Remember Who You Are

00:01 Amen. Thank you for that worship time this morning, Brother Aaron. I'd like to have you turn in your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter. And I do not have a Christmas message. We had a Christmas message last week. I guess you could say this is more of a New Year's message, but even that might not be such exactly that. 00:22 But it is a message that can help us to transition from old to new. It is a message that will help us to know who we are. It is important that we know who we are if we're going to make an impact in the world around us. It's important to know who we are if we're going to be strong, 00:43 if we're going to face the future with courage and with confidence to know who we are. My children, it's interesting as adult children get together and reminisce the things that they remind Mom and Dad of. And some of those things are positive. Some of those things might be more of your failures and shortcomings. 01:03 Some may be an interesting combination of the two. But nevertheless, I was recently reminded of one of the things that I often told my children when they would leave the house. In addition to telling them to be careful, which was what my mom always used to say, "Be careful. You couldn't hardly walk from the house to the barn without..." No, I'm kidding. 01:25 "Without Mom telling you to be careful. But especially if you went out and were on the road, be careful." But one of the things I've told my children through the years is remember who you are and to whom you belong. Now, when I said that, I did not have any meaning that they should remember that they're Todd and New Swanders children or that they're pastors' children or anything like that. 01:46 Remember who you are. You're a Christian. And to whom you belong. You belong to Jesus Christ. And by the way, you do belong to this family. And so you always belong. You always have a place to come back to. And so I, without apology, tell us this morning to remember who you are and to whom you belong. 02:08 You're a Christian. You belong to Jesus Christ. Our identity is in Him. And it's probably close to 25 years ago, maybe close to 30 years ago that I was at a Moody Pastors Conference. 02:24 And the Urban Luther was preaching. Now, I remember him talking about the dark days that lay ahead for the church. And even back 30 years ago, this would have been probably in about '93. He was talking about America as we have known it being substantially changed. 02:45 In fact, I wrote it down at the time. Luther said that the America that we have known is over. The America as we have known it. And he quoted Francis Schaefer, who said the America as we know it will one day be over. And sometimes when we hear things like that, it makes us unsettled. 03:05 You know, what are we going to face in the future when we look to a new year? What is America going to look like? What is the world going to look like? We have all kinds of questions. In fact, we have maybe more questions than we have answers. And we have a possibility of an unfriendly administration, presidential administration, 03:25 unfriendly to the church, to the cause of Christ and the gospel. In fact, there was recently a statement that went out from an atheist group that said to the Biden administration, "We encourage you. We encourage you to crack down on religion." It made the news and on Christianity, 03:46 not just religion, but on Christianity. And so we have these questions. But I'm thankful to be able to tell us this morning on the authority of God's Word that Jesus Christ is the King. He has not changed. He's not going anywhere. If anything, He's coming back. But other than that, He's not going anywhere. He's not passing off the scene. 04:05 And the future will give us ministry opportunities if we remember who we are and to whom we belong. You're a Christian. You belong to Christ. And this is the passion that Peter wrote to the audience that he was writing to, 04:25 the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. "Elect" chapter 1, verse 2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Now, that's who we are. That's who we are. 04:44 We are the elect according to the foreknowledge of God. And he goes over into chapter 2 and begins to talk about Christ as being one who was rejected. John said that he was rejected of men. No, that was Isaiah, I believe. Rejected of men. And John said that he came into his own and his own received him not. 05:06 He is a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And in verse 4 of chapter 2, he says, "We're coming to Him," that is to Christ, "as to a living stone rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and precious." Now, I want to ask you a question this morning. 05:25 Would you rather be accepted by men and rejected by God? Or would you rather be accepted by God and rejected by men? Sometimes you can't have it both ways. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you have a few people speak well of you. 05:41 But most of the time, when the ungodly world comes into contact with the claims of Christ, they will reject the claims of Christ. And they reject, Jesus said, they reject those who promote the claims of Christ. He said, "If they hated me, they'll hate you." And sometimes that comes from the religious community, 06:00 which aligns itself with the world more than with the cross. And so he said, this living stone, this living stone was rejected indeed by men but chosen by God and precious. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, 06:21 a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone, elect and precious, honorable and beautiful. 06:44 And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. 07:01 They stumble being disobedient to the Word to which they also were appointed." But I'm going to pause just a moment there and go back and look at this Word, the stones. What kind of stones are we talking about? Well, the Greek word is the word lithos, which means a stone. 07:21 It is used of a variety of stones. It could be used in Scripture of small stones, of building stones, of significant size and beauty, of stones that were used to build the temple. It could be used of a stone for covering the door or entrance to a tomb. 07:40 They moved a stone in front of the tomb. It can be used of stone tablets, of idols carved in stone, statues of marble, precious stones. It can be used of Christ, the chief cornerstone and a living stone. He is a stumbling stone. The Jews, 07:59 since they took offense at Christ, person and character, and thus rejected their spiritual deliverer. And Peter says, "This is a living stone. This is not just a dead stone. This is an anchor that's alive. This is a precious, beautiful temple building stone. And you, 08:19 as stones, fit it into the temple of God." Ephesians talks about Christ being that chief cornerstone in the building of God and we being individual stones all fitted together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. Remember that. 08:39 We are the habitation of God through the Spirit. I love the things that Scripture says to us about who we are in Jesus Christ, helping us to remember who we are and to whom we belong. Luther, in that message that I referred to a moment ago, had this to say, 08:58 and I wrote this down, that of all the things that God has to take care of in the universe, you are still number one on His list. Think about that. We are still number one on God's list of things to take care of in the universe. 09:16 And when you think about the things that God has to take care of in the universe, there are many. I mean, He has stars. How many of you saw what's called the Christmas star this past week? 09:27 Well, Monday night, it was cloudy, so we didn't get to see it. But Tuesday night, we drove out in the country where we get a good glimpse of that Saturn and Jupiter. And God has all these stars to keep in order. And He puts them into place and governs their orbit. And He has the angelic worlds to keep in order. 09:46 And He has to keep tabs on Satan. And He can only allow... and Satan can only do certain things to certain people. And He has all the demons to watch after. And He has the angels, the angelic host to command. 09:57 And then He's got this world system that continues to spin and to spin and the system itself of raising up leaders and putting down leaders and billions and billions of people in the universe. And of all of those things that God has to take care of in the universe, the church is still His number one priority at this time. 10:18 And so what does He say about us? We're living stones and a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, back to our text in verse 9, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people. 10:36 King James says, "A peculiar people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." Help us remember, Lord, who we are and to whom we belong. 10:56 The first thing we see in our text verse this morning is we are a chosen generation, a chosen generation. 11:04 Now, I don't know about you, but it always made me a bit dismayed when it came time to choose sides for a ball game. So when I was in grade school and even when I was in junior high and even when I was in high school and even as an adult, some of you that have watched me play ball in times past know that by observation. 11:26 I am not an athlete nor the son of an athlete. And so when it came time to be chosen, to be chosen to be on a team, some of us know what it's like to be one of the last ones chosen. And you hope that maybe there was one behind you yet when you were the second to the last chosen. 11:46 But Scripture says that we are a chosen generation, not just chosen by accident, not just chosen because we have to get through all these number of people to make sure that they all have a place, even though we don't want them on the team, 12:02 but chosen and elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter 1, verse 2. Chosen, a chosen generation, chosen. The Bible says, "He shall not, God, avenge His own elect who cry out day and night unto Him, 12:22 though He bear long with them. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily." God hears the cries of His children, His chosen, His elect, His elect, people that are picked out, the choice, choice people. Now, we're not choice because we're somehow really beautiful and good. 12:42 We're chosen because God wanted to choose us. And the Bible says that we are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. In other words, I don't believe that God just kind of chose some people and He didn't choose other people, but He chose based on who He knew would respond. 13:02 The Bible says that 13:05 Jesus said when He was on the cross, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Myself. I will draw them, all men unto Myself," speaking of the cross. And according to the foreknowledge of God, God knows who is going to respond. And those are the elect. 13:21 Now, you can debate and argue about whether or not He's proactive and He's separating people out and He's choosing this person or that person. We just know that He has elected us according to the foreknowledge of God. And everyone who wants to come can come. Whosoever will may come. Let him drink of the water of life free. 13:41 And so this morning, you are a chosen one. If you have put your faith and confidence in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God has chosen you. He has a place for you. You are in no way inferior to the rest of His chosen saints. Amen? 14:01 It's a little weak because sometimes we feel like we're the second to the last one to be chosen or maybe the last one to be chosen. And you mean to tell me, Brother Todd, that I'm in no way inferior to the first one chosen on the team? Absolutely. Because those who He predestined, He also... 14:21 for whom He foreknew, He also predestined. Those who predestined He called and those He called, He saves and sanctifies and purifies and glorifies and uses. And even the least in the kingdom of God is no way inferior to the greatest. In fact, 14:39 Jesus said, "If you want to be the greatest, you got to be the least. You got to be the least." So we are a chosen generation. Jesus said in John 15, "You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you to go and bring forth fruit." So we have this aspect of Jesus choosing and man choosing. We don't understand how all that works, 14:59 but we know that Christ and those who are in Christ are a part of this chosen generation. Jesus said in John 15, verse 19, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. 15:11 But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." You see, it's God's loving initiative in bringing the church to Himself and instituting and initiating salvation. You contrast that chosen generation with what the Bible calls a corrupt generation, 15:32 an evil and adulterous generation, a generation of vipers, a wicked generation, a sinful generation, a faithless and perverse generation. And yet God calls us a chosen generation. Remember who you are and to whom you belong. 15:49 You are chosen by God according to His foreknowledge and His wonderful plan. You see, Christ was despised, rejected of men, but chosen by God. We, by identifying with Christ, are despised, 16:09 rejected by men and the power structures of this evil world system, but received by God, chosen by God. I'd rather have it that way than the other way. To be received by men and rejected by God would be tragic. So therefore, 16:29 why do we spend our lives trying to be received by men rather than spending our lives to be approved by God, approved by God? Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, "For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God. 16:45 The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people who are upon the face of the earth." He spoke that to the Israelites. He spoke that to the Jewish people. Today, He speaks it to us as Gentiles. He's opened the door and says, "Gentiles, come on in. 17:01 You're part of the chosen generation." There have been times in my life when I wished I could have lived in another time in history. Has anybody ever felt that way? I have. There were a few times in history that I think had been cool to live. And finally, 17:21 I came to the realization that that wasn't God's plan or I'd have been there. God's plan is for us to live right here, right now, today in 2020, moving into 2021, and see what God has to do with us today. 17:43 Chosen for such a time as this. We think about Esther being chosen for such a time as this. Who knows, Esther, but what you might have been brought to the throne for this time, for this event, for this experience, for this place. Serve where you are and where God wants to put you, Esther. You're not some other place. 18:03 You're not some other person. This is the opportunity that God has given to you. Seize it. Take it. You're chosen. Now, use that opportunity to serve God. The second thing we see in our text verse here is that we are a holy nation. Excuse me. 18:21 I missed one. We are a royal priesthood, a royal priesthood. As if being chosen wasn't enough, God calls us royalty and puts upon us not only the robes of royalty, but the vestments of the priestly order under the authority of the high priest. 