0:02 I was thinking of the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament recently. I'd like you to turn for a moment there. Some of these Old Testament books, 0:21 if you try and understand the spiritual lesson in it, there's a great message there. And a little history. The children of Israel were sent into captivity 0:41 around 600 years before Christ because of their disobedience to so many things. But the Lord told them that I will after 70 years I'll bring you back. So some of them came back in the days of Ezra 0:59 and the temple had all been broken down. The walls of Jerusalem had been broken down and Ezra came back and initiated building the temple along with Haggi and Zachchariah. And some years after that, 1:20 Neahhemiah inquired about how things are going on. So that's the history here in Nemiah chapter 1. And he says in verse two, Hani, one of my brothers, came 1:37 sent some men from Judah. See, Nehemiah was not in Israel. He was in the palace of a king, Persian king. And I asked them, "How are things going with the Jews who have escaped and survived the captivity and gone back to 1:54 Jerusalem? Are they doing okay?" And he said, "The remnant there in the province who survived are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates are burned with fire. 2:14 And when I heard these things, I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. And I was fasting and praying for the God of heaven. I've discovered one thing throughout the scripture that 2:30 whenever God uses a person, anybody, it always starts with a burden he has in his heart for something concerning God's house. And today it is God's church. In those days it was the temple and the city of Jerusalem which 2:48 symbolized the church today. Throughout the Old Testament wherever people had a burden for that they would fast and pray and weep because God was not being honored. And I believe that is the most important 3:04 requirement for all of us to be effective members of the body of Christ. To have a concern. I'm not talking about how much you fast and pray. That's up to you. But to have a burden and a concern for the state of the church. That's what 3:21 Neah had a concern about. What is the condition of Jerusalem? Jerusalem in the Old Testament is always a picture of the church all the way to Revelation. So if you want to be an effective member of the body of Christ, you have to have a 3:40 concern. You know, just like when you say the Christ our the church is the body of Christ. It's like you have a concern for your body. We have a concern for our body every single day. I mean even if you have a slight injury somewhere or ache 3:56 somewhere we do something about it and that is the person whom God can use because there's a person who's concerned about a some little injury or ache in the body of Christ and that's the thing that we need to ask ourselves very often 4:12 we many Christians just content themselves that I'm going to the meeting regularly I'm attending all the meetings and maybe I'm putting some a little offering in the That's not what God is looking for primarily. I'll tell you that. It's a 4:27 question of do you have a burden to understand how are things going in the church? Is it is the church being built together as a body? And that's the burden Nemiah had had. He says they're not the walls are broken down and the 4:42 gates are burned. That's what he heard. The walls are broken down. Verse three. And the gates are burned with fire. So everything in the Old Testament has a symbolical meaning. What are the walls and the gates is in Isaiah chapter 60 5:01 we read that Isaiah 60:18 I'll call your walls salvation and your gates praise. The wall of the Jerusalem symbolized it being saved from the rest of the world or a wall of separation. We can 5:19 say salvation and separation are really the same thing. When we are saved, we are saved out of the world. So the wall of Jerusalem symbolized a separation from the spirit of the world. And the gates we are told 5:35 symbolizes praise. So applying that the spirit of separation from the world is broken down in most churches and I want to tell you in the United States that those walls are getting broken down 5:52 more and more and more and more and more and that is why I mean it's happened throughout the generations and that's why every now and then from the beginning of Christian history in the last 2,000 years. Wherever such compromises come in, God's 6:11 raised up somebody or a few people to stand against that and to start something new because they say the old structures cannot be repaired. That's how you have so many churches today. All these churches that you have, you 6:28 know, Lutheran and Methodists and Baptists, they were not the worldly type of churches we see today. When they started, they started because think of a man like Martin Luther. He was concerned that people were being taught that you can be 6:47 saved by giving money to the Pope. And for years and years, people believed that. And poor innocent people who didn't know the Bible say they wanted to be saved, they'd pray for the dead and give money to the pope so that that some 6:59 dead person would go to heaven. And when Martin Luther heard that and studied the scripture and he found it was all wrong, he stood against it. God has always stood by those who have the boldness to stand against corruption. 