Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, Journey.
[00:00:02] It's great to be with you. Honored to be with you. This is week two of four that I'm with you in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8 and 9. So if you've got a Bible, would you turn there, please? 2 Corinthians, chapter 8 today.
[00:00:16] So my wife is a day of wedding coordinator. She has a particular set of skills. She is an enneagram1 perfectionist, but with a delightful personality. A rare combination.
[00:00:30] And so her whole intention is that the bride is gonna have a great day. And she always does. She's really good at it. Sometimes I help her. So sometimes I'm on the team, I'm on staff. I put on my black clothes and I do exactly what she tells me to do all day long. A couple of years ago, I was helping her with a wedding, and wedding was winding down and now it's time to kind of clean up. And so I'm bustling about bussing tables and throwing things away and boxing stuff up. And I could tell that there was this gu. He was in the wedding party. He was just sitting there and he was looking at me.
[00:01:04] It was kind of awkward. I'd look out of the corner of my eye and he's still looking at me. And as he's looking at me, he's got sort of a furrowed brow. He had a confused look on his face. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, and he gets up and comes over to me and goes, are you Vern? I'm like, yep.
[00:01:19] Vern Streeter? Yeah. Like at Harvest Church? Yeah, that's me. He goes, what are you doing?
[00:01:26] Like, well, my wife is Ramey. She's running this whole thing. I'm just helping. Yeah, but what are you? Like, why? Well, because I'm just here to help my wife. He goes, aren't you the pastor of Harvest Church? I'm like, no, I was, but I'm not now. You know, pass that baton. He goes, but whoa. So why are you. I'm like, well, I need a job.
[00:01:49] And he goes, will you wait a minute? You. He goes, didn't your church build, like a water park for the community? Don't you guys, like, run a water park? Yep. He goes, but you make a whole bunch of money on that.
[00:02:00] No, we don't. Nope. We charge as little as possible to make it as accessible as possible. And all we do is take 20 grand every year and put it in the maintenance fund. It is a break even operation. He goes, what?
[00:02:13] Really? He goes, but.
[00:02:15] But you're a millionaire, right?
[00:02:18] And I'm like, no, matter of fact, I'm about to run out of money. He's like, you're about to run out of money? I'm like, yeah, I gotta get a job now. He was just incredulous. He just didn't have a category for this. Then he goes, are you on drugs?
[00:02:38] Like, if I can't break through your assumptions, well then, yeah, I'm the one on drugs, not you.
[00:02:46] Now where does all that assumption come from?
[00:02:50] Assumptions and suspicion and cynicism and skepticism?
[00:02:56] Well, bad people have done bad things with money and good people have done bad things with money.
[00:03:02] And the church swims against the prevailing current of institutional corruption and the resultant assumption of malfeasance.
[00:03:11] That is not new.
[00:03:13] The Apostle Paul dealt with it 2,000 years ago.
[00:03:18] And so the Apostle Paul made sure that his fellow Christian workers would not be lumped in with any suggestion of something self serving.
[00:03:32] So safeguards were put in place.
[00:03:35] Apostle Paul was actually obsessed with making sure that nothing ever hindered the grace of the gospel. And so he teaches us today that generosity requires fidelity and it creates equity and it demands integrity.
[00:03:48] So here's where we're at in this series. So last week we talked about the situation that Paul is addressing.
[00:03:56] So there's some very poor and oppressed people at a church in the town of Jerusalem. They are persecuted because they're Jesus followers. And to make things worse, there was a famine in Judea, So there was not a lot of resources. So if there was a government program, these Christians would have been excluded from it.
[00:04:19] So Paul is raising money from churches in Macedonia and in Greece that he can take back to Jerusalem for relief and resources.
[00:04:30] So last week we took a look at this map. This is the map of Macedonia in the orange. This is ancient Macedonia there that you see. And then you see some of the churches that Paul is working with in Macedonia. Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, all the way on the bottom left is Corinth. That is the church that Paul is writing to here. And then way over off the map on the right is Jerusalem. We talked last week about grace being undeserved kindness.
[00:04:59] So that lumps in the gosp of Jesus Christ where in his kindness he dies for us who don't deserve it. And we talked about generosity also being grace and undeserved kindness. And then even oddly, suffering can be God's grace to us in God's economy.
