Be Rich 2026: Serving

0:00 So if it's your first time with us, or maybe as I said, the first time in a long time, any of our churches are watching online. Last week, we kicked off Be Rich. Be Rich is our annual generosity campaign to our local communities and to some communities around the world. And we always launch Be Rich every year with Be Rich Give. And Be Rich Give is our opportunity to do a little bit that we put together and do a lot. And if you weren't here or if you were here and just weren't paying attention, we ask everyone, those of us and those of you in all of our churches, those of you who watch online, all the Christians, all the non-Christians, all the former Christians and people who don't even like Christians. We ask everybody to make a one-time gift of $39.95. We ask for 100% participation and then we give 100% of it away. We're able to do that because of the people who give on a regular basis. We don't have any shipping and handling costs or any of that stuff. Anyway, we give it to these nonprofit organizations that are knocking it out of the park in our local communities.

0:56 About 80% of it stays in our local communities. About 20% to some organizations that are doing amazing things around the world. Both faith-based and non-faith-based organizations because we wanna partner with the best in our communities and we've been doing that for years. The people who are getting the job done. We go to these organizations and say, hey, give us your wish list, give us your dream list and then we're gonna try to make your dreams or some of those dreams come true. These organizations focus on a variety of things, kind of the primary topics that we intersect with or the primary needs that they intersect with are addiction recovery, food insecurity, foster care, housing and homelessness, health and medical care, human trafficking, job training and education, and relief and disaster response, among other things. So here's the thing, here's the push. If you have not contributed your $39.95, you need to do it.

1:52 I want you to do it today. In fact, the pastor's given you permission to do it during the sermon. If the sermon kind of lags, it's like, well, I might as well get this done before I forget again. And the best way, the easiest way to give it, all of our churches have an app. If you haven't downloaded your local church app, it's the easiest way to keep up with things. It's also the easiest way to give. So you download the app, go to where it says give. There's a drop-down menu. Click Be Rich and participate. participate. Because in a few weeks, we're going to celebrate. And if you haven't participated, you're going to have, you know, you're going to clap along with everybody else and think, yeah, I'm so glad somebody else did that. So we want you to participate. And our potential, because we're such a large church, is huge. So again, this is, I'm just, you know, don't want you to miss that. Now, today, we're moving on. We're launching what we call Be Rich Serve. And I'm going to explain what that looks like in just a few minutes. And in all of our churches, somebody's gonna come up and explain how to serve and how to engage with some of these amazing organizations.

2:50 But before we do that, I wanna spend just a few minutes answering a really important question that honestly, I was confused about this for many years as a young Christian, but I wanna talk for just a few minutes about why. Why we do this. Why we're engaging in such a way to help people that can't help themselves. Because this is the way I used to think, And isn't that what the government does? I mean, the government, the federal government, local government, county, I mean, there are so many agencies that already address all of these things that we're addressing. So why are we doing this? I mean, doesn't a percentage of my taxes go to these things? And the answer is yes and yes. And that was my way of thinking until I, to borrow a phrase from the Apostle Paul, and this isn't meant to be offensive.

3:45 Actually, this might be a good offense. Until I put away my childish way of thinking and grew up in my thinking and grew up in my faith. And until I finally started giving attention to those other statements in the New Testament, until I started giving more attention to those other things that Jesus taught because I was mostly focused on the things Jesus taught about me and my personal relationship with God and I wanna be a moral person and an ethical person and all the things that had to do with a lot of one another is I just for some reason either didn't see them, skipped over them or they weren't preached a lot about in the church that I was raised in and it just took me too long and honestly, it's kind of embarrassing but I will give myself a little bit of an out and give some of you an out. it's not completely my fault because all of us regardless of what your faith tradition is whether it's christian or something else all of us to some extent are products or maybe you might say victims of products or victims of the version of faith that we were brought up on so like a lot of people and i think specifically you know because this you know i want to talk to my my team to So Christians specifically, I had a bit, to use this common term, I had a bit of deconstructing to do and then some reconstructing to do in my faith.

