We're going to be reading the Scripture from several different verses, several places in the Bible. They're outlined in your bulletin, and I'm not going to take time to announce each one individually. I'd like to kind of read from one to the other so we get a feeling of the sense from beginning to end of the spirit of the Scripture and of the theme of God's Word. We're going to be reading from the book of Genesis, the first chapter, first chapter of Acts, and the second to last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 21. Hear the word of the Lord. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in His image. In the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. So when the disciples met together with Jesus, they asked Him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. Please join me in prayer. Lord, may we now, in this moment, hear You speak, be glad for Your Word to us, and be eager to serve You faithfully. In Jesus' name, Amen. Each year about this time, Those of us who are in education say farewell to another group of graduates. People who are ready to move out. To take up a task wherever it may be that they find a job. That their responsibilities are laid out in front of them. Their studies are over. They've been equipped for the task ahead. It's time to move ahead and take it up. But it's not just young people who think about what their task may be. Those of us who are older reflect on the fact that we've seen a lot of seasons come and go. But we're not sure quite what still is left for us. Some of us realize the number of seasons that we will see will not be all that many more. And we reflect on the task that we have carried out. And we think about its meaning. And we wonder just have we done what we were called to do. What is our call? What is our assignment in life? How do we go about our task? Whatever age, whatever circumstance we find ourselves in today, that's the question really each of us can ask. As we look through the Scripture tonight and we start with the beginning and go through to the end, we realize that there are several angles to the answer the Scripture gives. One of the things we hear from the Scripture today is that whatever our particular task, whatever our particular obligation, whatever our particular assignment may be, our call is to be diligent. To be faithful and diligent in carrying it out. You really don't understand that clearly until you see how what each of us is called to do fits in with what God is doing in the world. That's where the Bible begins. In the beginning, God. And don't ever move too quickly past those first few words of the Scripture. In the beginning, God. That's the cornerstone of our understanding. To know that before there was anything, and it really fits well that we confess the Athanasian Creed tonight, before there was anything, there was God. Before anything was created, there was God. Or maybe even better to say, Before there was anything, there is God. Before anything has been created, there is God. He is the one who, as one hymn says, is the immortal, invisible, God only wise in light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes. And yet, as ineffable and glorious as God is in and of Himself, The Bible then hurries along to tell us that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And that's how we begin to fit in. The hymn I referenced just a moment ago goes on to say, Life-giving creator of both great and small, of all life the maker, the true life of all. And the scope of the universe, which the most recent discoveries of astronomy and physics has revealed to be even more magnificent both extensively and intensively than we ever could have imagined is what the glorious God of all put in place. And we focus on that before even a word is spoken about where we fit in. And yet, God does fit us in. You don't get to the end of the first chapter of the Bible before we're on the scene. Oh, the Bible begins by the grand scheme and the grand sweep of all that God created. But once everything was done and God could look and say, this world is good. It's got the sun, the moon, the stars. It has the fish. It has the birds. It has the animals. It has the plants. It has the mountains. It has the rivers. It has the seas. Everything is there and it's really good. But God said there's something more that has to happen. I need to put within this world the human race. I have to create mankind in our image. Male and female together to serve the mandate that I am going to give to care for this world and to develop this world. Remembering then there were two sides to what God said. You rule over this world, you develop this world, you care for this world. It's not a matter of plundering the world, taking what we want for ourselves and ignoring what the purpose was for which God created it. Nor is it a matter of saying, hands off this world. It's some sort of sacred, holy world that we cannot have a footprint on. God put us here to have a footprint in this world, but to develop the world and to care for this world in ways that honor and glorify Him. That's been called the cultural mandate. And that takes in, then, any assignment we have. Be fruitful. Increase in number. Fill the earth. Subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground. And that doesn't mean only those who work in agriculture, although it includes them. It also means each of us has the responsibility to develop this world. Not only to grow crops, but to make music. Not only to tend the rivers and care for the fisheries, but to build cities. To provide performances, athletic events that fulfill the potential within this world and celebrates the goodness of the one who made it all. So, whatever stage we're at in life, we have a task. We have an assignment to participate as fully as we can in developing and caring for God's world. Each of us has different abilities. Each of us has different capabilities. But each of us can do something to make this world shinier and brighter and more reflective of the glory of the One who made it. If we're going to do that, that's a huge task. It's an exciting task. It's an overwhelming task. But it's a task that calls us to be diligent. You cannot get a picture of that task and not realize how hard we have to work. That's one of the responsibilities of Christian education, whether a college such as Dork College or any college that claims that name of Christ, is to give the picture of the grand sweep of what God is doing, His story of caring for this world, and our story of our particular place, whether as a nurse or whether as an accountant, whether as a chemist or whether as an engineer. Whatever our responsibility in this world, to develop it, to care for it, that calls for diligence, enthusiasm. It calls for faithfulness. That's the first part. But there's a reason why I included this second text today. Because the diligence is all well and good in those first couple of chapters of the Bible. But pretty soon, already by the third chapter, things have gone wrong. Instead of faithfully, diligently caring for and developing the world and everything just being glorious, we find a catastrophic situation has overwhelmed this world. Sin has come into this world and the human race has turned their back on the mandate. And they have perverted and have twisted the mandate to where they want to do things their way. We want to do things our way. We want the knowledge of good and evil. We will decide what's good. We will decide what's wrong. Rather than obediently accepting the fruit of the tree of life, we will make our decisions what we are about to do, what our tasks are, what our responsibilities are. And as a result, no corner of this world has been left untouched by the disaster that the human race has brought upon it. What do we do then? How do we care for every living thing that moves on the earth when one of those living things is the tuberculosis bacillus that can wreak havoc across the globe? How do we care for every living cell when some of those cells run wild and cancer rampages its devastation within us or our loved ones? How do we develop hydrocarbons in our world in such a way that on the one hand it powers an ambulance that brings a patient to life-giving care but also leaves behind unknown and uncertain impacts on the environment around us? Life has gotten complicated and pretty messy. Obedient to the cultural mandate, we build thriving communities such as Escondido, the whole North San Diego County area. But as we do so, social problems develop. Crime occurs. The land that once fed people is a sign for other uses. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, even our best efforts in this life are stained by sin. And that includes our efforts at carrying out the cultural mandate, our global task. But we don't give up. Why not? Because we are called not only to diligence, we're called to patience. How can we be so patient in our task? Simply put, we can be patient because God is patient. Even when sin has corrupted this great creation by distorting and disrupting our efforts to care for it, God's faithfulness, His covenant pledge, means that rather than destroying it and starting all over again, as He had every right to do, God instead so loved the world, the cosmos, that He gave His one and only Son so that the world might be saved through Him. Now, that was the lesson the disciples had to learn through Jesus' ministry. They had to learn that it was because God so loved the world that He sent Jesus Christ into the world so that the world could be saved through Him. They had to learn that. They had to learn it doesn't say, for God so loved the world that He sent Carl Zylster to be president of Dork College so that Dork College could be saved through Him. It doesn't say that God so loved the world that He sent you to be the leader of your company so that your company might be saved through you. It doesn't say that God so loved the world that He sent you to be the father or the mother, the brother or the sister, so that your family might be saved through you. No, God sent His Son so that the world might be saved through Him. And the disciples got it. Well, it took them a while to catch on. Even when Jesus died, they hadn't quite caught on. that the world was going to be saved through Him. When He first rose from the dead, Jesus Himself had to explain it to them. No, it wasn't a matter of you as disciples and I as a leader were going to sweep across this world and set everything right. God's way is a patient way, the way that leads through the cross and the resurrection follows only after the cross. But once the disciples caught on to that, they thought they finally had things straight. They remembered the time they had been up on the mountain with Jesus, the mountain we call the mountain of transfiguration. They remembered how Jesus had said to them, but don't tell anybody what happened here because my time has not yet come. They wanted to charge on down the mountain knowing who Jesus was, knowing He was the fulfillment of all of God's plans to renew and save the world. They wanted to charge down the mountain and get busy doing it. They were great on the diligence side of things. Jesus said, you have to learn patience. My time has not yet come. But now, now after He's risen from the dead and they have their theology straight, the disciples say, okay, we've learned our catechism lessons now. We've learned our understanding of who you are and how your kingdom comes. But now, Lord, is now the time? And you can see them almost jumping up and down with excitement. Now, Lord, now do we get to go down the mountain because now you are going to finally restore the kingdom to Israel? We know we aren't going to restore it, but you certainly are. So are you going to lead us down the mountain and we'll go down there with you? And Jesus once more has to say, Patience. Patience, my people. it is not for you to know the time or the season that belongs to the Father alone to make it clear. Rather, Jesus said, you just go and wait. Go to Jerusalem and wait. We sometimes say that Jesus' last command was go make disciples of all nations. That's actually His second to last command. His last command is wait. wait for the Holy Spirit to come on you. And even then, it's not a matter of once the Holy Spirit comes on you, then you'll be able to do all my work. Then you'll be able to restore the kingdom. Then you'll be able to get everything done that all your diligence in fulfilling the cultural mandate finally can be accomplished under the renewing leadership that I give. Jesus says, no, you will wait for the Holy Spirit and then you'll get power and as people filled with the Holy Spirit's power, you will not be the builders of the kingdom. You will be witnesses to the kingdom. You will be the people, my wife and I saw as we drove through the community this afternoon, the people with the open house