Hearing the Voice of Jesus

Amen. Well I can tell you that it's doubtful this will be the best sermon you've heard all year in this pulpit. Hopefully it won't be the worst sermon you've heard all year in this pulpit. But I can say with basically absolute certainty this will be the last sermon you hear this year in this pulpit and I say that a bit in jest but also to think about how God has been good to us this year in this pulpit.

Think about how many sermons that you've heard this year from this pulpit. We've preached 52 sermons on Sunday morning and probably around maybe 50. I know we have a couple different things. Sometimes on Sunday night maybe 48 let's say 48.

There's been a hundred sermons in 2024 preached from this pulpit. They've been faithful sermons. I know we've heard men this year like pastor Jacob rayon. We've heard from myself and pastor Jacob. I know Gunnar is preaching the pulpit this year.

Trying to think if there's others I'm sure I'm missing. Pastor Randall Chronister came and I know he's preached some. I know there's one Sunday we were out in Mexico and he filled in both Sunday morning Sunday night you've heard faithful men.

What an amazing thing it is preaching the Word of God. And that's what I want to look at tonight from Romans 10. We are going to finish Psalm 119. But this is just something I guess the Lord began to stir in my heart late in the week after I was kind of ready or kind of printed off outline my outline for Psalm 119.

Then I just began thinking about this text more and this afternoon looking at it some more. I want to look at Romans 10 and I want to talk about hearing the voice of Jesus from Romans chapter 10. And I hope by the end we'll have a greater I think our church puts a high value and and a great love for the preaching of the word.

But I hope by the end of the sermon that we'll have an even greater appreciation for the preaching of the Word of God. So let's read Romans 10 and I'll start in verse 1 and read through 17. Would you stand with me.

So we honor the reading of God's word brothers. My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. They did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law. For righteousness to everyone who believes.

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down.

Or who will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say. The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for the heart.

One believes and is justified with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed. And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard. And how are they to hear without someone preaching.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent as it is written. How beautiful are the preaching. We pray in Jesus name amen. You may be seated. I I saw a try to think how I want to phrase it. But I saw a clip.

I saw a of a service where a man got up and he said some true things for a little while he didn't have his Bible open and he didn't even have his Bible. He just was standing saying things in a service.

And I thought to myself that place doesn't have a high view of preaching. And then I thought to myself I always want to evaluate like do we have a high view of preaching just because it's tradition you know because it's easy to idolize tradition you understand it's very easy to say well we've always just done it that way.

We kind of get nostalgic about it. And I forgot what it was about. But Gunnar and Alex were talking about something. Oh is a key. They're talking about a key. A key a song glorious exchange. And I said have we always do we always do it in that key.

They were practicing this morning. And they both look at me like and it was so Baptist. They were like yes this is the way we've always done it you know. And I was like okay that's the Baptist motto the way we've always done it.

So so we want to be careful. Don't we. We want to be careful not to do things simply because that's the way we've always done it. That's not a good apologetic. That's not a good defense for the preaching of the Word of God.

So we shouldn't just say well you know the man stands up and he opens the Bible and he exegetes he exposites the text. And we should do that because we've always done it that way. No we should have a biblical case for preaching a biblical defense for preaching.

And I hope to give you that tonight. Now some of you might be worried you like man has a lot of verses he read and sometimes we spend a few weeks on one verse. So how possibly long could this be. So let me just summarize.

Really the first few verses. They're at least the first 10 verses if I could summarize. Paul has a desire to see the ethnic Jews saved. Okay he wants to see those who have physically descended from Abraham saved.

Any any any introduces the problem there. Verse 3. They're ignorant of the righteousness of God. They seek to establish their own. They're not submitting to God's righteousness. So in other words if I can summarize the Mosaic Covenant for you the the Mosaic Covenant comes in and says this is the law.

Do this. Essentially do this and you will live. But the point of the Mosaic Covenant is to say you're impossibly short of being able to come to meet the standard of righteousness. When you are confronted with the law of God what should happen to you is you should say I can't meet that I can't do that.

