Ewald Frank

11. 5. 1978, 10:00, Krefeld, Germany
aired 25. 3. 2023

Subject: "Respect, Order and Ministries in the Church!"

If you feel like me, then we have all been greatly blessed by what we heard last night by the sermon of Brother Branham or his testimony.

And at the same time, a deep desire rises in our hearts to have such fellowship with God.

I think the testimony that we translated yesterday, I guess I hadn't translated it here before, right? We may have heard several experiences from this or that tape, but not in the totality as a testimony as we heard last night.

And when we think about it, that God in his faithfulness reaches down to humanity who don't seek it, who don't want it, but who are so close to God that he can connect with them, that he can speak to them and reveal himself to them.

There is no believing child of God who would not also have a desire to be connected with God in this way, when such things are said and heard.

And you understood exactly what he said when these three animals stood before him and a voice said to him, "They are given into your hands." But surely that was not the voice that had spoken to him before and the vow he had made and how God ties in with such experiences.

When he says, "I promised God I would not do that again." And the opportunity was there and got bigger and better.

And again the inner struggle, "They are given into your hands."

And then again the answer, "I made the promise to God."

And then the answer from God.

Did you understand that last night? It was just quite wonderful. God takes us at our word and we can take God at his Word. And only when we are willing to do what God asks of us will he generously do what he has promised.

But also the details, when the Lord addressed him, "I am the creator of heaven and earth." [Gn 1:1] You heard all those things last night.

And then suddenly the same voice says, "I was the one who commanded the storm and the waves. [Mk 4:41] The same one who said, »Let there be light.«" [Gn 1:3] The same one who revealed himself in the Old Testament, He was the one who revealed himself in the New Testament. And by the grace of God we may know that he has not yet ceased to work.

And also this serious exhortation that he gave yesterday, and this now really alludes to nothing.

But he literally said, "How can I say so and so has spoken to us when so and so has said nothing?"

And if you read especially the German Menge translation, then it is not written, "Thus saith the Lord," but always, "Thus has the Lord spoken." It was not a thing that somehow came now at that moment, but that had been given before and then passed on.

If we look at all these things closely, if we delve into them, then we notice that all the prophets and all the apostles had this reverence for God.

And how did we hear it at the end when brother Branham said, "Have I ever spoken anything that has not been fulfilled?"

And that is it – when God has spoken, then we can speak and when he reveals something, then we can pass it on and reveal it. Only what we have received from God can we pass on.

And that is actually the desire of our heart, not in presumption or an assumption, but in absolute and ultimate certainty to pass on what God has revealed.

And if we look at the Old Testament, after all it's the shadow image for the new, then it says here in Exodus 25, verse 19, in connection with the Ark of the Covenant, it says here:

"And make one cherub on the one end and the other cherub on the other end. One of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another. Toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be." [Ex 25:19-20]

If one stops here, we know it was the cover plate over the Ark of the Covenant. In the Ark of the Covenant was the Word of God. At both ends, if this was the Ark of the Covenant here, at one end and at the other end the cherubims, the two wings spread upwards over the cover plate.

But their faces, which were turned inwards, were not looking upwards, but they were looking towards the cover plate, towards the Word, towards what God had spoken.

And if we read on, it says here in verse 21:

"And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the Ark, and in the Ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims, which are upon the Ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."

A very powerful indication that God only thinks of what He has already spoken to reveal it to His people, to pass it on.

But here is also the place of fellowship with God, namely where He has spoken, where He has revealed his Word to His people, where He has given promises and commandments. That is where He wants to communicate and have fellowship with us.

We find the same thing confirmed in Exodus in chapter 30 from verse 6. Here it says:

"And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the Ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee."

It was the place of fellowship with God.

There were ablutions, there was the veil, the court, there was the sanctuary, but there was also the place where people could commune with God. And that place of divine communion was not in the outer court, it was not in the sanctuary, it was there behind the veil in the place where the Word of God was. For the people came there not to hear a priest, they came there to hear God who had given his Word and put it in the Ark of the covenant. And there He wanted to have fellowship with them and meet with them.

We believe that God revealed his Word at this time and that communion with God is not in some things, but in the fact that He turned to us, opened the Ark of the covenant, made his Word and His will known and thus entered into communion with us.

