In this sermon, the speaker begins by expressing gratitude for the discussions that have taken place and emphasizes the importance of applying the teachings to everyday life. The speaker encourages the congregation to work together and avoid causing discord among fellow believers. They then discuss the need to focus on serving others and meeting their needs, as Jesus proclaimed in Luke chapter 4. The speaker also addresses the upcoming crisis times and urges the congregation not to be fearful but to let Jesus define their identity. They conclude by discussing the parable in Luke chapter 19, highlighting the importance of staying faithful to Jesus' teachings and not getting caught up in answering the wrong questions.

Okay, Brother Dean, I'm not sure where we're going here. We're just going to trust that the Lord will bless you. They're handing out your handouts right now. Let's just have a word of prayer. Let's be silent. And just, those of you who are passing out, if you'd just stop passing out the brochures right now. Thank you, Lord, for this time. Thank you for these wonderful talks we've had and all these, Lord, our hearts are brimming and we're going to have to go home now and think about all these things and ponder them and how can we work this out. Because Lord, we know it's not how high we jump and how loud we shout, but it's how we work it out. Lord, it's when our feet hit the ground. It's about the everyday life of our families and our local congregations. And Lord, our heart would be that everything that is said here could be worked out in our individual brotherhoods. And Lord, that we wouldn't sow discord among the brethren, but that Lord, through it all, that we could be stronger and have more of a desire, a fervent heart to serve you and to love you and to be in relationship with you and to follow you and to be more like you, Lord Jesus. This is our desire. Lest we meet together in vain, when labors serve and not be tied. Thou hast promised those thee trusting that thy wonders will display. Jesu, Jesu, brundes lebens. Stell auf, stell dich bei uns sein. Yes, Lord, thank you now. We love you. Just bless Brother Dean. And as we listen, amen. Amen. Thank you, Brother. We'll praise the Lord. These meetings are so nice. I made a commitment this year that I really wanted to try to get my lessons done before I showed up. Because a lot of times, seriously, I had to steal away and go work on it or something because I was so busy. But I really felt that I needed these things myself. And I was very blessed with what I've received and extremely challenged. And so maybe I'm not quite as polished, but I really feel edified and polished by the different speakers that we've had here. I appreciate both during these conferences we've been able to lift up things that are dear to us and also be challenged. And I appreciate that kind of honesty. I long for that kind of honesty. The things that Chester sort of dropped the bomb on us this morning, I thank you for that. And I agree with, and I know Chester does too, that this is not just an Amish problem. I came from 13 years in Lancaster County. And they're amongst the so richly blessed amongst the Mennonites. I was ordained a charity minister there. And seeing those same problems there in the charity circles as well, in the Mennonite circles as well. And I appreciate that. It made me think as we were talking about how to be honest with these things and how to be humble with these different things. Years ago I read a book by a man by the name of Gladwell. It wasn't a particularly Christian book. It was just a book of stories. And he was talking about the anatomy of a plane crash. And he said that a plane crash, there's usually not just one thing that goes wrong, but a series of things that go wrong that eventually makes the plane crash. And the biggest thing that he brought up was that in South Korea had the worst plane crash record of anybody. And as they began to study it and began to look at why was South Korea so difficult. And one of the things they found out was that their culture was so strong with respect that the co-pilot would never say anything to the pilot. And he actually had a transcript in there where they were literally going down and the co-pilot would never correct the pilot. And I look at that and I think of us and I think wow, we need to be able to have such transparency in the ministry, in every aspect that if people can easily say there's a problem or even I've got a problem and be able to whisper those things or say those things and it's safe and we can deal with these things before they become bad like that. And I think that that's an important thing with that anatomy of a plane crash. I do thank you all for your patience with David and I. And I think, I don't know who it was, was it Rex Blevins' brother back there or was it, yeah, or was it your dad or was it Harrison from Little Flock who coined the term mutton nights. Oh, okay, it was your dad. All right, thank you. You have your Mennonites. Raise your hand if you're from a Mennonite background. Okay. Okay, raise your hand if you're from an Amish background. All right. Okay, we have a little different ones today. Raise your hand if you're from a Hutterite background. Amen. And all the rest of us are mutton nights, yeah. Thank your dad for that definition. Mutton nights, we come from a different variety. And I know probably there's several things that maybe David and I say a little different or look a little different. And I know a lot of you are thinking, boy, if he would just shore up that one little thing or something. So I appreciate your patience with us as we've enjoyed this journey amongst the Anabaptist people and