[0:00] Well, good morning, everyone. Great to see you. We're going to do indeed what Dylan said. We're going to spend some time thinking about the resurrection, seeing what the Bible says about it and understanding just why it is so significant, not just for our individual lives, but for this world and where this world is going.
[0:21] Well, I want you this morning to picture in your mind, if you will, a ship at sea, but it's a ship that's obviously in distress. You can see that from a long way off.
[0:33] It's listing by the port bow. It's obviously taking on water. You can even hear trouble coming from inside it. And as you come closer, you realize that the reason for this is that there is a deadly virus on board. A deadly virus, the likes of which you've never come across before, because not only is this deadly virus killing the crew, but it's actually corrupting the very machinery and the body of the ship. It's eating away at the metal and it's corrupting the ship's machinery. You've never seen anything like it. Now, that's quite a picture, isn't it? Something that's killing off the crew and sinking the ship. Well, let me tell you, that's how the Bible describes the situation our world is in. And that's the way we need to actually see the situation of our world. That's how it is. We're in distress. And because of sin, because we've turned our back on our Creator and decided to go our own way, sin has entered into our world. That's the story of the Bible right from the beginning. And sin is like a virus that doesn't only kill us and lead to our death, but it has effects in eating away our world. It affects the very fabric of creation. It's something that is far bigger than just us. It's something that affects nature. It affects society. And that is all because of the curse. We live in a cursed world. We live in a distressed world. I don't think I need to convince you of that. I think it's easy to see that as we look around in our world, as we look at just the environmental effects of mismanagement. We watched a documentary the other day on just the amount of plastic that is in our ocean and how we're killing our ecosystems, killing our ocean, just because we failed to manage the world like we were meant to.
[2:23] And all of this is our fall from our Creator is eating away at our world. But the Bible doesn't only reveal that about our world. And it's a pretty grim picture. The Bible also reveals hope.
[2:37] It reveals the fact that God has a rescue plan for the ship we're in, for this world that's flying, hurtling through space. God has a rescue plan. And that is something we need to remember. And that is something, especially on Easter weekend, that we celebrate, that God has a plan to rescue us from this distressful situation we find ourselves in as humans. And this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to look at that plan. We're going to remind ourselves of what that plan is from the Bible. But we're also going to see why the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning is so central to understanding God's rescue plan for this world. So let's have a look at that now.
[3:16] So as soon as the world was cursed, if you go right back to the beginning of the Bible, you read about God's creation of the world. And then in the third chapter, you read about how we got into the situation we're in. But as soon as the world was cursed, as soon as sin entered, the world, we already see that God had in mind a rescue plan. Right from the beginning, there's hints of it, that God has a plan to bring us out of that situation. I mean, if He didn't, the Bible would be three chapters long. But He does have a plan. And He was working on that plan right from the moment we got into this mess. The moment we got into distress. I don't know if you've ever seen the NSRI at work, National Sea Rescue Institute. I've actually had the privilege of seeing some of the operations. And when there's a distress call, when there's a mayday call, when they hear on the radio, mayday, mayday, mayday, before that third mayday is out, they're already donning their life jackets. They're already getting their boats ready. They're already getting a plan in order to go out and effect a rescue. Now, God was already starting a rescue plan even before we even issued a distress call. Before we even realized we were in a mess, He was starting a plan to rescue us.
[4:32] And that plan that we start to see at the beginning of the Bible is slowly developed and unfolded more and more as we read the Old Testament. The Old Testament is not just a collection of disconnected stories. It's a slow but sure unfolding of God's plan to rescue this world. And especially the details of this plan come out, especially as we start reading the prophets, Jeremiah and Daniel and Isaiah.
[4:58] Alan read for us earlier one of those prophecies of what God's rescue of this world would entail. I'm going to read it again. It's in Isaiah 11. You can follow along in your Bible.
[5:11] It says, Then a shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse. That's figurative language, talking about from a particular family line. One person would come. So this is a passage that's actually not just talking about the general rescue that God has planned, but a particular person through whom He is going to effect this rescue. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. A spirit of wisdom and understanding.
