The Non-Adorning of Our Temples

00:02 Amen. He is here. Do you believe that this morning? He is here. He said He would be. "Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them." And we aren't more than two or three. We're gathered in His name. He is here in the midst of us. Praise the Lord. He is dwelling in His temple. 00:22 The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6, "I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you. 00:42 I will be a Father to you and you shall be My sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Two weeks ago when I preached, I introduced the subject of the dwelling places of God, 01:03 restoring the dwelling place of God. 01:05 And we looked at the three earthly dwellings that God had been set up in His name. First of all, the tabernacle. We want to do a little bit of review this morning and to review those entities. You remember the tabernacle. We put up some pictures here on that of the tabernacle there. 01:26 You had the skins. You had the whole thing being covered with fine leather, some of the passages say, or badger skins. We talked about that. 01:40 And the beauty of that tabernacle was not in its courtyard where there were blood sacrifices and there was washing of the priests and so on. But it was inside that temple, in that tabernacle. As you come in that first... behind that first veil there, 02:00 that first curtain where the priest would go in daily to the altar of incense and the golden lampstands and the table of showbread. And then that's where the gold was. And then the gold was on beyond that. The golden support system, the golden beams and walls, 02:21 and the golden furniture, the Ark of the Covenant, was in that second section there. And we said that that... according to those who studied this... I didn't do the math on it. I don't know that I'd been able to with all the information. 02:35 But they say that that if it were to be built today in current American currency would be about $51 million. So you had all the bronze on the outside and you had all the bronze lavors and the altar and then all the gold on the inside and all of the fine linens and the curtains and so on. 02:56 It was in about three school buses in size and would cost today about $51 million. Then we looked at Solomon's temple and we discussed that. And that covered was a little bit larger. The whole complex there covered about 17 acres. 03:13 And you read about that in 1 Kings 6:6-8. And if you looked at that, it was built out of limestone. The exterior was limestone. So it was bright in its brilliance. But it was a white limestone so that it could be seen from afar. But not much beautiful on the outside. 03:34 You had the brazen altar on the right there of the picture. You had the laver of brass on the left. And then you had different lavors of washing for the priests. And then you had the two bronze columns in the front that were significant. 03:54 And this was the size of about 38 school buses. It was a little bit bigger. But it maintained... still maintained the original structure and importance of the tabernacle and carried over into the temple. The difference was that it was more elaborate. And of course, it was permanent. It didn't move. 04:14 It was stationary where the tabernacle was mobile. Now that was the size of about 38 school buses, they say. And the value in today's monetary system would be instead of the $51 million of the tabernacle, it would be about $13 billion in today's money. $13 billion. 04:34 And then you read about how that God came and dwelt in that temple as He did in the tabernacle. He blessed it with His presence. 04:42 But you read in the book of Ezekiel how that the glory of God departed and it went to the threshold and then it went to the gate and then it went to the mountain of the city and then it departed from the city never to return in that same form until it came back in the time of Christ, in the person of Christ, 05:00 and the glory of God was nailed to a cross. And that was significant. The glory in the rebuilt temple never came back in the same way. And so we had the inside of that temple was covered with gold. It had gold on the walls, gold on the ceiling, gold on the floor. 05:22 What a magnificent sight it must have been when they lit those lampstands and the brightness of the Shekinah glory and the Holy of Holies would have been illuminating and impressive to see which no one saw except the priests and 05:40 the high priests going in once a year to the Holy of Holies. Now this temple was destroyed in the time when Nebuchadnezzar came and took the city captive, took over the country of Palestine and of Israel. And then it was rebuilt in the time... 05:59 70 years later, the time of Cyrus, Darius, and Zerubbabel. We read about that in Ezra 6:15. And it was remodeled then. 06:11 It was rebuilt and then remodeled in the time of Herod because it was continually being defiled during the intertestamental period. It would be defiled and then it would be rededicated, defiled and rededicated and so on. And until it came the time of Herod, Herod entered into agreement to remodel the temple. 