made you our heritage and our home. And we bless you for that. In this message, the Overholtz gave me the honor of being the last speaker. And also, what do we have to offer? So this message begs the question of something going forward, of taking all these things that we hear. It's one of the reasons why I wanted to sort of listen to what the Spirit was saying to the church and to say, okay, this is where we're going. And I do have a particular burden and calling upon my life that I feel that I want to try to bring out in this idea of this direction. I was very blessed. Just even listening here, I'm going to be saying some suggestions towards the end of this action, of an activity that I believe in this time of testing, in this time that I think that if you look through history, there's times where everything happens, but there's every now and then, stuff really happens. And I believe if you look at the cycles, even the time periods of the cycles, the different economic, the different political things, we are about to enter a phase of a lot of stuff happening. It just seems so obvious. And during this time, it is my hope today to be able to encourage us of what the Anabaptists will say during this time of crisis. And I'm so blessed. So I'm going to be giving some suggestions, but I want to say something. I do feel extremely humbled to be before all of you. I have so much enjoyed my time in my life, getting to know the Anabaptist people and making my home. I love the brothers I live with in the community. And it's amazing you talk about that fellowship, brother. I've literally thought about sometimes putting a stoplight in front of my house because sometimes I just can't handle enough fellowship. But it's a blessing and it's beautiful. And they have gone over backwards for the Taylor family. And I thank you, brother. And I thank you for all that you've done in that way. And I've loved that. But even in the midst of all that, there is definite direction that I feel we need to go. And so I'm not speaking this necessarily to you. I've come from now a setting that has historically been at the tops as far as taking the words of Jesus Christ and going forward. But unfortunately in the last few hundred years, it's grown pretty rusty. And if you're a Hutterite listening today or to my message on a tape or recording, again, I want to do this in an encouraging way. And I appreciate the spirit of the different things as we've been dealing with these things. So I'm not just saying this against you. I'm with you. And these problems that I see are problems for all of us. And I want to go forward with you. I'm blessed. I've been incredible just hearing some of the stories just this weekend. I was talking to Melvin Lehman. Is he still here from Faith Builders? Incredible. I was just talking a little bit. He's had some health issues. He said, yeah, but I'm starting to get a little healthier. And so I've got this little window. Our children are out of the house. And we're hoping to do a little time in Poland and trying to encourage the church in Poland. I'm like, wow. John D. Martin, one of my dear mentors in my life, just turned 70. Nothing's stopping him from going over to India and preaching to the places in India. I was just over at, I was just here talking with Eddie Klein last night, night before last. Eddie Klein going over to Russia and speaking to the Russian Mennonites, excuse me, the Russian Amish, a new group that them and Christian Aid Ministry have been working with. Incredible stories of people doing things. I'm so blessed with Christian Aid Ministry. Anybody here work for Christian Aid Ministry? I guess, okay. Yeah, we know John D. Amen. I mean, I am so impressed and more and more impressed with what Christian Aid Ministry does and how they're getting into so many things and taking those words of Jesus and applying them amongst our people. I think they do such a marvelous job. And I'm so blessed. I think it's one of the beautiful things of the Anabaptist Church. I've heard just during this weekend of Old Order Amish going down to Quetemoc, into Mexico and working amongst the teachers there. Praise God. Ray Miller last night at his house was telling about a New Order Amish starting a church in Belize from some of those Russian Mennonites asking to start a New Order Amish church down there in Belize. Praise God. And I remember something that Brother John D. told me a few years ago. As just like the times are changing in a bad way, there is something beautiful happening. Beautiful happening. And even this concept of being Christ followers and putting these things of Jesus into practice and that being everything we are is beginning to happen in circles that you would have never guessed 20 years ago. There's been a learning even from maybe more of the hyper groups of a little humility of saying, well there's some things we have messed up and we could learn and we need to learn. We've seen that we don't have all the answers to how it comes up with your children and so there's this respect. There's this stretching one another and I am so excited to be a part of that. I think it is the absolute perfect time in the Anabaptist world to be raising children and ready to go forward in this 21st century and I'm ready. I want us to be able to embrace this crisis that the world will call it and go forward with it in a very positive way. So in a nutshell, what I would like to say and again I'm saying this as coming from a group that's sort of cloistered for 100 years or so. I believe that Jesus Christ has called us to be a city on a hill and not a village in a valley. He's called us to be a city on a hill and not a village in a valley. And what you have here in