[5:33] A spirit of counsel and strength. A spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes. He will not execute justice by what He hears with His ears. But He will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. So this person who God is going to send, who we realize later is the Messiah, is going to establish a justice system unlike we've ever seen in this earth. We know all justice systems in this earth as we have them now, they don't work properly. They're malfunctioning at the best of times. But when this person comes, He will establish a justice system on the earth that is the beginning of its restoration. The beginning of society's restoration. It goes on. He will strike the land with the scepter of His mouth and He will kill the wicked with the command from His lips. He will remove from this world anything that is continuing to cause the problems. He will remove the wicked and wickedness and evil. Righteousness will be built around His hips. Faithfulness is built around His waist.
[6:44] The wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, the fattened calf will be together. What this is talking about is how when this rescuer comes, He's going to start fixing things, society. He's going to start fixing the world in ways that bring a peace to this world like we've never known. A peace even in creation itself. So He will fix both society and nature. And it will start working again like it's meant to, like God always intended for it to work. And so we read this prophecy and others like it and we see that there's a rest.
[7:21] So that, okay, just get this picture in your head of this ship in distress and it's sinking. It's taking on water. There's this deadly virus. But God has a plan to send a rescuer on board, you know, a helicopter coming over and a rescuer rappelling down and landing on the deck.
[7:35] And then He's going to start fixing things. He's going to start issuing commands and things are going to start improving. But what's important to realize as we read these prophecies is that the point of this rescuer coming down into this world is not to take us out of it. That's not the way He rescues. Not to take people off the ship before it sinks, but to fix the ship itself. Do you see that?
[8:04] It's vital we understand that. If we're going to understand the gospel message of the Bible, if we're going to understand the way God plans to save us, we've got to realize it's not by taking us out of this world. It's by fixing this world that we're in. And those are two very different things. And there are two different ways that people typically think about salvation. One is wrong and one is right.
[8:26] The idea of God coming to get us out of here before the world sinks is not the way the Bible describes salvation. Many Christians think salvation is about escaping, about flying off to heaven when we die.
[8:43] But it's not. According to the Bible, that's not how God plans to save. You think of this last week or the week before, that ship in the Suez Canal. You probably know about that, right? There's a massive ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal because apparently it had a power failure and then the big wind came up and then it jammed across the Suez and it blocked for a number of days the most busy shipping passage in the world. Now imagine when that ship got into distress and it got into that situation, imagine the crew just freaked out, waved their hands around and ran away. They just jumped off and they ran as far as they could. They didn't do that. And thankfully they didn't because they needed to help the rescue parties to dislodge the ship and to open up the Suez Canal again. Because they realized, that crew of that ship realized their place was on board that ship.
[9:36] And rescue for them wasn't to take them off the ship. Rescue for them was to help them recover the ship back to working order. Our place is here on earth. We are the crew of this world.
[9:52] God has made us human beings, stewards of creation. And therefore we are meant to be here. We are meant to stay. We are not meant to jump off and escape from this world. We are meant to stay here and be part of the restoration that God has planned for us. And that is why salvation in the Bible is not described as evacuation, but it's described as transformation. Making corrupted things better again. That is how salvation is described in the Bible. And through Jesus Christ and what he did, you and I get an opportunity to be part of God making corrupted things whole again in this world.
[10:34] Not waiting for our evacuation, but getting involved in God's restoration, his transformation of this world that he has been telling us about throughout history that he has planned. And that is also, now we get to the point of Resurrection Sunday. That is why the fact of the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the physical resurrection of us from the dead is so important and so central to our good news, to the Bible's message. Because that's what resurrection is. It's the ultimate example and sign of something corrupted being fixed.
[11:15] You know, we're corrupted and we feel it in our bodies, don't we? I mean, if you're kind of maybe under 30, maybe you're under the illusion that your body's always going to work well. Well, it's not.
[11:31] It's very soon you realize, actually, this is a failing machine. There's a whole lot of things going wrong. It's corrupted and it's aging and it's going to die. It's eventually going to stop working.
