Episode Transcript
[00:00:18] Amen. All right. Desmond Dawes.
[00:00:24] Desmond Dawes is a name that I would encourage you to become familiar with if you're not familiar with who Desmond Dawes is.
[00:00:31] Friedman signed up for World War II back in the 1940s, but he signed up as what was called a conscientious objector. Okay. A conscientious objector was someone who refused to carry a weapon and to kill. And so he believed in the cause of World War II and fighting for his country or serving his country, but he refused to fight. And so he enlisted in the military during World War II. He showed up to boot camp and everybody just made his life really, really hard.
[00:01:04] Nobody liked it. People made fun of him. His commander in chief made fun of him. It was just really, really hard for him. Well, he ended up serving in World War II. And this is, I think it's one of the most amazing stories that you could read about in World War II. But he ended up serving in Japan in a place called Okinawa.
[00:01:22] And in Okinawa, there was a really steep like ridge Hill that the U.S. troops came to on one particular day. And on top of that hill was a large flat plain that was filled with caves and holes and different places that the Japanese army could hide in and fight and essentially ambush anybody who climbed up that hill. This was called Hacksaw Ridge. So if you're unfamiliar with this story, there's a movie about it. Would not recommend it for our kids.
[00:01:55] So here's what Desmond Dawes did that was so amazing. Without a weapon, he ended up saving 75 men.
[00:02:03] Okay. So what he would do is he would climb up the bridge and he would go onto the flat plain and he'd try to find any wounded or weak soldier that was unable to pick himself up and carry himself off to safety. He'd go find those soldiers, he'd pick him up, he'd throw em over his shoulder, and he'd run back down to the ridge and he'd lower em down on a rope to safety so that they could receive medical attention. And the prayer that he would pray, he was a believer. The prayer that he would pray in between each rescue was simply this very simple. It was, Lord, please give me one more.
[00:02:35] So Lord, please give me one more. One person at a time, one rescue at a time.
[00:02:40] And so as I was reading and reflecting on this story this week, here's what it kind of what I think the spirit led me to question within myself that I want to pose to you as well. Do you think this way about your brothers and sisters? In the church.
[00:02:58] So when you come into church on a Sunday morning or when you go to community group throughout the week, is your mentality one of, I want to be served, I want to be fed, I want to be encouraged.
[00:03:10] Like, not bad for us to desire that.
[00:03:13] It's a normal and good thing to desire to be fed by the word of God. Sometimes we go in just needing to be encouraged.
[00:03:21] But here's what the text is going to teach us today. That you and I, for those of us who are believers in Jesus, followers of Jesus, we have an obligation to the weak and suffering among us, that God gives grace to his people.
[00:03:36] Not to be a cul de sac in our hearts, but to flow out of us into the lives of other people.
[00:03:44] Studying the Bible, studying theology, learning things about God, all of these kinds of things are amazing things for you friends, but they're not just for you.
[00:03:56] We study the Bible, we learn theology, we study God, we receive his grace so that we might be conduits of grace to our brothers and sisters around us. What if our mentality coming into the gathering was this, Lord, give me one more who might be a weak brother and sister, brother or sister, that you might use me to encourage, that you might use me to lift up. Like, if all of us came in with that kind of mindset, it'd be a transformative community, wouldn't it?
[00:04:26] So that's what the text is going to tell us today. We've been talking about this idea that the Book of Hebrews is really a call to finish well. So I don't know how you define the scorecard of your life and think about success and all these kinds of things, but the way the New Testament talks about success is finishing well.
[00:04:43] That you and I would make it to the end of our life by the grace of God for those of us who are followers of Jesus.
[00:04:48] And we will have finished with Jesus loving and worshiping Jesus more than we did on the first day.
[00:04:55] That's how the Bible talks about this idea of success. And what the text is going to teach us today is this, that in order for you and I to finish well, we must do it together.
[00:05:06] Okay? Christianity is not an individualistic thing.
[00:05:10] But we live, friends, in a very individualistic society, don't we?
[00:05:17] My quiet time with Jesus, my life, my time, my money, my schedule. Everything in our society, in Western society is about me.