this room, the maturity, the experience, the genius, the expertise, all the things that you've accomplished over the hundreds of years of making it are come to this day to be able to put these things into practice in a powerful way. You heard me at the part one of the message. I spoke about, I was quoting Menno Simons and quoting about the early missions and early evangelism of the Anabaptists and particularly thinking of David's couple messages here on salvation. The idea is that we need to own the vocabulary. Some of you probably thought through your mind and your mind went to a bunch of evangelical applications of that and maybe some even damages that you've heard in your circles. I don't know. But I don't want to bring it to you in an evangelical way. And there's one crucial, absolutely essential difference with the Anabaptist concept of evangelism and mission. An incredibly important point and it is the church. The place of the church. The living presence of Jesus Christ in the flesh. We believe in the incarnation, correct? Amen. Well Jesus Christ came both in the spirit and the flesh. And that our churches should be there and God has called us to be the church of how we go forward in mission. The church of how we go forward in evangelism. That does not mean that you're saved by your church or in heaven on judgment day you'll be there with your church. Absolutely not. Let me just say it right here and now. But on the other hand, when you start to understand kingdom theology as it's been talked about, you'll start to understand this whole thing isn't about just my salvation. This whole thing is manifesting the kingdom. And as you little cities in the kingdom of God should manifest the presence of Jesus Christ and his kingdom here on this earth. And that's exciting. Amen. I'm gonna give you a verse here. In Ezekiel 36 was one of those passages that opened my eyes in many ways. And the idea of what Ezekiel 36 is a prophecy of the new covenant and the idea is that salvation is not about you. Salvation is not about you. Let me go right into that. Ezekiel 36 verse 20 is a prophecy of the new covenant. Ezekiel 36 verse 20. And when they entered into the heathen, wherever they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said to them, these are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land. So in other words, wherever the people of God went, they embarrassed God. They profaned him because if they said, well, these are the people of God. Like what we heard today a little bit. But listen to verse 21. Verse 21. But I had pity for my holy name's sake. But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among the heathen everywhere they went. 22. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen everywhere you went. And listen to this. And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Before their eyes. This idea here that God wants holy, sanctified, righteous people dedicated to Him to be His kingdom on this earth is God's heart from the beginning of the Scriptures to the ending. And that's what He wants us to be. A city in the kingdom of God. That's what He's calling us to be. And when He is sanctified in a people, He receives the glory, is what He says there. And it's right after that, right after that He gives the Scripture, and I will take that stony heart out of your flesh, and I will put in a heart of flesh, and I will cause you to walk in my statues in judgment. And Brother Edsel gave us this concept of this inner riding of the heart. You see, we don't have, when we talk about different forms of views of salvation, the Anabaptist view of salvation in general is this concept of Jesus Christ. The very person inside of us. The very person inside of us. So as He has that, He has a desire for us to glorify Him and to manifest His name in the different places that we are. And this is a beautiful thing when we see this happening and see God doing that. The other passage that goes with that and I think of some of the trouble that I've seen even in the group that I'm with now through the history and the different churches here that are represented. I also want to show you Luke chapter 19. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 19, Jesus gives us a very interesting parable because He tells us this is what the kingdom of heaven is like. And He gives us this parable, and I want you to pay close attention to this, keeping in mind the stirring that Chester gave to us a few hours ago. Thinking in mind the different directions when we see the potential for losing things. And keeping in mind where we came from and the zeal that we saw in history. Luke chapter 19 verse 12. Luke chapter 19 verse 12. He said therefore, a certain noble man went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. This is obviously a prophecy of himself coming to earth, wanting to gather a kingdom and I'll come back and get it. And he called his ten servants and delivered them ten pounds and said to them occupy till I come. And I love occupy till I come because it sounds like a military term, but actually it's a business term. It's actually a business term and the context you're about to see is very obviously a business term. It means to take all this beautiful thing that you have, this heritage, this investment, this grace, this, all this and I want you to sell and buy and trade and make more out of it. That's what it's saying. It's very obvious. But the citizens hated him and sent message after him saying we will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass that when he was returned having received the kingdom then he commanded these servants to be called unto him to whom he had given the money