signs, the people they hired to stand on the road and jump up and down with the sign that says house for sale or house for rent. That's our role. Jesus is the one who's the contractor, the builder, the one who's accomplished it. What we do is jump up and down with the signs and tell the world, look, that way, that's where the kingdom is coming. That's how we fulfill the cultural mandate today. Whatever our responsibility, whatever our task, whatever this congregation is able to accomplish in this community is not going to be the building of the kingdom of God, but the witness to the kingdom of God that Jesus Christ is bringing. This congregation has a task to do, but this congregation is not going to be the ground zero of God's work even in this dynamic area of the world. The hill on which Christ died and the mount from which the risen Lord ascended is ground zero for what God will do even in this community. And this congregation has the tremendous privilege of creating a body of loving witnesses in which the gospel of Christ's redemption can then be proclaimed in every corner of this city. That's what we do as a college. We don't send out graduates who are going to usher in the kingdom of God, but we attempt to prepare people to be witnesses to what Jesus Christ will do in social work, in medicine, in education, in physical therapy, in youth ministry. Preparing for the direction of pointing out in whatever you do what this world really should be like and doing what we can with diligence and patience as Jesus brings His kingdom. But does that mean then finally that we become lethargic and discouraged? Do we look back over the history of our congregation, The history of our profession. Our families. Whatever our studies. And say, I wonder what it amounted to. I've tried to be diligent. I maybe even learned to be patient. But does it make any difference? Does anything come of it at all? That's why we had to read the last verse. from the second to last chapter of the Bible. Because it isn't enough to say that in the beginning God gave us a task to cultivate and care for this world so that it shows His glory. It isn't even enough to say that our task today is to witness patiently to Christ's ongoing work as He repairs and rebuilds what sin has destroyed. We need also to understand that the day is truly coming when all will be done and all will be well because the glory of God will fill the entire earth as the waters cover the sea. The day is coming when a new heaven and a new earth will be brought by the risen Lord to replace the original heavens and the original earth that God created. And in that new heaven and new earth, all that is begun today in obedience to Jesus Christ will be completed. And God will be all and in all as His Son turns the kingdom over to Him. Not only do we have to be diligent, not only do we need to be patient, we also need to be eager for that day. When the glory of God, in all its blinding brilliance, will mark every part of the new heavens and the new earth. Now that's not just happy talk, designed to anesthetize us against our responsibilities of the present. That doesn't mean we don't have to keep working at our jobs designed to restore and renew and polish up various facets of God's world for His honor and His glory. It doesn't mean we stop working at our tasks of developing human society and culture so that for instance this city with all its marvelous economic growth and development it will be organized and and and developed in ways that reflects god's plan and god's purpose whether you're an architect designing new buildings or a power plant operator sustaining the operations of that building or a manager organizing an office within that building a police officer ensuring strong peaceable connections between that building and its activities in the rest of the community whatever task we have within that we want our community to reflect already now as fully as possible the glory of the God who gave us the mandate that we fulfill with eagerness that we wait with patience as our Lord leads us but that we also are eager for the day when it will be done sometimes we forget we're so filled with our tasks of the moment that we forget to be eager for its completion and yet when in the last 27 minutes we have gone from the beginning of the Bible to its end we recognize that what began in the beginning and the assignment we were given we may pursue with diligence now we'd better wait with patience as Christ completes His redeeming work to renew what we were assigned to do but we also have to look ahead with eagerness for the day when the glory finally comes and we and every part of this world will as Pastor Donovan already mentioned bow and say Jesus Christ really is the Lord for the glory of God the Father. And not just, and this is a place where we sometimes make a mistake by not connecting all this together. Sometimes we think that simply means well then everyone will know who Jesus is and admit that He was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Yes, that's core to it. But the reason everyone will be so astounded that Jesus is Lord is that they will be surrounded by the brilliance of the new heavens and the new earth that reflects the glory of God so perfectly and completely that everyone will have to say Jesus is Lord. But as they ask the nation's creed says, some that will be for their destruction. Because that's not what they wanted. It's not what they worked for. It's not what they prayed for. But they will acknowledge to their own eternal destruction that Jesus is the Lord and that all the glory goes to God alone. Diligence, patience, and eagerness for the day that is yet to come when after our task of diligently pursuing the mandate of caring for and developing God's world is finished. After with patience the day finally arrives when all is done. After that will come the glory for which we eagerly await and for which we pray. And until then, we work. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Lord, tonight, make us diligent. Make us patient, but make us eager. For the day when by the sea of crystal all the saints will in glory be standing, myriad in number drawn from every land, robed in white apparel, washed in Jesus' blood, not just pulled out of a world, but now in the new heavens and the new earth, reigning with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So that unto Him alone will be all the glory and the praise In Jesus' name, Amen.