Easter Sunday | Rev. Adam Hamilton | Church of the Resurrection

2:53 During the season of Lent, we've been covering the final week of Jesus' life and the events that happened as told by the gospel writer, Matthew. And so today we come to the end of that week, the end of that series, Easter Sunday. And as we do, we're going to turn to Matthew's account of the Easter story. Now, there are four gospels. Do you remember their names? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. If you remember that, you're doing better than 50% of the U.S. population who can't name all four Gospels. But each of them tells the story of Jesus in slightly different ways, John in pretty dramatically different ways. When it comes to the Easter story, each Gospel tells that story a bit differently. Mark's Gospel is the first one written, the earliest, probably around AD 70, and he only has eight verses dedicated to telling what happened on Easter. John's Gospel is the last of the Gospels written, maybe around AD 85 or 90, something like that. and he's writing, he has 58 verses dedicated to telling the story of Easter and what happened in the days after that. Luke has 50 verses, Matthew has 20 verses.

3:47 Now, generally when I preach Easter, I'm turning to Luke and John because they have the most complete accounts, but I'm really excited to share with you today what Matthew has to say about what happened on Easter and the days following that. But first I wanna take you to Good Friday. Friday, which we covered last Sunday here at Resurrection. On Friday, Christ was crucified. 9 a.m. he was crucified. 3 p.m. he dies. For six hours, he hangs on the cross, and there are people mocking him. He's experiencing excruciating pain and finally completely exhausted and undoubtedly just psychologically broken or devastated. He cries out to God, and this is what he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, John and Luke tell a whole series of other things that Jesus says. They don't mention that, but for Matthew and Mark, these are the words, and I'm so grateful that they are because they tell us Jesus understands. He's quoting, he's praying Psalm 22 verse one, but it tells us that he understood the pain that we experience as humans.

4:45 He understood what it was like to feel God was conspicuous by his absence and to hear the deafening silence of God. He knew that. And we experience that sometimes in our own lives. Suffering happens in life and we have moments or times where we feel like, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This week, LaVon and I had a chance to go see the movie premiere of a film that one of our members made, Dina Hildebrand. It's a documentary called Voice Unbroken, and it's the story of Art Haynes. Some of you know Art Haynes. He lives in Springfield, but he's been the voice of the Missouri State Bears for the last 40 years. And the last 17 years, while he was also serving Missouri State, he was the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the studio host for the Chiefs Radio Network. And you'd hear him at halftime and before and after the game, and just great. I loved his voice. And in 2022, Art was struck down with the West Nile virus.

5:41 Now, about 10% of people who contract this die from it. Most people recover. Art ended up permanently paralyzed. And so this film is his story. I thought you might enjoy hearing just a little bit of it. He is one of those folks who's walked through that dark place. Take a listen. The OT pitch, and that one is hit in the air and deep out into right field. Back she goes to the wall and gone! Art Haynes' mind is everything about athletics. I always had an interest in sports. I wasn't very good at it, but I wanted to talk about it. The chance to be the voice of something really appealed to me. Art's the best radio announcer I've ever heard. And then he was a Chiefs fan. They said, we're going to do it all differently. What would you suggest? And I suggested Art.

6:35 That season started like any other season would start. There's usually a game with the big school, and that year it happened to be Arkansas. When they got back Saturday night, he said, oh, I feel terrible, my legs hurt so bad. And he goes, I can't walk. Not much longer after that, he was on a breathing mask, and they brought the family into the room to witness that. took the mask off to show us that he was gasping for air. He needed life support to be able to survive. He is going to die if we don't do something. But I was more defiant than anything. I said, no, God will decide when it's time for me to go, not you. Even in the rehab center, he was trying to participate in sports broadcasting, which says a lot about who he is. I've never said, why me?

7:31 Bad things happen to good people. That's how it is. I consider myself very lucky and very blessed to help him have the best broadcast that he can have before he rides off into the sunset. It was such a great film. And hearing these stories, and the truth is, bad things do happen to good people. And there are moments when, you know, we find ourselves overwhelmed. And so, by the way, Art was at the premiere. Here's a picture LaVon and I had with him. And this week I called him. Again, he lives in Springfield. I called him and I said, Art, did you ever feel like Jesus felt on the cross when he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he said, yes, for a short time in the hospital, not for long, but for a short time in the hospital when I realized I was probably never going to walk again. It felt pretty overwhelming.