7:16 I want to encourage all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, be bold to stand against corruption. Be bold to stand against backsliding, worldliness coming into the church, worldliness coming into your home. It's very very easy. 7:34 So it's not just in the way people dress, but the spirit of worldliness can come into a person's home or come into the church very easily. This is the burden with which we started CFC 50 years ago. We felt the walls had broken down 7:53 and the world had come right in. You know when the walls are broken down, the people in the world can come right. There's no difference between Jerusalem and the rest of the world. And you see that today in a lot of Christendom, 8:05 there's divorce in the world and there's divorce in the church. Even though Jesus said committing divorce is like committing adultery and a woman who commits adultery commit is divorced is an is in Romans 7 says she shall be 8:21 called an adulteress. Which church preaches that? Which church preaches that a woman who is divorced from her husband is called an adulteress? Do you know that in Romans chapter 7? Let me show it to you. Romans 7:3, 8:42 "If a woman while her husband is living is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress." Do you think that's being preached in Christianity today? Is not only not being preached, there 8:59 are pastors whose wives are divorced. Pastors who themselves are divorced. Nobody bothers. It's a complete God's word says that. I couldn't care less for what God's word says. That's what I mean by the walls are broken down. 9:17 And like that different things, you know, like people were baptizing babies and saying they become children of God automatically till somebody stood against it and said that's not how you become a child of God. You have to be 9:30 born again and immersed in water. But there are even today there are churches where they sprinkle babies and say it's a child of God. So all Christians are not the same. That's why there's always been separation, separation, separation 9:45 and then we seek to keep ourselves pure but that spirit of the world can come in. It may not be in terms of divorce. We've kept ourselves free from that. But in other ways we have to make sure the walls remain erect. 10:03 And I was looking at Revelation chapter 21 and seeing how I don't know whether you noticed it. There's a picture of Jerusalem, the church there, and it's all symbolic in 10:21 Revelation. It says here in Revelation 21:16, the city is a picture of the church. It's like a square. Length and width and height are equal. Now there's a meaning even in that. That 10:38 means what you see in the front is got equal depth as what you see in front. In other words, if it's the length and breadth has got the same amount of depth, that means no hypocrisy. See a lot of people what you see is just 10:55 in front is very big. But you look in, there's no depth there. It's all hollow. But here it says the length and breadth and width are the same. It's 1,500 miles. This is a picture of the church, 1500 miles this way, 1500 miles, 1500 miles 11:11 this way, and 1500 miles high. And then it's got a wall. The wall speaks of separation. Verse 17. And you know how thick the wall is? 216 ft thick. I I hadn't noticed it for a long time 11:31 that the thickness of the wall. Have you ever heard of a wall 216 ft thick all around? What is God trying to say through all this? The Lord wants a tremendous spirit of separation of the church from the spirit of the world. 