[00:05:30] My perspective, my opinion, my identity. Like everything is about you. And we're conditioned and discipled by our culture to think in this hyper individualistic way. But if you read the New Testament, and the Old, for that matter, honestly, then what you'll come out with is seeing this communal reality that God has established among us. So we. We cannot finish well, friends, if we don't. If we don't do it together.
[00:05:54] And so that's the. The big idea behind the text today is that faithful endurance and the Christian life must be done together. So let's look at the text.
[00:06:03] Hebrews, chapter 12.
[00:06:04] We're going to start in verse 12. We're just walking through the book of Hebrews together as a church.
[00:06:09] And I'm going to read verses 12 through 13 to talk about how you and I might finish well together. So he's going to give us two commands in this text as to how you and I might finish well together.
[00:06:21] So the first is this in verses 12 through 13. This is what he says. He says, therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather he.
[00:06:38] So our first. The first call for us in the text today is the call to strengthen the weak.
[00:06:44] To strengthen the weak. The esv, which is the translation that we work from at Redemption Hill most of the time, says, lift your drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees. But most modern English translations don't translate the text that way.
[00:07:00] Okay, so the King James, the Young's Literal, the new American standard, rather than saying, lift your drooping hands, say, strengthen the drooping hands, strengthen the weak knees. Do you see the. Do you see the difference there?
[00:07:16] Okay, one focuses on the individual, the other focuses on the community.
[00:07:20] One is a call for you to do this for yourself.
[00:07:24] That's not what the text in the ESV is implying, by the way. But that's just what it.
[00:07:27] That's how we read it. And the other is a call to strengthen the weak hands within the body of Christ.
[00:07:39] And so our first admonition, friends, given by the Holy Spirit, is for us to lift the drooping hands and strengthen the weak knees. But he starts this text by saying, therefore. Okay, so we've talked about this, but anytime you read the word therefore, you have to ask anybody. Remember the question.
[00:07:58] Look at man. Way to go.
[00:08:01] What's that? Therefore. Therefore. Right. So it always points us back to the previous text. And here's what the previous text says just before our verse. It says, therefore.
[00:08:10] I'm sorry. It says, for the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.
[00:08:16] But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been Trained by it. So if you remember from last week, we talked about the discipline of God, how the discipline of God is kind of. And it's good. And it feels painful in the moment. We don't like discipline, but it yields the fruit, the peaceful fruit of righteousness. And so it's as if you and I are living in the gymnasium of God. If you're a follower of Jesus, you're living in the gymnasium of God. And God is training you and I by his grace and by his spirit to make us more and more and more like Him. What a glorious reality that is.
[00:08:55] And so this is the reality that the author is coming from.
[00:08:59] And he's saying, in light of this, in light of what Jesus has already done for you, which is the good news of the gospel. The gospel isn't something you live out. The gospel isn't something that you improve upon. The gospel is news, okay? The gospel is good news. It's not to be lived, it's to be received.
[00:09:20] Have you received that good news of the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on your behalf? And for those of us who have, who have been saved, we're not working for victory. We're not seeking to strengthen one another because for victory, we're doing it from victory.
[00:09:40] And so he's saying that in light of what Jesus has done, in light of who you are in him, we are by God's grace to be to strengthen one another's weak hands and weak knees. This is direct quote from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 35, verse 3, that says this. It says, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
[00:10:02] So it's a direct quote from Isaiah 35, 3.
[00:10:05] So say to those who have an anxious heart, be strong.
[00:10:10] Fear not.
[00:10:11] Behold, your God will come with a vengeance.
[00:10:17] With the recompense of God, he will come and save you. This is a direct quote from that text.
[00:10:24] Verse 13 of Hebrews 12 is a direct quote from Proverbs 4, 25, 27, that says, Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away, evil.
[00:10:45] So this appeal, one commentator says, is ultimately for the community to endure the struggle with a genuine concern for the weakest of their number.
[00:10:55] So, friends, do you come into the gathering with this mindset in light of what God has done for me through Jesus, in light of what he's equipped me with by his grace and by His Strength. I'm going to seek to be a lifter of hands and a lifter of weakness to my brothers and sisters who are weak.