8:24 And then he said this. He said, but my belief, my faith pulled me through this. He said, I have this belief that the horrible things that happen in life are not going to have the final word. He said, whether I knew, whether I live or I die, it's going to be okay. That's what Easter has taught me. Today, we want to find out what Easter has to teach us. In the time that remains, I'd like for you to turn to, if you have a Bible, turn to Matthew chapter 28, and we're going to focus on Matthew's account of the Easter story. And it begins like this, Matthew 28, verse 1. After the Sabbath, so the Sabbath for Jewish people is on Saturday, Jesus died on Friday, buried Friday afternoon before sunset. Sabbath, he's in the tomb. After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week, Sunday, was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb, and suddenly there was a great earthquake. Now, only Matthew tells us that there was an earthquake on that day.

9:16 He also told us that Jesus, when he died, there was an earthquake. So none of the other Gospels mention either of these earthquakes. Two earthquakes in 48 hours. And I thought, you know, is that just something that Matthew's added to the details, to the richness of the storytelling? or is it possible that these actually happen in the timing that he described? And so I just wondered how many earthquakes happen in the Holy Land at any given year. And it lies on a fault zone. And so there are two tectonic plates that collide right at the Holy Land. I thought I'd just show you, I looked this up. These are the number of earthquakes that have happened around the Holy Land in the last three weeks alone. There are nine of them that happened in the Holy Land in the last three weeks alone. Two of them right there, another here and another here. And so it's not uncommon for an earthquake to happen. And so I thought, well, that's interesting. Matthew, who's writing to Jewish Christians, many of whom had lived in the Holy Land, understood there were earthquakes that happened frequently.

10:09 This is not a surprise. Now, as the earth shook, the two Marys, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, who might have been Mary, the mother of Jesus, but might also have been Mary, the mother of two of the disciples, or at least one of the disciples, these two Marys are there. They have come simply to grieve or to mourn Jesus' death. But then they see the angel of the Lord. Now, by the way, I want to remind you, an angel in scripture, the word means messenger. They looked normally like people. In this case, somebody, a glorious looking figure who shows up and he pushes the stone away that's in front of the mouth of the tomb. And then he sits on the stone. Now, just to remind you, this is a photo I've shown before, but this is a picture of a tomb near Haifa in the Holy Land. It was uncovered when they were building the roadway you can see in the foreground. And you see the large round stone. And so you can imagine this angel of the Lord, the earthquake and the angel of the Lord pushes the stone back from the entrance to the tomb. Now the women along with the guests, or excuse me, along with the guards that were stationed near the tomb were terrified.

11:08 Terrified, you would be too if you felt an earthquake and then you saw somebody pushing the stone back and this glorious figure standing there. And here's how Matthew describes what happens next. The angel said to the women, do not be afraid for I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He's not here. He's risen just as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. Now I have told you. Now I want you to notice something interesting. You expect, so he rolls the stone away and I'm expecting, you know, if I'm just reading this story for the first time, that Jesus is gonna walk out of the tomb. But there's no Jesus in the tomb. That stone had been there and yet Jesus was gone. The angel didn't roll the stone away so that Jesus could get out of the tomb. He rolled the stone away so the women could go in the tomb and see that Jesus wasn't there, that the tomb was empty.