I fall short. I need the Messiah. I need Christ. I need the promised one. In the Old Testament they should have said I need the promised one to come and to save me and to fulfill this and to be my righteousness.

And many many did that. Most did not. Many did look to Christ. But those who didn't look to Christ they saw the Mosaic Covenant as a means to garner their own righteousness. They saw as a means to to be able to act.

Well I can just do this. Right. Well okay I've got all these laws that I'm supposed to do I can do this. And I can obtain righteousness before God. And Paul says this has been unto their damnation. And so in verse 4 he says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

You understand. Let's let's be clear here on the gospel. What Paul is saying here is that Jesus Christ is the one who fulfills the law of God because you and I can't do it. So the law of God comes and says you're a sinner.

What are you going to do about it. And our answer should be well I can't do anything. But a lot of people look at and say well I'll try my best and God will do the rest. No that's a rejection of Christ.

Christ is the end of the law. The law comes in and we should say I can't do it. I've broken it. I haven't met it. I'm not a victim of sin. I'm a I'm a maybe a victim of sin but I'm also a very much a perpetrator of sin.

I've broken God's law. And as we've talked about this morning I'm falling in Adam and Eve. I'm falling in my first father Adam. And now I've broken God's law in and of myself. And I have no hope unless one would fulfill the law for me.

But how can someone do that. Because there's no man that's perfect. And in steps Jesus truly God truly man. And he fulfills the law. Verse 4 very important. He's the end of the law for righteous to everyone who believes.

And so how do we respond to the gospel. So so Jesus is the one who fulfills all righteousness. And then he pays the penalty for lawbreakers on the cross. God punishes Jesus for my law breaking and for your law breaking because God is holy and he demands you know this this is the gospel.

God is holy and demands justice. He demands he demands penalty demands payment for sin. And the wages of sin is death. And Jesus tastes death for us. He bears the penalty. He bears the wrath of God on the cross and he dies.

He rises again the third day. And our response is we must believe the only people I say this. It's a bit tongue-in-cheek but I say it to really get you thinking the only people that will go to heaven are those who have perfect righteousness.

That should scare you in one sense because you say well wait a second I don't have that and I can't get that. But the answer is the gospel. The answer is the gospel. Because by the work of Christ we are declared righteous by his work.

That's what we need. And so Paul goes on he's laying out that argument now nine and ten. You know you were growing up. I was growing up. We always heard this about and it is it's good. It's very good.

But I think we need to understand it. But it's very good. I believe it. I affirm this about how a person gets saved Romans 10 9 and 10. We'd always talk about that because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.

For the heart one believes and is justified. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. We should believe that. That's true. We can share that with people. We can take Romans 10 9 and 10 and say look look what it says now what it doesn't mean.

And sometimes it's been applied this way. It doesn't mean that if you ever just walk an aisle and mouth these words and you really mean it that you're saved. It's not a defense for the so-called sinners pray you just say these magic words and God saves.

You know what it's talking about is a heart that really embraces Christ. We know what by grace it's it's God's work in the heart that that brings a heart to Christ. And then that heart embraces Christ the Savior and Lord and turns from sin and believes this gospel message and understands that in and of myself I have no righteousness in it of myself.

I cannot obtain or meet the standard of God. I need a Savior and I need a sin-bearer someone who would take my sin from me and and and pay for the sins that I've done against God. We need that. And so we embrace that message with the heart and then we confess.

We confess with our mouth with which is not just saying well I come up here and I stood before the church and I said Jesus is Lord. That's easy. Right. I mean anybody in here you could stand up. And if you said Jesus is Lord what would our church say.

Amen. Amen praise God. This confession needs to carry into your home. It needs to carry into your sphere of influence. It needs to carry into your workplace. Anybody can say Jesus is Lord in a church building but it's a confession that carries over into your life.

Christ is Lord. And I take it into my home and I take it into my workplace and I take it to my friends and I take it to my family. I don't just have Jesus is Lord in this little corner and I put it in my pocket.

And then on Sunday mornings I pull it out and I'm like yeah Jesus is Lord. No I carry this. This is the banner over my life. Christ is King. All right. And so that's what. That's what Paul's saying here is not just he's not.

He's not giving an apologetic for the sinner's prayer. He's saying this is what it looks like if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you'll be saved.

For the heart one believes and is justified. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Now he says in verse 11 and 12 the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Everyone is Paul's argument verse 12.

For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You believe that.

Amen. I believe that with all my heart I believe that with every fiber of my being I believe that when I take the gospel to the streets I believe that when I pass out tracks I believe that when I talk to my children I believe that when I meet with people in my office who are wondering about salvation.

I believe that God is serious. And I believe that God means it that every single person who will call upon the name of the Lord not my not maybe. But they will be saved. Call upon the name of the Lord.

Some of you even in a Sunday night service you need to hear that. What is preventing me from being saved. Is it because my name's not on a list in God's book. Is it because you know God has failed me in some way.

No. It's because you won't call on the name of the Lord. Because those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved now. I know that we can get into discussions on effectual calling and and predestination and all those things.

But I'm gonna just tell you sometimes don't you just don't need to out think yourself. And we can do that. Well but but but but. No. No buts right. If you call upon the name of the Lord what's the text.

Say you will be saved. We believe this and we preach this and we trust in this. And we obviously know that only those will call upon the name of Lord are those that God sovereignly bestows his grace. We understand that.

But we preach this text and we we believe it. We hold fast to it. Now verse 14 is where I'm going to show us that most of our Bibles are poorly translated. Now I'm not sure what the King James says. Sadly I have to admit the LSB does a good job here.

So have to give a hat tip back there to Alex. But I want to see you can just look. I don't know how you're. You could show me after the sermon. I don't know how your Bible is translated but I want to.

I want to talk about verse 14 for a moment. So here's the ESV. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed. And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard. And how are they to hear without someone preaching.

Let me back up for just a second. So here's the argument premise. One everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. We believe that. Amen. So everyone who calls on the name of Lord be safe.

Now here's Paul's question. How is it that they're going to call on him if they don't believe him. And how are they going to believe him if they haven't heard about him. And how are they going to hear about him unless someone preaches to understand the argument.

Except there's a there's a there's a line in there that I think our English translations get wrong. So if you notice in verse 14 it says they will call on him whom they have not believed. How will they do that.

And then second how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard. Now you can look in your translation some of you you're the of there might be in italics but it sounds to me like it's saying when we preach about Christ.

When we preach Christ they hear about Christ. Right. You understand. That's what it appears that the English is trying to convey there but I don't think that that's what the original it's. In fact I know that's not what the original says.

I think sometimes we were like well maybe we supply some translation here to sort of some words here to make it make sense. What the original says is how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard.

There's no of let me say that better because I said that clunky how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard. To make sense. So the English says of whom they have never heard. The Greek is saying how are they to believe in him whom they've never heard now.

That's an important distinction. I think now it's not wrong. By the way it's not wrong to say when we preach Christ people are hearing about Christ. That's true isn't it. When we preach Christ people are hearing about Christ.

But I think that Paul is saying something profoundly different here or at least vitally important for us to grasp. And I'm gonna give you some quotes here in just a minute that I'm not crazy. Okay. I mean I may be crazy but I'm in good company.

So what Paul is saying is not merely when we preach that people are hearing about Christ. I hope I've made sense that this isn't they say a mist and the pulpits of fog and the pure whatever hope. What I'm saying is making sense.

Paul is not saying not merely saying that when we preach that they're hearing about Christ. But what is he saying when we preach. They are hearing who Christ. That's what the text is communicating. How then will they call on him and whom they have not believed.

And how are they to believe in him whom they have never heard. How are they to believe in Christ if they haven't heard Christ. Well how do they hear Christ. What does he say. How are they to hear without what.

Without someone preaching. So let me let me give you some quotes. Well first of all John 1027 says this. My sheep hear my voice. And I know them and they follow me. Have you heard the voice of Christ.

I hope you have. We hear the verse voice of Christ through his word. And we hear the voice of Christ through the preaching of his word. Herman Hoeksema. He's a Dutch reform theologian from the 1900s. He says it's funny.

Right. The 1900s is old now. Right. It's like I'm from the 1900. Well he was too. He says through preaching you do not hear about Christ but you hear him. He goes on to say a preacher is not a person who merely speaks concerning Christ but one through whom it pleases Christ himself to speak and to cause his own voice to be heard by his people.

A preacher therefore must proclaim the whole counsel of God unto salvation as contained in holy writ. That's Herman Hoeksema. The Westminster larger catechism says this. It is required of those that hear the word preached that they attend upon it with diligence preparation and prayer.

Examine what they hear by the scriptures. Receive the truth with faith love meekness and readiness of mind as the Word of God. That is there to examine to make sure he's preaching faithfully. But as they hear the Word of God being preached they are to receive the preaching of the Word of God as the Word of God.

The second Helvetic confession 1566 it says the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. And then Daniel Doriani he says he's got a long quote. He uses some quotes within quotes. So we're back to inception like we were this morning.

But here's what he says. Daniel Doriani. Martin Luther said every honest pastors and preachers mouth is Christ's mouth. And the word which he preaches is likewise not the pastors and preachers but God's.

Similarly John Calvin said when a man is climbed up into the pulpit it is so that God may speak to us by the mouth of a man. So Doriani continues. So preaching is God's word in some sense. Yet the preachers words are human too and therefore often garbled weak or even false.

But the Spirit makes the broken human words become a living Word of God to the hearers. Okay here's what I'm saying. And it's not just what I'm saying. It's what I think the text is saying. And of course I would issue a caveat of caution.

But I believe that the text is telling us that when we preach the Word of God rightly we are preaching the very voice of Christ. When we are preaching the Word of God rightly when we sit in the service and we hear the preaching of the Word of God being rightly preached rightly exposited rightly exegeted.

We are in a sense hearing the very voice of Christ to the church. Now the caveat of caution would be of course that doesn't mean everyone who stands in the pulpit doesn't mean every time I open my mouth.

It doesn't mean everything I say is always right or infallible or in error. Of course we're not equating the preachers stammering with the infallible inerrant Word of God. But but we are trying to articulate that there's something more going on here than just a rambling man right.

A man who is faithful to the Word of God. A man who is preaching the Word of God is not merely giving his opinion. He's giving me the the right sense and interpretation of the text. And in that right sense and in that interpretation there is a sense that the church is hearing from her head from Christ.

This is important. It's important for a few reasons. I'm gonna give you those. It means it means preaching is a means of grace. It means that when the church is gathered and the Word of God is preached that God is doing something with that.

Now first of all you might say in in rightly. So well first of all let's back up even more. First of all you might say this. What's your definition of preaching. And I forgot who said it. Maybe Martin Lloyd-Jones.

Maybe Richard Owen Roberts. Somebody said it not. Quatro Nelson said if you have to define preaching you've never heard it. And so we do differentiate between preaching and teaching. All preaching is teaching.

But I would argue that not all teaching is preaching now I do know this quote. Martin Lloyd-Jones said that preaching is logic on fire. Preaching is persuasion. Preaching has has with it the quality and attribute of passion.

It doesn't mean that everyone that stands in the pulpit is loud and crazy and yelling and slapping or whatever. That's not what we're saying with passion. But they have a a a a point of persuasion. They are trying to say this is what the text says.

This is where you're at. Let's bring you to where the text is. Let's see a change in your life. Let me convince you that what the text says is true and that your life is wrong and that you need to change.

And you need to come into conformity with the Word of God. You need to trust Christ. You need to rest in him. You need to do what the Bible says. This is preaching now some people say well but preaching is for the lost and teaching is for the church.

And even in this text you might use it as an as a proof for that. So you might say well you understand that what Paul is saying here he's talking about preaching for sure. But he's talking about preaching to the lost now.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with that in the context. But if you just flip real quick to Romans 1 if you just flip real quick to Romans 1 and you'll see this in Romans 1 verse 15. Now we remember we know verse 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

But in Romans 1 15 Paul says this. So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. Well who's he talking to. He's talking to the church. He's eager to preach the gospel to the church in Rome.