11:50 And if you read the Old Testament chronicles and uh Kings and Judges and Joshua, you find that what the Lord punished Israel for was always because they allowed the world to come in and then they would lose out to 12:08 their enemies. And you the Old Testament is full of stories of how some prophet would arise and gather all the people together or some wholehearted king and then a little while later the next king would come and they'd bring the world 12:21 right in. This is the continuous history of Israel in the Old Testament. And if you read church history in the last 2,000 years has been pretty much the same. Somebody would rise up and stand for stand for something and bring holiness and 12:36 righteousness. Even someone like John Wesley in who started the Methodist church but that's not Methodist church is nothing like it was in John Wesley's day. The walls are broken down or take the Salvation Army. 12:53 I mean uh the man who started it was such a godly man and uh he and his wife they stood together William Booth and Katherine and had a concern for the poor but it's such a compromised organization 13:13 today. So throughout the centuries God's raised up one church after the other and I believe this church is raised up in the same way. There were other churches in this Bay Area or 14 or 15 years ago whenever this started. Why did God raise another 13:30 church here? Why couldn't people just go to existing churches? There was a reason. We were standing for certain truths. Particularly the fact that we could walk in the footsteps of Jesus and be like him. Not just be saved and go to heaven. That's 13:48 what a lot of churches preach. You're saved and then you're ready to go to heaven. Whereas we emphasize from the beginning what Jesus said so clearly. Let me show you that. Matthew chapter 7. Even a child can understand here. 14:06 Even a 10-year-old can understand this. Matthew 7 verse 14. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are very few who find it. Now 14:25 there are a number of things you can learn just from that verse. And that's the reason why sometimes a new church had to be started. Some people eliminated the way completely. It's as if Jesus said the gate is small that leads to life. 14:44 That's it. Half the verse is cut out. You've accept Christ and you found life. But let's read carefully. The gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. You know, you ask a little child. 15:01 So what all are there to get to life? Gate plus way. But then way is not mentioned in many churches. You say, "Oh, once you come in, you got life and you can never lose it." And that's what we stood against right from the 15:16 beginning. That's what we stood against in in India when CFC started. There's a gate and there's a way that leads to life. So here's the gate. Here's the way and there's life. Life is not here. It's a gate and a way that leads to life. And 15:31 there are very few who find it. So just because a church has got 10,000 people in fact I would doubt very much whether they are on the way because you know in there very few who really find the gate and the way. So these are the little little things in 15:50 which compromise comes in or take something like the foundation. What is the foundation of the Christian life? I'm just trying to show you the places where this 216 thick wall has been broken down. broken down to broken 16:05 down and made one foot or one inch and then it's finally broken down altogether. God made it such a thick wall around the church that of truth and it's broken down. You know there's a song which says the foolish man built his house and our 16:25 children sing that song. The wise man built his house upon the rock and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. So build your house on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, Christ is the foundation. But let's read carefully. 16:40 Let's turn to Luke's gospel in chapter 6. I'm just trying to show you how compromise comes in. And if you're not careful, it can come in here too. Luke chapter 6, Jesus said 16:56 the wise man and the foolish man. In the beginning, I thought the wise man was a man who found a rocky area and built his house there. And the foolish man was a man who found a sandy area and build his house there. Easier to build. 17:11 Let's read Luke chapter 6 verse 46. Why do you Luke 6:46, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say? That's a very relevant word to every Christian today. If you read through the New Testament 17:29 and see anything that Jesus said and you're not doing it, anything, the Lord will ask you, "Why you call me Lord if you don't do what I say?" And everyone who comes to my word, me and hears my word and does them, he's like a man who built his house. And 17:49 listen to this, he didn't go to a rocky area. He dug deep, went through the sand and hit rock and built. The other guy next to him, 18:06 he didn't go dig deep. That was the only difference. He was just next door. He built it on the superficial sand. And and what is the difference between the two? One heard and did. The other person heard verse 49 and did not do. 18:24 Now all of us are hearing God's word in the meeting. But there's a division even here. There are those who hear and read God's word and do it exactly who they are the ones in secret. Nobody 18:42 sees it. They dig deep and hit rock. And I'll tell you what that rock is that has to be blasted. That rock is what we call my will. If