[00:11:13] Exodus 17:12. We see this picture with Moses. You guys remember the story of Moses for those who grew up in the church where they're fighting the Amalekites and Moses is told to hold up his staff. And every time he holds up his staff, the Israelites gain victory. But every time he drops his staff, the Israelites suffer defeat. And so what happens? God provides two buddies, two friends to come alongside and lift up the staff for Moses. This is what you and I are called to do for one another, to provide strength, to provide encouragement.
[00:11:46] Well known Christian missionary William Carey said this of his friends in his darkest times of ministry and life, in the middle of loss, when he felt like he couldn't keep going, he was too weak to keep going. He. He said this in one of his letters to his friends. He said, I will go down into the pit if you will hold, hold the ropes.
[00:12:06] I will go into the pit if you will hold the ropes.
[00:12:10] So, friends, are you willing to hold the ropes?
[00:12:14] Are you willing to hold the ropes for one another? Sometimes you need somebody to hold the ropes for you. All of us need that from time to time.
[00:12:22] But in your moments and seasons of strength and encouragement, are you willing to hold the ropes? That's what you and I are called to do.
[00:12:33] Pastor Matt's not here, but I will never. Man, I'll never forget one instance with him outside of community group on Wednesday night. My middle son, Everett was diagnosed with epilepsy a couple of years ago. He hasn't had a seizure in a long, long time. Praise God for that. But there was a time where he had had a bunch of them and then he had stopped and he had gone about a year without having another one. And in the middle of community group, I get a call one night, he's with his grandparents, that he had had a seizure in a parking lot and he had fallen down and hit his head on the concrete and, and didn't know anything other than that.
[00:13:03] And so Matt walked me outside and man, I just collapsed into that man's arms and he just held onto me. And I cried and I wept and he didn't have to ask me, what can I do for you? He walked inside the house and he said, all right, everybody's gone. Like you guys go, Brad's got to leave. Kicked everybody out of my house. And I got in the car and we were able to go and see Everett that's strengthening the weak knock.
[00:13:28] We ought to all come in by the grace of God because of what Jesus has done for us in moments of strength and provide that for one another.
[00:13:36] This is not about you, friends.
[00:13:38] It's not about me. It's not about us. It's not about Redemption Hill.
[00:13:43] And so we ought to come in with this kind of mindset.
[00:13:48] And we can only do this when we ourselves are comforted by God through the Gospel. This is what Second Corinthians 1, 3, and 4 says. It says that God is the God of all comfort, and he comforts those who are in affliction.
[00:14:04] Why?
[00:14:05] So that we might be able to comfort those who are in any affliction.
[00:14:11] He walks us through the valley of the shadow of death as our good shepherd. He holds our hand. He strengthens us. He comforts us, not just for us, but so that we might by his grace, be a comfort to those who are weak.
[00:14:23] So this is the first call, the call to strengthen the weak. That's verses 12 and 13, verses 14 through 17. Let me read these, and then I'll give you the second means by which we are to help one another finish well.
[00:14:36] So verses 14 to 17.
[00:14:38] Chapter 12 says, Strive for peace with everyone, for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, but that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And by it many become defiled. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy, like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For, you know, that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. And so the second admonition, friends, for us, the means by which we help one another finish well is. Is to strive for peace and holiness.
[00:15:20] To strive for peace and holiness. So I wanna talk about each of these words because with holiness especially. Here's what he says. He says there is a. He says, strive for the holiness, apart from which meaning. And I want you guys to lock in here.
[00:15:35] Apart from this holiness, you will not see the Lord.
[00:15:40] If you do not possess this holiness, you will not see the Lord.
[00:15:46] You are not a Christian.
[00:15:49] So this week and next week are warning texts. They're going to feel a little bit heavier in nature because they're intended to be that.
[00:15:58] Like, I have a different tone with my kids when we're about to cross a busy street on our bikes than I do when we're in a cul de Sac.
[00:16:08] There's a level of urgency in me when I talk to them about something that could actually kill them.
[00:16:14] Does that make sense? And so this is what the author's doing. He's. He's calling us to examine deeply ourselves to know whether or not we are in the faith.
[00:16:26] He says, strive for peace and strive for the holiness apart, which no one will see the Lord. So let's talk about. Let's talk about what these words mean as we prepare to kind of close out our time.
[00:16:40] So to strive. Kids, I'm gonna ask you a question. Any basketball fans in the room?
[00:16:46] No basketball fans in the room. Adults? We got a couple.
[00:16:49] Yeah. Okay. All right.
[00:16:51] So anybody know what a full court press is?
[00:16:56] Randall, what's a full court press?
[00:16:58] When they're inbounding and on the other side, you play defense all the way up. You play defense all the way up. It's urgent. It's when the defense goes from the back of the court to the front of the court, and they press on the offense. Okay. And now in basketball, a full court press doesn't happen typically when the defending team is winning. It happens when they're losing and they need to get the ball back to score so they can win the game. Right. That's not what we're talking about in the Christian life, we're called the full court press for peace and for holiness. Not because the victory may be, but because the victory has already become a reality for you and I.
[00:17:33] We're called to full court press for these things from victory, not for it. Does this make sense?
[00:17:39] And so the first thing that he calls us to do is to strive for peace. Okay? So striving for peace.
[00:17:46] Striving for peace.
[00:17:48] Striving for peace does not mean uniformity.
[00:17:54] It doesn't mean passivity.
[00:17:56] It doesn't mean timidity.
[00:17:58] Doesn't mean that you and I just go around agreeing with everybody, no matter what they say and what they do. That's not what striving for peace means.
[00:18:05] It doesn't necessarily even mean agreeability with everyone, especially friends, the culture at large.
[00:18:12] So again, we need to know the waters in which we swim, the cultural waters in which we swim. And here's the message that you and I are getting from the culture at large. If you don't agree with me, you're a bigot, and you're a hater, and you hate me.
[00:18:30] That's what the culture communicates.
[00:18:33] It's not true, is it? We can disagree with somebody and still love that person. That's a Common sense thing.
[00:18:39] That's what we're called to do as Christians.
[00:18:42] So this isn't the piece that the author here is talking about primarily when he says strive for peace. He's not talking about striving to be agreeable with everybody around you.
[00:18:54] He's talking about a more substantive, objective peace that is an overflow of peace with God.
[00:19:02] So here's the reality, friends, for all of us in the room, okay? If you are not a Christian this morning, if you're not a follower of Jesus this morning, the greatest problem you have in life, no matter what you're going through, the greatest problem you have in life is that you don't have peace with God.
[00:19:23] It's the greatest problem you have.
[00:19:25] It's the greatest problem you'll ever have. It's the most dire and severe state of being that a human being could ever be in. It's the reason the world is in chaos. It's the reason violence happens.
[00:19:38] It's the reason for all of the trial and the sin and the death in the world is because humans in our natural state are not at peace with the God who made us.
[00:19:50] And so we need peace with God. How did God do this?
[00:19:54] Romans 5:1 speaks to Christians, says this. Therefore, friends, brothers, sisters, since we have been justified by faith, we now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So on the reverse end, the worst news somebody could have is that they don't have peace with God. The greatest news that you and I could rest in today for those who have faith in Jesus, is you have peace with God.
[00:20:23] You have peace with God. He's not your enemy.
[00:20:26] He doesn't hold a perpetual frown against you.
[00:20:30] He's not walking around low grade frustrated with every mistake you make and every sin that you commit. And he's not that way because you have peace with Him. Now, why do you have peace with Him? You have peace with him because he's justified you. He's made you right in his sight. How did he justify you? How did he make you right in his sight?
[00:20:49] He sent his only son, who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf, so that through faith in him we might become the righteousness of God. And because now you are the righteousness of God, through Jesus, you have peace.
[00:21:07] You have peace with God, friends.
[00:21:10] And so because we have peace with God, you and I are able to be people of peace with one another.
[00:21:20] Galatians 6:10 says, so, then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of Faith. And that's because God has given us peace with himself through Jesus. He's given us peace with one another. And. And so we're called to walk in that peace, to be peacemakers. As Jesus says in Matthew 5. Nine, blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. So in other words, those who are sons and daughters of God because of Jesus are to strive with peace toward one another.
[00:21:53] Does this make sense?
[00:21:55] We're to be people of peace because God has given us peace with himself, and he's given us peace with one another by his blood.
[00:22:04] The hope for us walking out of this place, for those who are followers of Jesus, the rest that you and I desire to know, like, do I really have peace with God?
[00:22:13] Is not founded upon a prayer. You prayed one time. It's not founded upon your the success of your obedience or lack thereof.
[00:22:22] The hope and the rest that your soul so desires and mind so desires to know whether or not peace we have peace with God is securely in the finished work of Jesus.
[00:22:32] So you look back at the cross and that's how you know, I have peace with God because of what Christ did for me on the cross. Therefore, I can pursue peace with others with urgency.
[00:22:44] The second thing that he tells us that we have to strive for or full court press toward, is holiness. The holiness apart, which without it, no one will see the Lord. What kind of holiness? What's a similar thing as with the peace of God? The holiness that the author's talking about isn't primarily a holiness of life, though that's implied. It's a holiness that's been imputed by Jesus.
[00:23:11] So what holiness do we need that apart from which we will not see the Lord? It's the holiness of God himself.
[00:23:18] It's Christ holiness, Christ righteousness.
[00:23:24] You can try to be as good of a person as you want to be, but at the end, if you have not received the righteousness of Jesus by faith in him, you will not see the Lord.
[00:23:37] But in receiving the righteousness of Jesus, the holiness of Jesus.
[00:23:43] Out of this flows holy living.
[00:23:47] Martin Luther said this. He said, lord Jesus, you are my righteousness.
[00:23:51] I am your sin.
[00:23:54] You took on you what was mine, yet set on me what was yours.
[00:24:02] You became what you were not, that I might become what I was not.
[00:24:08] So 1 Peter 2. 9 says this, friends, you are a chosen race.
[00:24:13] So the Bible only talks about two races.
[00:24:16] Lots of ethnicities, two races. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ.
[00:24:23] You're either in Adam.
[00:24:25] Multiple ethnicities represented in Adam, or you're in Christ.
[00:24:31] Multiple ethnicities represented in Christ.
[00:24:34] He says you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into marvelous light. So when you wake up in the morning, Christian, what do you tell yourself about you?
[00:24:52] What do you believe most fundamentally about you? Because here's what the New Testament would say. You're a saint, you're forgiven, you're blameless, you're holy, you're spotless, you're righteous, you're a son or a daughter of God. This is who you are, not because of what you've done, but because of what Christ has done on your behalf.
[00:25:15] This is who you are. You are holy because of Christ and because Christ is your holiness. And so it's because of this, that right and holy living over the course of our life by the power of the Holy Spirit flows out when we're reminded that we've already been made holy in Jesus. And then out flows obedience.
[00:25:38] So he closes this statement by saying this.
[00:25:42] He says, see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes many to be harmed. And then he goes on and he gives the example of Esau.
[00:25:53] Okay? So he says that if you and I are to finish, well, to summarize everything, then we must do it together.
[00:25:59] We gotta do it together. I need you, you need me. We need one another.
[00:26:03] We can't do it alone.
[00:26:05] And because of what Jesus has done on our behalf and because of the strength that his Spirit provides, we're to find opportunities and ways to strengthen one another when we're weak, okay? To build one another up, to encourage one another. And then the second thing is, he says, we must strive for peace because we have been given peace by God. We must strive for holiness because God has already made us holy.
[00:26:29] And then he ends by saying, let no root of bitterness spring up among you. Now, again, he's talking communally here. He's calling the church, let no root of bitterness spring up among you. And the way he illustrates this is by Esau.
[00:26:45] So if you're not familiar with the story of Esau, we see Esau in the book of Genesis.
[00:26:51] He describes Esau in two ways.
[00:26:54] He describes Esau first as a sexually immoral man. So in Genesis 26, verses 34 and 35, it says when Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, to be his wife.
[00:27:07] And Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. Most commentators think this is why Esau is categorized in this way.