06:33 It's still called the Second Temple. But it was a remodeled Second Temple. And this was a little bit someone's study on looking at what it looked like in Herod's temple. And what... it was a massive complex. It's a massive complex. 06:53 And whereas the first tabernacle of $51 million, the first temple of $13 billion, Herod's temple, the remodeling of the Second Temple, if you're following me, 07:07 was about $575 billion worth of materials in today's currency. Covered an expansive area of about 36 acres and was rebuilt over a period of about 60 years, from 63 years from... 07:28 actually more than that, more like 80 years from BC 20 to AD 63. The whole temple complex was being rebuilt. Now what you need to notice is there were several things that were in the First and Second Temple that were not in Herod's temple. The Ark of the Covenant, the Urim and the Thummim, 07:47 and the Holy Oil and Sacred Fire had been lost. And it's still lost today. They don't know where it is. In fact, if you follow those kinds of things, there are still today people trying to find the Ark of the Covenant. And God had departed and the glory didn't come back in the Ark of the Covenant. 08:07 In fact, the Ark of the Covenant was lost during that intertestamental period. Now I believe that when the Second Temple under Zerubbabel was dedicated, that the old people wept because they remembered... they remembered the glory of Solomon's temple. 08:27 And this was just a shadow of that. And they wept because they knew that something was going to be different about this temple. That God's glory and God's presence and God's Shekinah glory would not be on this temple as it was on Solomon's temple and on the tabernacle. 08:47 And so when it came time then to remodel under Herod, they still had the altar of incense, the golden lampstand, and the table of showbread. But the biggest thing was that it lacked the glory. And the glory then, as we said, 09:06 arrived and they crucified it and hung it on a tree. Now how does this apply to us? How does this apply to us? By the way, we put a picture in there of the hand of Jesus. The glory rested upon Christ. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 09:27 Christ came into that temple to declare and to manifest the glory of God. And they were not interested in the glory anymore. They rejected Him, hung Him on a tree. And now what happened to the glory? The glory ascended up into heaven and will one day return. 09:46 But His glorious presence was manifest to us and was poured out upon us on the day of Pentecost. And there were tongues like tongues of fire, cloven tongues of fire, sitting on their head. It was a manifestation of the glory. It was a representation of the glory of God in their lives. 10:05 Now what does this have to do with us? I want you to turn in your copies of the Scriptures to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. We're going to... we've shared this as an introduction to our upcoming series on Hebrews. 10:21 We've also sharing it as one of our annual messages on our covenant life, which calls for the non-adorning of our temples. The non-adorning of our temples. Where is the glory seen in your life? 10:39 Is it on your external temple where you hang gold and silver and hardware and where you dress in fine clothes and expensive outfits and this and that? Or is it the hidden man of the heart? You remember the more glory on the outside, the less glory on the inside. 11:00 There is a pattern. There's a pattern. There's a parallel that the more glory on the outside of the temple and tabernacle indicated there was less glory on the inside. Because when you had the glory on the inside, you didn't need the glory on the outside. Or you could say it like this. 11:20 The less there was on the inside, the more impressive the outside had to be made to make up for the lack of glory on the inside. We're talking about that temple. And our bodies now are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Our church is the temple of God. 11:39 This temple you are as a congregation and as an individual. So how do you reflect the glory of God? How do you reflect that? Is it by impressive appearance? Or is it by what Peter says about our conduct and our character? 11:59 "Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear." Now I don't believe that all of this passage of Scripture is just for sisters. 12:19 I believe it's for brothers as well. Now I'm speaking specifically for sisters. But it also has to do with us as well. And we're going to unpack that for you. "Do not let your adornment be merely outward." Now I want you to notice that in the... that word merely is in italics. 12:39 It was added by the translators. It is not in the original language. So you can take that word merely out and get a better sense of what it says in the original. "Do not let your adornment be outward. Arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on a fine apparel." Wow, that sounds like what they did in Herod's temple. 13:01 What they did in Herod's temple. In fact, Josephus says the exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. In other words, it was so impressing there was nothing lacking to be astounded by the vision of the loveliness of Herod's temple. 