531 00:35:00,560 --> 00:35:03,280 patience, really frustrated by that. 532 00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,280 Or I also think I would encourage you to get prayer if 533 00:35:07,280 --> 00:35:10,880 you feel like when you look back over your life, it feels like 534 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,880 not at all life giving. Maybe there's trauma or 535 00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:17,280 something that has gotten mixed in that makes it hard to have 536 00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:22,520 this big story of your life. I encourage you to get prayer 537 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,680 for that too, as we stand together.