12:00 Somehow God had transported Jesus, rematerialized him, took his dead body and brought it back to life. And Jesus didn't have to have that door open, the tomb open for him. He passed right through. Notice the angel tells him, do not be afraid. They were terrified. The earthquake, the angel, the stone rolled away, the empty tomb. Again, they just come to grieve Jesus. They didn't expect any of this. And so don't be afraid. Now, you may know this is the most often repeated commandment in all the scriptures, given by God, by the angels, by Jesus. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. It appears over 100 times. Some people say 365 times. I haven't found that, but I've counted over 100 times. This commandment comes, don't be afraid. Now, I love this, don't be afraid, because as humans, we tend to struggle with fear. And it's worth noting that Jesus' resurrection from the dead changes everything when it comes to what we're afraid of. The disciples were fearless after this because they knew Christ had conquered the grave. They didn't have to be afraid. What could anyone do to them if Christ had conquered the grave? Now, we don't notice what the angel says next. He says, go quickly and tell his disciples, he has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him. And then I want you to listen to it now. Remember, the disciples are still in Jerusalem. The women are in Jerusalem. Go find the disciples. They're hiding, tell them to go to Galilee, and Jesus will meet them there. Tell them he's risen.

13:27 Now, notice what happens next. With great fear and excitement, they hurried away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples. With great fear and excitement. So, I was taken by this, and some translations say, with great fear and joy. With great fear and joy, or fearfully and joyfully, they went to find the disciples. And I thought about this, and I thought, you know, how often those two are intermingled or commingled in our lives, fear and excitement, fear and joy, they sometimes go hand in hand. I thought about the night before I got married, and I was fearful, and I was joyful. I thought about the night before we started Church of the Resurrection. I was fearful, and I was excited. And the question is, which are you going to give into? You can have those sets of feelings together, but when you talk about not being afraid, not giving into fear, you're going to have fear, but you're also going to have a sense of I'm called, or a sense of conviction or a sense of purpose or sense. And the question is, which do you give into? The fear or the other thing that's calling you to do something else or the emotions, the positive emotions, which will you give into? In my own life, I find myself on an almost daily basis, wrestling with things that lead me both to have deep conviction and also fear and wondering on any given day, which one am I going to give into? By the way, as the women went to find the disciples, they meet Jesus along the way. So Jesus appears to them. And when they see him, they fall at his feet and they grab hold of his legs and they worship him. And here's what Jesus says to them, the same thing the angel said, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Go find my disciples and go tell them I'm going to meet them in the Galilee. I wonder if you're afraid right now.

15:06 And if you could hear Jesus or the angel saying to you, don't be afraid, I'm with you. And knowing that, even in your fear, you may be being called to do something that's fearful, but those two things you have to decide, which one am I going to give into? The fear or the conviction, the fear or the excitement, the fear or the joy. Now, here's what Matthew tells us next. Now, the 11 disciples, hearing the testimony of the women, went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. I'm guessing it wasn't just the 11 disciples who went. Remember, Judas had taken his life. I'm guessing it's not just the 11 disciples. I'm guessing those women went too. I'm guessing anybody else in Jerusalem who knew about Jesus, who was a follower of Jesus, they went too, because they heard the news, Jesus is going to meet you there. He's alive. Who wouldn't go? And so they made their way to the Galilee. Now, the Galilee is about 75 miles north of Jerusalem. I've made the journey many times, and I just want to show you where this is.

16:01 So this is Jerusalem here, and here is the Galilee, is a region in this area up here. Jesus' home base was Capernaum. Here's the Sea of Galilee right here, the Jordan River. that connects to the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea over here. So Jesus and his disciples are going to traverse, or not Jesus, Jesus is going ahead of them, but the disciples are going to make their way up here, and they're going to go to a mountain. I suspect a mountain somewhere right over here on the Sea of Galilee. So how long is it going to take them to get 75 miles, 75 to 80 miles? Well, because there's two mountain ranges between Jerusalem and the Galilee, they're going to do all kinds of switchbacks. It's going to take them walking six to 10 days. So they hear that Jesus is alive. They haven't seen him yet. They're trusting the women. They're going to the Galilee. And finally, six to 10 days later, they meet Jesus. They're to meet him at a mountain, at a mountain they've discussed or already talked about somehow.