[00:05:18] All right, that catches us up to now. Our passage today that starts in verse 10. And here is my advice to you. About what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do.
[00:05:33] One of the words, the phrases here that jumps off the page to me is last year, last year. So this is remarkable because a lot of suffering can happen in a year, and it is incredibly slow getting help over to Jerusalem. No Kickstarter, no Venmo.
[00:05:50] So Paul is showing and urging fidelity.
[00:05:58] Fidelity is a good word. It means faithfulness, loyalty, dependability.
[00:06:04] You're going to do what you said you're going to do.
[00:06:06] So Corinth had a desire to help. They started to help, but for whatever reason, some sort of distraction, maybe the tyranny of the urgent, maybe unclear about the effectiveness of their generosity, maybe they ended up with their own new problems. Whatever it is, they bogged down in their generosity. So verse 11. Now finish the work so that you. Yeah, now finish the work so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means.
[00:06:40] Now, right here we have in grammar now the only imperative in chapters eight and nine. An imperative is a formal command, one command in all of this stuff.
[00:06:54] Finish the work.
[00:06:56] Do what you said you're going to do.
[00:06:58] Be a person of your word, follow through.
[00:07:02] And then a reminder, verse 12. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.
[00:07:13] That just makes sense.
[00:07:16] So Paul is saying, so you want to do it. Don't get hung up on how much you can't give. Just decide what you can give between you and the Lord and do that, not about the amount it's give according to what you can. You get to decide that along with God. God doesn't see the portion as much as he sees the proportion.
[00:07:36] A year earlier, the Corinthians said they were going to participate. And now they are equivocating. Now they are waffling. And they know what Ecclesiastes 5:5 says. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it.
[00:07:53] Good way to think about your life and your relationship. It is better to say nothing than to make a promise and not keep it. So he is urging them to finish and fulfill.
[00:08:06] I used to run a camp in the Beartus and, you know, for students.
[00:08:13] And in the evenings there would be the, you know, the big chapel time, right? So worship, teaching, all that stuff. And while that's all going on, I would lean against this door jamb in the back of the room and I would look out into the Beartus.
[00:08:28] And there was a mountain back there called Mount Wood.
[00:08:32] And Mount Wood is the second highest peak in Montana. And I would look at Mount Wood and I'd go, I'm gonna climb that thing.
[00:08:42] And then next summer, roll around, and I'd be leaning against that door jam, looking out there going, I'm going to climb that thing.
[00:08:48] And then finally I was like, I'm going to go climb that thing.
[00:08:51] So I set out to climb Mount Wood, and I failed.
[00:08:56] So a little while later, I tried again and failed.
[00:09:03] So I got a friend with me this time. I'm like, I got to try again.
[00:09:08] And we got on the summit of that thing.
[00:09:11] It was hard.
[00:09:12] Kind of waltzed up to the summit of granite. But Mount Wood was hard for me.
[00:09:17] And here's what it taught me.
[00:09:20] Vision is easy.
[00:09:23] You can lean against a door jamb on a beautiful summer evening with the sun going down and look at the summit and go, mm, climb that.
[00:09:31] That's just easy.
[00:09:32] It's following through that's hard.
[00:09:35] Fidelity is challenging.
[00:09:38] Now the summit's worth it.
[00:09:40] It's worth it.
[00:09:42] It's just easy, for instance, to see that in addition to this building going on over there, which direction am I there would serve the community, serve children and families, provide better and more fruitful ministry in the life of Journey Church.
[00:10:01] But think about it. That specific vision was several years ago.
[00:10:05] Since then, lots of effort, lots of sacrifice. Finally the building's going up and eventually irreplaceable and priceless lives are going to be blessed and benefited and loved because you're going to do what God tells us to do and you're going to finish.
[00:10:24] And then you realize, and that's just a beginning because another vision is going to emerge.
[00:10:31] Acts of grace are easy to think of, harder to do.
[00:10:37] Vision is easy. Fidelity is challenging. But the summit is worth it. Corinth thought about caught the vision about the oppressed and persecuted Christians over in Jerusalem, and they were moved to help. Vision is easy. Now Paul is saying, well, the willingness was there. Now you got to finish the work. Fidelity, fidelity is challenging. But the summit is worth it. And everybody should be in on it, because generosity creates equity. Verse 13. Our desire is not that the others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality.