that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Alright, it's time to show up. I gave you this gifts. I gave you these talents. How'd you do? Then came the first saying Lord thy pound hath gained ten pounds. And he said unto them well thou good servant because thou hath been faithful in a very little hath thou authority over ten cities. And the second came and you know the story he gave five pounds and he said likewise be over five cities. And another came now look at verse 20 saying Lord behold here is thy pound which I have kept laid up in a napkin for I feared thee because thou art a steward man thou takest up that thou layest not down and reapeth that thou didst not sow. So here this man out of a fear of God and wanting to preserve something beautiful took this coin took this talent wrapped it in a napkin and buried it. So maybe that was wrong. Maybe we're about to see that Jesus is wrong but it's one of those smaller wrongs. Let's see how serious that would be to Jesus. And he said unto him out of thine own mouth will I judge thee thou wicked servant. Thou knowest that I was not a steward man taking up that which I laid not down and reaping that I did not sow. Wherefore thou gavest not thou money to the bank that you may have coming I might have required mine own with usury. But he said unto them that stood by take from him the pound watch this and give it to him that has ten pounds. And they said unto him but Lord he has ten pounds. For I say unto you that unto everyone which has shall be given and from him that hath not even that he has shall be taken away from him. And he was judged. He calls this behavior wickedness. You wicked servant. That if in somehow we get into the idea that we have this something beautiful we have something precious and out of the fear of God motivated by the fear of God we take that precious thing and we hide it in the ground Jesus Christ said you wicked servant. That's what he said. You wicked servant. And he's showing us something in there. Again remember I'm with you. I'm with you. And I fear the weight of this. I'm with the people who in their history were unstoppable when they decided to just let the words of Jesus live out in everything they do. And you can very clearly see by reading through volumes one and two of our Hutterian Chronicles over and over and over again it's so obvious. It's like reading the Old Testament. When they're following Jesus and he is the rule of life they prospered. When they begin to hide out decay and disaster every single time. Every single time. You know at the very beginning one of the very earliest letters that Conrad Grebel gave to he wrote to his friend I love this he said he defined what I think is the two most beautiful points of early Anabaptism. I think of Christianity. He said this in this letter. I believe the word of God without a complicated interpretation. And out of that I speak. That's it. And the next thing he said the words of Jesus were meant to be put into practice. Those two gems of early Anabaptism cause you to be here. I was with Leroy Beachy. Thank you brother. We were over in Europe. And I think Leroy has decidedly proven in his book on the Amish that the entire all of you from the Amish here are here only because it wasn't a split. I think he's perfectly proven that the Amish were not from a church split. The Amish were from a group of people who got a hold of the word of God. And began to take that and spread that an entire new group of people were formed. He's proved that by just looking at the different names and the different things. You should read it in his book Unser Leid. I think he has a very strong case. And that's your start. That's your origin. That's what gave that life to you. And it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing. And the reason that we have those things is because of what it does. And you know it's interesting in James chapter 1, you know the passage. In James chapter 1 he says something interesting about what pure and undefiled religion is. One of you could quote it for me. Quote it. Amen. You all know it. Everybody with me. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. You know it seems like Satan will want us to either get into one camp or the other. Either we'll be a group that is involved in outreach and helping the orphans and the poor of this earth and the sufferings and making a difference in this or we'll be a church that's unspotted from the world. But the word of God says that pure and undefiled religion is both. It's somehow doing these things because Jesus Christ is in us but yet being unstained from the world. That's my dream for us all here today. Not to lose one single thing but to take this like our New Order brothers going to Belize and taking what you've learned in all these centuries and now to see God do something. Turn with me now if you have your Bible or listen to me in Numbers chapter 22. It's one of my favorite passages. It's one of my favorite passages because it tells a story and I sometimes hang different things on this. It's the story of Balaam and Balak. You know the story. This is where we tell our children the example of the donkey that talked and all that. It's a very powerful time. It's a very important time in the history of Israel because it's right after a time. It's right after a time that they were really doing a lot of dumb stuff. Messing up, blaming God, getting in trouble and all of a sudden we have the story of the brazen serpent which Jesus actually uses in John chapter 3 we know. And this brazen serpent thing happened and now everybody's healed and suddenly Israel of God is on fire and they're going forward. And we happen to because of this little attempt to curse them get a glimpse of this little window. They fall right after this. But this little window of this people going forward. I'm going to just highlight just a few points and apply it to us and our history. Okay, looking at Numbers chapter 22. We know the story. Balaam in verse chapter 22 again they're just suddenly being winning all their battles. They're going forward. Thing is powerful. It's like reading the early history of the Mennonites. Early history of the Amish. The early history of the Hutterites. It's so early in the history of the brethren. It's so obvious this sort of passion is there. And the children of Israel chapter 22 verse 1. Set forward and pitched in the plain of Moab on this side of Jordan and Jericho. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites and Moab was sore afraid of the people because they were many and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. So he found himself this prophet, Balaam. That's a whole different story, but it's interesting. It's very clear by looking at the context. Balaam was a real prophet. And just because you have gifts, be careful. Just because you have gifts does not mean you are just right with God. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. You must be very careful with that, preachers. Very careful. So Balaam was a gifted man. He seemed to have been a prophet. He gives one of the first prophecies of the Messiah in this context right here. Very clear. But yet he was wicked and actually caused Israel to fall. So as we go and look at him, they ask him, you know, and he says in verse 6 Come now therefore I pray thee. Curse me this people for they are too mighty for me. Peradventure I shall prevail that we might smite them and that I might drive them out of the land for I want that he whom thou blesses is blessed and he whom thou curses is cursed. And we know the story. Balaam said I can only say what God is telling me to say. First God didn't want him to go and the whole story of the donkey is there in that whole passage. But then we pick it up in verse 23 verse 22, excuse me, 22-38 and we pick it up after the donkey thing there and pick it up at 38 and Balaam said to Balak Lo I am come unto thee I am come unto thee have I now any power at all to say anything? The words that God putteth in my mouth that I shall speak. I love that response and I think, who was it that touched on it? I guess David and Edsel, I guess many people did. It's regaining our vocabulary. I appreciated David bringing this up about salvation and issues like this. Sometimes we let the evangelicals push us into a corner and you end up reacting in a very carnal way and actually getting in some weird theology because evangelicals has pushed you to say things that is not even true in your life. That needs to change. And let the word of God be molding you and shaping you to what you should be. And the other thing is we have to be very careful with those fundamental principle questions. Balak wanted him to do something. But it wasn't quite the right wording. Understand, I'm only going to say what God said. You see, what I found in 25 years of being amongst the radical Anabaptists and such, sometimes we have to deal with a lot of stuff. Just normal life, issues come up. These different things come up. But sometimes we end up with the right answer to the wrong question. And if we continue to just get right answers to the wrong questions, we'll get into huge debates over things. Just incredible long debates over these things. And legitimately those things are important. Some things affecting the church. Some brother brought some weird teaching and you have to deal with it. But eventually if you go century after century like that, just fighting those kind of things, you'll end up getting the right answers to the wrong questions. And that's where we look at the words of Jesus Christ and letting Him rebuild us generation after generation, just like Conrad Grebel mentioned there. Those words of Jesus being lived out. At the end of the day, it's got to look like Jesus. At the end of the day, His commands to the church must be what we're about. At the end of the day, all of these things that we argue about and fight about should make that mission and that purpose be accomplished. Okay, so let's go and look at this interesting look at there. I'm going to show this in my own life and some testimonies of what I've dealt with and different things. So He goes and He tries to tell them to curse Him. So they take Him to the high top of the mountain and they set up these different altars and they come and Balak is getting all excited that Balaam's going to go there and curse Israel. And in verse 6, He says in verse chapter 23, verse 6, and He returned it to Him and lo, He stood by the burnt sacrifice, He and all the princes of Moab. And He took His parable and said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought Me from Aram out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse Me, Jacob, and come, defy Israel. Imagine the scene. They're on the mountain. They're looking down, just like this, at this people of God. And listen to what He says. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? And watch what He says. For from the top of the rocks I see Him. And from the hills I behold Him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. From the very beginning this concept that the people of God were a separated people, a people that would not be counted among the nations, a people that would be different, a peculiar people, a precious, a holy nation, that He saw that and He looked at them, trying to curse them. He said, but they're different. And we must embrace the fact that this concept is a new covenant concept. And if you're here today and you've struggled with church standards and those things like this, let me just tell you from a brother who's been in it for around 25 years, there is wisdom in this, of wisdom of being a brotherhood and walking and going through those things and bearing the yoke of brotherhood and being able to take those things. You know, in 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, did you ever read that? 2 Corinthians chapter 6 he speaks specifically of this concept of separation. And I believe we need to restore our appreciation of that and that this holiness unto the Lord is something that we embrace. I have such a hard time talking and turning pages. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, listen to this, okay, and considering what Balaam just saw, he ends it up, it's a beautiful passage, the whole thing, and he says, oh you Corinthians, our mouth is open to you, our heart is enlarged. And he says, you are not straightened. Now that's not straight like that, it's straightened like a straitjacket. You are not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels. In other words, what we're saying to you is not constricting you, your own passions are constricting you. This separation idea that Jesus has separated unto God, this is not straightening you, it's your passions that are straightening you. Now for a recompense in the same, I speak unto you, my children, be you also enlarged. And this is what it means to have an open mind. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? And what part has he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Because of all this, wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. Now watch. And I will receive you, and be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. There's no big seven in the Greek. Having therefore these promises, what promises? That if we will come out from among the world, he will be a father to us. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. That's what Balaam saw. That's what I see when I see godly families serving the Lord. That's what I see. It's such a challenge to me. It's such a challenge. In our own community, the need to do this, and recognizing this, when you come from an old order setting, as you all can know, there's sometimes you're trying to wonder, well, what things should we keep? What things should we throw away? And there's many things that had grown very callous, very loose. And me and a bunch of fathers got together and we started a thing called Kingdom Dads. All the brothers in the community, every single father gathered together. And I affectionately called us Loser Dads Anonymous. Because I wanted absolute honesty that we can come together and say, this is what I'm failing in my home. This is not right in my home and I need brothers to come. And we finally met after again and again and met. And we came up with nine pages of things that we felt that we needed to have changed in our homes. Nine pages of these things. And at the very last thing on the ninth page we said, and we're willing to go, not willing, we will go through each of our children's bedrooms and to make sure that this is walking in this way. And as we went through that, we continued to go and we continued to see that we had such these things that were happening and it was a challenge to us. But then we did, how can we do this all in the law? We prayed and eventually John Dee was coming up for a hymn, we're getting the new hymnal and we called Alan Troyer to come up and John Dee came up and I and we did a Bible school and it was incredible. Giving practical applications we met and these children, these young people repented and received Christ and had that what Brother David had talked about being dead to sin. And so many decisions were there. And as a matter of fact not just that, you're saying okay that's revivalism the next day, and amen, the next day till two o'clock in the morning young people were burning clothes with things on it and perfumes and different things that has collected because we wanted this fear of God, this holiness for God. Now I tell you, it's amazing how quick those little sprouts come back up. You have to keep fighting it. But I want to give you that as an encouragement. It can happen if you get your fathers together and get serious with God. Get serious with God. And he gave me a warning so I'm going to have to keep going here. He tries to curse again and he comes around and in verse 19 of 23 he tries to curse him again. He says, I can. He said, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless and he has blessed and I cannot reverse it. He hath not. Now listen to this. You remember all the mistakes Israel made, right? But when he looked he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king is among them. At the end of the day, take your theology here or there. Don't let the evangelicals push you into a pit. You must have the dwelling presence of Jesus Christ in you. You must have that. And that's not something just evangelicals get. That's something the Anabaptists spoke of. A reality of Jesus Christ and in that there is the forgiveness and God forgives you of your sins. And when somebody comes up and says, brother are you saved? You should be able to be walking with God at that moment. You should be able to know that your witness bears witness with God's spirit, that you are a child of God. You should be able to be right with God and look him in the eyes and say my spirit bears witness with God's spirit. That doesn't mean you're believing once saved, always saved or get into all their different theologies. No! But let's get back the vocabulary and the reality of