[11:47] It's corrupted. But resurrection is a fixing of that corruption. It's a removal of that corruption to make something what it was meant to be in the first place. And I think we all know that we're not meant to age and malfunction and die. That's not what we were made for. Deep down inside, we know that the Bible tells us that. This is not how it's meant to be. Aging and sickness and death.
[12:14] In resurrection, it's not just a coming back to life and in another corrupted body. It's a transformation of removing the corruption from something in creation. In the case of resurrection, a physical body, removing the corruption from that. But that video put it nicely. The resurrected body of Jesus was the first bit of the restored creation that is coming. It's a signpost to that restored creation. And just as the resurrected body of Jesus was, death and corruption were removed from it. So that will happen to all of creation. Imagine that, a creation that doesn't have rot and corruption in it and plastic in the oceans and malfunctioning justice systems. A creation where things are restored and peace is restored in creation. That's what these prophets tell us about. And that's Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 15. It's a key passage that teaches us about the resurrection. But listen again to some of the passage that was read earlier from 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection from the dead? If there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is in vain, and so is your faith. Moreover, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified wrongly about
[13:49] God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up if the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then even Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Those then who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.
[14:05] If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. He's talking to Christians, about Christians. He's saying if Jesus didn't physically rise from the dead, there's no point. Christianity has no point. We should be pitied for following a crucified carpenter from 2,000 years ago if He didn't actually physically rise from the dead. There's no point to Christianity. Christianity has no good news if Jesus didn't physically rise from the dead.
[14:35] That's the point He's making here. So you can't have, and sometimes you will come across people who call themselves Christians, but they don't believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
[14:45] Paul's saying that makes no sense, because the whole point of Christianity, the whole message of the Bible, comes to fulfillment in the resurrection of Jesus. If He was not physically resurrected, there is no good news. Why is that? Well, because the good news is not news about escape to heaven, but it's news about restoration of this earth. You see, if the good news, which, and this is, I think, what many people think, and especially people from outside the church looking in, this is how they often think of the message of Christianity. It's about escaping to heaven when we die. But if that was the good news, then Jesus' bodily resurrection is really not that important. It's not a vital part, like Paul is saying it is here in the Bible. You know, as long as He died for our sins on Good Friday, then He's done His mission. We can go to heaven. We can be right with God. Why is the resurrection so important? Well, it's because the good news is not about escape from this world to go to heaven.
[15:56] The good news is that God has a plan to restore this world and us in it, and that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which has already happened in history, God's restoration plan for this world has now begun. Okay? It's already started in the resurrection body of Jesus. It's not something that we're going to wait for God still to start in the future. God's restoration plan for this world in a very important way has already begun in the resurrection. The rescuer has rappelled down from the helicopter. He's landed on the deck, and He has brought the power to start fixing the ship with Him. That's what Jesus did when He came to earth and when He rose again. Restoration has already begun, and we need to get our heads around this. I don't think we hear it often enough from pulpits that we are living in an age. It's an overlap of the ages where the old age is continuing for a time, but the age to come, this age that the prophets describe in the Bible has already begun in some very important ways. It hasn't come to its consummation and its fulfillment yet in its full glory, but it's already begun under the surface. And it started there when Jesus walked out of that tomb.