[00:11:23] So Paul was not wanting one church to have relief while the other church gets hammered.
[00:11:27] Paul doesn't want one Person destitute while another in luxury.
[00:11:32] He's not saying that everybody should get the exact amount. That's not the point.
[00:11:37] The point is they have need and you can help. And someday you're going to have need and someone's going to help. And in God's economy, that's how stuff works out.
[00:11:45] Now you would have saw in those two verses the word equality two times equality.
[00:11:55] You may have noticed that socialism is having a moment again.
[00:12:01] It comes around every so often.
[00:12:04] If it wasn't so consequential, it would be even more humorous. I'm already amused. But it would even be funnier watching the Republicans and the Democrats trying to deal with the democratic socialists who have to deal with the full on socialists and throw in a token communist.
[00:12:24] It's just comedic to watching everybody's head explode right now.
[00:12:30] Now some people like to say, to bolster their preference or to justify their envy that the Bible promotes and teaches socialism, let's talk about it. Socialism. The basic compressed definition of socialism is that resources and production are collectively owned.
[00:12:51] So you can think business and property are collectively owned. Here's the kicker. Usually by the government, so no private property.
[00:13:01] The aim is economic equality.
[00:13:07] And economic equality is actually an unbiblical concept.
[00:13:12] Now if it's good hearted, then socialism is about compassionately reducing disparities in wealth and power.
[00:13:21] That's nice, but socialism is not the solution to that.
[00:13:27] Collective ownership, especially by the state, is actually unbiblical. The solution is the gospel of Jesus and the generosity the gospel generates.
[00:13:37] Now if it's bad hearted, it's envy and greed because come on, somebody's always getting theirs.
[00:13:45] So when Paul is using equality here, he is not promoting socialism because socialism is not voluntary.
[00:13:54] It is imposed on you.
[00:13:57] This here voluntary, you decide what you're going to do.
[00:14:01] Just follow through on what you said you're going to do.
[00:14:05] Now the Greek word that is translated in my translation that I read to you, equality can also be translated fairness and justice.
[00:14:15] Fairness is a better translation. I'm no Bible translator, not that smart. But culturally fairness would be. Some of your Bible translations use actually fairness. Fairness would be a better translation.
[00:14:27] So there's a difference between equality and equity.
[00:14:31] Equality is sameness, equity is fairness.
[00:14:36] The classic illustration for this is imagine a mom and her two kids at a park and there's a baseball game going on and they want to watch some of the game, but they're in the outfield and they can't see over the outfield fence six feet tall or something.
[00:14:50] So equality Is you get a box for them to stand on. Mom stands on a two foot box. Son, 10 years old, stands on a two foot box. Daughter 5 years old, stands on a two Foot box. Who can see over the fence? Only mom. But it's equal.
[00:15:07] Equity is mom gets a two foot box.
[00:15:09] Son 10 years old, gets a three foot box.
[00:15:13] Little girl gets a four foot box. Now everybody can see the game.
[00:15:19] It's equity.
[00:15:21] Jerusalem needs a box to stand on.
[00:15:24] Corinth will need one in the future.
[00:15:27] So we stick together and we serve one another. And in that there is equity, not sameness.
[00:15:36] I've been, I spent about a year helping a ranch in eastern Montana.
[00:15:42] Because it's a 200,000 acre spread.
[00:15:46] The patriarch and matriarch are getting ready to pass it down to their three adult children.
[00:15:52] Now, you know about the reputation of all this because of where you live, right? This stuff can go bad.
[00:15:59] So they're working hard to do this right. And to be fair, not equal. The easy thing to do is 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 and release.
[00:16:10] But. But equal isn't fair.
[00:16:16] Right? There's different topography, there's different uses of the land. You can't just carve it up into three pieces and call them all equal. You can't. It's not equal.
[00:16:27] Not to mention the kids have a different vision for how they like to use the ranch and the farm.
[00:16:34] So what they're working on is fairness. What's the fair way to divide this up into three, three portions.
[00:16:42] You could divide it up just three pieces of pieces of pie, but that's actually unfair.
[00:16:48] Fair is harder.
[00:16:51] Now to illustrate how fairness works in God's economy, Paul actually goes back 1500 years, verse 15.