what it means to have Christ dwelling within us. Alright, I'm almost done. Just hold on a minute. It's an important concept that indwelling forgiveness, that indwelling presence, the clarity of heaven. You can't go about living the Christian life with a bunch of muddy heaven. You must come to a point to be dead to yourself as David told us and live in this. And I know things get going in your life and you get older. That's the place to have that spiritual peace over and over again. Okay, so coming to the last point is these homes. As he tried to come against them again, and he said in chapter 24, and Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel. He went not as other times to seek the enchantment, but he sent his face towards the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel abiding in his tents, according to their tribes, and the Spirit of God came upon him. I was glad that David said what he said. I've come to the Anabaptist world, and to be honest, it rips my heart out sometimes to hear the ugly talk back and forth. It rips my heart out. I left the United States Army, but when I was there, I was, I hate to say it, proud to be a part of something that was unified and going forward. And so when I became a child of God, I have craved that the people of God would be able to rise up and work together with a common purpose and go forward. That's what I long. And here, they're in different tribes, living in their tents, and they're there. And then he goes and he sees, even in the godly homes, he says, and he's following, and he says in verse 5, And he goes and blesses them. The king gets mad. How can you do this? I told you to curse. And finally in verse 23, he says this, And he looked up, and he took up his parable and said, Alas, who shall live when God does this? And he actually says, May my death be like them. People who don't, aren't with us. But they're going to be able to see a testimony. I believe this world is going into a different crisis. I believe that the children, the people, the Anabaptist people are meant to do this. Now, here's a thing that I want to bring into some practical. Here's my idea. My idea. For years, we have perfected ourselves to where you are today. And praise God for that. I really, really have learned to respect it. I really have. I tremble over it. We need more of it in my community. I want that. Your maturity, your experience is something I want. But how about this? You go back and you return to the thoughts. If you're starting a new church, you're starting a new work. And instead of letting us be rallying around a hyper expression of orthodoxy, even if it's needed, we rally around the teachings of Jesus. That Jesus Christ, now, I don't mean that just in some sort of unpractical way. Jesus gave the church some very specific things that he wants us to accomplish. How about this? Find a need in this world. I have a brother from Boston. I love that church up there. And Matthew, he just found out that Detroit, they're buying up all the different burned out areas and they're putting a whole trying to bring it back into farming. Areas that were just a slum. And Matthew's vision was why don't we just get a whole bunch of older Amish out there to represent it there in that area. You have the maturity. If you don't have the strength, after all these years, to be able to speak something with confidence to this world, who does? And the thing is, I think that we can see as we look at history, if you have the shout of a king among you, there's nothing that's going to stop you. And it's going to go forward. So here's my idea. Find a need. Just recently, we're looking at an orphanage in the Quitaymook area. And trying to say, alright, how do I, it's a little rusty. It's been a couple hundred years. How about forming a community around the need in Quitaymook. We're just looking at some of those things. And believe me, it's way out of our box. And you, when I hear about the new order Amish going down to Belize, I'm sure that's way out of your box. But I believe if we begin to let Jesus Christ write the script of what our churches will be like, it's going to be a thing. Because here's the thing. At the end of the day, at the end of the day, life happens. You got to have your children to raise. You got a job you got to do. You got to do these things. People got to get married. Young people got to meet people to get married and all this. And at the end of the day, if our church is surrounding nothing but hyper-orthodoxy, at the end of the day, Jesus actually told us some things he wanted to accomplish. And at the end of the day, you get all these other things right, and nothing that he said, you're in trouble. But if we take the words of Jesus, like his proclamation there in Luke chapter four where he says, I want to bring the gospel to the poor, to the set at liberty of them that are bruised, to pour out that kind of light. If you circle your church around a need and bring all of this experience, all of this wisdom, all of this friendship, all of these things, all those brilliant businessmen, incredible ingenuity to surround a need, then at the end of the day when life just happens, Jesus' words are met, and God is glorified. So I was given the task to give an idea of how to face the crisis times that we are ahead of. I think we're going to start to have Muslims have more attacks and things like that in America. Let's not grow scared. Let's not be also like Luke said and hide it in a napkin because of the fear of God. But let's let Jesus Christ once again define who we are in totality. Your name and where you're from? Nathan Yoder, Wauhanding, Ohio. Hey, Brother Dean, I think I understand what you meant by saying