5:09 Not in terms of the theology that I was brought up on, and here's a word that we don't use a lot, but the theopraxy. Theopraxy means the God practice. I had some growing up to do as it relates to what it looked like to actually practice my faith outwardly. I had the inside part going good. I had a prayer life, I had a devotional life, read my Bible every day, check, check, check, tithe through the church, check, check, check. But in terms of what my faith was to look like in the community and what it was to look like outward as it related to other people, I had some growing up to do. Theopraxy is the application of theology, the doing. And the tradition I was raised in, which I'm very grateful for, and maybe you can relate to this, we were so focused on salvation by faith alone that we left much of the things that Jesus taught alone. I mean, we were just very focused on this very vertical faith formation and approach to faith that the horizontal piece, honestly, it just got left out.

6:15 It just wasn't a priority. And then I started reading the New Testament on my own or from my own. and then I went to school and learned how to really study the New Testament, and suddenly it's everywhere that as a follower of Jesus, I have a responsibility to people who aren't my people and people I may never meet and people in places that perhaps I will never visit. So why do we, this is what I want to talk about, why do we do for others what others cannot do for themselves and perhaps would not do for us even if they could. And the compounder, to add to the question, is doing this kind of like extra credit? Like, hey, God's looking at you like you're a really moral, ethical person. You know, obey the law, obey the rules. You know, you're nice to people. And then you do some of this above and beyond stuff and God's like, oh my goodness, that's like extra credit.

7:08 And the answer is no. That this is essential. This is central. It's not essential in the sense that if we don't do something for someone, nobody else will do something for someone. This isn't essential in the sense of if we don't, it won't. It's not that. Now, there are examples of that, and there are cases where if somebody doesn't step in, nobody else is going to step in. In fact, we saw an amazing example of that last weekend, Janine and Ian Maxwell, with their Project Canaan and Heart for Africa, what they're doing in that part of the world. They saw a need that nobody else was meeting, and they stepped in to meet it. But the reason what we're talking about is essential for all Jesus followers, and the reason it is essential for all Jesus followers to engage with those who can't help themselves, those who are in need, is that we do it for a different reason, not because nobody else will do it.

8:02 And that was my excuse. Somebody else is already doing it. The government's already doing it. Why do I need to do it? But when I read the New Testament, when I, as I say to you, follow Jesus through the gospels, it becomes apparent that the reason that we do this is the same reason Jesus did it. Because we actually, not in theory, but in reality, if you're a Jesus follower, we actually care about, are concerned about, believe something must be done on behalf of people. We actually care about people because God, our Father, cared about us and cares for people. In fact, Jesus is so clear about this. This is the part I missed for so many years, that my love for God is best demonstrated not in my prayer life, which I had that covered, not in my Bible study.

8:58 I love to study the Bible. Not in my church attendance. I don't like to ever miss church. Our love and devotion to God is best demonstrated and authenticated in our love and compassion and concern for other people. That's what it means to be Christ-like. To be Christ-like is to, this is what Jesus said, to be Christ-like is to be like our Father in heaven, who didn't simply feel for us, but became one of us in order to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, what I could not do for myself. And so we are to do and we are to be like him as his followers. Now, here's something. I think I've said this two or three times, so pardon me for repeating myself, But this is something I can't get over.

9:55 And again, the more I read the New Testament, there's just the Bible in general, but the New Testament specifically. So try to picture this if you can. It's hard for us. Imagine how ridiculous it sounded when Jesus gathered a group of disenfranchised, overtaxed, occupied, because they were an occupied region. Rome occupied Judea and Galilee and Samaria and that whole part. So they're occupied, they're overtaxed, They've lost their independence. They've lost their freedom. They're disenfranchised. Jesus gathers this group of people together who are leaning in toward following him, and he makes the following statement. I mean, this just sounded ridiculous. He says, you, talking about that group of people, are the light of the world. These are people who rarely traveled more than 20 miles away from where they lived. you are the light of the world and he you know what they thought they thought you are confused because Rome is the light of the world Rome the city of Rome is the eternal city the Rome is the light of the world and we live in the shadow of the empire and little did they know, they couldn't even have begun to imagine this, that within a few generations, Rome would declare the crazy young guy on the hill, a God, a divine son of the one and only God, the divine son of God. And the reason it would happen is because this unimportant, disenfranchised, by population standards, tiny band of followers would take his instructions to heart that they lit up their world with uncharacteristic generosity and with uncharacteristic compassion because in ancient times, it was not a virtue to do for someone what someone could never do for you.