[00:16:59] As it is written, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.
[00:17:05] He is quoting Exodus in reference to manna, which is the English translation of the Hebrew word that basically means, what is it?
[00:17:16] So this food that God provided every evening for not evening overnight, so that the people living in the desert actually had some food.
[00:17:27] And the idea was is that you collect enough for the day and you don't hoard it because it turns rotten.
[00:17:33] And so everybody gets enough and nobody hoards.
[00:17:39] And the kicker is, is that we are trusting God to provide.
[00:17:43] That's what he's referencing here.
[00:17:46] So things might not be equal, but we can pursue equity and fairness and justice. And Jesus is going to make all things right one day. Until then, not all things are right.
[00:17:56] So Paul puts in some very wise protection because generosity demands integrity.
[00:18:01] It demands that we are above reproach and we don't give anybody reason to distrust. So here's 16. I thank God who put into the heart of Titus. Titus came up last week the same concern I have for you. For Titus not only welcomed our appeal. Another way to say that he caught the vision, but he is coming to you with much enthusiasm and on his own initiative. Titus caught the vision. And vision is easy, but when you find somebody that shares the vision, then there is synergy and you can accomplish much and have a whole bunch of fun in the process. Titus is that guy for Paul, verse 18.
[00:18:41] And we are sending along with him the brother. So there's another guy now Christian, who is praised by all the churches for his service to the gospel.
[00:18:52] So Titus actually has a buddy who's famous in Macedonia for his preaching and teaching of the good news of Jesus in the scripture, scriptures in general.
[00:19:00] Now, we don't know who this guy is because the Bible doesn't tell us and it doesn't matter. We just know that he is really good at serving churches with his gift and he has a good reputation. And we know he has a good reputation because verse 19.
[00:19:13] What is more, he was chosen. That basically that word means elected by the churches. They elected him to accompany us as we carry the offering which we administer in order to honor the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. So he's elected to carry and protect this act of grace, the undeserved kindness. This money that is raised for the poor in Jerusalem as an expression of honor to God. And money is being raised then to worship God and to help people. That's the way that goes.
[00:19:46] Now they are doing a very good thing.
[00:19:51] So naturally they're going to get criticized.
[00:19:56] Verse 20.
[00:19:58] We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. It is a generous gift and they need to handle it well and they need to handle it with honor and integrity. So this word, liberal, it means abundant. It means thick, full grown, ripe, rich. So we talk about the harvest is ripe or full grown or fruitful. That's this word.
[00:20:21] The Greek writer Herodotus, who's considered the father of history, 500 years before, Paul used this word to describe his words. Now, thickly falling snow.
[00:20:34] That's this abundant liberal word, thickly falling snow.
[00:20:39] So the money that they're giving is a lot. It is thickly falling snow. So somebody needs to haul it back to Jerusalem and to be above reproach about it, do it with fidelity and integrity. No skimming Cicero, Roman politician, lawyer and philosopher, around the time of Jesus, he said the chief thing in all public administration and public service.
[00:21:04] Let's just summarize that to politics. The chief thing in all politics is to avoid even the slightest suspicion of self seeking.
[00:21:14] To avoid even the slightest suspicion of self seeking. How's that going these days?
[00:21:23] Cicero supported eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.
[00:21:26] He supported no kickbacks, no side deals.
[00:21:33] See, Paul was avoiding even the slightest suspicion of self seeking because everybody has a suspicion of somebody else's self seeking.
[00:21:46] So verse 21.
[00:21:48] For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the eyes of men, taking pains to do what is right before God and before people.
[00:21:59] It is hard, it is inconvenient, and it's frankly expensive to do what's right with money so that nobody gets suspicious about you being self seeking.
[00:22:12] When we were in the process of casting Vision for and then raising money for the water park that we built for Billings one Sunday after a rather forgettable sermon, I'm standing in front of the stage talking to people and then there's this little bit of commotion and up the center aisle comes this guy with sort of an entourage. With him, it all kind of looks similar, except he was a big guy. He was dressed in, you know, devil black and white, bald head, piercing eyes. He had ICP tattoos crawling up his neck. And he comes right into my space and he's like, hey, you guys still raising money for that water park?
[00:23:00] Like, yeah.
[00:23:02] And he reaches down into the front of his pants, not his pocket.