16:56 And so some people think this is Mount Tabor where Jesus was transfigured, but Mount Tabor is not near the Sea of Galilee. And Jesus spent most of his time in and around the Sea of Galilee, I think they were talking about, he was talking about, and they were meeting him at Mount Arbel. This is a picture of Mount Arbel. And this is from the Sea of Galilee. I was on a boat in the Sea of Galilee when I took this picture. And it's the tallest point around the Sea of Galilee. And so at the very top of that mountain, and I've taken groups there. In fact, most of the time when we go to the Holy Land, we go there. And you'll see in this little video, this is the last group I took in 2023. And we were at the top of the mountain and we were singing. And then we were studying the Sermon on the Mount because I believe this is where Jesus gave his disciples the Sermon on the Mount. And at the same time, this may be the place where Jesus first met his disciples after his resurrection. And the week after that group left, a group of young adults met me there. And this is us as we were hiking.

17:49 This is at the top of the mountain. You can see the Sea of Galilee in the background. So these were young adults who met me in the same place. And so any of you seeing this who see yourself in that picture, I just want to remind you, this may be the place where Jesus met his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Now, here's what we learn. Matthew tells us, when they saw Jesus, they worshiped him, but some doubted. I want to pause with that for just a moment. They worshiped him, but some doubted. Now, when they saw him, they worshiped him. The Greek word for worship is proskuneo. The New Testament's written in Greek, proskuneo, they worshiped him. Now, that's an interesting word. Worship is a good definition of this, but there's another way of thinking about it. It was used by the Greeks. Proskuneo was used by the Greeks to describe what happens when a master gets home and their dog just can't wait to see them. So I don't know if you have any dogs in your house. We have two in our house. And this week, I just went out for a little walk. I was only gone for 30 minutes. It wasn't like I was gone all day. And I walked in the garage door, and this is who greeted me at the door.

18:51 And there they are. That's Rocky right there. And there's Maybel. And they jump, and they pounce, and their tails are wagging, and they start barking. And it's like, come on, Dad, come play with us. We are so glad that you are here. And the Greek word for that is proskuneo. That's the response of a dog when their master walks in. And don't you just love that? And if you have animals, if you have dogs like that, just the pure exuberance of your pets to see you when you get home. And that's also the word that's used for what the disciples did on that day. They saw Jesus and it was proskuneo. It was just pure joy. It was exuberance. It was wanting to hold on to him. It was just such excitement that they saw Jesus. But that's what also makes it surprising that Matthew goes on to say, but some doubted. And actually, it's not that some doubted. The Greek literally says they worshiped and they doubted. Not some doubted, they doubted. They worshiped and they doubted. Now, only Matthew tells us this, and I really appreciate it.

19:47 I appreciate the fact that those disciples were both excited to see Jesus, and they were a bit perplexed by it, right? was this really Jesus? I mean, how could this even be? Are we seeing him? Is he really here? Is this somebody who looks like Jesus? I mean, how exactly is this even possible? Christ resurrected from the dead. Now, it's interesting. However Jesus appeared to them that day, and there's no description, but however he appeared to them that day, and however he appeared to other of the disciples at various points when he showed up after Easter, there was always some room for doubt. So I want to remind you, when Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning in John's Gospel, she thinks he's the gardener. Later in that day in John's Gospel, they believe, when they see Jesus, they believe, or actually a day later, or a couple days later, they believe he's a fisherman when they first see him. When two of the disciples are walking with Jesus, or walking with a stranger to Emmaus, they think he's a stranger until they get to dinner, and he blesses the food and suddenly they see the stranger was Jesus all along.