13:20 Now this is from Josephus, a first-century historian. "For being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes. 13:40 As from the solar rays to approaching strangers, it appeared from a distance like a snow-clad mountain, for all that was not overlaid with gold was of the finest white." Limestone. He did use limestone. "So this brilliant gold and brilliant white limestone against the sun was so startling, 14:02 so startling it looked like a snow-clad mountain. From its summit protruded sharp golden spikes to prevent birds from settling upon it and polluting the roof." But there was something missing. We've said it numbers of times. The glory was not inside. God was not there. 14:22 God did not show up. And all there was was a shell that sure looked impressive to the onlooker. But it was empty. It was empty. In fact, I'm told... 14:36 I've not studied this or researched this, but I'm told from those who have, tradition says that when the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom, that what they did to keep from displaying the emptiness of the inside was they sewed that curtain up and kept right on worshiping. 14:57 Sewed it up and kept right on worshiping. Worshiping what? Worshiping a system. Worshiping themselves. Solomon's temple was white and clean and pure. The tabernacle was covered with fine leather. Unimpressive. The impressive thing was on the inside. But Herod's was ornate, beautiful, extravagant to behold. 15:19 But it was of the flesh and empty. The weaker the inner, the more props are needed on the outer. 15:31 You see the parallel? So we go on in our text here this morning. "Rather let it be the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, 15:51 being submissive to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him, 'Lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.' Husbands likewise." In other words, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. That's probably not a good way to say it when you're talking about Scripture here. 16:11 But what's good for the sister is good for the brother. It's our responsibility to lead and to model and to example. "Likewise, husbands, dwell with them with understanding. Giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. 16:31 Finally, all of you," he says. "All of you. Not just the woman, not just the men. All of us," he says. "Be of one mind, having compassion for one another. Love as brothers. Be tenderhearted. Be courteous. Not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. 16:53 Knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. 17:14 And his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?" Followers of what is good. 17:30 In other words, I think we can safely say by way of application of these passages and of this principle that when you are really, real inside, you don't have to prop it up from the outside. I'll give you an example. 17:51 There are many, many people today who think that when they get married, they have to put on a wedding band. Wow, we're married. Got to tell the world we're married. So that's the world's symbol to prop up my marriage. In fact, there are some people who would say, 18:10 "I can't take my wedding band off because then I wouldn't be married anymore." Some people, that's really deeply ingrained. Brothers and sisters, if a person's really married and conducting themselves as a chaste individual, you don't need to have a wedding band to prove it. Amen? In fact, 18:32 some people have gone so far now, I noticed today, these days, that I don't know if this is to kind of make up for the Scripture or what, but they're not wearing gold anymore or silver. They're wearing a rubber something or other. It looks kind of like something you get out of a cereal box almost. But wear that rubber band. 18:54 And then that defeats the purpose of the wedding band. The symbolism of the wedding band is the gold and silver, the enduring quality of the relationship. So you make it out of wood, that's destroyed. You make it out of a rubber band, that's destroyed. Not enduring, not lasting, not precious. 19:14 So they're not even living up to their own symbol anymore. But I will tell you this. I have been in in and out of truck stops for many, many years. When we were traveling on Gospel Echoes, never had a problem. Never had a problem. 19:33 Never wore a wedding band. Never had a problem. Now there was one time. I remember that. I was in a restaurant. A little waitress. I was down south. And those waitresses tend to be a little bit too hospitable sometimes. Isn't that right, honey? We have Lewis and Elaine here from Georgia. Good friends of ours are here. 19:52 They can attest to that. And she became a little bit friendly, a little bit too hospitable. And I just started talking about my wife and children. No problem. No problem. You get the point? If you are depending on a wedding band to prop up your marriage, you're in trouble. 20:14 I say that with love. Same with jewelry. Now I will say this, that I do understand the wedding band. I understand it. I understand why some people would feel that they need it. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. What I don't understand is drilling holes in your body and hanging hardware. 20:37 I don't understand that at all. 20:41 Except it's propping up some kind of external sense of beauty. I don't think it's beautiful at all, but some people do, evidently. Which, by the way, I think we have to trade in our old definitions of beauty and look at what the biblical definition of beauty is. I ran across something. 21:02 I'm going to share it with you. 21:04 Because this comes from a Hollywood actress who swerved into 1 Peter 3 and bumped into it. I don't know if it made any difference in the way she lived or not, but she bumped into it. They read it at her funeral. 21:19 When they asked her to reveal her beauty secrets, she wrote this beautiful text that was later read at her funeral. "To have attractive lips, speak kind words. To have a loving look, look for the good side of people. 21:41 To look skinny, share your food with the hungry. To have beautiful hair, let a child cross it with his own fingers once a day. To have a beautiful poise, walk knowing you're never alone because those who love and loved you accompany you. 22:00 The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, in her face, or in her way of fixing her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes. Because that is the door open to her heart, the source of love. 22:15 The beauty of a woman doesn't lie in her makeup, but the true beauty of a woman is reflected in her soul." That come from a Hollywood actress who bumped into 1 Peter 3. "It is the tenderness that gives love, the passion that it expresses, 22:36 the beauty of a woman grows over the years." And you know what's sad? Is that there are some people who will listen to this because it's... say, and I'm not saying anybody here, but will listen to this and say, "Well, that makes sense because it's said by an actress." And they won't listen to the Bible who says the same thing. So what is in your heart? 22:58 What should be in your heart? Honor. If you look at 2:12, he talks about honorable conduct. In verse 17, he says, "Honor all people. Honor the king." Verse 7 of 3, "Honor your wife." Honor. Honor. 23:18 Honor is a part of that meek and quiet character. Submission. Submission. 23:25 You look at verse 13 of 2, "Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake." You look at 3:1, "Be submissive." 3:5, "Being submissive to their own husbands." 23:39 You look at 2:2, "They will by your chaste conduct, your godly conduct, accompanied by fear." You look at 8, "This is for all of us," he says. "Reverence." 2:8, "Finally, with all..." No, that's not the one. 24:02 I don't see the reverence there. I got my notes mixed up here a little bit. But reverence. Reverence is here. "Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God." There it is. "Fear God" over in 2:17. "Compassion." 2:8, "Having compassion." "Tenderheartedness." 2:8. "Courtesy." Courtesy. 24:22 My God's people ought to be the most courteous people around. In fact, I said this many years ago, and I still say, that if they're going to be offended, if the world's going to be offended, they ought to be offended at our message and not at our manners. We ought to have the best manners. We ought to be the best tippers. I speak that to myself. I have a little hard time tipping sometimes, but I'm working on it. 24:43 I'm working on it. And we ought to have the best courtesy policies that anybody could possibly have. 2:9, "Blessing. Speaking blessing to one another." 2:10, "Restraint. He who would love life and see good days, let him restrain his tongue from evil, 25:03 refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking guile and deceit." We ought to be able to control our tongue and and and and speak words of blessing. Verse 11, "We would be people of peace. Turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue peace." Not war. 25:23 Not gainsaying. Not strife. Not hostility. But peace and righteousness. 2:12, "The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. His ears are open to the prayers of the righteous." You see, we put those things on in our heart. And you fill that heart with gold. 25:42 And you fill that heart with silver and precious jewels that are pleasing to the Father. And it won't help, can't help but come out and be the ornamentation that pleases God. 25:56 I want you to notice in verse 4, "This is very precious in the sight of God." 26:06 It may not be all that impressive to the town council. 26:10 It may not be all that impressive to the people around who are looking for a flash in the pan and for some glorious personality or some flamboyant presentation. 26:28 But it's very precious in the sight of God. Now what does this mean to the individual? I believe that it means we keep our lives simple. Keep them simple. I just want to just share a word while I'm preaching this morning. 26:47 And I hope you can bear with me, brothers and sisters here living of water. But I don't think that this means that you dress shabbily. 