Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Bow your head in prayer with me.
[00:00:04] Father, we do just honor you. And Lord, we thank you that Lord, we can come here and we can worship you, we can seek you, we can call on your help. And Father, we can learn from your word. Lord, I pray that it would be powerful to our souls. Today I pray we could see, Lord, the type of people you want us to be. That Father, you call us to be a for good in this world.
[00:00:30] Help us to be that Lord, as people and as your church.
[00:00:34] And Father, we pray you'd be glorified in all this. In the great name of Jesus, we pray.
[00:00:40] Amen.
[00:00:41] Well, it's good to see you this morning, Church.
[00:00:44] My name's Chet. If we haven't met, I'd love to meet you, shake your hand. I'm usually hanging out outside and hear kind of your story and. But today we're in the second week of a series that we're calling Trusted by God. So. And so we're talking about this idea of how God entrusts to us some really important things, and being trustworthy to him is one of the most important things we can do in this life. So we've been looking about what that means and what that looks like. And this week I heard a really fascinating story about a guy named Brian Keating.
[00:01:22] He is a scientist, and in 2014, he made a telescope that could see deeper into space than anything that had been created.
[00:01:35] It's amazing that people can do stuff like that, don't you think? And so when he was, you know, looking into space with this new telescope, he detected these things that he named gravitational waves. And he was looking into the oldest parts of the universe that could be seen through this telescope. Now, these little gravitational waves might not sound like a big deal to you, but this was actually groundbreaking science.
[00:02:05] And in fact, what he was seeing was so important to understanding the beginnings of the universe and all this kind of thing that all his peers and colleagues were like, you are going to win the Nobel Prize for this. This is how big of a deal it was.
[00:02:21] This is a shoo in what you're doing. You're going to be put in history with the likes of Einstein. That's how important this was. And so as he dove more into the research and used the telescope and saw, it turned out that he wasn't seeing gravitational waves.
[00:02:40] It was just dust.
[00:02:44] How much of a letdown right there?
[00:02:46] One day you're gonna win the Nobel Prize, the next day you're like, yeah, I just saw some dust.
[00:02:53] And so he didn't end up winning the Nobel Prize. But it did spark this new interest in him where he said, well, if I can't win it, I at least wanna interview the people who did win it. And it kind of created this new interest. And so he started interviewing all these Nobel Prize winners and finding out what drove them and how they studied and really cool stuff. But the bottom line that they all shared was this insatiable curiosity.
[00:03:24] They said what made these people so great was just that they were so curious and they didn't care about accolades, they didn't care about the Nobel Prize, they didn't care about money. They. These were just people that were obsessed with solving problems, obsessed with understanding things. And because that was their drive, the effect was to do great science and to do great work. And I love that. I think curiosity is such a great quality, don't you? Like, I love people that are always interested and learning, and that's kind of who I want to be. I think it's such a great quality. But today I want to talk to you about a quality that the great Apostle Paul says is meant to drive the Christian life.
[00:04:15] So that's what makes great scientists. What are followers of Christ supposed to be driven by?
[00:04:23] And we're going to see today that the Apostle Paul says that if you're a follower of Jesus, he wants us to have a great passion to do good in this world, to be a force for good.
[00:04:38] Not to get God's love, but because we already have it.
[00:04:44] Not to prove anything to God, but to reflect back to him our gratitude and our recognition of what he's done for us. And what the Apostle Paul is going to say to us today is that as we understand God more clearly in our lives, we will see a rising passion to be people that do good and that serve others in meaningful ways. So I want to show this to you from Titus, chapter two.
[00:05:16] These verses are so compelling. So we're going to read it and then we'll break it down. But here's how it begins. It says this. For the grace of God has appeared. And if you have a Bible with you today, just like circle or underline, that word appeared, the grace of God has appeared. It's shown up like a pleasant surprise, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope. The appearing. So there's that word appearing again.
[00:06:01] The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I just Want to point that phrase out for a second?
[00:06:10] So many times, people who sometimes critique Christianity, they'll say that, oh, Christians, they kind of exaggerated Jesus Christ.
[00:06:21] And as time went on, they began to claim that Jesus Christ was God. But that's not what early Christians thought of. And you'll hear a lot of arguments along those lines. But I just want you to notice this phrase. The great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
[00:06:40] This is one of the earliest letters that we have. And here the Apostle Paul is saying, no, no, Jesus Christ is not just a great teacher, wasn't just a great man, but he is the great God himself. And it's right there. I just think that's really cool. So the great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
[00:07:10] Now, there's a lot in these verses, but let me unpack them for you. The first thing I want you to see is the structure of these verses. And it's structured by these two appearings.
