NH2026 Wednesday Evening Celebration - Michael Ots

But I don't know what you think about s- that student's words.

On the one hand it's great, isn't it? What courageous, confident calling to say, "My job is to be an evangelist to make Jesus known." Wow.

Wow, that's great, isn't it? But does that mean that her studies don't matter, that her exams don't matter? Is that great? It's an interesting question, isn't it, not just for her and for students, but for all of us.

If ultimately we are to live our lives in the light of eternity, why does so much of our life matter? I mean, surely the only thing that matters is making sure that I'm going to heaven and as many people are coming to heaven with me, right? What about the other 90% of my life, though? You know, is everything that matters just doing evangelism? Are my studies, like for her, just an excuse to do evangelism? Is my job just an excuse to do evangelism and perhaps earn money so I can support other people to do evangelism? Uh, maybe sport, well, that's maybe helpful because it can keep me healthy so I'll live longer so I can do more evangelism.

A- a- and holidays, well, perhaps they're a good rest from doing evangelism so I can restore my energy to do more evangelism.

And if I can come to a Christian festival and get trained to do evangelism, even better.

Now, maybe that's what you're expecting me as an evangelist to say tonight.

But is that true? Now, okay, most of us are not on that extreme level, are we? But perhaps for some of us we kind of feel guilty because we're not quite sure what to do with the rest of our lives.

Does that really matter, too? Is God only interested in part of what we do or the whole of what we do? You've probably heard people use the illustration of the Titanic, perhaps over here especially.

I always think of the Titanic when I fly into Belfast and see the cranes.

Um, I always feel it's, like, slightly sad that you can be so proud of something that sank, but as one Northern Irish friend told me, it was fine when she left us.

[laughs]

But you know how the illustration goes.

You know, ultimately, like, all the other things in life are like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.

You know, it's going down, and so the only thing that matters is getting people in the lifeboats.

And if our world is going down, is the only thing that matter getting in the lifeboats? Is everything else in life just rearranging chairs? Is enjoying good foods, beautiful music, arts, architecture, is that just rearranging the chairs? What about sunsets and hiking and sea swims? Do, do they matter at all? What about our jobs? Is there any point to being an engineer or a farmer or a car mechanic or a computer scientist? D- does that matter? Does how I play sport matter? Does the environment matter? Politics? Injustice? Poverty? What about all these other aspects of life? Do they really matter? You know, I sometimes meet atheists and they say, "That's the problem with religion.

The problem with religion is you're too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good." They say actually it's much better to live your life thinking that this is all we have because then you'll really make the most of life.

Have you heard people say that? Maybe someone said that to you.

You only live once, so make the most of every moment, enjoy it to the full, because this is all you've got.

And I can kind of see where they're coming from.

But actually if you think about it a bit more deeply, does it actually follow? Because if this life is all we have, why does anything ultimately matter? I mean, imagine if you knew that at the end of those years at university, you weren't gonna get a degree.

Would you still bother revising? Or if you're a farmer and you knew that at the end of the year, your crops would be wasted and you'd get no money, would you bother plowing the fields? If ultimately we live our lives with the prospect that death is the end of everything, then what is the point of anything? Bertrand Russell was a famous atheist of the last century and he said this, "We are the products of causes which had no provision of the end they were achieving.

Our origin, growth, hopes and fears, loves and beliefs are but the outcome of an accidental collocation of atoms.

No fire of heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave.

All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.