12:01 That wasn't considered a virtue. you. That wasn't considered somebody of integrity. That was considered a bad thing. Why in the world, why in the world would you do a favor for someone or do something for someone who couldn't return the favor? That's just a waste of resources. That's a waste of time. And Jesus comes along and flips the script. And this tiny band of Jesus followers began to do for others who could never return the favor because they understood God in heaven by sending his son had done exactly that for them. Uncharacteristic concern for those who could not care for themselves. That's what marked the early Jesus movement, and it rocked the world. You are the light of the world. You're like a lit up city on a hill. And they had to look at each other like, you know, up until this point, we could take this guy seriously. What? And he says this, so here's what I want you to do. You light of the worlds. I want you to let your light or your life shine before others. I want other people to see what you're doing. That's what happened. I want you to let your light shine before others that they may see. Don't hide this. See your good deeds. Not see what you believe because you can't see what you believe. They can't see what you believe. I want them to see the outpouring, the overflow of what you say you believe about me. See your good deeds and connect the dots.

13:30 I want them to see the way you live, your compassion, your generosity, and I want them to connect the dots between your good deeds and your understanding of, your love for, and your devotion to your Father in heaven. And that is exactly what they did. They made their faith practical, visible, and tangible. Which means for me, for you, if you're a Jesus follower, for Jesus followers, it's not enough to be good. we are called to do good and this is the part it gets confusing sometimes because of something else in the new testament there's not a conflict it's just a misunderstanding according to jesus we must be seen we must be seen doing good the church the corporate church must the reputation of the local church in any local community the low the reputation of the church in the world must be that is a group of people that believe some crazy things, but they accomplish so much good in the world. They are so for people. They are the most compassionate and generous people in our community. And they say it's because of their love for God who has been compassionate and generous to them. Now, interesting kind of fun fact. I think it's fun fact. After Jesus' resurrection, James, his brother, becomes the leader of the church in Jerusalem. Now, this is amazing because James doesn't show up in the narrative until after the resurrection because James and Jesus' other brothers and sisters, they all held back because there's a couple of sections in the New Testament where they kind of think he's crazy. He's kind of lost his mind because he's making all these claims about himself. I'm the bread of heaven that's come down.

15:16 I'm the bread of life that's come down from heaven. They're like, we knew you when you were six years old and 10 years, what are you, anyway. So, but after the resurrection, they all engage. You know why? Because when you see someone crucified and bleed to death, and then they show up for lunch later, you change your mind. It's like, if you, I just believe whatever you say about yourself, because we saw you die. So the resurrection brings their faith back to life. So James is the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and he writes a document that is in the Bible. It's in the New Testament. In other words, there is something written by the brother of Jesus. Maybe you didn't know that. It's reason enough to go find an online Bible and say, wait, the brother of Jesus wrote something? Yeah, the New Testament, the people that put the Bible together years, years later just called it James. You know, we call it the book of James. It's not even a book. It's just a first century document. Anyway, so James reiterates everything Jesus taught in this capacity.

16:12 And he underscores the necessity and the essentiality or the essentialness is the word, the essentialness of faith in action. Faith that has feet. Faith that does things. So I'm going to show you James' rather famous take on this because if you grew up in church, you've heard this before. And like his big brother, Jesus, he starts with an open-ended question. And it's directed to people like I used to be. People who had a very vertical faith. and forgot about the horizontal others part, people who were morally and ethically good, but we weren't doing much good. Here's what he said. Let me say one more thing real quick. If you're not a Christian or not a religious person or you left the church when you were young because of the version of church you grew up in or the version of faith you grew up in, I hope if nothing else, these next few verses would maybe re-incentivize you to explore faith, the faith of your childhood, but maybe a different take on the faith of your childhood.

17:19 Here's what James says. He asked the question, he says, what good is it? This is so great. What good is it? In other words, what good is accomplished? How is anything better? What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith? In other words, they claim to believe things. they you know and unfortunately in the west the united states is specifically christianity has been dumbed down to basically a list of things people believe oh i'm a christian i'm a christian i believe jesus died on the cross for my sins and was raised from the dead on the third day and went to heaven if i put my faith in him i believe i believe i believe leave me alone yeah but look what you're doing look what you're not doing look how you're treating hey don't judge me i'm a christian i believe i believe i believe i believe what good is it my brothers and sisters if somebody claims that they believe things, but they don't have any deeds. In other words, there's nothing in the way they treat people and there's nothing in the way they behave that reflects what they claim they believe. There's no deeds that reflect or substantiate that faith, those belief claims.