[00:07:22] There's the appearing of grace and there's the appearing of glory.
[00:07:27] And Paul is saying, hey, because the grace of God has appeared to you, it means some things.
[00:07:34] And because the glory of God will appear, it means some things. Now, here's what's cool about this. I like to think about this as the bookends of our lives.
[00:07:47] On one side of your life is grace, on the other side is glory.
[00:07:54] And everything is in between grace and glory, which isn't a bad place to be. Amen.
[00:08:01] Your life is bookended by grace and glory. And here's what that means. I had a cool bookshelf some years ago in our South Abbey building. Anybody remember that place? It feels like it was 100 years ago.
[00:08:17] It's only been a couple months, but when there was a little time where I had a little office in there, I ended up having to give it up to our kids. But I had it for a minute. And in that somebody had bought like these nice, cool, very modern looking bookshelves. You know, they were like, man, these are sleek and nice. And they did. They looked really cool. But the only problem is they didn't hold books well at all because they had no ends on the side.
[00:08:46] And if you know me, you know, I love books. They bring me joy. And so I had lots of books crammed on those things. And literally every day I would walk in there, there would be books on the floor because I could get them Standing right. You ever play that game? It's like you get them for a minute and then overnight, you know, some evil presence would come and knock them off, and they'd be. Because it didn't have any bookends, so it never held it together.
[00:09:17] And what I want you to know today is what holds your life and my life together is the grace and glory of God that is present with you and that you can count on in the future.
[00:09:31] And when we understand our lives wedged between these two things, it gives us stability in the midst of a chaotic life. Because between grace and glory, you know this. There's gonna be a lot of ups and downs, there's gonna be tragedy, there's gonna be pain, there's gonna be difficulty, there's gonna be confusion. But. But what you can count on is that you are sandwiched between God's grace and God's glory.
[00:10:01] And you can have a certain sense of strength in that. Now, let me talk about this grace for a second. He says God's grace has appeared. It's shown up into our lives like a pleasant surprise, and it's brought salvation to all people.
[00:10:20] Now, one of my favorite ways to explain God's grace is through this great story.
[00:10:25] Some of you, you've heard this story before, but it's gonna do your soul good to hear it again. It's such a great story, but it's a story about these two runners. And they were in this race in Omaha, Nebraska, and one runner was Bill Rogers. And at that time he was like a well known elite runner.
[00:10:45] So he was kind of famous within the running world and a great athlete. And he had showed up there. And then there was this other guy named Bill Broadhurst, and he was just a normal guy, but he had a stroke some time before, and so the left side of his body was mostly paralyzed. He didn't regain the function that he once had. But he wanted to do this race. He wanted to push himself. He. He wanted to prove to himself that he could do this. And so he signed up for it. And Bill Rogers was kind of like one of his idols. So it was really cool that he was in this race. And the race started, and as everybody expected, Bill Rogers ran it and crushed it. And he won.
[00:11:28] No problem. Did great, won the race. And Bill Broadhurst, he started and he knew it was going to be hard, but it was even harder than he thought.
[00:11:38] And his body just wasn't responding well. And he was just stumbling along, shuffling along, and people started passing him. Then lots of people started passing Him.
[00:11:50] Then cars started passing him, and he's like, this is kind of crazy, and I'm taking way longer than I even thought. But he wanted to stick it out. You know, he wanted to do it for his own sense of overcoming. And so he stuck with it and just kept stumbling along.
[00:12:07] And finally the finish line was in sight, and he looked, and it was like everybody packed up and went home.
[00:12:13] Nobody was there. And he got to the finish line, and as soon as he crossed it out of the alley, runs out a bunch of people celebrating. And at the front of the pack is Bill Rogers with the gold medal that he won for winning that race. And he took it off his neck, and he put it on Bill Broadhurst's neck and said, hey, you're the real winner today. Isn't that a cool story?
[00:12:39] It's so beautiful. But here's what I love about it. It illustrates how the grace of God works in our life. You see, like Bill Broadhurst, we all are running our race, and it doesn't go well.
[00:12:53] We stumble, we struggle, we shuffle our way forward. In this race, we could never win.
[00:13:01] But there's one who did win the race. His name is Jesus Christ.