27:01 I don't think there's virtue in shabbiness. There's not virtue in being dirty and unkempt and unclean. Neither is there virtue in coming to the house of God looking like a hobo. Now if you're a hobo, welcome him. Let him come. 27:21 Let him sit in wherever he wants to sit. Welcome him. Put your arms around him and embrace him. He's doing what he knows, what he has. I think we ought to dress up when we go to church. I think we ought to dress simply. But dress up when we go to church. 27:43 Why? Because we're going to a wedding rehearsal. 27:48 A number of years ago, there was a person I heard of who was really reacting to his church's position on wearing denim to church. And he thought we ought to be able to wear jeans to church and jeans on Sunday morning whenever we want to wear jeans. 28:07 What was interesting was I went to a wedding of one of their children and found out that he didn't wear jeans to the wedding. Well, why would you wear a tux to a wedding but not wear something nice and neat and clean and dressed up to go to meet God? 28:29 Now I'll admit, I'm not going to find that in the Bible about denim. But I do really appreciate when people dress up to go to church. But hey, keep it simple. 28:40 We don't have to have gold and silver and 28:47 even neckties. Don't have to have those either. Now there's nothing wrong with wearing a neckties. Nobody's going to go to hell for wearing a neckties. I admit that. But in our setting, keep it simple. But dress up. 29:05 Recognizing that it's not about the external. It's not going to bring in the glory of God. But it's about honoring the Lord when we come together. Now what does this have to do with the church? 29:26 The church as a body. Because where is the temple? Well, we looked at the tabernacle. We looked at Solomon's temple. We looked at Herod's temple. We got Jesus there radiating the glory of God. But you know where the temple is today? 29:46 Well, in that case, it was in Steve Miller's backyard. 29:51 In that case, it was in worshiping together here at Living Water in a nice, comfortable sanctuary. 29:59 By the way, we don't have very many pictures of the church worshiping. I gave Sue Ellen a request and permission. Why don't you someday stand up here and take some pictures of the church worshiping? Let's see the temple, the temple of God. It's not dependent on a building. And I'll say this. I appreciate the building we have. 30:19 God has been good to Living Water. 30:21 We started out 22 years ago, 23 years ago with not even a songbook. Right, Mar? We didn't even have a songbook. I think maybe a church loaned us a couple to get started. God has been so good to us. 30:44 God has been good to us. He's given us a lovely facility. And I appreciate our decorating committee. They've done a good job at making this place more homey. I appreciate that. We had some long discussions about that. But they've done well. They've done well about making it a good meeting place. 31:04 But let us never forget. And I love comfort as much as the next guy. I do. I love a comfortable bed. I love these comfortable seats. And the older I get, the more I like my comfort. But you know what? I've been in some places and still have some of you where there's benches, if that, or where people sit on the floor. 31:27 I was in Grenada. They had Sunday school down under the church in a carved out, hollowed out part of the dirt. That's where they had their Sunday school. 31:42 Now we don't have to do that. That doesn't make you spiritual. But I'm going to tell you what. The glory of God is not dependent on a comfortable building. Are you with me? 31:55 The glory of God is not dependent on whether there's carpet or nice lighting or screens on the walls. In fact, in fact, it is possible. Follow the tabernacle, temple, Herod's temple. 32:14 It is possible to have the most beautiful building in the world and no glorious presence of God. 32:24 He says, "Be of one mind." I'd rather go to a church where there's a dirt floor and the people are worshiping the sovereign Lord of the earth and the fervency of their heart and are walking together in the power of the Spirit than to be in a palace where Ichabod is written spiritually over the door. 32:47 Greed, materialism, temporal values. Where is our priority? Our priority is about meeting God, about worshiping God, about encouraging one another in the faith, about walking in the Spirit. And when the Spirit of God descends, 33:08 heaven comes down and glory fills the soul and fills the temple. I hope you can catch a vision for that. That's how it affects the church. Now what about Christianity as a whole? 33:21 Oh, my brothers and sisters, I'm afraid that in Christianity as a whole, we're dealing with a shell of a temple instead of a glorious-filled temple in the West at least. It is my fear that in many churches, the glory has departed and what is left is the fumes. The power, 33:42 the energy, the fuel of the Spirit and of the Word of God being empowered and energized by the Spirit has departed. And all that is left is a form. That can happen on both ends of the spectrum. 