20:52 And in Luke's gospel, when Jesus appears to all of the disciples or almost all the disciples on Easter evening, they think he's a ghost. However, he appeared to them, there was room for there to be doubt in the midst of their believing and their excitement. When Jesus appears and they think he's a ghost on Easter evening in Luke's gospel, Jesus says this, why do doubts arise in your hearts? So doubt was a part of the experience of faith even for those first disciples, even at Easter when they saw Jesus with their own eyes, there was some doubt. And you remember Thomas, doubting Thomas, who said, unless I touch his hands where they were wounded, I'm not going to believe. It's not enough for me to see. I've got to touch him in order to believe. In each case, there was faith mixed with doubt. It is possible for these to be experienced at the same time. Jesus, I'm thinking of a man who came to Jesus once and said, Jesus, please heal my son. And he was epileptic. And Jesus said, well, you know, I can, he said, if you can heal him. And Jesus says, all things are possible to those who believe. And you remember the response of the father. He says, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. I mean, this is how many of us experience faith. Peter, Jesus is walking on the water. Peter says, Lord, if it's really you bid me to come out and walk on the water. So Peter gets out and he starts walking on the water in the middle of the storm. And then the storm, you know, the waves kick up and Peter turns the waves and he begins to doubt and he starts to sink and Jesus picks him up and says, oh, you have little faith, right? This is how it is for us as humans. There is faith and there is doubt. I think of people that I know and love in my life and some of them have faith. They believe in Jesus. They believe in God, but sometimes they get tripped up on certain things. The resurrection is one of those things. Like, I don't know. I have a hard time believing that part of it. I remember a Jewish guide I had in the Holy Land, a really wonderful gentleman. And as we were going along, he knew more about Jesus than most of the people on our trip. And he said, I love Jesus. I love him. He's a prophet. He's a teacher. I really love him.

22:50 I just struggle. I just can't believe that he was resurrected from the dead. You see, there's this faith and then there's this doubt. This is how it works sometimes in our lives, a struggle with faith and doubt. But here's what I want you to know. Faith is not the opposite of doubt. Faith and doubt go hand in hand. Faith is not excluding uncertainty. Faith is not the opposite of uncertainty. Faith is believing despite uncertainty. So I think of this. I think of faith as a choice to trust even in the face of uncertainty. Now, I'm not certain about very many things in my life. At 61, I'm less certain about things than I was when I was 25. It's interesting how that works as you get older. The longer I live, the more I've learned to be comfortable with uncertainty and to make a decision to trust even if I don't know for certain, right, or if I don't completely understand, the ability to say, I choose to believe. And that's what faith is. It's a choice to believe. I choose to believe that there is a God in the heavens. I choose to believe that God came to us in Jesus. And then what the disciples recorded about him actually reflects who he is and what he was like. I choose to believe that he was raised from the dead. And those disciples, when they wrote that, they saw him, felt him, touched him. When Paul says over 500 saw him at one time, I choose to believe that was true and to trust that. This week, I was speaking to one of our staff members, one of our new staff members here at Resurrection, Delise Hoffen. Now, she and her husband, Brian, and their two sons have been a part of the church for 13 or 14 years. When Delise and Brian's second son was born, he was diagnosed autistic after eight months. At three years, he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma.

24:26 And so he was in the hospital, and he was going to be receiving chemotherapy when Deleese was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. And so mom and son shared a room at the hospital at one point, and they were both undergoing chemotherapy. Here's a picture of them, a third tier, whenever this was. This was, gosh, a couple decades ago. And this beautiful picture.

24:49 And I asked Deleese this week as I was standing talking to her, I said, you know, Delise, tell me what it was like during that time when you and your son were both facing cancer. You had a son and that was enough. That was so traumatic. And then you were diagnosed at the same time. And this is what she said, there were so many days in the hospital that I would wait until Braden was asleep and then I would sneak into the hospital bathroom, turn on the shower to cover the noise and I would just cry. This was the kind of cry that comes from the darkest sadness in your heart when you realize that nothing will ever be the same normal again. and the grief and the sadness is overwhelming.

25:26 14 years ago, Delise was invited by a friend to come to Church of the Resurrection. And she said, you know, I really had given up on organized religion. She said, I came only to get my friend to stop inviting me and to check this off the list. But she found a place where worship and doubt might be held together, where critical thinking was encouraged, where Christians were challenged each week to live their faith in acts of service to the world, where we didn't believe that her cancer or her son's cancer was somehow part of God's will, but instead that doctors were fighting to be able to protect them and where God walked with them despite the cancer, not because he was the cause of it. And when it comes to faith, we've all experienced doubt. And there comes a moment in our lives, despite our doubts, when we have to choose, will we have faith and doubt or will we choose doubt without faith? The disciples worshiped and doubted. now that leads me to the final words of Matthew's account of the resurrection on that day on the mountain where the risen Christ was speaking to his disciples he said this and this is how Matthew records he says Jesus came near and spoke to them I've received all authority in heaven and on earth right so he's claiming I am the king of kings my father has given me all authority on heaven and earth therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you.

