Just a note on last week, I hope nobody was confused by what we were talking about in 2 Chronicles about the war and where we get the mandate I think to see where do we go to war and how can we not. There's something that I think about as I'm reading the Romans chapter 13, where we see we are subject to the governing authorities. But thank you all for allowing me to be back with you. As Greg was praying this morning, we were talking about worship. I was going to get into Ephesians chapter 5, which we will in just a few minutes. But I think it's important to understand why are we even here this morning? So let's look at Revelation chapter 4 and 5 and to see exactly what it is. that we're worshiping and how we are worshiping and what the point is. When John gets his revelation, Jesus tells him, this is what I'm showing the churches, but this is what's going on in heaven. As he sees the windows of heaven opening up, how does he view the heavenly worship? And you can see this in Isaiah and chapter six and also in Ezekiel chapter one through 20. And also you can see it in Daniel as well, and how the Old Testament system was set up in worship. Why did they have the temple sacrifice? Why did they go into the holiest of holies? Why did they do everything that they did? And Jesus says that not one jot or one tittle of this law will pass away. He fulfilled every single thing. Now what is it that we see is real worship. What's going on right now as we worship together? Well, Revelation in chapter 5, After this, after Jesus had given him the vision to the seven churches, I looked, and behold, the door was opened in heaven. That's what Jesus saw as well. And the first voice which I heard, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen hereafter. Immediately, I was in the Spirit. And behold, a throne was set in heaven. And one sat on the throne. Same thing that we see in Isaiah chapter 6. And he that sat on the throne looked like a jasper, an asardist stone. And there was a rainbow around the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like in a crystal, and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. The fourth beast And the four beasts had each of them six wings about them. And Isaiah says they had two to cover their faces, two to cover their feet, and two they flew. They were full of eyes within, and they rested not night and day, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne. and worship Him that lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and they were created. In Jesus' name. That's what we're doing this morning. Psalm 24 says, The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. And that ought to make us smile. Because under all the circumstances that we see around us, what's going on in the PCUSA, what's going on within our government, what's going on around the city, around our little communities, God still sits on the throne. As we see in Psalm chapter 2, I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion. He reigns. Jesus reigns. And here we are, worshiping this morning. I love the hymns that you choose to play. They're awesome. And I hope that we understand the theology behind them. Where did they get these things? Also where confessions, the Helvetic Confession, the Belgian Confession. What do we believe? That's why we confess Crete every Sunday. What do we believe? Who do we worship? The Living God. The Living God who reigns. Not Washington or Rome. The Jesus. And as we look through Ephesians, what chapters 1, 2, and 3 give us the theology, the doctrine of how we ought to think about God. 4, 5, and 6 give us the practical living of what we ought to do. Now there is a sort of heretical teaching that's going on within the church. It's called a two kingdom philosophy. That you've got the kingdom of God and you've got the kingdom of man. That's kind of ridiculous because the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. He made all creation. And we've got some that will teach that we don't need to get involved in politics. What do we do with Daniel? What do we do with David a king? Solomon a king? Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. And we ought to be within politics. Now, St. Augustine in the 3rd century wrote a book called The City of God. It's all within God's kingdom, but you've got the city of man and the city of God, which plays on Genesis chapter 3. The seed of the serpent, the seed of the woman. There will always be enmity between the two until Jesus comes back. We have the victory. That's why we come on Sunday morning to worship. We come together, and hopefully in a few weeks we come to feast. I hope that we can, and I look forward to sharing communion with you all. That's going to be awesome. To be in the same group, worshiping and feasting on Jesus so that I can be so satiated with Him, you don't see me, but you see Jesus. That's the point. And I hope you hear Him. I want to hear from Heaven. I need to hear every day and feast upon the man. And when I read Revelation chapter 4, it gives me a sense of real worship. And I think about what Moses had to look at and see when he went up on a mountain to get the law. To think of the thunderings and the lightnings. We had a group of, there was some kind of conference down here at Milligan about a month ago, and we had a group come through the cave. And when I was given the introduction to the tour, immediately a very loud crack of thunder overhead. And the first thing I think about is Moses going up on the hill, and I see this in Revelation chapter 5, that the thunders and thunderings and lightnings are what surround the throne. God's voice scares me. I'm glad I'm not on the other end of judgment. But I think about the voice of God thundering forward, but then so tenderly stepping down to pick us up every time we fall. A righteous man falls seven times, but he gets back up again by the grace of God. Revelation 4, this is not something that we can look at and over-spiritualize. Let's look and see. Thy kingdom come on earth in us as it is in heaven. What we see right here. Everybody worships God. And Paul says that every knee and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men to myself. It's going to happen. And one day the knowledge of God will cover the earth. as the water covers the sea. So let's think about that when we come to worship every Sunday. When we come Sunday night and we go to Wednesday. And then Paul talks about, and I was reading through Corinthians and some other books, let's not forsake one day over another. Though we come on Sunday to worship because the apostles broke bread on Sunday. But each man is going to esteem a day as holy. So let's understand that tomorrow ought to be just as reverenced as today. Because tomorrow is when the phone rings and the world begins. That's when we go back to our jobs. That's when we really hit and the rubber meets the road. But what we do today is we come and feed. We get our souls fed. And I need to preach to myself before I can preach to anybody else. Because if I don't, I'm a hypocrite. I'm a Pharisee. Just myself. And I'm doing no good to anybody except heaping coals upon my own head. And I've already been through judgment. Been through prison once. Not going again. Had enough of that. But when I come to the Word, it's something different. It's not what I get from psychology. It's not what I get from philosophy. It's not what I get from the news or from entertainment. It's something that gives me hope, bright hope for tomorrow as the hymn goes. So that's why we're worshiping this morning. Now let's get back to Ephesians and chapter 5. and try to finish out. We've got one more chapter to go after this and our brief look at Ephesians. And we're really just scratching the surface with all of the details that you have in Ephesians of theology and then doctrine and then practical application. And if I'm not mistaken, wisdom, true wisdom is the application of our knowledge. What it looks like when we apply it in our hands and in our living. Now looking back in chapter 5 of Ephesians, Be ye therefore followers of God as dearly beloved children. Walk in love. As Christ loved us and he's given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Did we not see the same kind of system there in Revelation chapter 5 that there's a sea of glass before the throne? Do you remember the big tub that was in front of Solomon's temple? that had 12 oxen underneath it, that's the same sea of glass that's represented in the sacrificial system. Everything that we see in the Old Testament has already been going on in heaven. It's a mirror image. It gives us something to see, that we can physically see it and grasp it and understand it. So we can kind of get God. And when we read something like these four beasts are full of eyes, God is omniscient. He sees everything and knows everything. That's what it's a picture of. In Ezekiel chapter 1, talking about the will within the will. It's not some super spiritual alien. Let's not get too far afield with it. It's about God. Because He moves backwards and forwards. He goes all over the place. And He sees and knows everything. Everything that we see in the Bible is about Jesus. What He can do. What He's about. And who He is. The Ten Commandments show us truly what God's character is about. The upstanding moral character of Almighty God. Walk in love. And He's given Himself as a sweet sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. I'm sure Dr. Blevins has talked about it, but when we look at the sacrificial system on Passover, how many lambs are sacrificed in rounds of three? When they read Psalm 113 to 118, the Great Hallel, there are over 75,000 lambs sacrificed in approximately two or three hours. Jesus did away with all that. And how many years did they have to do that? The brook, Kidron, was a river of blood on Passover. Judaism is a bloody religion. But we've got the blood of Jesus that takes away all that. That we put our hope and trust and faith in Him because I don't have to go sacrifice a goat today. I'm glad because I'm going to have to sacrifice a whole lot of them because my sins are many. And Psalm 51 says, Lord, my sin has overtaken me. That's why I like what you do on your bulletins. We have a great prayer book and it coincides with what we're teaching. Lord, I have sinned against you and I need your spirit. I need your cleansing power. Jesus has given himself as a sacrifice to God, a sweet smelling savor, just like the fat that comes up. We know how good fat smells on a grill. It's wonderful. That's the same smell that Jesus is. And also we see in Revelation chapter five, the prayers of the saints. Our prayers go up to him just as the smell of the fat does. It smells good to God. Our prayers smell good to him. I kind of like that. But fornication, uncleanness, all of it, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as become saints, nor filthiness, Foolish or silly talking, coarse jesting, dirty jokes, which are not convenient, but rather good things. Here's your practicality. For this you know, that no poor monger, these are disqualifiers to get into heaven, no unclean person, no covetous man who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And those verses slay me. Because John Calvin says that the human heart is an idle factory. And he's right. Because everything that I put before this and before Jesus is an idol, no matter what it is. It could be the farm. It could be anything else. It could be my studies. Whatever I put before Jesus, my work, is an idol. Let's not do that. This is how the Gentiles used to walk. And some of us used to be this way. That's what slaves me, because I used to be one. And I still have the same war within me. Just because Jesus came and saved me doesn't mean I don't struggle with it every day. And this theology that says now, well, come to Jesus and He'll cure all your problems. Where do you get that from the Scripture? It's by much persecution and tribulation you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. I think we missed that verse. We can't skip over anything. We must preach and teach the entire counsel of God and it has to hit us in the heart. Jesus needed no one to tell Him what was in the heart of man because He knows it. And He knows me entirely, what's in my heart. And that slays me. Because fornication, uncleanness, covetousness... I saw a new tractor at Kubota and I wanted it. But I can't afford it. I want it. No foremonger, no unclean person, nor covetous man, nor an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of God. These all disqualify me from heaven. But Jesus. Chapter 2, verse 1. But God, who is rich in mercy, you who were dead in sins, He's raised you up. Let no man deceive you with vain words, philosophies and science. For because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye therefore not partakers with him. Science screams really big words and they scream loudly, but they're wrong. There are a lot of things that we can learn from science. But they're wrong in the presupposition. They do not begin with God. I love watching that Cosmos program that comes on, whatever channel it is, with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He's a brilliant man. I like the lesson of Dr. Stephen Hawking. He's a brilliant man. They're wrong. They are absolutely wrong because they do not begin with the creator of the universe. By wisdom, Proverbs says, he founded the universe. The earth rotates at a certain degree. If we are one mile farther away from the sun, we freeze to death. We live in what's called the habitable zone. And this just kind of randomly happened, huh? Okay. 4.6 billion years ago, nothing exploded and earth just happened to get this far away from the sun. Right. That's what they believe. And that's what they teach. And Isaiah 44 seriously talks about evolution. As does Jeremiah. You will say to this wood or this stone, you have forgotten me. Well, it rained on the rocks for millions of years, and out came this little protoplasm, and here we are. Long ago and far away, the frog turned into a prince. It's a fairytale. They don't believe the Word of God. We've got a problem. Let no one deceive you with philosophy, because philosophers are pretty smart. No, they're wrong too. I've been reading John Locke this week, and I've got 54 volumes of philosophy to go through, and it's very tedious, because they're all wrong. Who was it? George Hegel. He was pretty much the father of Marxism. I can't remember what I was doing a report on him. I didn't know anything about the man, so I decided to read about him and see what he was about. He says that every time that a tiger is shot in the wilderness, the clock on the mantel changes. I had to step back from that and think, now he's talking about relationships. But how in the world does the tiger have anything to do with the clock that's on my mantel? And he's seriously considering this, and this is the father of Marxism, which brought down Russia. These are serious errors. Let no one deceive you. And Hitler himself said, give me control of the textbooks, I'll control the state. Who's in control of the textbooks today? It's not us. If you believe a lie, if you preach it loud enough