34:01 That can happen where you've got a form where the glory has been departed in some of the modern worldly churches where there's all kinds of glitz and glitter and bands and music and programs and no glory. Or it can happen in that church where there's just a plain old pulpit and a plain old bench and a plain old Sunday school room. 34:22 It can happen there too where the culture that's created a form has replaced the glory of God in the midst of the church. It can happen on both extremes, on both ends of the spectrum. The Lord showed me something recently that with every move of God, 34:42 as that move of God brings people to maturity, there is a culture that develops around that move. Any group of people that begin to worship the Lord together over a period of time and form a church, there's a culture that forms around that group of people. 35:02 That's why churches have cultures. There's a church culture at Living Water. There's a church culture at the Prairie View Missionary Church. There's a church culture in every church. It develops as people relate to each other and share the same kinds of passions and goals and experiences and faith. And that culture becomes of how we relate to each other. 35:22 And that culture will invariably lead to a system. See it in BMA. BMA is about 24, 25 years old now. It started with nothing. It didn't even have a songbook. It had a mobile Bible school that would move from one church to the next. 35:42 And it had a mobile—they got some songbooks and they were carried from one in a trailer from one place to the next. I don't remember how all that was. But there was nothing except a group of people who wanted to follow God together and experience His presence walking in the Spirit, doing evangelism, church planting, 36:02 and teaching and training young people in the Word of God and holding our churches and each other accountable. Out of that came a culture. A culture as more people joined, they looked in, they said, "Yeah, we like that. We believe that. We want to be a part of that." And out of that culture has developed a system. 36:21 What every sociological entity needs to understand is you can actually lose the glory of God 36:32 by focusing on a system and even by focusing on a culture. The glory does not necessarily transition to the culture and to the system. Systems happen. They happen. They're necessary. But they're not the glory. 36:52 The glory is when God shows up and people's lives are changed and when worship happens and when the altars are full and the Word of God is preached in power and authority and evangelism takes place and God's people move out to do the work of the kingdom. That's where the glory comes in. 37:15 It will develop into a culture and even develop into a system. But you can't manage the glory. And so the more elaborate the system—we develop elaborate systems. We add this and we add that and we add this and that to meet needs. But then that becomes the focus of the person's life and of our existence together. And we forget the glory. 37:34 And the glory departs in some cases as it has in much of the larger—now I'm not one to be critical this morning—but real. It's what has happened in much of the larger Mennonite denomination. 37:53 In fact, I have actively entertained the idea—in fact, I brought it up to the elders a number of years ago. Maybe it's time to do it again—actively entertained the idea of recommending to the church that we take the word Mennonite out of our name in this community. Why? 38:12 Because Mennonite in this community, in this community right here where we are, 38:19 represents something I'm not sure I want to be associated with. And I'll tell you why. Thirty years ago, I sat in a meeting at Westview High School with Mennonite church leaders from this community. They were trying to censure a church or evict a church, 38:41 disfellowship a church in Elkhart that had taken in a practicing homosexual. And I heard—I listened. I listened as a guest that was there representing Gospel Blacks. I listened and I listened to the arguments that were being made for this and that. And there was still a firm group of people that said homosexuality is a sin. 39:02 And if you allow that into the membership of your church, we will discipline you. Love homosexuals. We love the people. We want to see them come to faith in Christ. But we cannot have that in the church. It must be disciplined. But then there was another group of people that didn't want to discipline that church and said, 39:23 "Well, I mean, we've changed our stand on divorce and remarriage. We've changed our stand on women in the ministry," which they had, both of those things. "How long is it going to be till we change our stand on homosexuality?" Folks, they've changed the stand. They have. In May, there was a meeting of Mennonite delegates. 39:45 I think it was in Kansas City. 39:49 Mennonite delegates in Mennonite Church USA 39:54 where they affirmed not only same-sex relationships, same-sex activity in the church, but same-sex unions and marriages. 40:11 Now that is what is known by the term Mennonite in our community and many others. Now I thank God. I thank God for the historic beliefs and practices of the Mennonite church. I really do. That's what I grew up with. That's what I believe. I believe that that is a good representation, 40:31 maybe the best representation of Scripture. But brothers and sisters, the glory has departed from the overall denomination of the Mennonites. I'm just telling you. It has departed. 