18:40 And so with Christ being prophet, priest, and king, He's now said, "I'm going to make you a priest and king underneath of Me, a royal priesthood." Christ, the high priest, we, His underpriests. You see, the priests and the Levites had a lot of responsibility. 19:01 They were to assist the high priest in the keeping of the temple, in the offering of the ordinances and the sacrifices. They were to represent God to the people. They were to represent the people to God. And Scripture says here that we are a royal priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices. 19:22 What are these spiritual sacrifices that we're to offer? We know what the old physical sacrifices were, the burnt offering and the peace offering and the fellowship offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering and all those offerings. We can read about those in the Old Testament. 19:41 What is a royal priest doing today? Well, Hebrews 13 says, "We offer unto God the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." You realize when you come and you worship the Lord, whether here at church or in the quietness of your prayer closet, 20:02 your morning devotions or evening devotions, the privacy of your quiet time, and you offer your praise and thanksgiving and even the life that you live throughout the day, but offering praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, you are functioning in a royal priestly realm, 20:21 offering the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. Brother Aaron mentioned that this morning about the praise and thanksgiving and joy. It's a sacrifice. Sometimes to offer that praise and thanksgiving takes work. It takes effort. It takes an attitude adjustment. You know what I'm talking about? 20:42 It takes an attitude adjustment. Interestingly enough, it brings about an attitude adjustment as well. And so you offer it. You have the attitude adjustment and you offer it, and then it adjusts your attitude further. And so you can offer it again. The sacrifices of God, a broken, 21:01 contrite heart, the Bible says, is a sacrifice. Oh, He desires not to burn offerings and sacrifices from a stony, rebellious heart, but the sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken heart and a contrite spirit. "Oh God, thou wilt not despise," Psalm 51. 21:23 We're to offer the sacrifice of intercession, the sacrifice of intercession, prayers and supplications. Hebrews 5 talks a lot about these sacrifices in the New Testament, in the New Covenant. He talks about Christ being a priest after the order of Melchizedek who, 21:44 in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears, oh, Christ in His high priestly role offered up prayers and intercessions and supplications. We can do no less. 22:03 And so when we come to God here corporately, by the way, He's saying this in the context of the church in our text this morning, in the context of the church, a chosen generation, a generation is more than just one person. 22:23 A royal priesthood is more than just one person, a priesthood. You had a priest, but a priest, a lone priest, cannot have a priesthood. And a holy nation is more than just one person. We're talking about the gathering of God's people. 22:42 Yes, as that expresses itself personally in our own personal worship, but as it expresses ourselves in our relating together with one another in church that we offer. 22:53 So when we come to God and we sing and we pray and we offer our prayers of intercession and supplications, we are ministering in the royal priestly realm. Remember who you are, to whom you belong. We give up the offering of ourselves, 23:14 Romans 12:1. "Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present yourselves, your bodies, as a living..." What? Say it. Sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 23:30 That is offering our body, our body to God's service. Good works, good works are part of our sacrifice. Oh, we shy away from that in this age of a heavy emphasis on grace, but nevertheless, the good works that we do, 23:50 letting our light shine that men may see our good works and glorify our Father, which is in heaven, is part of the package of a priestly function and responsibility. Hebrews 13:15, "Therefore, by Him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, 24:11 that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name, but do not forget to do good works and to share. For with such sacrifices, God is well pleased." Doing good and sharing is a sacrifice that pleases God. 24:32 So all that we do as a Christian with direct access to God, a kingdom of priests, three times stated in Revelation, able to go in with Christ into the holy of holies. Most priests couldn't go there. They could come to a certain place. 