that we should not get the right answers to the wrong questions. I think I understand what you're saying, but could you clarify that a little bit? Could you give us an example? Okay. I'll give you an example totally out of our circle, so I won't offend anybody. The Church of Christ have a group called the One Cup Church of Christ. And a whole denomination split because they said if you really look at the Scriptures carefully, you'll see that it's called a cup. And we will not fellowship with people who use a glass. And so because you're a cup people and not a glass people, we're not going to meet with you. However, that may or may not be the right answer. It's the wrong question. At the end of the day, Jesus gave us some absolute specific things that He gave to us as the cure for humanity. And if we get involved with all these right answers to the wrong questions, at the end of the day not even beginning to do the teachings of Jesus, we're in trouble. You can let that interpret. It's in all of our circles. It was there at charity. It's there in the Hutterite colony I live now. It's everywhere. You have to answer some things. You do. That's just life. But just be careful with it. Keep coming back to Jesus. Great question. Jeffrey Summers from Cochranton, Pennsylvania. This question has to do also with the last topic. Concerning the idea of recognizing that there can be Christians in other groups. Jesus said He has other sheep which are not of this fold. I am very much in agreement with that. And yet how do we reckon with this, with the fact that we live in a time when there is a lot of disrespect and rebellion amongst us. Romans 16, 17. Rebellion amongst us. Amongst us. Okay. Yes. Just any of us. Yeah. Amen. Romans 16 says that we're supposed to mark people who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine that they learned. And we're supposed to avoid them. So how do we reconcile those two things? Recognizing that there can be Christians in other churches and yet being discerning these people have a rebellious attitude. Beautiful question. Great question. And in practicality again we walked that out. And this is not something that you know that's totally blanketed or it certainly doesn't make some sort of strange ecumenism by all means. But here's the question. How many church splits have we had in the last 487 years over this church was no longer helping the poor. This church was no longer, this church started storing up treasures on earth and started serving themselves. This church over here started having a judgmental attitude. Those are not the things we usually split over. Those are not the things we won't greet somebody. You'll get a stiff arm from somebody over. You'll get it over things that I'm not saying are unimportant but they're certainly not explicitly stated by our Lord Jesus Christ. And so all I'm saying, I don't want to give the idea that I want to change these beautiful heritages. You have something and I've learned that when you start changing stuff, it's scary. Been there. And I've got children. I'm trembling over it. On the other hand, at the end of the day, I'm trying to rally us where we go from here. You've got that mature. Okay, we've done it now. 487 years. Alright. We've worked it out. Hopefully. Now take this and fulfill the teachings of Jesus Christ on earth. But good question. It's practical. Your name and where you're from. Ernest Eby from State College Pennsylvania. At this event, we've been hearing some emphasis on agriculture and that piece of our heritage. And some other events that I attend, there's an emphasis on moving to the cities and urban centers and that's what the Apostle Paul did when he wanted to reach the world and all this kind of thing. There's just a lot of different gifts. Some people make comforters for people who are cold around the world. Other people are involved in evangelism and talking to people on the phone and so forth. I'm wondering if there's a way that we can think of ourselves as a total group instead of each different group thinking they need to do each different thing and specialize in that. What if some people are really good at making comforters and we bless them and help them rally around that. At the same time, those people blessing people in their midst that want to do evangelism. And then if there's another church over here somewhere that wants to do evangelism and there's somebody in that group that wants to make comforters, we can bless those. Yeah, it's very good brother and that's why I love groups like Christian Aid Ministry. I'm principally against the concept of parachurch organizations. I believe the church has been given to us as to be the kingdom on this earth. On the other hand, I think we make that so tight that I would consider those associations working with groups like Christian Aid Ministry my church. When I hear about success in Kenya, when I hear about the new order going to Belize, I rejoice as it's part of me. And so I do agree with you and I think that kind of attitude we need to have more towards this. On the other hand, I don't want to, I would like to just give you a little I think it'd be such a blessing to take more of this maturity that I see here and go forward with it in areas that are perhaps even a little uncomfortable with you. I do agree with you totally in principle, we don't all go, we don't all do things, but we're all part of that. But everybody involved in some way. But yeah, I think we do need to encourage and be glad with the different expressions. Those different tribes as Balaam saw working together in Israel is what I see here. Good question. Is that? Alright. Thank you so much. We're going to close this conference.