[17:18] That was a big signpost. God's plan to fix this world has started. There's an amazing truth about Christians revealed in Ephesians, the book of Ephesians. I want to read this to you now. You can turn there if you have your Bible with you. Ephesians 1 from verse 18. Paul is praying in this part of Ephesians, and he's praying for these Christians in this town of Ephesus that he's writing to. But he prays some very important things for them. One of the major things he prays for them, we see in verse 18 of chapter 1. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the mighty working of his strength. In other words, Paul is saying, I just pray that you guys would realize the power that God has already put in you. If you are in Christ, if you are saved, if you've come under his lordship and his salvation, God has put power in you already. He goes on and says, he exercised this power in
[18:32] Christ by raising him from the dead. Okay, then he goes on later in chapter 3, you can page forward, and he says in verse 20, now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think, according to, notice this, the power that works in us, to him be glory. So you take that together, those two verses, and what it's saying is that the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and that's some serious power, right? To get a heart started again that's been dead for three days, to get air back into the lungs, and the lungs functioning, and the nerves firing again. That's some serious power, and what we learn in Ephesians is that that power is in the church, is in Christians already. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in us, not will work in us in the future age, but is already working in us because Jesus has brought it to earth and given it to his people. The restoration power that is needed to fix this world, the restoration power that raised Jesus' body from the dead is already here in us, if we are Christians. That's what the Bible teaches. Now that's why we can have real hope of resurrection, because that power, invisible but real that is in us, will raise our bodies from the dead, like it raised Jesus. And that's why we need to know that this power is in us already. How do we know that just because Jesus rose from the dead, we will too, because the same power that raised him from the dead, through faith in him, through coming into his covenant, we get that power through the Holy Spirit in us, if we're Christians. And one day that is the power that's going to raise us from the dead. Thanks be to God for that. But because that power is already in us, before we even die, we can already begin the restoration that Jesus came to start and is coming back to finish.
[20:37] It's like the rescuer has rappelled down, landed on the deck of the ship, and he's brought with him in his backpack all the equipment to fix the ship. Now he's got to go off and sort out the problem that caused the problem of the ship in the first place, but he gives us the equipment and he tells us to start using it. He gives it to us so we can be part of fixing the ship too, as its crew. God has made us the stewards of this world, and in Christ he's given us a part to play in the restoration of this world.
[21:08] We don't just sit back in the stands and watch Jesus do it. You know, we live in a consumer culture, we're so used to consuming and watching and being passive observers. That is not what's going to happen when Jesus comes to restore this world. We don't just sit there and watch him do it and fold our arms. We are involved in it. We will be involved in it, but we already are called to start being involved in this age to come, this restoration, this fixing of our planet. But lots of Christians, I think, don't get that. For many years, I didn't get that. For many years, I thought that I'm just waiting for Jesus to come take me to heaven. I didn't realize that actually this is my place and I get to be part of him fixing the world. That salvation wasn't just about me, it was about God's plans for the cosmos and I'm caught up in that. It took me a while to grasp that, but even the disciples of Jesus didn't get that at first. Even the disciples of Jesus didn't realize that their place is here and they have a job to do here. Turn with me to Acts chapter 1. We see this. We see their confusion when Jesus ascended. Acts chapter 1 from verse 6. So when they had come together, this is after the resurrection, right? The book of Acts, which is kind of the sequel to the gospel. After all the death and resurrection and Easter has happened. When they had come together, they asked him,
[22:43] Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time? So even then, because they were good Jewish people who knew their scriptures, they knew that salvation wasn't about them going off to heaven.
[22:55] It was about God restoring the kingdom. They thought to Israel and they thought it was limited to that, but actually the whole world. But he said to them, verse 7, it is not for you to know the times of the periods that the Father is set by his own authority. In other words, he didn't deny that their expectation was correct. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Sumeria and to the ends of the earth. After this, after he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching and a cloud took him from their side.
[23:30] While he was going, they were gazing into heaven. Now they're confused. They're going, wait a minute, I thought that he was going to bring about the messianic age on earth and restore things and restore the justice system and creation and all this great stuff. And now he's gone. And they're staring up into heaven, right? He's come. They were very excited. He died.
[23:54] They were very disappointed. He rose again. They were even more excited. And now they expect it's going to happen. But now he goes off. He flies off. And they don't know what to do with that. They want to go with. You know, okay, we thought you were staying here, but seeing you're going off somewhere else, can we come with, please? But look what happens next. And suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them, they said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven?
[24:23] The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven. In other words, these guys, heavenly messengers have to come to these disciples who are staring up into heaven and say, guys, he's coming back. Okay. He's come to initiate this rescue plan. He's gone off. He's got stuff to do, but he's coming back. So in the meantime, get to work with the equipment that he's already given you. Okay. That's what's going on here.
[24:53] Get to work announcing the restoration plan of this world, but also starting it with, with kingdom works in this world as we await for Jesus to come back and finish it.