24:52 They could come to the brazen altar where they'd offer the sacrifices, the burnt offerings. They could come to the labor of brass where they would wash their feet and their hands and so on. And they would then... 25:03 some priests could come into the holy place where they would have the table of showbread and the altar of incense, and they would light that all or keep that altar and burn incense two times a day and keep that oil in that lamp, keeping it burning and the table of showbread, keeping the bread there. 25:24 But only once a year, one person going back into the holy of holies. And Christ says, "We can go there. We can go there." How do we know that? The invitation is to be able to go there because that veil in the temple was rent, showing us that we can go in. 25:44 I ask the question sometimes to people if they found the Ark of the Covenant. Would you look in it? Would you touch it? Now, I would certainly want to respect it, but if by accident I touched it or I looked in it, I wouldn't want to be irreverent or anything. 26:04 But there's no prohibition of touching the Ark of the Covenant in the New Testament. There's no prohibition of looking into it. In fact, the Bible says that the things that the angels want to look into and the Old Testament saints wanted to look into, we can look into. We can see because God isn't in there in that box anymore. 26:25 We are a royal priesthood administering spiritual sacrifices in the presence of Almighty God through Jesus Christ, our high priest. 26:37 Number three, we are a holy nation, a holy nation. Now, when I started thinking about this, I kind of got a little bit excited to think about God's people as a holy nation. You know, brothers and sisters, there is no holy nation on earth politically. 27:01 I hate to inform you, but the United States is not a holy nation. Never has been, never will be. Oh, it had some Christian principles. It had some Judeo-Christian principles and worldview, but it was never, has not been, cannot be, will not be a holy nation. 27:24 But the church is. The church is the holy nation of God, a group of people that are blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, Philippians 2:15. 27:48 Israel came as close to being a holy nation as possible, but they fell. They were not a holy nation because their hearts were not regenerated. Our hearts are now regenerated. 28:03 And so we have the holiness of God imputed and permeating our hearts and lives so we can be a holy nation set apart for His use. Now, a nation... 28:24 I did a little looking at this. What is a nation? And some people would say that a nation are those, a group of people, a large group of people who have a common descent, a common history, a common culture, a common language, and I would add to that common laws and authority structures. 28:45 So what is our commonality? Our common descent is that we're all sons and daughters of Adam, but that doesn't make us a holy nation. And we are of the offspring, spiritually, of Abraham. That would make us a holy nation. And we're children of God. 29:05 That makes us a holy nation with a common descent. 29:10 By the way, every Sunday, we have a family reunion here. Amen? Every Sunday, we have a family reunion. We get excited with reunions. We get excited when the children come home. We get excited when we get to go be with the aunts and uncles and the cousins and the grandparents and the parents, 29:30 or maybe we're the grandparents and the parents now. And there's a family reunion that binds people together in the natural. And we'll move sometimes heaven and earth to get to those reunions. Let me tell you what. We have a family reunion right here every Sunday morning. Amen? 29:52 We're bound together by a common descent. We're bound together by a common history, God's history, biblical history. We can trace our spiritual roots all the way back to Abraham. History. Want to know where you come from? Want to know where you're going? 30:13 History is where we come from, long line of believers in Jesus Christ, church history, 2,000 years, 2,000 years of church history. How far back does your history go? I have a fan on the wall, thanks to Aaron Stalffus for showing me his, and my wife got me one for my birthday a couple of years ago or Father's Day or whatever it was. 30:32 And it's a fan on the wall that traces your lineage back. There's some gaps in my family history, Aaron. I noticed there's some gaps. I don't know who they are. There's others that you go back four or five generations, you say, "Well, there's that person, that person, that person." But our history goes back further than that. Our history goes back to the cross. 30:53 Our history goes back to the prophets. It goes back to Abraham. So we are spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham. I enjoy genealogy. 31:06 One of the things that I regret about living so far away from my family of origin is that my children will never know many of the people that directly impacted my life in my community where I grew up. It's important to me, but that's not the most important thing. 31:25 The most important thing is to be connected to this holy nation. 31:31 We have a common culture, our common culture where we appreciate the same things. We're not talking about a culture that's based on whether or not you speak Dutch or English or Chinese or Japanese or Spanish. 