# 97 Get Off Your Butt!

Joh 5:28 "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 "and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

All people will be resurrected! Some will go on to live eternally in Paradise where everything is good! (Note God’s declaration of this fact after every day of Creation, God saw that it was good)  others will suffer eternally with a total absence of Good in hell.

So, who goes where? Jesus tells us here that those who have done evil will go to hell. But what does that mean? Well, it’s more than being a vile and wicked person. There are other nuances to that word, “evil.”  In the Greek  is also used to describe someone who is “good for nothing, worthless, mediocre. Some of those words ought to get our attention. They ought to get us out of our padded pews and into the streets with the Gospel and the love of Christ! Get off your butts’ people!

Those words ought to connect us with other vital areas of Scripture that speak of the “evil” of complacency. For instance, in the parable of the talents, there were three servants or “believers.” They were given various amounts of money. Two of the servants invest their talents and earn a return for their master, the third servant buried his talent and earns “nothing.” What was the third servant good for? Nothing! He was guilty of being “evil!”

The master himself called that servant a “wicked, lazy servant,” and in the end said, “Throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (what do you expect to find in the absence of anything good?)

In Rev 3:15,16 we see once again the penalty for mediocrity, “Re 3:15 "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.

 16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”

It wasn’t just the lukewarm “attitude” of the Laodiceans that was causing problems for them, it was their lukewarm deeds….mediocrity!

In  Mt 7:19 ,20, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Thus, by their fruit (their end product, what they did) will be easily recognized. The absence of fruit speaks about the value of a tree. Remember what happened to that fig tree that didn’t supply fruit to Jesus when He needed it? Mt 21:18 “Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.”

Seems harsh, but it’s a reality that many in the church duck! That withered fig tree is a forever reminder of James 2:17, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  Faith, without works is “good for nothing. It is wicked, evil, and will be condemned.

Faith is not just “feel good,” it is also do good!