[00:13:07] And he takes the medal that he won, and he gives it to you.
[00:13:13] And you didn't do anything to deserve it. And you can never go back and win that race. And he's not even concerned about that. But he gives it to you as a gift of kindness and generosity and church. That's the grace of God.
[00:13:29] See, today, if you think you have to perform your way to God, then you need to understand what Paul is saying about grace.
[00:13:37] It appears, it shows up. It's unexpected.
[00:13:41] It comes out of the alley, and it says, hey, I've forgiven you.
[00:13:47] I love you. I've died and rose again for you. And all the best that I have is. Is yours and church. And God gives that to us. And so Paul says, our life begins with grace.
[00:14:02] And through God's purpose in Jesus Christ, we look forward to glory. But then he says this. He says, in this grace, it trains us.
[00:14:14] And I think this is so cool. It trains us to deal with the issues in our life and also with how we relate to other people.
[00:14:24] Now, what I find fascinating about this is that so many times in life, we try to change our lives through sheer willpower. You ever done that? You're like, dude, I'm gonna make this change. Today's the day. I'm gonna do it.
[00:14:40] And then it doesn't go anyone else? And you're like, that's okay. Tomorrow, tomorrow's a new day.
[00:14:47] And tomorrow comes and it's the same story. And how many times in life do we try to white knuckle our way to real transformation?
[00:14:57] And what I love about the Bible is the Bible says that's not the way to transformation and that's not the way God changes us. He says the grace of God trains us.
[00:15:09] Think about that. That the more that I understand what Jesus Christ has done for me, the more power there is in my life to begin to live different.
[00:15:23] See, if you try to change through guilt, you won't get very far.
[00:15:28] If you try to change through fear, you won't get very far. If you try to change through manipulation and willpower, you won't get very far. But if you allow God to change you by grace, you will become something entirely new. You with me on this.
[00:15:43] It shapes us and it trains us. And Paul says, and the first thing it trains us to do, don't miss this, is to look in the mirror and to deal with the junk in that person's life that you see looking back at you.
[00:16:02] See, he says the grace, it trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldliness in us.
[00:16:13] See, when God's grace is working in my life, I'm less prone to look at you and start judging your life and worrying about your life. And you know why?
[00:16:27] Because God's grace pulls me towards the mirror. And when I look at that guy, there's a lifetime of work to be done. Anyone else? It's a big project.
[00:16:39] It's so big that it will take my whole life and the supernatural work of God to get anywhere.
[00:16:46] So church, I don't have time to referee your life because God is working in me in ways that are gonna take everything. Any broken people in here that resonate with that, praise God.
[00:17:01] I like talking to messed up people. I can't.
[00:17:04] If you got it figured out, I can't. I got nothing for you.
[00:17:07] But God's grace, it calls us to renounce that now. So these two things are really interesting words. The first one is ungodliness. And the actual root and etymology of this word is that this is about how we treat people.
[00:17:24] So this word, here's what it means, is that ungodliness, it's treating people in a way that ruins the fabric of community.
[00:17:36] That's the origins of this word.
[00:17:38] So because when you're treating people in that way, you're not treating them in a way that reverences God. You with me on this? And so that's kind of what this word means. So this first one is God says, hey, I want you to look in the mirror, and I want you to renounce all the ways that you treat people that end up being destructive in the long term to healthy community.
[00:18:06] That's that one.
[00:18:07] And then worldliness is the desires within us that are very real and very powerful, but if we give into them, they will be ruinous to our life.
[00:18:23] You have any desires like that in you?
[00:18:26] If not, I have plenty to make up for you.
[00:18:29] There's a lot of unhealthy drives in all of us. This is part of being a broken human being. One thing that has been painfully apparent to me lately is this pull of gluttony in my life. I don't even like to say the word.
[00:18:46] Any stress eaters out there?
[00:18:49] Praise God, I'm talking to the right people here.
[00:18:52] I'm a stress eater.
[00:18:53] As soon as I get stressed, I want cookies, ice cream, whatever. Now, there's a real problem in my house, though.
[00:19:03] My wife, she has a law that that stuff cannot be present in our house.
[00:19:10] So there's always this, you know, I'm always like, I'm feeling stressed out. I got this gluttony problem. And I'm like, all right, where can I find something? And then I scavenge. I do the magic refrigerator trick. You ever do that? Like, look every. Okay, nothing I want. Let's close this. 1, 2, 3. Anything different?