this thing called my will is not blasted, we will never build on this rock foundation. What is the thing that 19:02 brings conflict between husband and wife? It's my will. Husband says my will and wife says my will and they clash over something and argue about something. But if that my will is not blasted, you will never build on the rock. 19:21 But that's not taught. You're taught that you've accepted Christ, you got the foundation. Yeah, it says that in one Corinthians 3, the foundation is Christ. But when it comes to what Jesus said here, if you hear what I have taught and you don't do 19:40 it, and he's talking about the sermon on the mount and in that in the sermon on the mount, he talks about things like if you look at a woman and lust in your heart, you'll go to hell. I have almost never. You turn to the 20:00 sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5. I personally believe that the Matthew 20:21 chapter 56 and 7 is one part of this 216 ft thick wall around the church. And I want to tell you a lot of it has been broken down just like in Nemiah's day. And Nehemiah wept when he heard 20:39 that and he went surveyed the whole area at night and gathered together people and built the wall in 52 days even though there was a lot of opposition. You read the book of Nemiah sometimes very interesting such a lot of opposition 20:59 and he built it. There are lessons for us today. God needs people like Nemiah today, brothers and sisters. So when you read Matthew chapter 5, I mean you've heard me speak on it times, the difference between old covenant and 21:19 new covenant. We call call ourselves new covenant Christian fellowship. What is what is the difference between an old covenant Jewish fellowship and a new covenant Christian fellowship? Well, Jesus explained it. The old covenant law 21:36 was Matthew 5:21, don't commit murder. So, the old covenant Jewish fellowship is don't commit murder. In the new covenant Christian fellowship, it is I don't 20 22. You don't lust after women. This is the exact equivalent of the Old 21:55 Testament law of don't commit murder. How many churches teach that? That as serious as murder was, sorry, not lasting after it is anger. As 22:12 serious as murder was in the old covenant is anger in the new covenant. See that I say to you, this is new covenant. Verse 22. If you're angry, you're guilty. You see the contrast between old covenant and new covenant. 22:30 Have you heard it in some other church? Have you heard any preacher tell you that the old covenant murder, thou shalt not murder, is in new covenant, you shall not get angry. I never heard it in 60 years of being a 22:46 Christian in any church or any preacher. It's a pretty thick wall. It's been broken down. [Music] He says you'll be guilty. And how guilty? If you commit murder in the Old Testament, you go to hell. Here he says 23:05 also verse 22, the last part, you'll go to hell. How many Christians do you think believe that anger can take a person to hell? I don't think I've met any Christian outside of CFC churches who believes that. 23:24 They laugh at it. You, Brother Zach, you're making the standard so high nobody will ever get in. Yeah. I'm sorry to say the wall is 216 ft thick and it's broken down and we need a few Nehemiah who are burdened and to weep about it and restore it to the 23:42 same size. If that was old covenant, this is new covenant. Otherwise to call us of new covenant Christian fellowship. Thou shalt not murder, you shall not get angry. This is the equivalent. And if people say, "Oh, this is too high a wall 23:58 or too thick a wall." Brother, there are many other churches. You can sit there all your life and go to hell. I'm not stopping you. But if you come here, we're going to tell you the truth because we don't want your blood on our hands in the day of 24:14 judgment. I believe that people will be judged according to what Jesus taught here. Okay, here is another Old Testament commandment. Old covenant Jewish fellowship. 24:31 Verse 27, you shall not commit adultery. New covenant Christian fellowship. Verse 28, you shall not lust after a woman. That will lead you to hell in the old covenant. Adultery. This according to verse 29, last part will take you to 24:49 hell in the new covenant and never taught. That's what I mean by saying the walls are broken down. And I believe 25:07 those who preach the blood of these people is on their hands. If they are guilty of not warning people, this will take you to hell. I don't believe anybody's blood is in my 25:27 hands. I preached this for 50 years that this is new covenant and that is old covenant. And I've also taught this in the old covenant. It said an eye for 25:45 an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If the guy knocks you knocks out one tooth of yours, don't knock out two of his teeth. You're permitted to knock out one. That is old covenant. If you knock out two, two teeth, you're guilty. He took 26:00 out one tooth of yours. Knock out one tooth of his. Verse 38, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's old covenant. In the new covenant, don't resist somebody who comes and fights with you. Don't get in an argument. 