18:27 He's asking the question, what does that kind of internal faith accomplish? What does that kind of faith do? He's going to dig pretty deep and twist the knife a little bit. He's like, what does that kind of faith accomplish for anyone other than the person who claims that they have faith? Isn't that kind of a selfish, self-centered faith? Then he asked another question. Can that kind of faith, the faith that doesn't do anything outside of some material, internal kind of thing. Can such a faith save them? Now, this is so brilliant. This is why I read the New Testament. I think, goodness, it's just so brilliant. James is so brilliant. He's kind of sneaking up on our blind side. Here's what he's getting at. So here's my take on what he's saying. He's saying, look at this. He says, can faith that hasn't done anything do anything?

19:28 Has faith that hasn't done anything in the real world do anything for the person that claims to have faith? In other words, if someone's version of faith doesn't translate into action that benefits others, should they be so sure that that version of faith will benefit them? And then all of us who've been Christians for a long time, salvation by faith alone, we sit up straight like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And James wants us to sit up straight and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is it, if one's faith in Jesus doesn't reflect itself in a life or a lifestyle or a character that reflects or priorities that reflects Jesus, does a person really have faith in Jesus? Is it possible? And I think the answer to this question is yes. Is it possible for us to believe that we believe something, but we don't really believe it?

20:23 because we've reduced it to a list of just statements. Is it possible for one to believe they believe, but they don't really believe? Again, James wants us to be concerned. He's writing to people who claim to be Jesus followers. He goes on. He says, let me give you an illustration to show you how absurd faith without deeds is. He says, suppose, it's an imaginary situation. Suppose a brother or sister, this is somebody who's another Christian even, somebody close. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes. I mean, they lack clothing. Something's happened. Or in daily food. So it's an extreme. It's a bit of hyperbole. If one of you says to them, oh, that's terrible. Oh, look, you've lost all your clothes in the fire. Somebody broke it and stole. You had to flee your village or town and you're here. And you only have the clothes on your back and you don't know what you're going to eat the next day. That's terrible.

21:16 Go in peace. And keep warm. and somehow I hope you're well fed. This, your situation breaks my heart. I feel for you. Thoughts and prayers. but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

21:40 What good is that kind of compassion? What good is that kind of love? What good is that kind of anything? What good does it do? What good was done? No good. If somebody doesn't do anything, if someone does nothing in light of that, why should we believe that they actually care they believe they care of course they care because they had these internal feelings of care but according to James and according to Jesus if we don't care I wasn't going to just leave it like that but if we don't demonstrate care we don't really care the short version is if we don't care we don't care Then he goes on like, we need more of this, right? In the same way, look up here.

22:32 In the same way, faith or belief, this would be the word we would use. In the same way, faith or belief by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, this is the statement you may have heard growing up, is dead. It's a corpse. It's worthless because it's lifeless. And in other terms he uses, it's useless. because it's pointless, because it doesn't do anything. And if it doesn't do anything in the real world, why should you have confidence it's gonna do anything for you in the life to... come. And we're all like, oh my gosh. If we claim to care, we must show we care because the claim, apart from the show, is dead. It's worthless. Now, you know what? I bet most of us, I bet most of us have been on the receiving end of this in some way. You needed help. You needed care. You needed money, you needed somebody to pay a bill, or you needed somebody, you just needed something.

23:43 And people just kind of glanced, and people that you knew, they're like, oh, and you know what we say as Christians, okay, if you're not a Christian, let me just go and air a little bit dirty laundry. Us, you know what we Christians do? We go, I'm going to pray for you. I'm like, that's really good, but that's not what I need. I need you to write a check. I need you to come take care of my kids because I gotta go be with him or her. Thank you for your prayers, thoughts and prayers, but that, I don't need corpse faith. I need do faith. I'm always saying to you, and this is part of it, doing is what makes the difference. Doing is what makes the difference. Doing is what makes the difference. James is about to take this to another level. Here's the thing. Doing is what makes the difference in the, doing is what makes the difference in the real world, but James is making the point, and Jesus makes the point that doing makes a difference in us as well because, don't miss this, this is his point, doing is what authenticates believing. Doing is how you know you actually believe. Doing is how you know you are actually trusting in Jesus as your Savior.