So preaching is something for the lost. Preaching is something we do evangelistically. And I'm going to talk about in a minute. But don't miss this. Preaching is also a means of grace for the church. In fact hopefully I've got this right in my mind Romans 16 if you turn there at the end of the book he says in Romans 16 25 now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages.

In other words the preaching of Christ is something that the lost need to hear. Amen. Amen. I'm not denying that and I'm going to get to that here in a. But the preaching of Christ is also something the church needs to hear.

Because when we preach Christ and when we preach the Word of God rightly the church is hearing the voice of Christ and the church is being comforted. It's why we call it a means of grace. It's like it means that God is is using the preaching of his word as an instrument of grace in your life.

It's like a pitcher full of grace. And as you hear preaching he's pouring it out all over you. And so you're listening to preaching. You're being convicted or you're being encouraged or you're being sanctified or you're growing or whatever the case may be preaching is a means of grace.

And then of course in context it's not just a preach of grace a means of grace inside the church but also outside. That's the whole point it right. You understand. So everyone who calls on name the Lord will be saved.

But how are they going to believe or how they're going to call him if they don't believe in Christ. And how are they going to believe in Christ if they never heard Christ. And that's the point. And how are they going to hear Christ unless someone preaches.

Perryville I'll just give you an example. Perryville needs to hear the voice of Christ. Well how are they going to hear the voice of Christ. Well we there's multiple things that I don't think are necessarily wrong that we could do and we have done.

We could cook hot dogs and pass them out and you know pass out a track with them. We could go door-to-door and pass out tracks and talk to people. And we do that. I don't have a problem with those things.

These are good. These are evangelism. We should have one-on-one talking with people. This is evangelistic and this is evangelism and we should do that. But there's also a special sense that when a man stands and proclaims Christ rightly that Christ himself is speaking through the proclamation of the Word of God.

Does that make sense. Preaching is a means of grace inside and outside the church. Secondly let me say this preaching is done under authority. This is a very important part of Paul's argument. So he says in verse 15 how are they to preach unless they are sent.

That's interesting isn't it. Because there's a multiple different ways that Paul could have said it. How are they to preach unless they go. Unless they just go. You could say that and to an extent that's not necessarily wrong.

Or how do they preach unless someone just comes up with something to say. Okay. But Paul uses specific language here that I think teaches us something else important about preaching. And that is preaching is done under authority.

Let me say it to you this way preaching is not given to men individual men. So much as preaching is given to the church. That is it is the church's job to be the steward of preaching. Well how could I say that.

Well I'm saying it who's going to be sent. Who's doing the sending. Right. We say well God sends. Well. Amen. I would agree with that. God sends preachers. Right. God calls preachers. God sends preacher.

It's not ultimately the church that sends preachers or the church that calls preachers. It's God that does that. Amen. But the means by which God affirms the calling of men to preach is the local church.

It is the church's authoritative responsibility to send preachers. When we don't call preachers but we affirm the call. So someone says let's just make it up you know. Or whatever. Let's say you know someone comes up and says I'm I'm to preach.

Is that true. Well it may be. How our society wants to say is if I say I'm called to preach there's nothing that you can say about it. Well that's not true. There's a few things that we can say about it.

Number one. Preaching is reserved for qualified men. Okay how do we know that. Well we can look at the at the New Testament teaching. We look at first Timothy 212 that men are the ones that are to have the authority of the teaching qualified man.

We can look at the the qualifications of pastors in first Timothy 3. Qualified men are the only ones that should be preaching. Not all men. Not all men. But only qualified men. So if someone says I'm called to preach and they're not a qualified man they're not called to preach.

Well how could you say that you can't go against God. No I'm saying this God is not going to say one thing in the Scriptures and issue a divine call. That's in contradiction to the Word. You understand.

So whatever the Word says that's our standard. So if someone says they're called to preach they should be judged by the criteria tested by the criteria given to us in the Word of God. Because it is the church's responsibility to steward the preaching of the Word of God.