God spoke with us and this speaking of God was not somewhere, but in His presence. It was in His sanctuary, yes right at the entrance to the Holy of Holies.

And if we know all these things, we do well, if we do as Moses did. He took off his shoes and knew the place on which he stands is holy ground [Ex 3:5], not because his feet were placed on it, but because God was present and the holiness of God took over, consecrated and sanctified the whole place, the whole environment, the whole atmosphere, His thinking, His everything.

I think the same is true for all of us.

God has spoken, who should not hear? [Am 3:8]

He has revealed, who should not take it to heart?

"There I will meet with thee. There I will have fellowship with you."

What a privilege for us to be able to come directly into the presence of God at this time, to have been taken out of all that is tradition and placed into the direct revelation of his Word and His will.

And I mentioned it very briefly last night or somewhere, there are so many people who still speak their own language and not the language of God, not passing on what God has spoken, but actually speaking of the mark.

But when we understand that God has always used men through whom He could speak after He had spoken to them, then this is a binding speech of God for all of us.

Then no one can pass by it as if nothing had happened.

If we look at the Holy Scriptures, then it was God who took these individual people and made them a blessing for others and spoke through them to tell us what He had to tell us.

I believe that God wants to commune with us.

I believe that God has revealed his Word through His Spirit and that He wants to and will confirm this revealed Word through His Spirit and through His power.

But for this it is necessary that we become one heart and one soul as they were in the beginning [Acts 4:32], striving with one accord towards the same goal and that we are fully committed to each other and to the cause of God.

And would there be anything else in life for which we could sacrifice our time and give our commitment? There is nothing on earth that we could set our eyes on to occupy ourselves with or give the time and energy to than the one thing for which God has ordained us. And this thing is not something that we might externally work at, but it is God's work in you and God's work in me. For God has spoken to us and we have received his Word and we desire to do according to that Word.

Here in this sermon, "Warning, then Judgment," Brother Branham says on page 8:

"We are accountable. God has placed us here on this earth for a purpose. We are accountable to Him for that purpose for which He has placed us here."

We have a responsibility before God, and not just one individual who may have to stand in front because of divine guidance and providence, but we have all been put together to follow the Lord together and bring to pass what He has instructed.

Moses might have been called by God a thousand times, and if it had turned the heart of the people and if they had not believed and gone out, it would all have been of no avail.

And so God puts things together finely and well: He gives the messenger, lets the message go forth, and then He wills all those who have received this divine message to stand there before His face where He speaks with them, where the ark of the covenant has been opened and his Word has been made known and revealed.

Here Brother Branham says:

"We are responsible. God has placed us here on this earth for a purpose. We are accountable to Him for that purpose for which He has placed us here."

How I would like to get out of that responsibility and sometimes at any cost. But God has a purpose for your life and mine. He has a purpose with you, with me, with the church, and that purpose needs to be fulfilled.

We think back to the earlier days when God gave instructions and announced that this message was coming to us and that we were going to carry it. And we have understood how sometimes even sections of this earth were addressed, sometimes here and then sometimes there. And we see how the way of God is actually being observed and going on in such a wonderful way that we can hardly miss it or pass it by.

It goes on to say:

"You should come to Him to ascertain what He wants you to do."

Not only He, Brother Branham, but he is addressing you, he is addressing me, he means all of us when he says, "You must or should come to Him to find out what He wants from you."

Now perhaps someone will say, "What do I want? What does God want from me?"

I read on and this will be the answer:

"If you are working for somebody and he assigns you a job on a ranch or anything else, do you just go to the stable, sit there and say, »Done«? See? You have to go and ask a lot of questions what He wants you to do and then do it."

When you work for someone, he finds out what you have been asked to do. First, individually and as a church, we must have understood the divine commission. We must know what God requires of us.

And may not be misinterpreted or said that I am puffed up if we or if I say here today with a real sincere heart, I know what God has appointed me to do and I know what He demands of me and I know that there is no way to get around it, for God's way is this: to carry out the commission He has given.

And I would also like to say that here, even though it sometimes seems as if things have taken a turn. Now on my last journey, I not only saw God opening mighty doors all the way to China, but that brothers come together and they said at the end, "Brother Frank, we know that God has ordained you to carry on his Word. Tell us from God how it is right."

You have to experience it once, not for my sake or for any name's sake, but for God's sake, for His name and for his Word.