26:53 These verses are known as the Great Commission. So Jesus is giving his disciples, and not just his disciples, all of his followers for all generations would come after them, this mission, this commission. And I love this. These two words summarize the rest of it. Therefore, go. Therefore, go. In seminary, you're taught that whenever you find a therefore in scripture, you need to find out what it's there for. And in this case, the risen Christ is saying, I have authority and I'm giving it to you. And now because I'm alive, I'm calling you to go out and to continue to do the things that I have been doing. I want you to take everything that I taught you and I want you to live out those things in the world. Christ came to save us and to save the world. And you know how he does that today? He does that through the power of his Holy Spirit and what he taught us and calling us, commissioning us to go out and to live that faith, to live that gospel in the world. It's as if he's saying, I'm alive, therefore go. I've defeated death, therefore go.

27:47 I've been given all authority, therefore go. There's a world that's hurting, therefore go. Now listen, you can come to church on Easter and you can remember the good news that Christ has triumphed over evil, hate, sin, and death. That death doesn't have the final word in our lives. That cancer and hate and brokenness and hurt, they don't have the final word. That we win either way. If we live or if we die, we continue to be with Christ, we live. There's all of this wonderful good news that there is a life after this life is over, building, not made by human hands, Paul says, eternal in the heavens waiting for us, that he's gone to prepare a place for us, all of these wonderful promises about everlasting life. But that's not ultimately the final word about Easter. The final word about Easter is, Christ has triumphed over all these things, therefore go. And if you don't get that, if you just take all the goodness of, gosh, I don't have to live afraid and Christ is with me and there's a life after this life, but you don't hear him saying, therefore go, you've missed the message of Easter. You've got part of it. You just missed the rest of it.

28:52 So I was thinking about Art Haynes. And when I asked Art, okay, so now, you know, this is the life you're living. What do you do with this? He says, you know, my aim every day is to figure out how to share kindness with other people. My aim every day is to try to be a light for Christ and to let other people see his light in me. And you know what? It's a pretty powerful witness when you're in a wheelchair and you've survived what he survived and you're trying to figure out how to let kindness shine through you, how to let Christ's light shine through you, which is something else he says in Matthew's gospel. Let your light so shine before others that they might see your good works and give glory to your Father who's in heaven. And so this is what Art's doing. I think about Delise. And, you know, as she came through that cancer and as Brayden survived that cancer, then she began to have heart for children who had cancer. And she started an organization called Brayden's Hope, named after her son. And in that organization, she began working to raise money for research in childhood cancers because there's limited money that goes to childhood cancer research, mostly for adult cancer research. And you know, over the years she's raised, she's helped raise in her organization over $8 million for children's cancer research. Let me just ask you a question. If Art in a wheelchair can go out and try to let his light shine, if he can hear Jesus say, therefore go, what's your excuse not to do that? What's mine? Or if Delise can battle cancer herself and for her child and still come out and say, okay, now I'm going to go out and I'm going to try to raise money to help other kids. If she can hear Jesus say, therefore go, what's our excuse for not hearing him say, therefore go? All right. I want to tell you one last story. So about five or six years ago, one of our members, John Yost, who's a pharmacist, he went on one of our mission trips. So we have a couple dozen mission trips that leave the church every year to go to different places to serve across the world, but also across the United States and right here in Kansas City. And so he was on a mission trip to Ohio. While he was in Ohio, he learned about a pharmacy there that provided medications for people who didn't have insurance and who struggled to make, you know, who, if they did have insurance, struggled to make the

30:59 copayments. And so they were wanting to make sure that people were cared for who were under-resourced when it came to their medications. And he came back and he came to my office one day and he said, Adam, I got to share with you this vision I've had. I feel like God wants me to start a pharmacy here in Kansas City for people who are struggling to pay for their medications, people who don't have insurance or people who can't afford the co-pays. And what do you think? And I said, well, that sounds like a lot of hard work, John, but you know, I think it sounds like a great plan. I mean, you know, go for it. And so John went out and he figured all this out. He figured out how to do it. He figured out how to work with the pharmacy company, pharmaceutical companies. He figured out where the need was. And he started a pharmacy called Pharmacy of Grace in Kansas City, Kansas, where there was a large percentage of the population who were uninsured. And here's a picture from 2022. Well, actually, this is a picture. Yeah, it's a picture from that year when he was dedicating, we were dedicating an opening. He was opening.