So preaching is done under authority. It's not just well I'm just going to go into this town and preach. I don't think that that's the the biblical model. It is it is the church's responsibility to send preachers to authorize preachers.

Now God is the one that that does this. But it's the church's it's the mechanism that God uses. He's given us in this life the authority structure of the local church to test the preaching. So this man's called to preach to ascertain the qualifications.

Yes this man's qualified to preach. And then don't forget this time not to just test and not to just ascertain but to send the church must send preachers. Why the church sends preachers. Because when preachers go out they are heralding the very voice of Christ.

You understand. So we want the whole nation to hear the voice of Christ. What. And and I think we get we get weird and and and we we fall into like mysticism and maybe pietism and we say you know people say and and we come up with things like Jesus calling which is trash it's not good.

And we say like okay we come up all these weird ways to hear the voice of Jesus. And God has said no no you want to hear the voice of Jesus. Here's how you hear his voice. Men preaching his word preach the Word of God.

As men rightly preach the Word of God and that that qualifications important as they rightly preach the Word of God. We're extolling the very voice of Christ. And so we send preachers to preach Christ and to preach the very voice of Christ.

This brings up a whole list of things that we could talk about. But today as we send out Pastor Jacob to fill in for another pastor we're we're are in one sense I know it's not a perfect application but we're in one sense doing what the text says.

We're sending out a preacher when we send our pastors and others to Mexico to help equip and and and build the churches down there we are sending preachers. And when we support and we must support and encourage the preaching of Christ and in the public square and the public proclamation of the gospel we are obeying this text.

We are sending preachers to preach the very voice of Christ. I'm just saying tonight that we must close out 2024 with a high view of preaching. And I hope that we enter into 2025 with a high view of preaching.

In fact my last point is just this. And just a few notes to mention. But if all this is true I believe this is true. This is not just something I came up with. This is the historic I believe reform position on the preaching.

The preaching is a means of grace. The preaching is done rightly hearing the very voice of Christ. Okay then what are we to do with preaching. Well friends we should prioritize it. We should prioritize preaching.

We should remember we need to be careful of our language. I'm guilty of this. I failed in this too sometimes. But sometimes we say well we have worship and then we have preaching. But if preaching is in one sense hearing the very voice of Christ how can that not be worship.

Because you understand what I'm doing is when I'm listening to preaching. I'm engaging. I'm listening and I'm responding. I'm saying yes Lord. I want to say yes to that or something in my life that I need to say no to.

Okay Lord. No. I say no now to that. Yes. I want to do this. No. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to repent. I want to grow. I want to follow Christ. Preaching is worship. We prioritize preaching.

Preaching. This is obvious. And you know you know a guy's gonna say this on Sunday night. Preaching should be attended. It should be attended. Okay we do live in a world that people talk about reading their Bible.

But it's it's optional. But we also really live in a world it's like preaching is optional. You know I may go I may or may not go to church today. That's an interesting position that we have as Christian as professing Christians in the so-called Bible belt.

But if preaching is the Word of God and if preaching the Word of God rightly is in one sense the church hearing the voice of Christ. Then should we not have a high priority to the attending of preaching.

We want to come and we want to hear preaching. We want to hear now. I'm not saying that things don't come up. Maybe you're out of town. Although I would argue with it I would I would give you a gentle encouragement when you're out of town find a place that is faithfully preaching.

Right. Why. Because we want to hear Christ. Sometimes you're sick. I get it and it's not the same. But sometimes you can you're able to tune in on the live stream. I get it. But the point is preaching should be attended.

It should be prioritized. And we should be a church. And I'm not saying and you guys can joke and you can add you know like as your watch broken. Because I know I preach long and honestly sometimes I preach too long and my apologies about that.

So I'm not making an argument for long sermons. But I will say this we live in a day where sermons are getting shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter and shorter. Right. Like I said the other day I turned on a on a thing and I watched and the sermon was like 12 minutes now I'm not saying that if you only preach a 12-minute sermon that you're a heretic or something like that.