Citizenship

I guess it's okay, isn't it? I got up a little bit too early. Anyway, this has been just absolutely fascinating to see the variety of different things here. Nice to see Courtney leading the choir here. Her sister kind of does the same thing. Her twin sister in Cincinnati. It's wonderful. And the instrument, that box here, that... Did you invent that instrument? That was great. He provided us with a beat. And the combination at the beginning of services. I've never seen a trumpet in a violin combination that sounded so good. I've never seen those two things just together like that. Anyway, Naya Hooker, congratulations. I was told about Naya Hooker by Mr. Pebworth. And one of the first things I wanted to do was to meet Daya. So he said, well, you won't miss her. So I just turned back to her and I said, anybody know here, could I like to meet Naya Hooker? She says, I am she. First person I turned to. So I'm just very, very happy. I'll be looking for you at the home office. We have lunch with the ABC students.

Usually the staff comes down to lunch, those who eat lunch there, at 12 o'clock. And the ABC class ends at 12.20. So they kind of go through the line after that. And we encourage them to kind of sit with the staff. You know, I say, if I have an empty seat next to me, sit down and talk to me. I mean, I just really do enjoy talking to the students. So looking forward to seeing you. And we would like this. We love it when the students feel brave enough to just sit there and talk and ask questions and have lunch with us. So consider that to be good resource time and mixing with not only other staff members, but with the ABC students. It's going to be a big class this year. You know, it'll be much bigger, 10 or so more than we've had last year. I'd like to also comment, too, that we had a wonderful, wonderful tour of Facebook at their headquarters in Manlo Park. You know, I think that, you know, we have two and a half billion people involved somehow with Facebook. It's one of the biggest phenomenons of all civilization. And we had a wonderful directed tour by Michael McNally, who gave us a tour to forbade me and Tim Pebworth. But just was wonderful. It was supposed to be one hour long, and in that one hour, there was just so much information jammed there. We appreciate the hospitality and the generosity of Mr. McNally for showing us through. Today, I want to talk about citizenship.

Why? Why citizenship? My subject today? I've thought a lot about this subject. One thing that has kind of stimulated my and prompted my thinking is when I see so many people around the world who are refugees, who have no home, and who have no citizenship, see refugees, as I mentioned earlier, David Cottle, the deputy ambassador to Iraq, said there were two phenomenon in the Middle East in the last 10 years that really changed a lot of what's happening in the world today. One is the implosion of Egypt, and the other is the explosion of Syria that spewed people and venom all around the world. Refugees, terrorism, and other things that have been less than savory, that have been horrible and inhumane. And we see pictures of refugees, of people floating on unseeworthy boats from place to place, asking the government, whether it be Europe or wherever they can find a place that would take them in, to please take us as they huddle their little children, some of them sinking with people dying and a high percentage of children perishing. That really gets to our hearts. Also seeing the refugees in Myanmar, the minority Muslim population that is oppressed by the majority Buddhist population, and seeing hundreds of thousands of people that nobody wants. The Bangladesh people don't want them, the Burmese people don't want them, and they are sitting there wondering what their fate will be.

We see human smuggling from the south across the border into the United States.

In fact, our David Cottle says that there's a movement of people in the world today, from south to north, and both South America and from Africa, people pushing up into the north, where migrations of people in the past used to be from east to west. But now it's people from the south, from African countries pushing their way up into Europe, people through South America, through Mexico pushing their way up into the north. When I see images of these people, and the last thing that this sermon is, is a political sermon, the reason is, is because I used to be a refugee. I used to be a displaced person. My parents were World War II refugees, and at one time I had no citizenship. I was born in the refugee camp in Germany just after World War II. My parents sat in that camp for four years looking for a place that would take them in. They searched locations in Australia, knocked on the door, rejected. Canada, even Brazil, and Argentina. No, no, no. And they came very close to being sent back to Ukraine, where they came from. But I'll talk about this a little bit later. But this is the reason that this subject, when I see refugees and people who are disoriented, who don't know what's happening to them, and they could be dead in the next day or two, and their children having a very high percentage of mortality. My heart goes out to them. No matter what is said in the news, no matter what people say, what the outcry is, pro-con, wall, immigration, whatever, my heart goes out to people who are without. Human slavery and slave trade in the world is as high as it's ever been. There are proactive groups trying to stem human slavery, slave traffic, whether it be sex traffic, which actually, believe it or not, is not the highest percentage of people who are human slaves from country to country. You could probably get a slave if you wanted to right now bad enough in this country. We had at a rotary convention a presentation about human slave traffic. If you wanted to get a slave, you could get a slave. You could pay for one, do work for you from another country. That's another story itself of a whole market for people that are at the mercy of people who control them in other countries. It could be somebody that you're looking at at the supermarket, somebody who's in a checkout line with you, could be a slave who's working for somebody. Most of us are American citizens, and I'm very, very grateful for my American citizenship. I have my American citizenship, which I highly value, which I received when I was in second grade as a dependent of my parents. Most Americans are, been born as citizens. They have the rights, they have the responsibilities, most are free-born, and have automatically become one. You probably don't even know that you have. You might have a driver's license, a passport, and so forth, social security number that got you your that, but you don't think about the fact that at some point you were made a citizen of this country. There are so many people that want to come to the U.S. There are so many people that want to come to the U.S. just to achieve the status of becoming a naturalized American citizenship. That is the very highest level of achievement in existence that people have. You know, sometimes I am not that enthusiastic about having people come from areas of the world in developing countries just to visit the United States because they see this as the kingdom of God. This is the end in itself. Once you've come here, this is it.

People think that we have no problems in this country. They think that we live very, very well. We have no issues. When my wife and I went to a family reunion in the Soviet Union to my family, the first thing they ask is, how big is your house? How much money do you make? Those are starter questions in conversations oftentimes about our lives. They don't realize some of the issues that we have. But people would like to come to the U.S. and look upon this becoming an American citizen is the highest and most notable of all achievements. My parents. How did they become refugees? In 1942, during World War II, a year after the Germans had invaded Operation Barbarossa, my parents were teenagers. One lived on one side of the Ukraine. One lived on the other part. They weren't married. They didn't know each other. They were taken by Germans as teenagers to work in German factories. They were taken by train. They were told that you'll be back in six to nine months. And a lot of the teenagers, hundreds of thousands, if not more than a few million, were sent to Germany to work the factories. And they thought it was an adventure. They were actually enthusiastic about going to Germany because they were told it's only going to be for six to nine months.

It turned out my mother didn't go back to visit her family for 27 years. They were in Germany working as slave labor. My mother in a boot factory for the German army, and my father in a food factory. They married. Well, first of all, as the war came to an end, they thought that they were free. They lived in a zone where the American army came through, and they were so grateful after three years of hardship. The Americans came, paratroopers, and so forth, and they were liberated. They thought this was the end. This is the end of the war. But according to the Potsdam agreement, that area was turned over to the Russians in short order. And they woke up in a few days, and there wasn't American voices around them. It was Russian voices around them. And they were treated very badly. They were treated as collaborators with the Germans. They were herded into containment camps once again. And my parents, with another couple, said, we really can't be here. We've got to do something. This is really, really bad. And there's a story of escape. They escaped from the Russians and made their way over to Hanover, Germany, about 120 miles to the west. There they found a United Nations refugee camp in the British zone. And that's where they settled. The day they came to the camp, the news of that particular day was that the atomic bomb had been dropped in Hiroshima. So I know the exact day. It was August 6th, 19th of the day. And that was in 1945. That was the big news throughout the world on that day, because World War II ended just three days after that, after the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

My parents, through that time, they married. And then I was born two years later, in 1947. And all these people needed to be resettled. My parents knew that going back to the USSR, my father was what was Poland before, but that was now swallowed up into the USSR, was a very, very poor choice. Because word was, is that all these young people who had worked for the Germans were collaborators, and some of them were executed. Some of them were just killed for going to Germany, even though they had no choice, even though they couldn't tell the Germans, hey, I don't think I really want to do this. And so they stayed in that camp. But it was coming to a point in 1949 where they had to do something four years in this camp. And so they finally decided that they would take their chances and go back to the USSR, would you believe?

At the very last second, one inquiry that they had made to a professor at the University of Minnesota, who was related through friendship with my father's father, sent an invitation of sponsorship. And my parents were able to find passage with his sponsorship to the United States. And they came over in 1949. They came through Ellis Island, and they settled in Minnesota.

They had to wait five years before they could get their green card and apply for residency.

And I remember that as a youngster growing up, you know, I was two years old when I came over, and about the age of six or seven, they were preparing to become American citizens. And there was a lot that they really had to do at that time. Because I still remember so well. I didn't speak any English. I didn't speak any English until I was five years old, until I went to kindergarten. But I remember my parents trying to learn the English language. They were saying these words. They were horrible at pronunciations and so forth. Even as a little kid, I thought it was funny what my parents were saying. Because we spoke Ukrainian at home, and then they were learning this foreign language. But there was a number of things that they really had to know about America. They had to know how the American government was structured. And you know, I learned the American government for my parents, you know, when they were studying for citizenship. They had to know that the American government had an executive branch, and that was the president. It had a legislative branch, and it had a judicial branch. Boy, that's what I learned from my parents. They had to know these facts. They had to know about the president. They talked about Eisenhower. You know, they were talking about Eisenhower all the time because they knew they had to answer these questions. Who was the president of your country? They had to know who our two senators were. I remember learning who our two senators were and who our congressman was. I remember I learned all about George Washington and about Abraham Lincoln, too. You know, as they talked about American history, and they had to know various aspects about the United States Constitution. So they had to speak English. They had to know how the American government was structured, and then they went for their interview to become American citizens, and they passed. And I remember I was in second grade, and I became an American citizen. I went back to my class, and I said, I'm an American citizen now. To my teacher. And I explained to her that I went down to the courthouse, and that I, you know, become an American, and the class just absolutely rejoiced. I remember they had a big party for me as a little kid. You know, second grade, I am an American citizen. Some of the qualifications for to become a citizen were that you had to be at least 18 years old. You had to be a permanent resident. You have to have to be around for five years. You had to have continuous residents in the U.S. for at least five years to filing form N-400 for citizenship. You had to be able to read, write, and speak basic English. You have to have a basic understanding of U.S. history and government. That's where I learned about old presidents. In fact, they told, as a little kid, they talked about all these old historic presidents for the past. Remember, saying, is Eisenhower dead, too? You know, no, no, Eisenhower's alive, you know. You had to be a person of good moral character.

You had to be a person of good moral character. And you had to make this statement, which I don't know, has to be made any more because of becoming a dual national or being a dual citizen. But this is the statement that my parents had to sign off on.

I hereby declare that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have hitherto been subject or citizen. So you had to absolutely reject whatever government that you were a part of in the past and any of its leadership and embrace American citizenship. That's what was necessary. And then I became a citizen as a dependent child.

I was no longer an alien. You know, I heard the word alien all the time. We were aliens. Okay, so I remember the, I gave a sermon when I was my son, who was about four years old at the time, and you know, they watched TVs and cartoons and things. And I talked about how I was an alien. And after the sermon, my little son comes up, and, Daddy, what planet did you come from?

He was serious. No, what planet? He said, Do I have a green face?

That was what they were called. But the Soviet government did not let go of its citizens. If you were a Soviet citizen, they didn't care what citizenship you adopted. You were one of theirs. And once a Soviet citizen, always a Soviet citizen.

When my mother died, my father died in 1967, my mother died in 1984, I was amazed. I was the executor of her estate. I got a letter from a New York law firm saying they were representing the Soviet government. And they laid claim to my mother's property, saying she is a Soviet citizen, and that is our property. So they didn't let go.

Of course, we just basically ignored them. But we had heard of other families that had no heirs in the United States, and their property went back to the Soviet Union because they were Soviet citizens. My mother did go back to visit her mother before she died.

And she took along my 11-year-old sister at the time. It's kind of security. And they visited, and they didn't harm them in any way. They let my mother come back from the Soviet Union. That was about 1967 or 19... actually about 1969. Citizenship to our family was very, very important, and citizenship itself is a biblical subject because we are citizens. Now, you are citizens of the United States, unless you're visiting here from another country. You are citizens of something. The one thing that, of course, brought sadness to me when I see refugees, when I see people milling around and being thrashed around here and there and dying in droves, is the fact that they're totally nothing. They have no value. Actually, but from the time that I was born, I was not a citizen of anything. I was a DP, displaced person. I remember we were all our community in America of people that had come over, formed an Orthodox Church and so forth, were called Dpiste, you know, Dpiers, because they were all... Our whole church was just a group of people who were very common from their background. We had services in Ukrainian, and we were all people who were Dps who now had become citizens. But the Apostle Paul makes references to the subject of citizenship because Paul himself was a very fortunate person in the Roman Empire. He was a freeborn Roman citizen, and that was something that not too many people had.

The Roman world was composed of many people who were refugee-like who were slaves. In fact, Christians were slaves, you know. The Apostle Paul, even writing in the book of Romans, he says, if you are a slave, you know, be kind to your masters. He wasn't saying, you know, emancipate yourself or anything, that if you are a slave, that's the way that you're called. And slaves were not citizens. They didn't have the rights of citizenship, protection from the government. The Apostle Paul, when he was attacked or when he was beaten by crowds, when he said, hey, look, wait a minute, I'm a Roman citizen. You're kidding. You know, I mean, they just stood back and said, you know, really? You're a Roman citizen? He said, I am a Roman citizen.

In Philippians chapter 3, in verse 20, Philippians chapter 3, in verse 20, the Apostle Paul makes this statement to the people living in Philippi, which was really only at that time a Roman colony. It was part of the Roman Empire, but it was not a full province.

And he writes to them and says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And actually, in the New Living Translation, the statement about heaven is actually clearer in the more modern translation than it is in the New King James. We are citizens of heaven. We are citizens of heaven. When Paul used the word citizen, it really resonated with people because they saw a special class of people in their society that were citizens of Rome, which at that time was an elite status. And now Paul says, you are citizens of heaven, equating the two genres of rights, of identity, of nationhood.

And so it made the Christians feel valued, that they were citizens, like some of the elite in their neighborhood, you know, in their society, were of the Roman government. This was not a platitude. This was not just a nice little statement. We are citizens of heaven, where we have rights and we have certain liberties. To the Ephesians, he wrote a similar statement in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11.

Remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Here he's equating the Christian status to, in contrast to not being a Christian, of being of the Gentiles, as not being those of the commonwealth or the nation of Israel. But he explains it further. And strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. See, the status of a non-Israelite was the fact that there's no hope for you. There's no God. It's just death after this life. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were afar off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And then he continues in verse 19. Now therefore, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, because there were lots of them on the physical level, on the physical plane, in the city of Ephesus. Ephesus was one of the major cities in the Aegean. Lots of people, a lot of mercantile activity, a lot of trade back and forth, a lot of slaves. And so people were able to differentiate between those who were of that ilk, of that particular grouping, compared to the ones who were citizens. But now, he says, you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, that as a Christian, you have attained a status of being a citizen, which gives you hope, which gives you covenants of promise, of protection, and ultimately of eternal life, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This is something that, you know, has been spoken of by the writers of the Old Testament about man's potential, man's future, and Jesus Christ, being the chief cornerstone, is the one who is our captain of our salvation, in whom, verse 21, the whole building being fitted together grows into the holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also were built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit. But now, as a Christian, we become fellow citizens, fellow citizens. So the apostle tells us that if we're called by God and have been elected to respond to that calling with repentance and obedience to God, that we have citizenship. We have citizenship that comes from heaven. We're no longer aliens, no longer foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints.

Paul's words reflect world conditions at that time when the Roman citizen made a person a member of a very special elite, no matter how pathetic their individual circumstances might be. Now, there were a number of ways a person could become a Roman citizen. Number one, be freeborn as Paul was. Paul's parents were citizens. We don't know how they got to be citizens, but anyway, they were citizens of the Roman Empire, and their son naturally was a Roman citizen as a result. He had some type of ID as a citizen. But also, they could buy their way into citizenship, or they could serve so many years, and it was quite a few years, in the military to become a Roman citizen. Philippi was written to a church in Philippi, which is a Roman colony, and Ephesians was written to people who were already living in a commercial center. But both areas highly regarded this matter of citizenship. What does it mean to be a member of the Commonwealth of Israel that was spoken of there in Ephesians 2.12? Is it a special status where God picks you out and just gives you special status, and you don't have to worry about anything anymore? You're just lucky, fortunate, called whatever as a person. There's actually a lot more to that, because this Commonwealth of Israel was the nation of Israel that came out of Egypt. They were refugees. If you want to see a nation that was really refugees, first of all, they were slaves, and then they got changed to being refugees out there in the desert, and God basically called them into a status of being his citizenship, his citizens, as part of his nation. In Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 15. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 15.

This whole chapter is so beautiful, actually, about how God regarded these people and how he had given them a status. The Lord delighted only in your fathers to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples as it is this day, where God made people of the refugees his nation and his people. But he called them into a community of people that were given a mission. They were given a mission of going into the Promised Land and to be witnesses of his way of life, of his laws, obedience, and so forth.

When you read this entire 10th chapter, he prays, he wishes them to be those who would learn the laws of that land, to learn how their government, how the government of God was structured, you know, to be obedient, to be those that would live by those laws. Therefore, verse 16, circumcise the foreskin of your heart and be stiff-necked no longer. So I really want you to be compliant.

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God almighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes any bribe. He administers justice, verse 18, for the fatherless and the widow, and loves a stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore, love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. He said you were at one time refugees in the land of Egypt. You were nothing. But I want you to be a nation that really shows love to strangers. You shall fear, verse 20, the Lord your God. You shall serve him. And him you shall hold fast and take oaths in his name. Part of the responsibility as being a nation that was called out was to fear God, to respect him, to obey him.

He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. You know, God has done a lot for you, and you better be very grateful to him. Now, one very interesting thing when we attended our old church, our priest, who was a wonderful person, and we really liked him very, very much, because he gave good sermons. Most of the time the sermons were just, you know, written things and so forth, but he really always had, I remember his 15-minute sermon on Sunday, was usually a very good point, and it was very relevant to us as people who were new citizens.

And he spoke over and over again about being thankful to our government, to the American government, for what they had given us, and not to take for granted the blessings that we had. I remember him talking about how, you know, all we were was just a shovel full of dirt in Germany after the war, and God just took a shovel full of that dirt and threw it across the ocean, and here we are. We're so fortunate, we're so lucky. He would give these graphic demonstrations, you know, illustrations about us and being in America, and having the status, and really wanting the people to feel very grateful.

Well, God here tells the people of Israel, you know, you were nothing. You were in Egypt as slaves, you went as refugees through the Red Sea, and now you've been given this land of milk and honey that you're entering into in these chapters of Deuteronomy, and you better love God. You better obey Him. You better apply those things that you learned from Him. You better be good to others.

You'll be a nation that has a purpose. So being called as citizens is not just to be fortunate or to be lucky, but to be given a mission, a purpose in doing what you're doing. We, Israel, was called to be a community of people that would live among the nations to serve His purpose. Now, one thing that I've always marveled about the United States. As much as people may hate us in different places around the world, they really like what America has, good or bad. Most of the times, things are not always the very best. And America has an amazing ability to pass its culture, good or bad, to places around the world. Sometimes it's not the very best thing.

Number one TV show when we traveled in Russia was, guess what? The Simpsons. That's what the Russians loved. They loved that. They loved these Russian subtitles. They were watching Homer. We're watching all this stuff. It was American culture, but America somehow has the ability to be able to pass these things on. Instead of passing on the good, it's the bad. When I visited with the Ukrainian Sabbatarians in 1991, the people in Ukraine were so grateful now to be able to get TV programs from America or from the West. Because before, TV was horribly boring. They would show pictures of some factory foreman talking about production at his plant. People didn't want to hear that type of thing. Whenever there would be a soccer game on, everybody would be watching TV. But most of the television was very, very boring. The first American programs that came through were old reruns of Texas. Dallas reruns. That's what they loved. All they loved to see how they dressed, what they talked, and everything. Then Santa Barbara. I'm just saying that the things that came through were the things that were base. They were not high culture. They were not things that were enlightening. They were not things that really taught a higher standard and a higher value of life. But still, the ability of the culture that we have here seeps out throughout the entire world. One reason why we're hated in some countries is because of the low value of things that we export and the things that really are very marginal culturally. In the New Testament, our citizenship, our nation, is defined also as a church. We are a church.

The word ekklesia, the Greek word ekklesia, is the word that is translated into the word church. It was the word for church ekklesia was not necessarily a word that was one that meant something spiritual. It was a crowd or group. In fact, in the Ukrainian language, the word that you hear for congregation or church is just a word that could be for any grouping of people. But what we are is a people who are very special and called to God for a particular purpose.

Let's take a look at some of the similarities to citizenship that's spiritual citizenship or citizenship of becoming one that's a citizen of the United States to the kind of citizen that we should be spiritually. Stated that a citizenship person applying for citizenship must be 18 years old, must be somebody who's not a child. In order for us to be a spiritual citizen, to come to the point of making a decision to become a part of the structure of a nation who understands law, understands responsibility, and somebody who is probably very close to leaving home is that a person must be mature. When we baptize people, we look for people who can make decisions on their own. They're not under the umbrella of their home. They could be living at home, but they have a job, they're going to school, they can make decisions for themselves. It's not for children being a spiritual citizen. It's not one who's a novice. You have to wait five years and live permanently in this country for at least 30 months at one time before getting your citizenship. It's not for somebody who's just brand new into the truth. We have people who kind of come along and they have a quick emotional decision that they want to make. No, you need to wait some time. You need to understand. You need to kind of experience what it is to be part of the grouping of people who are citizens. Not a novice. You need to be one who is able to read and write basic English spiritually. You need to be one who understands what we believe. You need to understand our beliefs, that we have our fundamental beliefs. We expect our people to comply with them, people to agree with them. If you don't agree with them, study them to understand more. But we expect somebody who comes to the United States, who wants to become a citizen of this nation, of somebody who will adopt the laws of this land. Not Sharia law or some other kind of law, but one who adopts the laws of this nation, of which we are to be respectful of. All of us should be respectful of the laws of this nation. And not have some type of internal government or internal way in which we manage our affairs by some other structure of government from other places in the world. But somebody who understands the law of God and complies with it. We need to be able to speak the language of the kingdom. We're to learn to speak English. We need to learn the language of the church. There's a certain spirit of the church, there's a certain language that we speak. When we all come together here, we kind of know what we're talking about.

And if somebody new comes to the church, we want these people to understand what we mean by some of the terminology that we have about repentance and overcoming and how we talk about raising our children, how we conduct ourselves in marriage, and so forth. We have a language that we speak. We have values that we enunciate in the way that we conduct ourselves. Just like when we come to this country, we need to learn to speak English. We come into the church, you need to learn the language of the church in the way that we use the knowledge and internalize it. We have to be able to answer questions about the government of God. I'm talking about things like, where is God?

How does he govern? What is his kingdom? What does all this mean? Just like my parents when I heard them talking about the American government, talking about the senators from our state, and I remember telling my dad, and dad was talking about the senators all the time, you know, it was really upholding them. I told my dad, I'd like to be a senator too, you know. I mean, it was something to look up to. It looked something that was very, very desirable, something that you wanted to learn about. Well, certainly in the church, we learn the language of the church. We learn about what is man, the role of Jesus Christ in our lives.

And also, one needs to understand an attachment to the principles and ideals of the U.S. Constitution.

And certainly we understand how our church functions, the respect that we show towards it, and the work of the church. Its vision, its mission, its purpose, you know, we can understand and be able to explain these things, that we are citizens of that country.

But one more thing. Israel was sent into the world. The nation of Israel, as it gained its spiritual or its national citizenship by God, they were the Commonwealth of Israel, had a responsibility to the nations around to uphold the ways of God, you know, His laws, His values, and so forth. And not to become part of the world, but express and be a light to those outside. That was the failing of the nation of Israel.

Because the story of Israel is that instead of overcoming the world around them, they are those who were overcome by the world. John chapter 15 and verse 16. John 15 and verse 18, actually. Talking about the world. The one thing about being citizens of the kingdom of God, citizens of heaven, is that God has not called us into a commune, into a community where we just live with ourselves. After services today, tomorrow, and the rest of the week, you are going to be in the world. You're probably not going to see each other until the next Sabbath. In fact, today, probably more of you see each other than any other time except for Holy Days because you go to San Jose, Ptolema, you know, here as well.

Verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. We may not always be liked by the world. In fact, we may even be hated for the values that we have. Yet, because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. You may find that estrangement from the world, even the world's Christianity, and even the world's values, is values about many things that have really gone downhill in the last few years.

John 17, verse 5, these are among Christ's last words when he was at least by himself before he was taken for his sacrifice. John 17, verse 5, has it entered our minds? John 17, verse 5.

I'd like to read this chapter because Christ was so passionate in what he said. And now, O Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was.

He said, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. These people came out, in a sense, from not those who were citizens of the kingdom of God, but from the world.

They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Now they have known that all things that you have given me are from you. He's so passionate in wanting to make certain that his disciples would be continually committed to the things that he taught them, and that his disciples would be looking to the Father in heaven to strengthen them and help them. I have given to them, verse 8, the words which you have given me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

Jesus Christ feels so strongly about those whom he has called.

Right now, eventually God has a plan for all of mankind. But one of the purposes of the church is to be those who are called, those who have known God's ways, and to be those who live in the world and showing the world God's way of life. In the way you live, in the way you conduct yourself, in the way you react, in the way you speak.

Verse 10, I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you, Holy Father. I keep through your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one as we are.

This is how he finishes his last prayer with his Father about those who are the citizens of the kingdom of God, and asks God to protect them, to be with them.

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name, those whom you have given me, I have kept, and none of them is lost.

Verse 14, I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, that we are to live in this world, in this society, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So certainly, this is how he concluded some of the most passionate words that he had before he was taken and crucified later that afternoon. We should be very, very grateful, brethren, that we have been called from being refugees in this world. We don't realize how much the world is so lost in our refugees and their minds, not knowing what their purpose is, who they are, they don't know God, they're empty. While they say and they can look to physical things as providing some type of joy temporarily, the real joy does come from those things that give us eternal life and purpose and meaning. We can be very, very grateful for that. Let's be very grateful that we've been called into citizenship, that we've been given rights, but also realize that we've been given responsibilities to be those who are in the world and shining a light to the world. So, fellow citizens of the kingdom of God, I conclude with Romans chapter 1 verse 7. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May God keep you and protect you. I look forward with meeting you and having this chat that Mr. Peathworth has told me about.