[25:08] Kingdom works, kingdom works, works that display the kingdom. Jesus already started with his supernatural power. He, he healed people. He restored legs that weren't working, bodies that weren't working. Now he didn't heal everyone that he came across because his purpose was, was to die and rise and start giving his church true restoration power through his Holy Spirit. But he, he showed signposts, his miracles of the restoration he's going to bring. And now that is the kingdom work that we, with the capacity and the opportunities he's given us in this world, we must continue kingdom works of mercy and social action and showing the reality of the kingdom that is coming on this earth.
[25:59] Matthew 5, Jesus says some important words, Matthew 5 verse 16. You probably know this verse if you've been a Christian for any length of time, but he says, he's talking about the church on earth, Christians being salt and light. And he says, uh, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven, that they may see your good works, not just hear your good words. Notice that?
[26:35] Why though? Why, why are we called to good works if works don't save us? And we know that. Okay. This might be news to you, in which case you should keep coming to church because it's central to the gospel. You're not saved by works. You're not saved by your religion. You're not saved by doing good things because we can never do enough to wipe away our sin. Jesus can do that on the cross and he has done that for those who believe in him. And we're not saved by work. We're saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. So why does he then call his disciples to good works if works don't save? You know, and if we're, if we're leaving, if we, if we're leaving this planet, then surely we just got to save souls.
[27:18] Surely we just got to tell people the gospel and get them to believe as well and use whatever tactics we can to, to sell them the gospel and get them to pray a prayer of commitment and, and tick the box so that we, so we can say we saved souls so that they can, you know, getting people ready to get off the ship like those people in the Titanic would gather on the, on the rails and, and they would scramble for the lifeboats to get off the ship. You know, if, if, if we're leaving, then surely that's what we've got to be focused on. But no, Jesus says you've got to focus on starting good works on earth. Why? Because we're not leaving. We're not getting off. We're preparing for Jesus to come back. We're preparing the ground. We're laying the groundwork for his restoration of this world. And in the meantime, our works, real works in people's lives, restoring what is broken, using the resurrection power that God has given in his church, using it to restore lives. And you see this happen when Christians get involved in society, when Christians get involved in individual broken lives, you see restoration coming. You see these, these, these bright lights of, of, of restoration signposts because we're not leaving. And our works of charity and, and social involvement actually matter because they're the beginning of the restoration and they display the good news of the restoration in ways that talking about it never can. That is why, if you look at history, the early Christians, the ancient Christians, a small group of people in the mighty vast Roman empire, just a small group of disciples of Christ, they were the first people to notice the plight of the poor in society and really do something about it. They were the first people to actually start caring for the sick and the helpless. And they were the first people to actually bring education systems into society that weren't just for the rich and the elite, but for all people to, to learn, to read and write.
[29:36] It was the Christians involved in doing that. This small group of seemingly insignificant yet powerful Christians started to change what they could in the areas that God had put them in. Three centuries later, the whole Roman empire was Christian. Power, resurrection power, restoration power.
[29:56] And throughout history, the last 2,000 years, you see that it was the Christians who, and this is something that the history books don't, don't really tell you. How much Christianity played a role in the restoration of civilization and the improvement of people's lives, in building hospitals, in building schools, in establishing justice systems. Just like was described in the prophets in the Old Testament.
[30:21] Isaiah 11, the bringing of justice to the world, the slow but sure fixing of this world. The messianic age that is described in the Old Testament has already started in the church because they hold this resurrection, restoration power in them. And that is why we are called to get stuck in to our world, into the mess. Not hide our heads in the sand and wait for rescue.
[30:45] Because we are not going anywhere. We are the crew of this world. And it is our privilege to be, not only to know and to announce God's rescue plan for this world, but to be involved in it already.
[31:02] That is why, at the end of this great passage in 1 Corinthians 15 that describes the resurrection. And I encourage you, Resurrection Sunday, go read this passage at home. It's so encouraging. It describes our resurrection bodies.
[31:18] And it describes how, don't get confused about the spiritual versus physical thing. When he's talking about spiritual bodies, he's not talking about immaterial bodies floating in the sky.