[00:19:30] No, still the same stuff. One more time. Like, I think it's magic. I don't know. And I do all that and. But I always. That's where I want to go.
[00:19:40] By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. There's this thing called doordash. I don't know if you've heard of it.
[00:19:48] Just kidding.
[00:19:50] Kind of just kidding.
[00:19:53] But I realize that that's one of the many unhealthy drives in my life. And it's not just about physical.
[00:20:01] It's about spiritual.
[00:20:03] Because God is meant to be my refuge, not food.
[00:20:08] God is meant to be the one that I find my strength and my comfort and encourage you with me on this. Now, in all of us, there's all kinds of unhealthy drives. Lust, anger, hate. I mean, we could go on and on and on. And worldliness are those drives that Paul says, look within all of us, there's a different mix. Your struggle might not be my struggle. My struggle isn't your struggle. But. But at the end of the day, we all have things that the grace of God says, hey, I want to deal with this in your life, and here's why.
[00:20:45] Because I want to work in you so I can work through you.
[00:20:52] I want to transform you so I can do more good through your life.
[00:20:59] I want to use you in a greater way in this world. But all this junk will get in the way of that.
[00:21:06] And if we allow the dysfunction to rule our lives, then we limit what God wants to do through us. You with me on this? And so Paul says, we gotta train and we gotta renounce it. And then we have to commit ourselves to these things, to a self controlled, upright and godly life. I cannot escape that word self control this year.
[00:21:31] It just keeps coming up to a self controlled, upright and godly life. So first we deal with the negative and then we lean into the positive. These values that God has for us, self control. There's this great story about Dwight Eisenhower, one of the great generals of World War II. And when he was a kid, he was the youngest of a lot of brothers.
[00:21:54] And he had a terrible temper as a kid. And one day his mom, Ida let his older brothers do something and she said, dwight, you can't do it. You gotta stay home. And so he just had a meltdown, lost his temper, started making a fuss, went outside, punched a tree a couple times.
[00:22:16] By the way, guys, a tree always wins.
[00:22:20] You know, messed up his knuckles, just going crazy. Finally, he went into his room, his mom gave him some time to calm down, and she walked into his room, and his mom just sounds like this incredibly awesome and wise woman. And she sat down and she said to him, she said, dwight, there's a great proverb. And the proverb says this, A man who can control himself is greater than an army that can take over a city.
[00:22:50] And as a young kid, he heard those words from his mom and he said that conversation changed his life. And he knew he had to grow in self control and he had to figure it out. And by God's grace, he did. And thank God he did. Because everything he led in World War II helped the world in a great way. But self control, which, by the way, moms, don't underestimate the seeds that you plant in your kid's life.
[00:23:23] I know you're saying good things, you're doing good things, and you're like, I don't think this is going anywhere.
[00:23:29] Why do I bother? Moms, don't give up, don't give up. You know, God has a way of taking these things and breathing life into them. I thought, that's a Great reminder of that, too. But self control was it.
[00:23:43] And so he learned. Now, uprightness and godliness are about treating people right.
[00:23:50] It's about treating people in ways where it strengthens the fabric of community.
[00:23:58] God says two things to us. He says, look, I care deeply about how you treat people.
[00:24:05] I want you to treat people in a way where whatever community you're part of, that community becomes stronger because of how you relate and conduct yourself. You with me, that's godliness. So church, as followers of Jesus, we have to look at our lives and we have to look at our homes. Do we make our home better?
[00:24:27] Do we relate to our families, our kids, our spouses in ways that strengthens the fabric of our family?
[00:24:35] Or are we chipping away at it in our workplaces? Do we relate in ways that are going to make this place better and healthier over time or going to chip away at its health?
[00:24:49] In our church, do we relate in ways that add value or take it away?
[00:24:53] See, the Lord saying, I want you to live committed to godliness and uprightness. And then the apostle says, while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, part of being a follower of Jesus is learning to wait.
[00:25:14] And I know we're all really good at that, so I'm not even gonna say anything about it. I know, like, we crush it at waiting. Amen.
[00:25:22] No, not at all. Right. That's pretty hard to do.
[00:25:26] And we struggle with endurance.
[00:25:29] We struggle with patience, like God. I asked you two seconds ago, why isn't my life changed?
[00:25:37] I quit.
[00:25:38] But waiting is part of understanding how God's purpose and grace works in our life and church. If we're gonna be followers of Jesus, we need to understand it.