We have to understand that God has a divine order and let me say it here: whoever does not submit to the divine order must be careful and perhaps ask himself where he stands and how he stands before God.

All of us, from the first to the last, must submit to the divine order. If we do not submit to the divine order, then there is disorder for which we ourselves are responsible.

God has an order in everything and Paul writes to the Corinthians, "For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." [1Kor 14:33]

Here, brother Branham goes on to say:

"Now when we are here on earth, we should turn to Him who put us here and say, 'Lord, what do you want me to do? What do I have to do? Why am I here?'"

You may say, "Huh, men who have been called to preach the word can ask that."

No, anyone can ask that, you and I. We can all ask why God has put us here, because here it says, "If you are a housewife, wash the dishes or do anything else that God asks of you, you do it as best you can. No matter how small it may be, you must do it."

Now someone may say, 'What can I do while washing the dishes?' I don't know if you all listened carefully when brother Branham told the story of John Wesley's life, oh no, of his mother and father, not of him, for he did not have it easy, but of his father, of his mother, they must have been 18 children.

And what did he say?

This mother used every minute of the housework, whether she was repairing her children's clothes, whether she was washing, whether she was cleaning, whatever she was doing, she used the time and always had a gathering around her, namely her own children, to plant the divine in their hearts at an early age.

We all, no matter who we may be, have a task.

And who was really listening when brother Branham said, 'In this man, whom God later used, the divine seed was planted when he was very young.' A woman who might have washed the dishes, done the laundry and all kinds of things, but she had a task and this task, God blessed.

But it goes beyond that.

It goes on to say, you say:

"Well, the difficulty is that each of us wants to do our neighbor's work. We all want to have the ball for ourselves, as we are wont to say.

Here too, everyone has to stay in his or her place.

We have all certainly, or at least most of us, watched football matches. There is only one ball and many players and sometimes this one has the ball and sometimes that one.

But what is important is, that we stay on the ball. The important thing is, that God's cause moves forward. Whether it's the striker here, the left winger there, the defender there, it doesn't matter.

What matters is, that there is a composed team that is aligned, that can be used and blessed by God.

If we were to go out on the field and the team got into a fight with each other and the fight broke out, the spectators, they would have too much. They would be sorry, they had paid their entrance fee and come there. But the children of the world are wiser than the children of the kingdom of God. [Lk 16:8]

That's what our Lord said back then and that is how it really is. This world knows what is proper. Everything is coordinated. Everyone knows his place, knows his task.

And what about in the kingdom of God?

Everybody wants the ball, single-handedly.

There is no one man who can step up individually to make a play. It's a team, a composition. And we are one body of the Lord [1Kor 12:12], made up of many members. And we have to, as brother Branham said here, find our place before we can do our job.

And when we see that someone is capable and manages to move forward with a ball, it is nice. And if the ball is passed and someone else runs forward with it, everything is fine. After all, it's about the whole team winning.

And the point here in the spiritual is, that the whole church of the living God is victorious and that it wins.

That is what it is all about.

Not that individuals suddenly want to have the ball and when they have it, they score so many own goals that it is no longer of any use. And that is also the worst that could happen.

Here brother Branham continues,

"Like this clock for example: Every movement in it has its place. Not every part of it can be the hand. I only look at the hand when I want to know what time it is. But if one of the clocks doesn't work properly, the watch won't go and show accurately."

With a clock, you look on it and you see the hand.

But the hand can't show exactly, if the clockwork is not running properly and if the thing is not right. And then the hand is no use at all. At the most one has made a mistake, but has not been informed correctly.

What does brother Branham, who was a man of nature, a man of practical life, what does he want to say with these examples?

He was not a watchmaker or a football fan to mention these examples, but he was pointing out to us, as Paul did at that time.

He said, when someone joins the race, he puts away everything that weighs him down. [1Kor 9:25] He doesn't go into this race with a backpack, but in sporting clothes, after he has put everything down.

He has fellowship with God. And it is not just a few blessings that we enjoy. But we need this connection, this fellowship with God. We certainly understood that very well last night.

It is all there for us. God will not treat us as stepchildren. No, he will treat us as children. And just as he did in the beginning, so he will do in the end.

He goes on to say:

"It is the same with human beings. We must all be put in our place, in the body of Jesus Christ, and be in harmony. Then we can determine what time of day it is."

