How Should You Appear before God?

Well, happy Sabbath, everyone! Good to see all of you. Hope you've had a good week. I was thinking, you know, of the fellows that are getting up here and introducing with hymns and all of the things that are done as we conduct services. We came here in 1992, and I believe that Stephen, at that time, in 1992, you would have been 10 years old back in those years.

I think in 1992, I can't remember how Sean would have been a couple of years older than that. And little Jonathan, who's a big Jonathan now, was two years old.

I remember going over to the Knudsen's and anointing little Katie, and she was sitting on the edge of the beds, and she was just a tiny thing. I don't know how old Katie would have been, but not very old, but it's good to see these young men and the ladies in the church beginning to come in their own, and we really do appreciate them.

Appreciate the first message as well, and appreciate others that have done things here for the services today. I want to ask you, have you ever dishonored God? I got a letter this past week, and I had a prisoner who's been trying to live a godly life, and for whatever reason, he got upset, and he said, I cussed God. I personally don't think I've ever done that myself, but I wrote him back and, of course, told him, Why would you want to do that? God is your best friend? Why would you do that? He was very sorry for it, but certainly he realized that he had dishonored God. Of course, none of us would purposely dishonor God. However, we can unknowingly treat the God of Heaven in a contemptible manner and not even realize it. Not be aware of it. Think about these things that are in the Bible. Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden from the presence of God because they were not of a right frame of mind. They wanted to do their own thing, and so God said, okay, there's the door. And, of course, they were cast out of the Garden of Eden. How about Aaron's two sons who were struck down and died because they came before God in a dishonorable manner? They were drinking, and God killed them. He put them to death for what they did. How about also Ananias and Sapphira? You know, they had a piece of land they sold, and they held back. They kept part of the money. They wanted to give people the impression they had given all the money to the church. And they were caught in a lie, and they were put to death for what they did. God struck them down. How about another example in the Bible? Jesus Christ, what did He do? He cast the money changers out of the temple area. And basically what they were doing was not right in the house of God. You know, we could go on and on. There are a number of places in the Bible, and you might want to do your own study on this, about how God looks at what people do. Sometimes there can be repercussions. You know, we all of us should know very well what is appropriate to do or not do when we come into the presence of God. Are we in agreement with that? You know, are we all on the same page spiritually about that? So how should we present ourselves before God? How should we do that?

You know, we should come, frankly, as the priests came. You know, the Bible talks about how the priests were to come before God. They had to be clean both physically and ceremonially. They were to dress appropriately. They couldn't wear just anything, you know, when they came to appear before God.

And certainly they couldn't come before God with their minds clouded by alcohol. You know, God made that very clear, didn't He, what He expected of them.

The first thing we need to be aware of, brethren, about coming before God and His presence is, you know, the Sabbath services that we're conducting, you know, each week are very special to God. He calls this day holy. And then, in fact, the commandment says, remember the Sabbath day. What does it say? Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Keep it holy. Let's go to Exodus chapter 3, Exodus chapter 3, to really begin to, you know, show what God expects. You know, here Moses, as you know, he was tending the flocks of Jethro, and he was on the south side with the flock, and right before Horeb, and Horeb was called the mountain of God. And lo and behold, here he sees this burning bush. And it doesn't burn this bush up. It just keeps burning. You know, if you could come up with that, man, you could solve the energy crisis, couldn't you? How to do that? But let's listen in Exodus 3 and down in verse 5. You know, here it says, well, in verse 4, So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, he called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here I am. And then he said, do not draw near this place. Don't come near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. Now, what made it holy was God's presence there. And he said, Moses, you take your sandals off if you're going to come before me here. So he removed his sandals because he stood on holy ground. You know, God doesn't require us to take our shoes off to come in to church services. You know, we I'm glad of that. Quite frankly, I remember going to the Alaska mosque, you know, on top of the temple Mount. And then, you know, the Muslims have a temple there that they go in and worship. And I happened to be in that at that time, you could actually go in to the to the Alaska mosque. And so I walked in there and boy, what a terrible smell. It was, you know, the smell of about 500 people's feet, you know. So I'm glad God doesn't make us take our shoes off coming into services. But we do need to be aware that we are here at a holy time. And so this is special time. And so we need to be careful what we do during this holy time, when particularly when we're here, you know, in in the presence of God in spirit. And, you know, I've always said that I always believe that when we come into the services, you know, maybe, you know, we got angels sitting all in these. These pews right here with us. We don't see them, obviously, but they're there. And they walk in the midst of us, see what we're doing, and report back to God. So we need to, again, treat the holy time, you know, especially because the Sabbath is God's day.