24:58 James says, if you want to know, if you actually believe what you claim you believe, Don't look inside. Look outside. Look at what you're doing. Look at what you're refusing to do. Monitor your actions and most importantly, perhaps your reactions. Again, because doing is what authenticates our faith to us. But as or more important, doing is what authenticates our faith to the people in the world. This goes back to what Jesus said to be in the light of the world. Doing authenticates our faith to the people around us as well. Doing demonstrates to outsiders that our faith is genuine. And this is, if you're not a Christian or maybe you used to be, or you've considered it, or you're on the outside looking in, one of your beefs with us, I get this, is, hey, I know what you guys believe. My problem isn't, I don't know what a Christian believes. I I mean, so many people have told me what Christians believe and I need to believe what you believe.

26:02 But here's the thing. I'm not sure you believe what you believe because if you really believe that, I think you would be a different kind of person. You would be a kinder person. You would be, and here's the other thing. If you're not a Christian, you're gonna love this. You may not be biblically literate, but you know enough about Jesus to know whether or not we're reflecting Jesus, right? and you are correct to hold us accountable to that. That the issue isn't being smart biblically. The goal is to be like Jesus, to be Christ-like and to do for others and to respond to others and to react to others the way God through Jesus responded and reacted to us. So doing demonstrates to outsiders that our faith is genuine. We're not just, as I say, sermons and songs. And here's the thing for us modern Christians. Personal engagement, personal engagement, even on a limited periodic basis with people who are in need is an essential.

27:04 It is an essential. Even if somebody else can do it, even if the government has planned to do it, it is essential for us. It's essential to the Christian faith. And to make things even more challenging for me and to make things even more challenging for you, unlike the people in the first century or second century or any ancient times, unlike Jesus' original audience or James' original audience, we modern Christians have to be more intentional than his audience had to be. And here's why. In the first, well, not just first century, in ancient times, in ancient times, everybody lived among the needy. Everybody lived among the poor. Because of transportation, villages were small, communities were small, and even in the larger megacities like, you know, ancient Rome or Alexandria or some of those nations or some of those cities, everybody was mixed together. Even the wealthy, wealthy, wealthy who lived behind high stone walls, when they left their gate, they were confronted with, and in some cases, accosted by the poverty, the beggars, the people in need, the people, the injured soldiers who could no longer work, the women who'd been abandoned. Everywhere they went, you were confronted with, you smelled, you saw, you heard the voices of the poor. In other words, this isn't a criticism. This is my life as well as yours. Nobody drove by poor people. Nobody drove through an area of town that was in need. Nobody drove, you never drive by. You walked out into it. Opportunities abounded. You knew the names of beggars on certain corners because they were there all the time. In fact, in the New Testament, there are illustrations of this.

28:59 I mean, there's an illustration of Jesus healing a blind man, and the author of that account of The life of Jesus gives us the guy's name because everybody knew his name. He was there all the time. That's Bartimaeus. Yeah, he's been around forever, right? So for us, this is even more challenging. For us, this is more difficult, which means for us, it requires far more intentionality. And so we wanna intentionally give you some opportunities. Many of you do this all the time because you're on boards of nonprofits, you serve with nonprofits. But for many of us, it's just, we just drive by or we live in communities like I do where you just don't see it. Now, this isn't a guilt thing. This is a, okay, let's get with it thing, right? So here's how James lands the plane on this whole discussion. This is so powerful.

29:51 And it's convicting in a good way, right? Listen to what he says. This is so extreme. I think if I got up here and said this and didn't quote James, you would think I'd taken this too far. It's kind of some sort of guilt trip. Listen to what he says. Religion that God our Father accepts. Religion, in other words, religious practice. The theopraxy, the way this works out, the what we do part. Religion that God our Father, this is the brother of Jesus, okay? That God our Father accepts as pure and faultless. In other words, if you want to get an A, God doesn't grade. But I mean, if you want God to go, whoa, that's the real deal there. Or if you want other people to look at you or to look at us as a community of churches and say, that's the real deal there. Here's what he says. This is what it looks like. Here's the litmus test. You go to the next slide. It's to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