Then we do not each look at our own clock, then we look at the clock of God, and we understand the time in which we live.

And when we look at the clock of God, then we see the approach of the mightiest showdown that has ever been.

And you notice how the powers that be on this earth, these religious spiritual powers and the political powers, how it is going to come to this confrontation.

And I said it on Sunday in Zurich, if he interferes in Poland's internal affairs, he will have to pay heavily for it. And a man is getting scared at the moment, but only for a moment, nothing more.

And what happens?

We see the book of Revelation coming through. And not only the seven heads, but also the ten horns must give their power to the beast on which this great harlot rides until the words of God are fulfilled, for God has put it in their mind to do so. [Rev 17:7-13]

What is it?

But then it says in Revelation 17 that the ten horns shall hate the whore and make her desolate and naked and burn her with fire. [Rev 17:16]

That's how it is written.

And in chapter 18 we read, "O great city, and the kings of the earth shall wail and stand afar off, saying, In one hour destruction has come upon thee." [Rev 18: 16]

And a prophet of God has said in our generation, "Thus saith the Lord, Russia will drop an atomic bomb on the Vatican and destroy it in one single hour."

When would we have seen that?

Now we notice, through the awakening in Eastern Europe, how all these things are moving and there must be a reason for everything. And now there are enough reasons to bring God's Word to fulfillment, because everything that is written must be fulfilled, for good and for evil.

We will not stop anything, but first of all the overall rain will be revealed. But the rage will increase to such an extent that one day the measure will become full and overflow, and then all it takes is a push of a button and it's all over.

Here brother Branham says:

"That's how it is with people. We all need to be in our place and in harmony in the body of Jesus Christ. Then we can tell what time of day it is."

And have we not heard, as we have been told, "If you want to know what time it is, look at your watch. If you want to know what day of the week it is, look at the calendar. But if you want to know the time of God, look at Israel." ?

And so we see that God gives us the grace to know things. We are not prophets to announce it in advance, but God lets the prophetic spirit rest on us to understand it as it unfolds. And God has given us the right Word for the things that are going on by grace every time until now.

It goes on to say:

"Then the world will look and see what is. But they are watching you, whether you are just a little clock spring or the mainspring or anything else. You are doing the very best that you can do in your place."

No matter what we perceive in the Lord's body, where we stand and what our tasks are, if we are faithful in them and do them to the Lord and not to men, then he will bless us.

It goes on to say:

"For we have a responsibility and one day we will have to give an account for it before God."

Oh, to think that the hour is so near when we will come face to face with the Lord, it could really make one afraid.

And as brother Burnham said last night, "I feel both in my heart: a deep joy to see the Lord soon and a deep sorrow because so many are not ready to meet him."

And that is the situation we are in and we will ask God together to give grace and that he will turn all the fortunes around. Where it becomes impossible and all hope is gone, God is able to intervene, to give a turn, to glorify his name, to then confirm his Word.

He goes on to say here:

"Many of us are stewards and must give account for it."

This responsibility of a steward has been given to us by God.

What is Paul writing to the Corinthians?

It is a very familiar word: "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God." [1Kor 4:1-2]

I read it earlier, it must be right at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthians, where Paul makes this statement, that we are as stewards of God's grace and that we must be found faithful. It's written right at the beginning of a chapter. I'm sure you can find it even quicker.

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

1st Corinthians 4, 1 and 2, I marked it in the English Bible and I didn't mark it in the German [reads 2Kor 4:1]:

"Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not."

It is a grace of God and a mercy of God to receive a ministry, but to administer it faithfully, that is what it is all about.

And to this Word there comes then the other word, that we are stewards of the mysteries of God.

Oh, if I look now in Galatians, I certainly won't be able to find it at all, but you all know that it is written and that is enough.

For me, these days we live in are just so powerful. There is no other way.

But now I look at 1 Corinthians 4 and here it says:

"Let a man sow a count of us, as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."

You all know, when you are entrusted with a thing… and this was expressed in the story of the talents, one buried it, the others made profit and God blessed them. [Lk 19:12-24]

We cannot bury what God has brought to light, we cannot hide it under a bushel again [Mt 5:15], nor can we continue to speak according to our traditions, but we must be aligned by the revealed word in all things.