26:19 If he slaps you on the right cheek, forgive him. And if you don't forgive, turn to chapter 6 verse1 15. What if somebody knocks out one tooth of 26:37 mine and I don't forgive him? I don't knock out his tooth. I mean, I say I'm better than the old covenant. I don't knock out his tooth, but I don't forgive him. The guy knocked out my tooth. I'm not going to forgive him. Okay, there's a verse 26:53 for that in verse 6:15. If you don't forgive others, your heavenly father will not forgive you. New covenant. Where do you go if your God does not forgive your sin? I'm preaching the gospel. I'm trying to 27:14 save people from hell. It's a slightly different gospel from accept Christ as your savior and you're on your way to heaven. Well, I want to say to you that's not the gospel that Jesus preached. He preached a lot more than that. 27:31 To receive Christ means to receive his life. And that's why I believe there's so much confusion concerning the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I was so surprised to hear that 27:50 somebody in one of our churches went around preaching that you don't need to be filled with the Holy Spirit anyway is no longer an elder today. So it's okay we removed him from eldership. Imagine going around telling Christians 28:08 you don't need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. See, when you're born again, the spirit has come. I agree. But you're not filled with the spirit. It's like a a house. The light came into one room. Forgiveness of sins forgiven. So many 28:24 other rooms are empty. For example, the way I use my eyes, the way I react to people who hurt me. You know, if you read the sermon on the mount and 28:39 you say, "Lord, what a standard this is. That's why there are people in the brethren assemblies who teach the reason why Jesus preached the sermon on the mount was to teach you it is 28:58 impossible to ever get to heaven that way. That's why you come and say Lord Jesus died for my sins. I accept him and you're saved. So you mean Jesus spent three chapters just to tell you that you don't have to keep any of this but just to show you 29:11 that you can't keep it and you have to be converted. It's one of the fantastic deceptions. Now if you don't believe me, you go and ask any brethren person, they'll tell you that's exactly I was in I was with them for seven eight years 29:24 and I know deception. The walls are broken down. You don't have to keep Matthew 5:6 and 7. And what did Jesus say about a person who doesn't keep it? He's built his house on sand. 29:44 All those who ignore Matthew 56 and 7, any verse in it, for example, this one, if you don't forgive others, Matthew 6:16, your father will not o forgive your transgressions. If you don't preach that, you're breaking down the wall. 30:03 That 216 ft thick wall is broken down. There's hardly anything left. And Nehemiah, when he heard the walls are broken down, he wept. And he had a burden. He took leave from his job. 30:22 And he returned back to Nemiah. He was an amazing man. He wanted to raise the standard back to where the God God had made made it. And it says here Nehemiah chapter 3, he appointed different people to build 30:41 that wall. Again, the high priest chapter 3:1, he had to get his hands dirty and build. There was no difference between high priest and the sweeper on the streets. They all joined in. That's the church of Jesus Christ where there's no difference 30:58 between a what do you call they call them a reverend and rabbi things that Jesus said you must never use such titles the high priest was the first person who arose and started to build a gate and different different ones you read 31:11 that whole chapter they all the way down there was no gap Nemiah even showed that there was no gap in the wall and he built the wall and he this thing that was broken is one man's who did the whole thing and you read that they 31:26 completed the wall in 52 days. The preparation for that was a man called Ezra and that's in the previous chapter. Now, there's a tremendous to see how God keeps brings workers 31:53 together. Ezra was a very gracious, gentle type of person. Nemiah was a firm, strict, nononsense type of person. But he he was also strict with himself. For example, I want you to see something 32:10 about Nemiah's personal habits. It says here in [Music] 32:31 Nemiah was very careful in Nemiah chapter 5. Just a little thing you notice all the work that he did in the last part of verse 18. Nehemiah 5:18 he was the governor. I did 32:48 not you see Nemiah 5:18. I did not demand the governor's food allowance. He wouldn't take any money for himself even for food. That's to be preached today to Christian people who think every preacher must be 33:07 paid. Pastors have to be paid. Pastors go from one church to another wherever they can get a higher salary. That's not Christianity. That's a broken down wall is paid pastors and people Jesus said don't ever be called rabbi. Today's equivalent of 33:21 rabbi is reverend. Don't ever be called reverend. You think people care for that? People don't care for the words of Jesus. And there are so many believers who just sort of sit back and say it's okay. Nemiah was not like that. He 33:36 didn't sit sit back and say it's okay. He said I'm going to do something about it. I did not use the governor's food allowance. That means he paid out of his own pocket. He didn't take any advantage of even though he did such a lot of work for the 33:52 whole city of Jerusalem, he wouldn't take any allowance for it. And that's the type of person who God uses even today. That's how Paul was. Paul refused to take money from people. He said he supported himself. He worked and took 34:05 care of. That's how Jesus was. If people gave him a gift, he took it. But he never made it known that I must get a salary of that type of nonsense. A Christian preacher getting a salary. Absolutely unheard of in the days of the 34:17 apostles. It's happening all over today. Do you think anybody's bothered the people accept it? Those are the people who are not like Nemiah. They have no burden that the walls are broken down. The wall of Christian workers do not get 34:35 a salary. That wall's been broken down. How many of you are disturbed by that? How many of you would go call calling people reverend so and so and all that? You completely ignored what Jesus said. Don't call anybody rabbi or reverend. 34:55 I'm just giving you some examples. You see, it's a small thing. Jesus said, "Even a small dot in the law, if you break it, you're guilty." So, if we don't take these things seriously, 35:13 I believe we will not be able to build a new covenant church. You can call it new covenant. There are people who give all types of fancy names, but if you want to know what New Covenant Church is, this is what it is. I remember when we started 35:29 CFC 50 years ago, there were two passages of scripture we founded CFC on. Well, before I get there, I want to show you the difference between Ezra and Nemiah for just a moment because that's also important. In the days of Ezra and Nemiah, one of 35:48 the serious sins was that the Jewish people had married heathen wives. So when Ezra confronts that and Ezra hears that the people have married heathen wives in uh Ezra chapter 9 36:07 Ezra chapter 9 verse1 the princes approached me saying the people of Israel and Levites have not separated themselves they are married their daughters were they taken as do as wives people from other nations Ezra Chapter 9:2. What did he do? You know 36:26 what he did? Chapter 10:1, he prayed and wept, prostrating himself before God and say, "Oh God, we have sinned. We have let let you down. Our people have got married to heathen wives." 36:43 Okay, that was Ezra's temperament. Now, Nehemiah, who came a few years later, he heard the same thing. I want you to see Nehemiah 13 that he also heard that the people had married heathen wives. 37:01 Nemiah chapter 13 and verse 23. In those days I saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and their children spoke half this language and that language. What did he do? He didn't weep. It says in verse 25, he cursed them and 37:17 struck and pulled out people's hair and said, "How dare you do that?" Two completely different people and they worked together for the glory of God. That's how God selected Paul and Barnabas in the New Testament. 37:35 Barnabas was like Ezra. He was called a son of encouragement. Paul was the fiery person who would not compromise on anything. And I'll give you one example of it how they reacted differently. 37:52 In Acts chapter 13 is where Paul God selected God selected Ezra and Nemiah. Completely different person. One person will weep when things are going wrong. The other person will just slap people and pull out the hairs from their head. 38:07 That's how they dealt with people in the Old Testament. Acts 13, the Lord says in verse two, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul." Barnabas, by the way, was not his real name. His name was Joseph. And Barnabas means son of encouragement. 38:25 They the apostles changed his name. You're no longer Joseph. We'll call you son of encouragement because you're such a wonderful brother encouraging everybody all the time. So the son of encouragement was joined up with Paul and they went to a place 38:37 called Cyprus and there we read there was a magician in verse 8 Zeke Acts 138 who was opposing the proconsul from turning to the faith. Acts 13:8 and Saul look how he talks to him. This reminds 38:56 me of Nemiah verse 10. You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, won't you stop making crooked the straight of the Lord, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you'll be blind for 39:08 a time. That's Paul. Now, if you had asked Barnabas to handle this magician, how do you think he would have handled it? I think he would have put his arm around him and say, "Hey, let's have a talk. I just want to tell you this is not a very good thing. Why 39:21 are you doing all this?" Nothing would have happened. That's why God chose a Paul and a Barnabas and they work together. What I want to say, the glory of God was seen in Jesus Christ full of 39:37 grace and truth. That's the balance. It's two legs. That is Ezra and Nemiah. That is Barnabas and Paul. It's always like that. Don't imitate another. I've often told people, don't ever try 39:57 to preach the way I preach. God's given me a particular calling. I stick to it. You got to go according to your calling. But in every New Covenant church, there must be this balance of grace and truth. The ministry of Ezra and Nemiah, Paul, 40:14 and Barnabas. That's the only way the wall will be built strong. We don't need two Pauls. We don't need two Nemas. We need a Paul and a Barnabas. And we need a Nemiah and a Ezra. 40:34 That's how it was with Jesus. He could touch the leper and heal him and with the same hand he could take a whip and chase the money changers out of the temple. Jesus was the whole everything in himself. But today in the 40:49 body of Christ, one person fulfills this function. the other person fulfills the the other function. That's the only way we can keep the wall 216 ft thick around NCCF and preserve it from all the spirit of the world coming in. 41:06 It could come into your homes. It could could come in the way you allow your daughters to dress when they grow up. It's very easy. So, everybody else is dressing that way. Okay. Well, if you feel you I you know when people asked me in Bangalore 41:24 some sisters how shall I dress? This is what I told them. I said if Jesus said to you tomorrow morning I want to go for a walk with you in the marketplace 10:00. If Jesus was living in Bangalore and came said I'd like you to come to my 41:37 house. Let's go for a walk in the marketplace. How would you dress if you were walking in the marketplace with Jesus? That's how you should dress all the time. That's all I said. I said I don't have a measuring tape to go around 41:50 checking what's the length of anybody's dress. I'm not that type of person. I say you ask yourself if Jesus were coming to your house and taking you for a walk, what how would you dress? And don't you want Jesus to be with you when 42:02 you go to the office, when you go to college, when you go to school? Well, if you want him to go with you, go in a way that he would not be ashamed to say, "This is my sister." The way she's dressed, this is the sister of Jesus 42:15 Christ. So if we keep those standards that the Bible says, of course, will we be will we be unpopular? Of course we'll be unpopular. Jesus was the most unpopular person in his time. They got he was so unpopular that they killed him. 42:32 And most of the apostles were unpopular. That's why most of them all of them were killed. So we we're not facing persecution these days. But I say that compromise is much worse. 42:50 So let's bear that in mind and say Lord let me have a concern in my heart like Nemiah had. Are the walls being broken down? Are we keeping the wall as high and as wide and strong as they should be? Each of us has a responsibility in our home 43:09 first and then to the measure in which you have a responsibility in the church to be an example to others. Even if you don't have a responsibility as an elder, the way you conduct yourself and the way you bring up your children, 43:25 you have a responsibility to the church. Let's pray. So while our heads bowed in prayer, let's ask the Lord, what does it mean for me to keep the wall of separation high and 43:44 wide and strong in my home? And what responsibility do I have with my family as we come to this church? Heavenly Father, we 44:01 don't live by rules. We believe your Holy Spirit will guide us in all these matters. We only want to please you in everything. 44:18 We want to come to the end of our life and say we spent our life pleasing you. Whatever other people may have said or thought, help us Lord in every area to be upright to honor you. We pray in Jesus name. 44:37 Amen.