40:45 You cannot, you cannot, you cannot allow for sin and disregard this book to that extent and say that you still have the glory. Well, they've got a system and they have a culture. The glory is gone. 41:06 For many years, there were old people who remembered the days when the glory was here. They remembered the days when the Word of God was preached and the altars were full. They remembered when the singing was heartfelt, robust, and full of the glorious truths of the Gospel. 41:27 They remembered when there was respect for the people of God and the glorious meeting of God's people. They remembered when modesty was expected and required, when holiness was not considered legalism but was rather the heartfelt expression of biblical separation from the godless culture around us. 41:46 They remembered those things. Folks, more and more of those old people that remember that are gone. They're dying. 41:57 They remembered when the blood of the sinless Lamb of God was the theme of the faithful, when the return of Christ was regularly proclaimed and fervently anticipated. They remembered when grace meant not only unmerited favor but empowerment to live godly in Christ Jesus. 42:14 They remembered when the theme of our discipleship was to be people of the book. No longer is the larger Mennonite church people of the book. They put the book on the shelf. May that not be the case in our movement. May that not be the case in our brand. 42:32 But it can be if we do not guard the glory. They remember when evangelism was contagious and fresh and when revival meetings, Sunday evening services, Wednesday evening services were something that was an expression of the soul's cry for renewal. I remember talking to my in-laws, 42:52 my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, stepfather-in-law, John O., how that the young people back 50, 60, 70 years ago fought, not in a bad way but in a positive way, fought to have Sunday evening services, Wednesday evening prayer meeting. All the church had back then in the conservative circles was Sunday morning. 43:11 And they wanted more of a vibrant church life, more of an expression of the holiness and glory of God, more of a fellowship, accountability, and a greater contagious faith. And they fought the church leaders and pled with the church leaders, "Can we have Sunday evening services? 43:28 Can we have Wednesday evening services?" Things we just discard today as a system. Maybe what happened on Wednesday evening was the glory departed and we were just left with the system. I don't know. 43:42 What happens sometimes when the system gets out of balance is people reject that and the glory that led to the system. We've got people today, young people that are doing that. They're pitching the system. They're pitching the culture. They're pitching. 44:01 And in the process, what they're doing is, in some cases. In some cases, walking away from the glory. 44:10 What we need is a vibrant faith that produces a culture that is sustained by systems that can change, that can morph, that can evolve, but that carry the glory of the Gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, the awareness of the presence of God that is life-changing, vibrant faith, 44:30 profound in its simplicity and robust in its applications that will not settle for mediocrity but will strive to be fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, 44:52 thank you for 44:55 a congregation here at Living Water that cares about these things. I don't know that everyone will agree this morning, Lord, in everything that's been said. But we do care about these things, these principles, these practices. 45:11 But Lord, don't let us continue to just do things without meaning and without glory. 45:23 Oh God, refresh us. Renew the fire, the altar, the altar of sacrifice for sin. Refresh the water in that labor of brass where we, as kings and priests, 45:42 may come weekly and even daily to wash ourselves in the washing of water by the Word. Lord, show us the glory of that inner sanctuary where the child of God feeds on the table of showbread, the showbread from the table of showbread, 46:02 where we experience the intercession of prayer at the golden altar of incense and where we see illumination from Jesus Christ at that golden lampstand and the one standing in the midst of the golden lampstand who is and who was and who is to come. And that, oh God, 46:22 let us go daily, daily, and weekly into the inner sanctuary where we meet God face to face and fall down on our face before you, 46:37 not in some ritual that is meaningless but in a life and devotional life and prayer life that is real and meaningful, a study of God's Word that leads us to a deeper relationship with Him. 46:54 And we'll give you thanks and praise. Lord, we don't stand here in judgment this morning on other denominations, other groups. 47:01 We stand here with a passion and a deep concern and a heavy heart and a burden for our church, our churches, our place in the family of God. To that end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.