31:51 We're talking about the culture of the cross, the culture of the cross, a culture of service, a culture of spiritual freedom in Jesus Christ, a culture of holy living, a culture that is different than the value systems of the world around us, 32:14 a holy nation. That's our common culture. We have a common language, the language of love, the language of love. We all speak the same language, the language of truth. 32:27 Oh, we may express it in different physical languages, but what binds us together is the language of God's love and grace and mercy. 32:40 And then we have common laws and authority. I hate to refer to this as the law, but it is the commandments. And it's common to believers in this holy nation. This is the constitution. We appeal to the US government and its laws and constitution. 33:01 Constitution. What are the laws and constitution of the holy nation? It's the Word of God. This is the constitution. And that constitution represents the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what we have here in this holy nation is those things bind us together, 33:24 bind us together. 33:28 And then finally, we are a peculiar people, a peculiar people. Now, let's think about King James' rendering of that word peculiar. Some people think that Christians are weird. That's not the meaning of the word peculiar, by the way. 33:49 The word peculiar is better translated as being a people for God's possession. The word peculiar has the idea of something owned by God. The word can be translated in some translations as a people for God's own possession. Other translations, a people belonging to God. 34:10 Some translate it God's own people, a people for His possession, God's very own, God's own purchased special people. I like that one too. God's own purchased special people. The definition of peculiar here is it is a preserving, obtaining, 34:31 and a possession of one's property. That's the definition of the word peculiar. And it does make us weird as far as the world is concerned. So there is an aspect of weirdness if you're looking at the world's definition of normality. 34:52 We're not normal as far as the world is concerned. However, we are more normal than what they are as far as God is concerned because we more and more and more represent the original man and woman, Adam and Eve, who were the sons' direct creation of God. 35:08 And the closer we get to that perfection, the more Christ-like we become and the more normal we become. But we live in a world where the abnormal has become normal and the normal has become abnormal. You know what I'm saying? So we are peculiar. We are saved. 35:27 We're preserved. We're purchased, obtained by Him. We're the apple of His eye. And that makes us kind of weird as far as the world is concerned. It's a little bit weird to get up on Sunday morning when you get one day a week off or maybe two, get up at Sunday morning, 35:46 get the children ready and get ourselves ready and traips off the church and sit there for two hours and do weird things like sing. The world doesn't have much to sing about. We do. And like pray, the world only prays when they get into trouble and need somebody out there, 36:07 whoever you are, to help me. But we pray voluntarily to praise. I mean, we do such things as kneel. The world doesn't want to kneel to anybody. We do such weird things as give, give our offerings to something totally outside of ourself. 36:27 Weird. Why would you do that? You should be saving. You should be spending. In fact, half the time the world tells us we're not saving enough, and then they tell us we're not spending enough. They very rarely tell us we're not giving enough because that's weird, unusual. We turn the other cheek. 36:48 Someone wrongs us. We live by kingdom ethics in this new nation. We turn the other cheek. We do good works even though it doesn't benefit us at all so that people would glorify God and we step out. We do it anonymously even. I mean, 37:08 the world wants to at least get their name in the bulletin, at least get it on the radio, at least get it on the building, at least put me on a square where I can have a little bit of net recognition. And that's not always wrong, but that's the way the world functions, the attitude that they have. 37:28 We say we can do it anonymously. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly? It's a different set of values. We try to be honest and ethical. We will make an effort to the best of our ability to be honest. 37:47 When we misrepresent something through ignorance, we go back to try to set the record straight. We go back so we don't spread false information. We minister to others. 38:01 We feed the poor. We visit the sick and elderly. We care for the widows and the orphans. We do that in the name of Christ. We do things like prison ministry. We do things like inner-city witness and ministry. 