[00:25:53] I've done word studies before where I've looked at every time there's some direction to wait on the Lord and church. I'm going to tell you, it shows up a lot.
[00:26:06] We can easily say, this is a theme of scripture, and so it's going to be a theme of our lives.
[00:26:14] But what do we do in the waiting?
[00:26:18] Well, Paul says we wait with hope, and you can't miss that.
[00:26:25] You might be in a waiting season, and that's okay. I know it's not fun. You don't have to love the waiting season.
[00:26:32] I don't like traffic. I don't like lines. I don't like any of that. But I like where they get me, you with me.
[00:26:41] And that's what Paul's saying. And in this waiting, we have to hold on to this hope and here's what happens when followers of Jesus Christ wait with a sense of hope. Here's what I'd argue. You become a non anxious presence in an anxious world.
[00:27:01] See, between grace and glory, there's a lot of stress, there's a lot of pain, there's a lot of difficulty. But when you can go through that, you can say, listen, this world, it's gonna be full of ups and downs.
[00:27:17] There's gonna be highs, there's gonna be lows, there's gonna be heartbreaks, there's gonna be great moments of triumph. But at the end of the day, I'm not tying my well being to the roller coaster of life.
[00:27:31] I'm tying my well being to the work of Jesus Christ, both now and forever.
[00:27:37] And so my hope is in him.
[00:27:42] And therefore I have some strength and some peace for today.
[00:27:49] I read this great or reading this great book. It's called Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters.
[00:27:56] I'm trying to get ahead, learn everything I can. Right now I'm stocking up and I'm learning every day. I got a lot more to learn. You. You know that old saying, you don't know what you don't know? That's where I'm at. But I'm trying to at least know what I don't know. And this book is by Mag Diecker, and she's a doctor and it's really cool. And dads of daughters, if you want to check it out, I think it's a helpful resource. But she was applying for med school and she wasn't getting in. Med school's very competitive, very hard to get in, and she kept getting no's back. And her dad, who she greatly looked up to because he was a good man, but he was also a really successful doctor and he was well known in the community, had a great career, and so she really admired him on multiple levels. And so she's getting all these no's. And you know, when that happens, you begin to question, am I going the right direction? Do I have what it takes? Man, I'm not as smart as my dad, you know, going through all that self doubt and self loathing and was in a really bad spot. And one day she heard her dad talking on a phone to a friend, just catching up. And her dad said to his friend, yeah, this fall, Meg will be going to medical school.
[00:29:14] And she heard that and it rocked her world in the best of ways. Cause she's like, well, no, I haven't gotten in anywhere yet.
[00:29:24] I know that, dad knows that.
[00:29:27] But dad, this great Doctor that I admire says, I'm gonna get in somewhere. That's how she took it. Cause he said, no, she's going to school. Yeah. She hasn't gotten a yes yet. But in his mind, it was a yes. It just hadn't happened yet. And not only did she feel this great sense of affirmation from her dad, but she also felt this sense of peace.
[00:29:49] If he says it's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay.
[00:29:54] And church, I think that is a unique gift each of us can offer to the world around us. Say, listen, we're between grace and glory, but it's gonna be okay.
[00:30:10] And no matter what is happening in this life or in this world, we can confidently say it's gonna get figured out.
[00:30:20] And the one who is gonna do it is Jesus Christ.
[00:30:23] And I have total confidence in him.
[00:30:28] And you know what?
[00:30:30] People feel that when we're overwhelmed and afraid of everything, we're communicating what we believe about God in the future, whether we know it or not.
[00:30:44] When there is peace and stability and strength coming out, then we communicate that we trust God with the future, and we will ride the waves and challenges of life. So Paul says we wait. And then he says this. He says, because God wants to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works, who are passionate about good works. So God wants to do two things in your life. He wants to purify you and he wants to use you.
[00:31:22] He wants to all of the challenges of life. God is trying to make you and me a more noble soul, a soul that can enjoy and delight in his presence.
[00:31:36] There's this powerful verse in the Book of Hebrews, I just want to share with you today.
[00:31:41] And it says this. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy.
[00:31:49] Without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
[00:31:55] Now, what is the author saying? He's saying, look, God wants to make us holy.
[00:32:02] Holiness doesn't. That doesn't mean all of a sudden, you start wearing weird stuff and saying weird stuff. What holiness means, it means that we treat people right.
[00:32:14] Don't spiritualize it.