31:50 I just happened to be with him, Pharmacy of Grace. It was just amazing to see. And it's been so exciting. And since that time, you know, in those three and a half years, amazing things have happened. And they're getting ready to open a new location in Lenexa where there are 2,000 uninsured people who are living within walking distance of their new location. but I want you to hear just a little bit about what they do. Take a listen. We are there to help people that nobody else is there to help. Most of the time I just would do without because I didn't have the money to pay. It's pretty much a lifesaver for me. We're saving people more than just the medication price. We're keeping them out of the hospital. We pride ourselves also in the fact that not only can we get medications at a better price, so we will take the person into a room and they get to talk one-on-one with the pharmacist for as long as they want to. If they don't speak English we have services to help with that as well. Everybody is just so kind and helpful and informative that you know they give me what I need if I have questions I can just call them up directly and say okay what about this. Advocate for us, talk about us, tell your friends and family about us, let them know that we're out there we'd love to take care of helping them with their medicine, with their vaccines. We're here to take care of them. We are in Kansas City, Kansas right now, but we're getting ready to open a second location in Shawnee. So how many prescriptions has Pharmacy of Grace fulfilled since you opened? 60,000! We are so excited about that and we're so excited to be growing in Shawnee because I believe we will we will double that, we will surpass that so fast. We just are so blessed to be able to take care of so many people. I very much believe that you know we are We're here to help people.

33:31 That is our mission. And Pharmacy of Grace does that above and beyond. Open hearts, open minds, open doors. That's Pharmacy of Grace in a nutshell. Don't you love that? And you may recognize those last three statements. That's been the motto of the United Methodist Church for some time, but I love what they've done. And here's one of the joyful things I can share with you is today the offering that's gonna be taken in a few minutes, the first $100,000 of that offering is going to help with the opening of the new Pharmacy of Grace in Lenexa. And everything else you give today in the offering, in today's offering, what you give today, online, on TV, at all of our locations, is going towards ministries that support and care for people who are walking through dark places. So your funds are gonna go to help our support groups, 1,600 people in our support groups. Actually, that's just in the recovery ministry. Dozens of support groups, people who are walking through grief or mental health issues, whatever it might be, our counseling and care ministries, our pastoral care ministries, our special needs ministries.

34:30 And we have a fund that helps people who can't afford their groceries or are struggling to be able to pay the bills. We have a fund for that. You're gonna help make that possible for people who are saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You're gonna be the presence of Christ through your offering today, just as Pharmacy of Grace is doing for the people who come in for help with their medications. All right, I wanna end with this. So Jesus, the last thing he says in Matthew's gospel is, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The resurrected Christ is alive. He is alive and walks with us. He cares for us. He works through us. The resurrected Christ is with us. And because of that, because he was raised from the dead, we know that evil, sin, hate, and death do not have the final word. We know that the worst thing is never the last thing. And therefore, we are people of hope. And because we know that and believe that, we hear Jesus' words saying, therefore, go.

35:25 I end with this. Every year, my Easter sermon ends the same way. People ask me, come on, you really believe this stuff? Jesus rose from the dead, walked out of the tomb, that Jesus is alive, that there is a heaven, and when we die, this isn't the end, and there's something more. You're a smart guy. You don't really believe that, do you? And my answer's the same every year. I choose to believe it. And I not only believe it, I'm counting on it. And because I'm counting on it, I hear him saying on a daily basis, therefore, go. Would you pray with me? and I'd like to just invite you to whisper under your breath, thank you, God, for loving me. thank you Jesus for coming to show us the way for your suffering and death for us. and for your resurrection.

36:20 help me to trust in you. help me to believe despite my doubts. and help me to therefore go and to bring your light and love into this world.

36:42 In your holy name.