[31:29] He's talking about new bodies that are empowered by God's Spirit rather than corrupted. Like we had in this age, but far better. And we see that from Jesus' resurrection body.
[31:44] It was real, it was physical, it was tangible, but it was uncorrupted. It was restored. It was like bodies are meant to be. Read that, 1 Corinthians 15. It's a great passage. But right at the end, after describing the significance of the resurrection, Paul ends that chapter by saying these words.
[32:01] Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
[32:13] Your labor in the Lord, the work that Jesus has given His people to do, including being salt and light for this world in our good works, is not in vain.
[32:25] As we, hopefully more in the next year, get more involved in social action in our own community. As Christians actually get involved in government and in education and get stuck into the problems of this world.
[32:42] The Bible shows us it's not in vain. It makes a difference. And it lays the foundations of what Jesus is going to complete. It's like a child preparing the ingredients for a meal that an adult is about to cook.
[32:59] Maybe you've got a child. I know our children like to get involved in cooking at home. And often, Gene might be cooking and Amy will prepare the ingredients. Or Alex will slice the cheese or they'll chop the cucumbers or whatever.
[33:13] They'll prepare the ingredients so that the meal can be made. You watch those cooking shows. And have you noticed the ingredients are always prepared? Already? They just come on. The chef comes on. And all the ingredients are laid out and nicely prepared.
[33:25] And it looks like, oh, cooking is so easy. But actually, half the work is preparing the ingredients, right? Before the cook actually comes and does the work. Well, that's kind of what we're doing before Jesus comes.
[33:39] We're laying the groundwork for His restoration of this world and this society in what we're doing. And it's not in vain. He's going to use the works that we do.
[33:49] And then He's going to imbue them with power and use those as the foundations of the new world that He is bringing. The resurrected world. Just as His body was resurrected and made uncorrupted, He is going to bring that resurrection power into the trees and the countries and societies and everything.
[34:10] And we're going to lay the foundation for that. Christ is going to come and restore what's already here. He's not going to start over. You know, resurrection bodies are restorations of our old bodies.
[34:24] They're not started over bodies. So with this world. And so, in wrapping up, this Resurrection Sunday, I hope you've seen something maybe new about the resurrection.
[34:39] And maybe you've been coming to church for many years on Easter and you've heard the great points about the resurrection. And that it tells us that Jesus is who He said He is.
[34:50] And it validates His claims. And it shows us that His death worked. It shows us that there's life after death. But I hope this morning you've seen that it tells us something more. It tells us that restoration of this world has already begun.
[35:04] And that we get to be part of it. And that if you come to Christ, if you're not in His people yet, you get to be part of the restoration from this world. You get caught up into God's cosmic plans to restore this world.
[35:18] And so, if you, maybe you're dipping your toe in the water and you're not, you haven't committed to being a follower of Christ yet. Then, realize His resurrection is showing you that in Him, and in Him alone, you can have restoration for yourself.
[35:35] You can tap into restoration power. You know you're dying. You know you're corrupted. You know you're not working properly. Well, the only thing that is going to restore you is what restored Jesus. And that is the resurrection power that God gives to His people in His Spirit.
[35:49] Come to Christ so that you can experience that restoration, but not only experience it, be part of restoring this world. Because the resurrection calls us not just to sit and wait, but to use the time and resources we have to get involved in our world in significant ways.
[36:08] Which we hope to do more and more as a church here in Plumstead. So that the good news that we announce will be seen and will be experienced. But you know what?
[36:21] I think we'll, and that takes investment. It takes cost to start to get involved. We just want to sit at home and watch Netflix. We don't want to get involved in the things out there.
[36:32] Well, remember what the Bible says. Those works are not in vain. But we'll only get involved and get stuck in and sacrifice our time and money to do that if we believe that those works are not in vain.
[36:45] And if we believe that our Lord expects us to start His work now, even with the little we've got, so that when He does come back, we can hear those words.
[36:57] Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. Now I will put you in charge of many things. Come, share your Master's joy.
[37:09] Amen.