You know, Jesus said He was the Lord of the Sabbath. It's His day. And we need to treat it in a very respectful manner. And, you know, God doesn't want us just to be here physically, bodily. He wants us to be here mentally as well. That we're here to worship God on the Sabbath. I'm not going to go to it, but in John 4, 24, it tells us that we are to worship God in spirit and in truth. So we have to be always magnifying the truth, and we need to have the right spirit. Spirit refers to our attitude, the kind of attitude that we have, the right kind of attitude, a godly attitude when we come before God. So how should we come in the presence of God on the Sabbath day? Well, let's go to 1 John 3, 22. I'm going to go there first. But in 1 John 3, 22, one of those old standby memory scriptures, if you memorize, you know, the scriptures that we used to put out in the church. But in verse 22, it says, and whatever we ask when we kneel down in prayer, we receive from Him. And it says, because we keep the commandments, we're doing the commandments of God, and those things that are pleasing in His sight. So God can bless us when we are doing those things that please God. I know Mr. Armstrong used to talk about that. He used to say, when our ways please God, then God will bless us. So we need to, again, get in the right groove of obeying God and pleasing God. And ask yourself, do your ways really please God? Are you pleasing to your Father in heaven?

You know, the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, I won't turn to it, but I want to quote it to you. He wrote Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.15. He says, but if I am delayed, and I'm sure that in those days when they travel, they were delayed all the time. He says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. So he's telling young Timothy, I want you to know how you are to conduct yourself in the house of God. You know, we don't know what we don't know. You know, when we walk through the door of the church for the first time, we don't know how to conduct ourselves. How would we know? That's why Paul was instructed him about how to conduct yourself. Here, this was an evangelist, how to conduct yourself in the house of God. And it goes on to say, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It's a place where the truth is taught, where the truth is preached. So do we know how to conduct ourselves? You know, I know when I first came to church, I didn't have a ministerial visit, so I wasn't able to actually talk to a minister that way. But when I came to services, I attended church in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We were back in the 60s. And the first thing I did when I walked through the door is I started looking at what people do, how people were, how did they dress, how did they talk, what did they talk about, all of those things. Because I wanted to know, what are we supposed to do? I mean, before I actually came to church, I mean, I studied on my own, and I think I told you that when I discovered I ought to be keeping the Feast of Atonement, and I realized I shouldn't drink or eat on atonement, and I kid you not, I would not even swallow my own spit, because I didn't know. What does God? You may think that's funny, but that was the question I had. And of course, I realized that that was silly, kind of hard not to, isn't it? But it's something we learn, we have to know. And I wanted to know for sure what I was supposed to do. Let's go to Matthew 22. Matthew 22 over here. In Matthew 22, Jesus was giving a parable over here, and basically he was saying to the Pharisees, the scribes of the Pharisees, look, you guys are on the way out, because you're not pleasing God. And when the Pharisees perceived that Jesus was talking about them, then they wanted to get him. You know, God was about ready to cut that tree down. But notice, and Jesus answered, he answered them, and he spoke to them again by parables.

And he gave this parable, he said, the kingdom of God is like a certain man who arranged a marriage for his son. And of course, we can realize that he's talking about here, is Jesus Christ at his wedding, the wedding that is going to take place eventually in the future. And he sent out a service to call those who were invited to the wedding, this is verse 3, and they were not willing to come. Now, we've all heard this parable before. You know, they were very indigent. And not only did they were not willing to come, but when service was sent, they even killed the service. Of course, the prophets were sent to Israel, and they killed the prophets.