In the same sermon, brother Branham speaks, on page 17, he says:

"See, in a church there is the pastor, the shepherd, and he is a special person. He is so equipped that he can bear the disputes of the people. He is a burden bearer. He is the ox in the team."

We were talking about the team earlier, and here brother Branham says, "The shepherd of a church is the pack animal. He is the ox that has to carry the load, that has to be carried with a church."

It goes on to say:

"He is a man who can sit down if someone has something against another. He can sit down with both families without taking sides. He can set the record straight and restore the sweetness if people are there who are willing to listen to what someone has to say."

But here we come to the question: Do we have the respect, as brother Branham said, before the servants of God? There is a whole sermon entitled "Respect for the Servants of God."

When we emphasized here that we don't glorify any human being, then it doesn't mean that we can trample on anybody with our feet, but the divine order we have to respect.

And I can't help, but I think it seems to fit here, and may all hear it who are here and who are not here: But this respect has been lost before the brothers. They have been distorted, reviled and nullified.

These ears of mine have also heard many a thing, and I shall never forget it.

God forgive me for saying this now, but I was passing by one day and I heard a conversation, and in this conversation most of the people knew the Polish language, and they were talking about the two brothers, and they literally said about one of them that he was a »bisheck«. And this word these ears of mine have heard, and that means in the German language »a little bull«.

If we have lost respect for the man of God, then I tell you we are on the road to ruin, and we have brought many things to ruin, because we have not respected the divine order.

Who gives who a right to speak and judge like that?

When my Bible says an elder is worthy of double honor [1Tm 5:17], is that only in my Bible, or also in the Bible of those who said it?

You may say, "Does it belong here?"

It belonged here long ago. It should have taken place on the same day, or on the following Sunday when my ears heard it. I missed many things, I heard many things, and closed my eyes and closed my ears.

But those days are over once and for all.

There is no point in holding up any scripture to another unless you are prepared to bow under the scripture yourself.

You have to be told that once.

I have nothing to lose. I have lost everything. I can only gain, and that by the grace of God.

Here it is spoken about the shepherds, about the pastor in the church.

If the trust… and brother Branham himself says this: "If the trust is destroyed in the man that God uses in a local church, then the whole church is destroyed."

And just that is the case. Just that was the whole order, and nothing else.

But God will rebuild, and the prophet says, "I have before me the rebuilt walls." [Jes 49:16] The prophet saw them already, and we who are alive now will be able to see it by grace and have a part in it.

It is simply time that we each place ourselves under the whole Word of God from beginning to end.

You can't just take something out of somewhere and then go against someone else.

Let each one examine himself and humble himself under the mighty hand of God. [2Kor 13:5, 1Pt 5:6]

And how does that look like?

By submitting under the Word of God. Only then one has humbled himself under the hand of God.

It says here, "He will establish everything in loveliness."

But if someone comes and wants to speak, and he doesn't get a chance to speak at all, and he takes his hat and says, I can't just put up with that here.

Where has the respect and the divine order gone?

Where have all the things gone?

We don't want honor from people, but I tell you this: if we want God to bless the brothers here, then we must pray, stand behind them and carry them before the face of God and ask him to give them his Word at all times.

Now that was of the shepherd.

It says in conclusion, "He is a shepherd and knows the care and the things that he carries with him."

Of course, a shepherd carries. But if he wants to speak to someone somewhere and he is not let in or listened to at all, what then?

And you may think what you will today, but whoever does not fit into the earthly order of the divine church on earth will never be in the heavenly order of the heavenly church.

It begins here and nowhere else.

The theory may look who knows how, but the practice begins here in a very practical way.

Then it says:

"The evangelist is a special man. He is a man who burns like a ball of fire. He walks into a city, preaches his message, leaves there, goes somewhere else. See he is a special man.

The teacher is a special man. He withdraws under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and is able to take the words and connect them through the Holy Spirit that neither the pastor nor the evangelist can compare with him."

Each in their own area, each in the task that God has given them. And again, that makes a whole team, each in the place God has assigned to him.

"Then we find that the apostle is a special man. He is someone who puts everything in order. He is a man sent by God to put all things in their order."

That is also part of it.

And we believe that God restores all things and we believe that these ministries as we have read them here, that God will give them back and that this divine order will be in the divine church.