[00:23:09] He reaches down the front of his pants, these baggy shorts, reaches down to the front and he pulls out a stack and hands it to me.
[00:23:19] And I'm holding onto a stack, wishing that I had some of those blue latex gloves on.
[00:23:29] It's $10,000 in 20s.
[00:23:35] And I'm holding it and I look at him and I'm like, you need a receipt for this?
[00:23:42] He goes, bro, where that money came from, I don't need no receipt.
[00:23:49] I'm like doing something good with the devil's money. This is great.
[00:23:54] So then I turn like this and the security guys are right there. As you might imagine, as this guy was coming forward, so was security, and I'm like, come with me. And I just start walking like this with ten grand and I go out the door of the gym just like this. And then through some more doors to the inners of the office complex, you know, and open up the safe and cram all this 10 grand in there. And then I turned to the security guys, like, good, right? Yep. All right. Then I got some hand sanitizer.
[00:24:32] Now look, that guy that gave that, he should know that his generous, thick falling snow gift is appropriately and carefully cared for.
[00:24:46] Anybody watching needs to know that 10Large did not go in my pocket or my backpack.
[00:24:52] Anybody that hears about it needs to know it went into the safe and was submitted to protective financial protocols. It's just taking pains to do what is right before God and before people. And that's not all. Verse 22. In addition, we are sending with them our brother, who has often proved to us in many ways that he is zealous. And now even more so because of his great confidence in you. So it turns out there's a third guy.
[00:25:18] So we've got Paul's trusted friend, Titus, and now we've got the famous Bible teacher. And now we've got the zealous guy, the eager guy, earnest and diligent. This is the enneagram one. He's the detail guy, the accountant. He's got a ledger, you know, an Excel spreadsheet. He's that guy.
[00:25:34] So Paul has assembled a dream team to make sure that all of the money gets to the recipients and nobody questions their integrity.
[00:25:46] There will be accountability in the accounting.
[00:25:51] Now, if that was important 2,000 years ago, do you think it might be important today?
[00:26:00] It's the same thing, man.
[00:26:03] So allow me to, by way of confidence building, overwhelm you.
[00:26:11] Your church journey has separation of duties. So the person who authorizes transaction is not the person who pays the transaction and reconciles the bank account.
[00:26:22] Two unrelated staff members count the cash every Monday and fill out a count sheet and each person signs it. So for veracity and accuracy, bank accounts are reconciled every four weeks. Payment approval limits include the supervisors and executive pastor and the church council.
[00:26:40] There are receipts for every receipts with descriptions for every credit card transactions.
[00:26:47] Two different people review the expense reports.
[00:26:52] There is written documentation and supervisor approval for any reimbursable expense. Monthly financials are reviewed by the operations pastor and the church council.
[00:27:03] Monthly expense reports are sent to the appropriate staff members and their supervisors are copied in on accountability.
[00:27:09] There is a conflict of interest policy adjourney to ensure that nobody benefits personally from church financial decisions. Financial records are kept, copied and kept for 10 years.
[00:27:20] There is an external examination of controls, policies and financials on a regular basis. The church council reviews and approves the annual budget. The church council serves as accountability for staff and dollars. Journey manages the finances conservatively with a very Consistent track record of being on or under budget every year on all budgeting at Journey Church is based on Kingdom of God priorities and God's particular calling for this church.
[00:27:51] And Journey hires honorable above reproach people.
[00:27:55] To which you go.
[00:27:57] And Paul only had three guys. What a rookie.
[00:28:03] All of this is in the honor of God and respect for people. People in the church and people outside of it. Verse 23, our last two verses. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you. As for our brothers, the other two guys, they are representatives of the churches and in honor to Christ. Therefore, show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our pride in you. Like, back it up so that then all the churches can see it too.
[00:28:32] He's saying, we're sending our best.
[00:28:36] They want to honor Christ.
[00:28:39] You can trust them and us.
[00:28:42] Show them some love.
[00:28:44] It's going to go a long way.
[00:28:46] And this is what grace does. This is what unreasonable grace does.
[00:28:53] So the guy that came up the aisle and handed me 10 large, he was a performer, musician.
[00:29:05] His stage name was Killa C.
[00:29:09] And he was kind of a Killa.