Those who were righteous, those who would live God's way, they killed them, put them to death. Now, I want to go down to verse 8 here in this parable. And then he said to his service, this king he's talking about, the wedding is ready for those who were invited were not worthy. Now, brethren, that refers to those Jews of that day, and they were not worthy because of their attitude, the way they thought. And again, there are murderous ways with regard to those that God sent. And he said they were not invited, but they were not worthy. Verse 9, therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding. So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together, all whom they found both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on the proper wedding garment. Now, we know this applies to spiritual here, but you know, we would be remiss, wouldn't we, if we didn't see the physical connection here. It would be pretty silly if we didn't see the physical aspect of this. But he saw a man there that didn't have on the proper wedding garment. Now, before we go on here, the people that, in fact, symbolically, were called into the wedding, guess what? They're sitting here right now. It's you and me. We're the ones that were invited in. We weren't the original guests, but God had mercy on us. He went out of the highways and byways. And remember this, what he says, that some good and some bad were brought on in. So we need to think about ourselves individually and how much we should be willing to change. But he sees this man there who did not have on a wedding garment.

So he said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. He was speechless. Well, I mean, what else would you say? But then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness.

There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So again, here we should make the connection here. It's a matter of attitude. What is our attitude about what we are doing, where we are, and how we come into the presence of God? What is our attitude? When he says they're going to be cast into outer darkness, it basically means in the future they're going to be as far away from God as possible.

God doesn't want them around His people. It's like the demons are going to be cast into outer darkness away from God. Of course, those that are physical are going to perish in the lake of fire. So this is pretty serious business Jesus Christ is giving here. So again, don't miss and ignore the physical application of what this is saying. People that were invited originally didn't have the right attitude either. But God has invited us. Let's make sure we have the proper attitude toward what He is asking us to do as God's people. So remember, the Sabbath services are like holy ground or holy time, and we need to treat it accordingly.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Always keep it holy. Next, brethren, pray for God's inspiration of His ministry. And the brethren. I'm not going to go there, but in 1 Thessalonians 5, 25, the apostle Paul simply wrote this, Brethren, pray for us. Pray for us. You know, it was Paul that was being chased about by bands of Jews who wanted to kill him in those days. Being run out of town on a rail in many cases.

Let's go to Romans 10 under this pray for God's inspiration of ministry. And not only the ministry, but the brethren. You know, God could inspire the minister, but are the ears of the members of the church open? Are the brethren listening? Are they hearing what God has to say? Romans 10, down in verse 14, will begin there. And it says, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? So God is graciously in the church provided teachers, preachers, you know, that are to teach us God's way of life. And notice what it says going on. How shall they preach unless they are sent? So, you know, you don't just stand up and volunteer to be the preacher. You have to be sent. Sent of God, sent by the church. And so one has to be sent, as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things and preach the gospel of peace.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed or report? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You know, if we've got our ears open and listening to what is being said, and we're praying for the minister to deliver a message that will reach within the gray manner of our brain and just lodge there and begin to produce the fruit, we need to be, again, doing that, praying for what is being said.

That you will receive it and you'll apply it. Again, Mr. Armstrong said many, many times, no knowledge is of any value unless it's applied in our lives. God's not called us into the church just to make us smarter. He wants us to become wiser and have more character as God's people. So when we come, we need to be loaded and we need to be ready to learn.

We ought to come, again, equipped. It's like the old saying, don't go to a gunfight without a gun. Don't come to church without a Bible. We need to learn how to use this Bible very much like a sword. We ought to be able to take this sword, as it were, like somebody was good with a sword, and be able to whack through a candle and just slash it and you're sharp, your sword is so sharp, it just cut it and it's still standing, stacked.

You'd be very adept at using your Bible. Know where things are in the Bible. Bring a note pad. Write down notes. Be ready and a willing heart to listen and then to reply. Turn to the Scriptures. Read them even if you've read them a thousand times. Teach small children to learn on the Sabbath as much as they're capable of understanding. Teach older kids how to listen, take notes, and use their Bibles as Deuteronomy 6 says. And pray for, you know, certainly our children to learn to grow up in the nurture and admonition of God.

And pray for Christ's ministry to feed the flock. Pray for the church's willingness again to listen, learn, and apply. Next, rather, come before God in His presence physically, mentally, and spiritually clean. Physically, mentally, and spiritually clean. Now, what do I mean by that? You know, in the temple and the old tabernacle was what was called the laver, from which we, you know, a root word of lavatory.

You know, like a washbasin, where you wash your hands and go into, say, WC if you're in Britain, or a restroom, and you wash your hands. Now, I'm not saying there was a restroom inside the tabernacle, but there was a laver where the priests, you know, were to use it to wash things so that they could be ceremonially cleansed for service to God. God wants us to come before Him clean. And of course, we should do so from a spiritual perspective. Making sure we've asked God to forgive us of sin and have every intention to overcome those sins. We can have clean hands, as it's often referred to in law, and be properly groomed in a respectful manner.

Have respectful dress on. Men, the Bible tells us that we should, you know, have our hair right-linked. Yeah, that's what it says in the Scriptures over in 1 Corinthians 11. I think sometimes we think because, you know, a lot of conduct in the world is so accepted that, you know, we should not say anything about it in the church, but I think, you know, we should understand it's a shame for a man to have long hair.

And the Bible encourages women to have longer hair so that we can distinguish between the two.

You know, sometimes I see people at Walmart, by the way, and I can't tell whether that person is a man or a woman.

They even have men's clothing on, you know, to look butch. I guess it's how they're supposed to refer to that.

I'm not an expert on those kinds of things, but anyway, we should come before God wearing also the best that we have.

You know, one of the things I learned when I came to church for the first time is everybody wore suits and ties.

You know, what I did? I went down to a thrift store in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and they had, you know, it was a house, actually, and they had all these clothes that they would sell and a number of other things.

And they had an area where, you know, you could buy a suit.

I didn't buy a suit. I think I ended up buying a sports jacket for, you know, three or four dollars, something like that back then.

And today you can do exactly the same thing. I mean, Goodwill has clothing. Quite frankly, some of it is not all that bad. Pretty good.

In men's suits, about any kind of suit, you can imagine.

You know, some you might not want, but it's not going to cost an arm and leg either for you to buy a suit there.

So in a way, nobody has an excuse. You know, you can get clothing. So men, as a tradition in the church, have worn suit and ties.

And, you know, that was the example that I saw when I came to the church, and I have tried to continue to do that ever since.

To set that example, the ministry is in the church to set an example of what we think that you ought to do.

You know, Paul just asked people to follow him as he followed Christ.

Now, if we were in the first century, men, we'd all probably be wearing robes.

Now, that might be a little scary to think about, but that's what we do.

But basically, accepted business dress today is a suit and tie.

You know, so think about that.

Men and women, of course, should wear feminine dresses or pantsuit, and again, dressed appropriately as well.

And we need to teach our families that.

You know, at least I think you would agree with me. We should give God the respect we would give if we appeared before a king or a president.

Now, if I were invited, if I was invited to go visit the president of the United States or some other dignitary, I would wear a coat and tie.

And, you know, that I think God deserves, and in fact, he deserves more than that on our part, that we should come before God and honor God.

Now, how should we prepare our minds?

Well, I've already stated this, but number one, we should prepare to hear God's instructions. You know, when we get in that car to come to church services, we should be of the mind and ask yourself, well, what is God going to teach me today?

You know, the ministry is just a conduit through which God works.

And it's very interesting to me that very often the messages match up.

You know, when Mr. Babb opened his mouth, I realized that God had already inspired him, even though, for some reason, my title and my synopsis of what I was going to say today did not get into the bulletin that we have today.

God inspired what he had to say, because some of the things he said, I'm going to say a little bit about it myself.

But prepare to hear God's instructions. Number two, don't let your problems bog you down.

You know, we sometimes have problems, and we're kind of stewing over those. We'll leave your problems at the door.

Better than that, don't even take them out of the house.

Ask God's forgiveness and believe you have it, if that's what you're troubled about in your mind.

And number three, have a forgiving attitude toward others.

Again, that was Mr. Babb's topic of forgiving others.

And I'm not going to go to the verse, but you might want to write it down.

Matthew 6, verse 14 through 15 says, if we don't forgive, God will not forgive us.

And yet, sometimes people want to hold a grudge. Why is that?

It's clearly in the Bible.

You know, maybe sometimes, again, like the Bible talks about a root of bitterness.

Well, we'd better pray doubly for that if we've got bitterness toward anybody.

So we want to make sure, again, we're of a mind to forgive other people.

Don't get something in your craw about another person.

Let it go. Let it loose.

You know, don't let sin cloud your mind so you don't hear what God has for you at Sabbath services.

Have an open mind, again, to hear, to listen. The next point, brethren, is ask Jesus Christ to live in you more fully every day.

Over in Galatians, Galatians, let's go to the book of Galatians.

This is one of those verses you'll always want to remember, brethren.

But in Galatians, chapter 2 and verse 20, Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.

And it says, it is no longer I who live.

When we get baptized, brethren, if we did it right, we died in the baptismal pool.

He says, it's not me that lives, but Christ lives in me.

And it says, his life, which I now live in the flesh, I live, he says, with faith, in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

I live for Jesus Christ.

And Paul did that better than a lot of people ever did.

It was a tremendous example and certainly a tremendous apostle.

And this is the key, brethren, to the whole thing.

Letting Christ live in us more fully.

Getting rid of the self.

Get rid of old gym tuck.

He needs to be kicked to the curb. We need a new gym tuck.

And we need a new you as well, brand new you, that is like Christ more and more.

And let your light shine, as it says in the Beatitudes over in Matthew 5.

Let your light shine. Don't put it under a basket, but let it shine for everyone. And you know, it's not going to be you that's shining. It will be Jesus Christ in you that will shine.

Encourage other people. Set that as your goal to encourage other people. I wrote to the Hawaiian brethren about Barnabas. Barnabas is called the son of encouragement or the son of consolation.

And you know, God wants us to be like Barnabas because he was an encourager. And you know, one of the other things I wrote to them about, that one of the most precious things that we should strive for in our lives is a good name.

Barnabas got a good name.

And it talks about Barnabas, and I believe it's Acts 4, verse 26. And you know what Barnabas did? Barnabas had a plot of land, and he sold it, and he gave it to the church. He laid it at the apostles' feet.

Now interestingly, Barnabas goes down in history with that good name.

The son of consolation, you know, the great encourager, the apostle that was like the comforter. That when you were around Barnabas, he could lift you up. He had that quality, that desire. And then you read over in Acts, chapter 5, just one chapter over, the story of Ananias and Svaira.

Two who dropped dead because they didn't prize their name.

And one of the things I was expressing to the Hawaiian brethren, you know, God has already given us a great name. And you know what that name is? Saint. We're saints. And I said, let's live up to that. Let's be saints. You'll live as saints, as examples to other people. So we encourage people. Set an example. Don't weary in well-doing. And remember, the way you are practicing right now, living God's way of life, is the way you're going to be living for eternity. I hope it's the good way. I hope we're living a godly way. I know we all make mistakes. I'm not trying to say that we're all going to be perfect now. But we're striving to be, aren't we? We're wanting to be. And we're working on it all the time. So ask Jesus to live in you more fully. Next, brethren, ask God for His correction so you can grow.

Let's go to Jeremiah 10. Over in Jeremiah 10, Jeremiah 10, 23. Again, one of those verses in the list of memory scriptures, I do recall that this one was in there as well.

But in verse 3, here's what Jeremiah the prophet said, Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. What does it mean by that? It is not in man who walks to direct his own paths. We don't know how to walk in our lives. We've got to be taught.

There's no dishonor in that, but there is dishonor if we don't listen. So we don't have it in ourselves. We're not born of that. There's no insult to anybody if they need to be taught. But in verse 24, it says, Oh Lord, correct me. Here Jeremiah said, Oh Lord, correct me, but with justice not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. We should pray that God will help us to change, help us to overcome. You know, it's so easy to get offended if a minister stands up and he says something that steps on your toe, you know, that maybe is a sore spot. Don't be the kind of person that gets offended. Be the kind of person that listens and applies. David wrote in Psalm 139, verse 23 and 24, he said, He said, Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, test me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me into the way everlasting. Try to live the way that has a future in it, not the way that has no future in it. And you know, God has brought us into the church because we're going to be kings and priests in the kingdom of God, has a future in it. We're going to be a part of a family of God, and we want God to direct us that way. And you know, the Bible says that God chastens every son he receives, everyone that is brought within the church and remains, for the duration they're going to be corrected, they're going to be able to see if they're praying for God to show them what they need to change, what they need to overcome.

Another point I want to talk about is be careful what you say on the Sabbath.

Be careful what you say on the Sabbath. I wouldn't even add here, we've got to be careful what we say at all times, right? But the Sabbath is a very special time. We should be careful about our communication with others all the time, certainly.

Let's go to Isaiah 58, Isaiah 58 over here.

The prophet Isaiah here in talking about our conduct, once again, on the Sabbath and what we should and should not do.

And some of the mistakes that people have made through the years, brethren, and I've made my share of mistakes as well, is again, we ignore what God says.

In Isaiah 58, down here, verse 13, it says, If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, you know, you walk it all over, in other words, and disregard in the holiness of it, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath of the light, the holy day of the Lord, honorable, and show honor him in not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. In other words, we pick and choose what we say to make sure it's honorable. And again, notice here, God says, my day. You know, it's our Sabbath as well, but it's God's Sabbath, and it should be holy, and it should be honored. What will happen if we treat the Sabbath with the honor it deserves? It says, Then you will delight yourself in the eternal, and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, my father. The mouth of the eternal has spoken. Now, what is the heritage of Jacob? The heritage of Jacob is the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa, you know, all of these Israelite nations, France, Finland, Norway, Sweden. This is the wealth, the incredible wealth. God says, I will bless you with the heritage of Jacob, not just now, but in the future as well. We're going to be kings and priests again in the future. So our usual words during the week deal with our own business, and that's fine, but on the Sabbath, let's focus on God's business. Don't be afraid to talk on the Sabbath. You know, we shouldn't go around sort of mealy-mouthed and afraid to say anything on the Sabbath, but strive to converse on a spiritual level. Talk about news, talk about scriptures, talk about examples of brethren, showing God's way works. Don't make primary talks about cars or physical mundane things, but focus, if possible, on the kingdom. You know, we, again, need to pay attention to that. Learn how, brethren, to turn a conversation to a spiritual direction. You know, you can do that. You know, you can always turn something in a direction away from just the physical and the mundane. We've got to learn how to do that diplomatically because we don't want to offend each other, and we shouldn't be offended. It says, great peace in the Bible for those that keep the commandments, it says nothing will offend them. We don't get offended easily. Really, you shouldn't be offended by anything. In Ephesians 5, verse 16, we'll go down to verse 20, but it says, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not be drunk with wine in which it dissipates, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs, singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God, the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, make it spiritual.

And again, trying to direct our thoughts in that way. The times we live in are evil. And you know, Satan has got quite a good tactic. He uses media to distract us, to get our minds off of the spiritual things, onto the physical. You know, I don't look at it, but I'm told that one of the things that TikTok, I'm assuming this is a website, that it has a lot of salacious material on it. And that part of the reason why it is being piped over to the United States is basically to undermine the United States and undermine the morals of the United States.

And I think that, of course, the morals of the country are going down very rapidly. And you know, people, regardless of what you say, they're going to want it anyway.

Next point, brethren, come before God and don't judge the brethren.

I want to caution you, don't be a resident Pharisee judging what people say in their conversations. And saying, well, you know, we're just not spiritual enough here. I've heard people make comments, we don't have enough love in the church. Well, who made them a judge of that? And how do you read people's minds? Now, we can't do that, so we should not be a resident Pharisee trying to make ourselves a judge over other people. The Bible says in Matthew 7, verse 1, judge that you not be judged. And it talks about how if we judge someone, it's going to be lobbing back on top of us.

We're going to be judged just by the same measure that we judge other people. And so I would think we would want to be very forgiving of other people and certainly praying for other people. You know, it's not that we can't see people's problems, but we need to have the wisdom to know when it's our place to bring up the needed thing that perhaps should be said by someone at a particular point. Incidentally, where it talks about judge, from Strong's Concordance, that word judge comes from the Greek word krino, k-r-i-n-o, and it means not to condemn. You know, again, we're smart enough to see a problem, but we shouldn't be condemning anyone. Remember, we're not very good mind readers. We can't tell what is going on inside of somebody's heart. The chief method, brethren, for changing people in the church, let me tell you a secret what it is. Love. Because judging just doesn't work. It doesn't work. Love people. You know, the heart of a peacemaker doesn't condemn other people. Let's go to Matthew 12. Matthew 12. You know, again, under this point of don't come before God judging people. But in Matthew 12, Matthew 12, in verse 35 through 37, this is what Jesus Christ says. And verse 35 will begin there.

But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. So again, every idle word, you've got to be careful what we say under our breath, or what we think, even.

You know, this is a very sobering sentence that Jesus gives here. It deserves a lot of wisdom and thought in our lives. You know, it teaches us the old principle, if we can't say something good, maybe we shouldn't say it at all.

And a final point I want to give to you, brethren, here, and lead up here to the conclusion. Give to the brethren of the abundance of the Holy Spirit that is in you. That's what we give to one another, the abundance of the Holy Spirit within us.

You know, most organizations have what they call a clique, or an elite group of people. You know, you've been in groups like that. A lot of young people go to high school, and you know, you go to high school, and you've got this area of the cafeteria where the jocks hang out, you know. And you have another area where, you know, maybe the girls that think that they're really beautiful hang out together, maybe they're the cheerleaders, or you know, whatever it might be. And certain types of people tend to associate with certain types of people.

If you don't have their abilities, if you don't have their looks, then you can't belong to this clique, this elite group of people. Well, let me say this, brethren. All saints are the elite in the church. We're the elite in the world right now. We don't know it yet. We're the future kings of the earth, kings of priests. What a high honor. But, you know, we realize, even though we are saints, and that doesn't sound right, does it, to call ourselves saints? But we are holy saints. We don't have to be canonized by the Catholic Church to be a saint. When God calls us, and you can look it up again, in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2, that we are called to be saints. That's what it says over there. Actually, that phrase is several times in the Bible. But, you know, all saints realize that we are the weak of the world. You know? We're not the people that have the hot stuff. We're not the beautiful people. We're not the great people. You know, it's like some of these guys like Michael Jordan, you know, how it happens, you know, they end up achieving so much, and, you know, having net worth out the window, you know, out the ceiling. I think he's worth $3.5 billion from playing basketball. Basketball? And you know what I'm talking about. But, you know, God wants us to realize that we associate with everybody at the church, because we're all elite. We're all saints. We have to have love toward one another. That was one of the things that Jesus, you know, gave commandment to the church. Love one another even as I have loved you. Treat others rightly in an expression of how the Holy Spirit, you know, instills into us the agape love, God's love. And God loves us, every one of us, brother. Even when we're making mistakes, He still loves us. He might not be pleased with what we're doing, but He still loves us. He doesn't give up on us. Aren't you glad of that, brother? If you make one mistake, God doesn't give up on you. You ever prayed that in your prayers? God, please don't give up on me. Have you ever felt like you were maybe not doing very well? And you said, God, please don't give up on me. I want God to be there always in my life, and He will be. You know, Christ said, rivers of living water will flow out of us through the Holy Spirit. This is not a trickle, brethren, but rivers flowing out of us. Learn to love fully. Love fully the youth, the elderly, everybody in the church. Not just our own family, not just our own friends. And participate and experience the whole of the body of Jesus Christ, so that you and everyone can benefit.

Brethren, how we approach God in observing the Sabbath service is important to all of us for our spiritual growth and edification. It's how the body feeds itself. And it edifies and grows and increases. Let's make sure we're worshipping God in the right attitude, the right spirit, and in truth, and in love on God's Holy Sabbath day. So these are basic, simple principles, brethren, ways we can properly come into the presence of the God of heaven on His Holy Sabbath day. Let's remember these points and apply them in our lives. I hope that you now know how to conduct yourself in the house of God.