38:19 And it's interesting when you sit in a barber chair and somebody asks you whether they want to make small talk, what do you do? And you say, "Well, I'm in prison ministry." If you say you're a pastor, they kind of get that. If you say you're in prison ministry, their eyes glaze over if they don't know the Lord. 38:38 Their eyes kind of glaze over and they search for words to try to say something unless they're a believer. And if they're a believer, they get it. They get it. They understand it. They understand why you do what you do because they're part of the group. They're part of the nation. They're part of the values. 38:57 They're part of the kingdom. 39:00 It doesn't mean everybody does prison ministry, but they understand ministry, understand mutual aid, bearing one another's burdens, serving in the name of Christ with anonymity. We get it. And it's weird. 39:19 It's strange. It's countercultural. And I say be countercultural and don't apologize for it. I want to close with this this morning. 39:32 The Lord laid it on my heart, but I'm just continually amazed at how much God's people apologize for being God's people. We believe the Bible, but we're sorry for it if it offends you. We believe the first 11 chapters of Genesis, 39:54 literal history. But we got people running all over the world trying to apologize for that and trying to fudge it and try to adapt it and try to apologize for it. Just believe it and promote it and preach it. And if the world rejects you, so be it. 40:15 By the way, those who preach a little Genesis are rejected by the scientific community at large. They are. It's not popular, but again, chosen by God, rejected by the world, not the other way around. 40:31 And we as Anabaptists are particularly apologetic. I talked to someone recently—well, this has been a couple of years ago—who come in from another denomination into the Anabaptist family. And his observation of us is. He said, 40:50 "I have never in my life met a group of people that are so apologetic for who they are." Interesting. I mean, the Baptists don't apologize for being Baptists. Pentecostals don't apologize for being Pentecostal. But as Mennonites, 41:08 we just kind of apologize for, "Yeah, Anabaptists wearing a veiling." And we just can't quite. Yeah, it's okay for us, but we wouldn't want to ask it of anybody else. You know what I'm saying? The Anabaptist movement as a whole, especially the conservative wing of things, 41:30 tends to be apologetic. We apologize for the scriptures. 41:34 We have people that have made it their livelihood, their ministry, to try to find loopholes in the scriptures because we can't quite think that it's for everybody all the time. And especially going to hell, 41:54 I mean, we got people that apologize for the doctrine of hell. It's not our doctrine. We can't apologize for something that's not ours. It's God's. And so people will run around all over trying to tell the world, "Well, it doesn't really mean that. It's not really eternal. 42:11 It's not really..." And I get confused over that when in comparison with, say, the Muslim community. Muslim community, they don't apologize for being Muslim. They don't apologize for the Quran. Jews don't apologize for the Torah. 42:31 And yet the church, the larger church, oftentimes it's all fuzzy when they get a little opposition. We're a chosen generation. We're a royal priesthood. We're a holy nation. We are a people that belong to God, 42:53 and that makes us rather strange. Don't apologize for it. Don't try to adapt the gospel. There may be our methods, yes, but the message cannot be adapted. It is timeless. It's not ours to change. We are stewards, 43:14 not initiators. We are proclaimers, not authors. So remember, as we enter into 2021, who you are, you're Christian. And to whom you belong, 43:36 you belong to Jesus. You're part of this holy group of people, disciples of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord God, thank you for the reminder for me. Sometimes, 43:55 Lord, the road does get weary, and sometimes the opposition does come against us. And sometimes we question. We have questions. We have doubts. We have fears. 44:12 And sometimes we are tempted to wonder if the battle is worth the cost. And Lord, we come back to this thing of who we are and to whom we belong. We belong to Jesus Christ. 44:31 You have bought us with a price. You have given us the gift of salvation, the presence, and gift of the Holy Spirit. You have given us the Word of God. You have given us purpose and meaning. You have birthed us into a kingdom that is an eternal kingdom. We cannot get away from that. 44:51 We must come back to it. And to be accepted by God in the beloved, what a wonderful place to be in the beloved. 45:07 And so, Lord, as we stand on the door as I stand on the threshold of 2021, let us go forth with confidence. Let us go forth with purpose. 45:22 Let us go forth rejoicing with joy unspeakable, full of glory, hope that fadeth not away, love that is genuine and without hypocrisy, and truth that is forever settled in heaven. 45:41 And let us glorify you by our good works, by our sacrifices of praise continually, that those around us might see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen.