You are listening to David Platt Messages, a weekly podcast with sermons and messages from

pastor, author, and teacher David Platt.

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to Second Chronicles

Chapter 34.

Feel free to use your table contents if you need to to find Second Chronicles.

It is after First Chronicles in the Old Testament.

While you're turning to Second Chronicles 34, I want to tell you a story.

But you need to know from the very beginning.

The story I'm about to tell you is true.

Every single detail of this story is true, but you're not going to believe that it is true.

But you need to know from the very beginning that it's all true.

When I was in eighth grade, it was the first year at my school where you could try out for the school basketball team.

And everybody who was cool was on the eighth grade basketball team. So I thought, well,

I'm David Platt and I need to be cool. So I need to be on the eighth grade basketball team. The only

problem was I was a little four foot nothing run, shortest kid in the eighth grade. And if you

know anything about basketball, you know it's better not to be the four foot nothing run in the eighth grade and if you know anything about basketball you know

it's better not to be the four-foot-nothing run in the eighth grade or the smallest kid on the

court because every time you throw the ball up what happens comes right back in your face it's just

not a pretty picture and so that was my dilemma so I wanted to make the eighth grade basketball team

but I'm a little short run and so for the weeks leading up to

tryouts I was wrestling with how in the world I can impress the coach enough so that he would put me

on the team I wanted to be on the team so bad how could I impress them so that he would put me on the

...