[00:32:16] Right. If I'm a jerk at home and a jerk at work, that's not holiness. And the Lord's like, hey, son or daughter, we need to grow through this.
[00:32:29] And holiness is about how we deal with what's broken within us. Church.
[00:32:34] It's about saying, yeah, I'm broken, but I'm gonna let grace run my life, not my dysfunction. And I'm gonna seek God's Help every day in it.
[00:32:44] And what the author's saying is, see, God's goal for your life and my life is not our happiness, it's our holiness.
[00:32:54] Now, I would argue that I think those two things end up running together. Just doesn't always feel like that or look like that. But see, we want the Lord to just always be on board with our happiness project.
[00:33:06] Lord, make life easy.
[00:33:08] Bless me with the winning lottery numbers.
[00:33:12] Make it sunny today, and let me give me this easy life.
[00:33:18] And the Lord's like, I value something deep, deeper than that.
[00:33:22] I value something deeper than that. I value your eternal soul.
[00:33:29] And guess what? Your soul and my soul requires all kinds of challenges and people and experiences to grow. And the Lord says, I want all this to purify you because I'm preparing you for something so important.
[00:33:44] And then he says, and as I purify you, your desire to do good grows.
[00:33:53] I know how to be passionate for a lot of things in life. You know, to get passionate behind sports teams, guardians, Amen.
[00:34:05] I'm not going to say the B word today, although what a pleasant surprise last week.
[00:34:12] God is real. That's what that means.
[00:34:16] I know how to be passionate about those things, and that's fine.
[00:34:21] But what does it look like to be passionate, to do good? Because that's what God wants. What does it look like to just have this burning desire that's like, man, I want to honor him again. It's not to earn anything. Paul says, no, the grace, you already have it, it's already appeared.
[00:34:38] But when you see stirs something in your soul, a passion to do good. So, church, I want to encourage you, here's two challenges today. Number one, I want each of us to look in the mirror and say, what is the bend in the hose?
[00:34:55] See, when God's grace works in me, it should flow through me. But, you know, like a hose, you turn it on and there's a bend in it, the water doesn't come out.
[00:35:05] And sometimes in our lives, the stuff that we're not dealing with, it becomes the bend in the hose.
[00:35:11] God's like, I want to do stuff through you, but we gotta unbend this hose.
[00:35:17] Rose is making peace. Class, that's a great one to go and to sort through that. That's a lot about what? That's about dealing with the stuff that gets in the way of what God wants to do through us. So look at your life and my life. We gotta say, lord, what's the bend in the hose? And help me with that. And second thing I want you to commit to doing good.
[00:35:39] Now, there's so many ways you can do it, but let me offer you one.
[00:35:43] In this season of our church life, if you're not serving, if you're not connected, I would love to get you connected.
[00:35:53] I would love to get you involved.
[00:35:56] I would love it not just for the health of our church, but also because God grew us in that way.
[00:36:03] And I want to encourage you to sign up and to serve. Think about this.
[00:36:10] If you serve once every month, that is 12 times in a year, that's not too bad. Amen.
[00:36:19] You're like, no, don't put that on me. Come on, that's not too bad.
[00:36:24] And this is such a great season, man, because God's working in our church. God's glorifying his name. God's preparing us for a good future. Here's what I know. We can't do it except together.
[00:36:38] And you have something to offer. We'll figure out what that is. We'll help you think through that, help you find your spots.
[00:36:45] But I want to encourage you, sign up, be part. We got a sign up sheet outside.
[00:36:49] Check that out, talk to me, whatever. But let's be passionate about doing good because we got a great God. Let's pray. Lord, you are great.
[00:37:00] And everything is about you, Lord.
[00:37:04] Everything is for you. Everything is from you. Everything is to you.
[00:37:08] And Lord, I pray in this season, I pray you would just, man, give us this deep desire to do good, Lord, not just in big ways, but just small ways. Could we do good, Lord, in our families?
[00:37:26] Could we be spouses that, like, try to serve each other and bless each other, bite our tongue at times?
[00:37:34] Do good, Lord. Parents. Help us to be parents that do good to our kids, Lord. Not just good for now, but good for eternity.
[00:37:45] Help us do good in our church, in our community.
[00:37:50] Raise that passion and that drive in us.
[00:37:53] Unbend the hose in all the ways that we stumble on ourself so we could grow to be what you want us to be. Bless us in all this. I ask in the great name of Jesus. Amen.