[00:27:21] And then the second thing is it says that Esau was an unholy man. Why was Esau an unholy man? I had this conversation my kids asked me this week, like, why is the Bible so hard on Esau?
[00:27:32] Right. Like, if you go back and read. That's a good question. If you go back and read the book of Genesis and the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. Jacob really was just like, man, he was a trickster. He's kind of annoying. He's a mama's boy.
[00:27:45] Like, Esau was, like, out hunting and, you know, doing all. And so it's like, it's easy to kind of not like Jacob as much as you like Esau. But when the New Testament speaks of Esau, it speaks very negatively of him.
[00:27:59] He was an unholy man. So what. What was it about Esau? Here's what I think the author of Hebrews is getting at. It's very important for you and I to really think about this, okay? At the very root of Esau's problem, you know the story of when Jacob tricked him into giving up a little bit of food, and Esau said, hey, if you give me this food, if you give me this stew, then I will sell my birthright to you.
[00:28:23] Esau had an inheritance from God.
[00:28:26] He was given an inheritance from God as a gift of grace.
[00:28:30] And in a split moment, out of the cravings of his heart and his desire for instant gratification, he said, I'm going to disregard the eternal for the temporal going to give up what God has given me.
[00:28:46] See, Esau didn't just disregard the inheritance of God. He despised it.
[00:28:51] He held contempt for it because he was driven by his own appetite, his own desire for comfort, his own desire for instant and immediate gratification.
[00:29:05] This is why when he.
[00:29:09] The text says when he sought repentance, he sought it with tears, he wasn't able to get it. It's not so much talking in that moment salvifically, as much as it's talking about when Esau realized what he had done and he tried to go back and get the inheritance, he couldn't get it again.
[00:29:24] It was gone. It was Jacob's now.
[00:29:28] So what does this have to do with you and I? Friends, if you read, and this is next week, that we'll really dive into this. But if you read verse 28 of chapter 12, it says, Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
[00:29:46] Esau received an inheritance that had to do with his birthright.
[00:29:52] You and I, friends, who are followers of Jesus, have received an inheritance that is an eternal, unshakeable kingdom.
[00:30:02] It can never be taken away from you. It will never be taken away from you. Paul goes as far as Romans, chapter 8 To say that nothing in heaven or on earth will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus for you. Nothing will be able to separate you.
[00:30:20] No amount of suffering, death itself, cannot separate you from the love of God for you. This is what has motivated missionaries over 2000 years to die for the faith.
[00:30:35] Death can't even separate me from him.
[00:30:40] And you and I have received this kingdom if you're a believer in Jesus.
[00:30:46] And so he says, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire, which we'll talk about next week.
[00:30:57] But I want you to think about this as we close.
[00:31:00] What worldly comfort or desire have you found yourself so tempted and allured by that you, like Esau, would be willing to turn away from your inheritance for that thing?
[00:31:15] What thing?
[00:31:17] It could be a myriad of things. There's nothing sinful about a bowl of Stewart.
[00:31:23] Nothing wrong with that.
[00:31:25] It was the heart behind the desire.
[00:31:32] Friends, will you, follower of Jesus, cling to Jesus as Jesus clings to you, no matter the cost?
[00:31:43] And so we've said this for those who have been around Redemption Hill for a long time. When I was asked early on, like, what do you desire for the people of Redemption Hill? One of the things that I heard from an older pastor that I thought, gosh, I just want to adopt that for my life, for my family, and for us as a church is this, that we would be willing to go wherever Jesus called us to go, do whatever Jesus called us to do, no matter the cost. Because he's always better.
[00:32:08] He's always better.
[00:32:10] He's better than any comfort.
[00:32:13] He's better than long life.
[00:32:16] He's better than prolonged health.
[00:32:19] He's better.
[00:32:23] And he's given all for you.
[00:32:27] And so by the grace of God, will you cling to him as he clings to you, come what may?
[00:32:35] And when we do that, through all the trials and all the suffering and all the discipline, we'll find ourselves singing with the saints. And he's better, he's more satisfying, he's more glorious. So let's pray to that end, and we'll prepare to take communion together.
[00:33:07] Sam sa.