[00:29:11] His genre of music is horrorcore, and the lyrics are death obsessed, violent and obscene.
[00:29:26] Those are his knuckles on his album cover.
[00:29:32] Could I have it back? I know I moved, I think. And maybe there Dead thug. See Dead thug.
[00:29:39] He was obsessed with death.
[00:29:42] I actually have to show you the album cover because if I was to show you a picture of him on stage, it would scare the children.
[00:29:49] But really, anybody with some sensibilities would be uncomfortable.
[00:29:54] A wicked man.
[00:29:59] When you asked him about his tattoos, you go like, hey, how many tattoos you have? His answer is, one big one.
[00:30:07] Covered most of it embarrassingly obscene.
[00:30:14] The Department of Homeland Security had this guy on a bulletin board.
[00:30:20] You could imagine what the law enforcement presence was when he was at a festival with Juggalos.
[00:30:32] Lives in Billings.
[00:30:35] One day he was in his house by himself, sitting on his stairs with a loaded gun to his.
[00:30:48] And essentially what happened is Jesus came in and just sat down next to him on the step and was like, you don't have to.
[00:31:03] It can be better.
[00:31:05] You can really live.
[00:31:08] I forgive.
[00:31:10] I give purpose. A new life, a new identity.
[00:31:14] You could do that instead of that.
[00:31:18] And he did.
[00:31:23] And the thug is dead.
[00:31:26] Changed his life.
[00:31:29] Right? In that time, like when he was trying to figure out Jesus is. When he comes in with this stack, you know, still performing, still trying to figure it out, Jesus saves him.
[00:31:41] One day he comes to me and goes, hey, Vern, will you baptize me. I'm like, yeah, for 10 grand, I'm like, yeah, I'll baptize you. So we went to a little local lake in Billings, and we sat in his car in the parking lot, and he played for me a new song that he'd recorded.
[00:32:03] Great sound system in his car, you know, and it was like his testimony, his journey, and how Jesus has accepted him and saved him and changed him.
[00:32:16] The thug is dead.
[00:32:19] And then with the bass of that song resounding in our heads, we waded out into the water and way out into the water because he's a big guy and I'm not. And I wasn't sure if I'd get him back up, you know. And so he got out there to chest deep on this sort of cloudy day, and I baptized him based on this profession of faith in Jesus. Put him under the water and, yeah, I may have held him under a little longer, but he was a dirty man, you know, he needed the cleansing.
[00:32:51] And, man, when he came up, the sun was shining.
[00:32:56] When in.
[00:32:59] Yeah, went in dead thug came out new and he went back to school and got a PhD in education. And he's a teacher today.
[00:33:12] And he wears long sleeves and a tie every day to work because of his tats that he doesn't want these kids that he's teaching seeing.
[00:33:22] But inside he is alive and he lives a generous life, you guys. That's what unreasonable grace does to people.
[00:33:37] So keep doing it. Journey.
[00:33:41] Let's go.
[00:33:43] Let's pray a few moments for you to tell God what you're thinking and feeling, however you want to interact with him, based on the passage of scripture we looked at today.
[00:33:57] All right. Thank you, heavenly Father, for your grace and kindness to us. It's undeserved, this kindness and love you show us.
[00:34:09] Man, we're all dead thugs without the grace of Jesus.
[00:34:14] And so thank you for new life and a relationship with. With you and hope and purpose.
[00:34:21] And I pray for each one of us, Lord, that it is expressed in a life of abundant generosity. Thickly falling snow.
[00:34:33] Thank you for demonstrating that and leading the way, Jesus. And it's in your name we pray.
[00:34:38] Amen.
[00:34:40] We're going to sing together to close. But before you do that, take a look at that screen. See that barcode right there? What's it called? QR code.
[00:34:47] If you don't want a QR code, you can do the text thing. You just take a picture of that, hit it, and it's just going to give, like a prompt to you. And what's going to happen is over this week. We did this last week, too. There's just going to be some prayer prompts and some encouragement, some edification that we want to send to you just to be thinking about all the stuff that we're talking about. And it's kind of worshipful for you, maybe challenging as well. Just want everybody to be a part of that with us. So that's where you connect to that there. Please. Also, if you didn't get that in the lobby, the connection table, there's a card, it's going to have the stuff on there that we're going to prompt you with. Okay.