30:45 Wait, it's not prayer life, Bible study, church attendance. I mean, all that is critical. In other words, those things are critical and essential because they fuel what he is saying. He's saying It's to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Now, this don't be polluted by the world. When I was a young Christian, I was good at this. I'm first born. I'm a preacher's kid. You know, when I've told you when I sinned, I knew the chapter and verse, you know, where my sin was located. So, I mean, I was good, good, good, good, good. I was really good, but I didn't do much good. And James puts these in the order, this order on purpose. He says, yeah, you need to be moral. You need to be ethical. You need to be a good person. But it's more than that. The practice of faith that honors God the most is to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

31:40 Now, why does he focus on these two? Because in the absence of legitimate money-making opportunities for women in the ancient world, they were in a tough spot. It was easy to divorce a woman. A woman couldn't divorce her husband in most cultures, but a man could divorce his wife and leave the kids and let her go with the kids because he wanted to start over. So consequently, the most vulnerable, the ones that would struggle the most in terms of a category were widows. Those not just whose husbands had died, that was certainly included, but women who were abandoned on their own. So one test for us of our actual faith, belief, is helping the helpless, helping those who are distressed, whether it's orphans, the widows, the impoverished, the disabled, the unemployed, whatever it might be. These are just the two predominant categories in his culture.

32:36 Ours are so much broader. And I love this. The social services that our government provides, local and state and national, our counties, all these wonderful things, city, the social services that our counties and communities provide, and our modern governments provide, the reason we have those, the reason we have those, they are a reflection of our Christianized culture. That's a good thing, but they don't relieve Jesus followers of our personal responsibility to do in order to be like our father in heaven, to do for those who can't do for themselves. And that's what we've been doing for many, many, many years. And that's what we're going to continue to do this year corporately. And again, I want to say this again, many of you You've got this. I am preaching. You're the choir. I'm preaching to the choir. You are so in here. Again, you serve on boards.

33:27 You serve with nonprofits. You look for opportunities. All of us, to some extent, are generous when somebody has a specific need. But some of you, you just, because you don't have the opportunity, you drive by because of where we live. You just, you don't see it. You don't feel it. You don't smell it. And it's just easy to forget about it. So we want to give you an opportunity, even though it's just a snapshot a few times a year, an opportunity to engage with those who can't help themselves. And we've created several amazing opportunities for you to do just that. And before I tell you more about that, I just want to make a declaration on all of our behalf, okay? So on behalf of all of us, we don't have time.

34:11 Right? We don't have time. It's like, Andy, I can't disagree with any of that, but you don't I know, we don't have time. So we're asking you to carve out just a little bit of time. And who knows? What you experience as you interface with some of our intersect partners and what we're doing in our local communities or even in different parts of the world, who knows, it may become a habit. So this time at all of our campuses, I wanna invite somebody up. They're gonna come up on stage and talk about the opportunities you have in your local community. So welcome them to the stage. And that would be me. So here's what we're gonna do. This is so good. To explore, look here a second. Okay, real quick. I know another QR code. We're shocked, you know. Okay, so basically, this QR code, or you can text, this is the easiest way to text NPSERV to 501-255. NPSERV to 501-255. They'll take you to a website, and we're gonna direct you. We're gonna give you a menu of opportunities to serve between now, and basically between now and Christmas.

35:08 There are in-person opportunities where you actually get to show up on site for some of our intersect partners. There's so many things we can do. For those of you who are here with me at North Point, North, you know, North Point, I mean, North Fulton Charities, there's always opportunities to volunteer there. There's in-person opportunities. There are family-friendly opportunities. There are things, we've made it so simple. There are things you can actually do from home that would help some of these organizations. So we've listed all of those. There are Global X opportunities. You wanna update your passport. If you got a passport or get a passport, we will put you on a team that actually goes to some of the places internationally where we're doing some of the things that are similar to what we're doing back here at home. But imagine what could happen if even half, even half of everyone who attends one of our Atlanta area churches just did one serve project this year before Christmas. We would unleash not just a wave of financial generosity, but we would unleash a wave of service opportunities and service generosity to all these amazing organizations that serve our communities and make our communities better.

36:12 So check out the opportunities. There are opportunities to do by yourself, as a couple, with your family, or if you're in a community group, a small group, engage your small group in one of these opportunities. You will be so glad you did. And don't put it off. Just check these things out this week, okay? I'll be back next weekend, as I said, with a super important message for our church. You're gonna get an email about it today, so make sure you don't miss that email. Check this out. Thanks for being the most amazing group of churches I've ever heard of, and I'm so grateful to be a part of this, and I will see you next week. You're dismissed.