and long enough, people will start to believe it. It's kind of like a mantra. Let no one deceive you with vain words. Therefore, be not betakers with them. But Jesus says to be as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. And Sun Tzu, the old philosopher who wrote The Art of War, says you must know your enemy better than you know yourself. He was right in one sense, wrong in his presupposition. Why do I want to know my enemy better than myself? For one thing, I need to get him saved. and pointing toward the truth. He needs to know Jesus. If we step away from the Word, we can go a million ways, and every single one of them is going to land us right into hell. Every one of them. If we don't understand why two and two is four, and why the chemical table of elements works, it's God. There is no other explanation. Either this world made itself, or somebody made it. You don't have, there's no other choice. And how did this inanimate rock make itself? You tell me. It's a whole lot harder to believe that nonsense than it is to believe that God spoke and it happened. Because God spoke life into me. And I can see His hand imminently in my life every single day. And just like we were talking about last week in Chronicles concerning the Civil War and the Revolution, we can see God working. Should God's people go to war, next week we're going to see the armor of God. That's why I really have trouble with what I was looking at last week. We still rebelled against the king. But the principle is, they weren't doing the right thing. We've got to follow God. Let no one deceive you with vain philosophy. For you were sometimes darkness. You weren't just in darkness, you were the darkness. But now, you are light in the Lord. Therefore, walk as it. Does not 1 John and John 1 talk about being light? And Matthew chapter 5 says, you are the light of the world. The city on the hill cannot be hidden. You don't go put a little basket over your candle and hide the light, snuff it out. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. That's Galatians chapter 5. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Proving what is acceptable to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather, rebuke them. Correct them. If I'm wrong, tell me. I need to know. If my works are darkness, I need somebody to be in my face telling me what's wrong and what to do. I need somebody bold enough to get in my face. And I'm glad that my elders are bold enough to get in my face. Not the elders of the church, but the elders of my Asian elders are older than... Sorry, I'm getting excited. But have the wherewithal to get in our faces and tell us what's right and what's wrong. We need that. Because our philosophy today in the world is that there is no truth. No truth at all. Everything is in flux. And that our children rise up against the elders and give no respect. We saw that in an earlier chapter. Give no respect to the elders. We ought to be rising when you all walk in a room. You've been around a while. You've been there. You've done that. I need to know what you know. I need to be taught. The generation behind me needs to be taught. Have no fellowship with darkness. For it is shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret. They need correction. But all things that are corrected are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever does make manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake you that sleep, arise from the dead. Christ will give you life. How do you get yourself up out of the dead? How do you awake yourself out of sleep? You don't. Christ does. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Watch yourself and take opportunity when you have it. Buy back the time, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Be careful in everything. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Is that not the will of God? Controlled living? Not excess? Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Self-control. We've missed that in our generation. There is no control. Everything is excess and extreme. God has given us a spirit of control. We ought to be that. Don't be filled with drunkenness. Be filled with wine wherein is the excess. Be filled with the Spirit. And our charismatic brothers have taken this completely out of context. Don't be drunk in the Spirit, but go roll around on the floor. That's not being filled with the Spirit. The qualifier is the fruit of the Spirit being controlled in your living. Say no to these things. You have to want to now because the Spirit's within you. Exercise it. Be controlled. Speak to yourselves in psalms. Hymns, spiritual psalms. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. There's not that many of us in here, but we do sing and praise the Lord on Sunday mornings. We ought to sing louder. Because we're singing with the saints in glory that we see in Revelation 4 and 5. We're singing with Jesus. We're singing to Him. The one who sits on the throne. Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the fruit of living with gratitude. Submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God. In our society, we don't submit to one another. We don't lay down our lives for our friends. We'd rather kick them while they're down. And the hard thing about it is, it's in the church more than it is out in the world. At least the world will talk to you in your face. In the church, we've got a problem. But John says, there will be wolves among you. We have to rebuke these things. And walk in the fear of the Lord submitting one to another. And these next verses really tear me up because we just got married. Wife, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Boy, I like those verses. You submit to me. Because I'm the head of the wife. In Genesis chapter 2 and 3 in our marriage counseling, Rick brought up in Genesis, the husband will rule over her. What that meant in the Hebrew was that he will beat her down. Not just physically, but emotionally, verbally. And that's not what I want to be about. That's not how a husband rules over his wife. But that's the effect of the fall. Now the wife wants to rule over the husband. And my sin is I'll let her do it. I'll just stand by like Adam did and let her eat the fruit. And then say, well, God, it was your fault because you gave her to me. That's our sin. But here's how we not do that. Submit to your own husbands, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he's the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Jesus, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Well, I can read 22, 23, and 24, but then here comes 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word. I am responsible for her. If I don't wash her with the word and sanctify her, and I haven't done a good job of it, If I don't do that, her blood is on my hands because she is my responsibility. I am the head and the representative of Christ in our family. That He might present itself, a glorious church, having no spot or wrinkle, just like the Paschal Lamb, just like He is, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. I am to present her to Jesus holy. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies, because I like this. I don't want to hurt it. I want to be healthy and happy. He that loves his wife, loves himself. For no man ever hated his own body, but nourishes it, cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church. So if I love her, I'll do that. For we are members of his body and of his flesh and his bones. And here's coming from Genesis. For this cause, a man will leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife. The two shall become one. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Marriage is a mirror image of Jesus and the church. That's why we've got to preach this in our USA brethren's church. It's man and woman. Man and wife. God said it, there it is. That's how we put it together. I am responsible as the head of the family. She submits to me in respect. But I give her, I give myself to her. Lay my life down for her. Protect her. Love her. Husband and wife together. We've missed it in the world. And Romans 1 says that God's going to give them up to uncleanness to let them do whatever they want to do and then they will reap the rewards of it. Where do we think AIDS and STDs come from? That's our sin. And that's what we get. This is a great mystery. Nevertheless, let every one of you, in particular, so love his wife, even as I love myself and the wife that she reverence or respect her husband." I know I'm preaching to the choir here with this, but we need it in our culture. Rome died when they accepted homosexuality openly. Greece died when they accepted homosexuality openly. You can look through every history book, and when you see that the culture openly accepted the homosexuality, there they went. Now, will Durant and Ever Given both tell us that the Christian Church, Christianity is what caused the demise of these cultures because they spoke against that which is an abomination to God? Are we bold enough to do that? Because it's coming a time I may end up in prison again because that's what I'm preaching. Am I willing to do that? I'm not scared of it. I'm not particularly wanting to go back. But if I have to do that in order for truth to be spoken, then I will, as Paul, be joyful singing hymns in prison at 2 o'clock in the morning. Because this is what needs to be said. We need to hear it. And these previous verses say, But all things that are corrected are made manifest by light and whatsoever does make manifest is light. Are we going to walk in light or are we not? Are we going to speak against it or are we not? There's a whole lot of homosexual activity here in Johnson City. You all know about it. This is quickly becoming the San Francisco of the East. What are we going to do? We hate the sin. We try to love the sinner. Because Jesus loved us. And I'm glad that that was not my besetting sin. I've got plenty of them. But we must go to them just as Christ came to us. Because they're in the ditch. So let's go to them. Let's get them out of it. And do it in the spirit of meekness and lovingness. If we don't, then we're just like the Pharisees. We do attract more flowers with honey than we do vinegar. Love is how you do it. Softly. And we can see this in our own marriages. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, as I submit to Jesus. The husband is the head of the wife, just as he is the head of the church. Love my wife. Die for her, that I might sanctify, cleanse her, and set her apart from the rest of the world by the washing of the Word that's cleansing me. Let's go out there and do it. That's what's important tomorrow morning. In our jobs, in our homes, in our neighborhoods. Preach Jesus. And give Him to them as He came to us. He met us where we were. I was in a pretty deep ditch. And He pulled me out. And set me on a solid rock. So when we look through Ephesians and we look through the Scriptures, how do we apply this stuff? That's what's important is applying it and looking at it. Looking like Jesus. I pray that you see Jesus in Him only and hear Him, because my words mean nothing. His words last forever. His words cause universes to be. The sun came up this morning. What a blessing it is. Sometimes we forget what a blessing it is that the sun came up this very morning. And it's no wonder that we see the reference between the Son and His strength and Jesus. And in the benediction, when Aaron says, may the Lord make His face to shine upon you. That's our salvation in sinners prayer. Lord, shine Your face on us and we will return and be saved. Not, oh Jesus, come dwell in my heart. Lord, make Your face shine upon us and turn my soul back to You. Save my soul. that I may be where you are. John 17. I go to you, Father. I come back. I pray that you don't take them out of the world, but sanctify them and set them apart. In Christ, I preach the prayer. Look what He did for His bride. We must preach that as well and live it. And live it. Hmm. There's so much in Ephesians that it's hard to go through just chapter, chapter at a time, but just barely scratching the surface. But this epistle was written to all of us. If you remember when we started at the beginning, that Ephesians to the saints who are in Ephesus, in Ephesus was added probably later. But this was written, it's almost the same letter, probably the same one that was written to the Laodiceans. And this letter is to be read in all the churches. This is to us. As is the rest of the Scriptures. But specifically, this is for us. To live by. Here's how you set your philosophy out. Here's your theology. Here's your thinking. Now, here's how you do it. Paul never leaves us confused about how to go live. And God never leaves us confused about how we ought to think. Finally, brethren, whatever things are lovely, true, noble, worthy, think on these. Think on these. In Jesus' name, let's pray. Father, we love You. We bow in humbleness before You and we thank You for Your mercy. Lord, we thank You that we can come before You and come before the throne of grace in our time of need. Lord, we need You. We need your spirit in our homes. We need your spirit in our churches. We need your spirit in our counties, our cities, our country. Lord, we are quickly, quickly on a demise. And I pray that revival will begin in our own hearts here, but it can't go anywhere else. It can't go out in the country if we don't have revival in our house. Lord, may it begin with me. May it begin with us. I pray that you shed your spirit abroad here at Princeton Presbyterian. Grow us. Lord, let us see your face and your mercy toward us. Lord, thank you for them being around for so long. And I pray that you will continue to water and grow and give them the increase of their labors. Lord, we thank you for the entire body of Christ and that your word will go forth as a battering ram and beat down, beat down these philosophies and these sciences. Lord, there is much that we can learn, but they're all wrong because they don't begin with you. Lord, I pray that you will help us as husbands to love our wives as Jesus did the church. I'm a young husband and I'm foolish at times. Many times. And I ask forgiveness of my sin because they are many. And they are ever before me, as we see in Psalm 51. They really are ever before me. And against you, Lord, I have sinned. I have committed treason against heaven. And I beg forgiveness of sins for all of us. And I intercede, Lord, on behalf of our church. As a whole, Lord, we have sinned against you. And I pray, Lord, that you will cleanse us. Judgment does begin at the house of the Lord. And I pray that these things that have gone on in our own General Assembly and those that are going on in the U.S. denomination, Lord, I pray that you will cleanse it. Lord, because your church really is glorious to you. Forgive us, Lord. But we thank You, Lord, that You have given us forgiveness in Christ and that we have an inheritance. And I pray that You will give us the strength and the grace to walk as children of light and walk as the children of God. And we praise You, we give You glory and thanks, and we come to You in Jesus' holy name. Amen.