In conclusion:

"The prophet is a special man. A prophet is a man to whom the word of the Lord comes. For the life of a prophet is such that his subconsciousness and consciousness are so close together that he does not have to go to sleep to have a dream. He sees it while he is wide awake. That is something that God alone is able to do. He sees what is going on. That is how it is."

How many times people have come to brother Branham and said to him, "Interpret the dream for us."

And brother Branham literally said, "I cannot interpret your dream until I have seen this dream unfold before me in exactly the same way."

And the people are sitting there and telling their dream.

And his right eye just closed a little further. And he looked at the person in question and still saw exactly the dream before him that was reported to him and was able to say, "Sister, you left out such and such, brother, you did not mention such and such."

As a prophet, he saw before him what people had dreamed and he saw it subconsciously.

None of us can be either one or the other, the third, fourth or fifth, unless God has ordained him to be so.

And we believe that the Lord has wonderfully ordained all things.

And I mean, whether we can interpret a dream today or not, I think that is secondary. What should be important is that we no longer interpret anything, but fully accept God's revealed word and say, "Lord, you have spoken and we are here to hear what you have to say to us."

God needs to bring that reverence back to the church, before him and his Word, before his work, before the ministries. Above all, this godly reverence must return to the church and then we will be able to go forward with the help of God.

Here it still goes on with the ministry of the prophet, but the time is up. You all have these sermons yourselves.

And yet I hear it again and again, that people simply say, "Imagine, I have read the sermon a few times, but only after you quoted these things did it become fully clear to me what was being expressed."

There are people who just read too fast, they read too quickly, they read as an earthly book can be read, but if we delve into it and ask God to reveal his Word to us and speak to us through his spirit, then he will do it by grace.

There is no other way.

And we are convinced that God will do it by grace, in you, in me and in all of us.

He will assemble his church like the best team and no one will trip the other one up to make him stumble. Everyone will protect the other one.

Have you ever watched a game?

I used to do it very often when I was young.

It's not always about just getting the ball, it's even about fending off the opponent so that he can't get to the one with the ball.

And when we have understood all that, then we just say, "Lord, have mercy on us, time is running out, place me, place us each in our place and help us to stand together in such a way that you could use us like the best functioning team on this earth."

Maybe our faith has become little because we have experienced many things, but I think God teaches us a tremendous lesson out of everything. And when we have learned that lesson, may God then preserve us that we then do not make the same mistakes again, but go forward with our God by grace until we come from believing unto seeing.

And we all know, Brother Rus has already emphasized it and so have I, we are not here just to promote for a prolongation of this life.

We are here with the glorious message of Jesus Christ crucified, of him the Son of God who gave his blood and life for us, that we might be saved, that we might receive forgiveness and salvation and eternal life through faith in him, not just a prolongation of this earthly life.

I have reached the point today that I would gladly do without. One thing I desire and that is to be with the Lord.

And we will not receive eternal life first, we have already received it by grace.

May God help us and put in us a desire to seek fellowship with him, not to say, "Now Lord, speak to me and do with me as you did with Brother Branham."

You and I are not Brother Branham, why should he do the same to us? Every person has his experiences with God.

And didn't you hear it what he said? He clearly emphasized last night that so many imitations of these divine ministries have taken place and an imitation is not an original.

Every person, every brother, every sister, we have our walk with God and he wants to give us the experiences that are necessary for our life of faith and for my sake for the ministry that he has given us or that he will give us.

He will see to it.

Blessed and praised be his wonderful and glorious name. He is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And you know, when he said this to the scribes at that time, there he made the remark, "God is not a God of the dead, but of the living." [Mt 22:31-32]

God Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were long gone from this earth, but they were not dead, they were alive, they are still alive today because they have eternal life.

God is not the God of the dead, God is the God of the living, namely of those who have received eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and thus he is your God and my God, thus he is our God and he has given the promise that he will be with us always, even to the end of the world. [Mt 28:20]

Blessed and praised be his holy name.

Amen.

Let us stand and pray.

[SONG]

Heavenly Father, I commend this Word to you.

Without knowing, we have come to these things without intending.

And so I ask you now, O Lord, together with all brothers and sisters who have your cause at heart and who are themselves a part of it, restore your divine order in everything, bring all things to their rightful place as you have promised. Restore.

And in this hour we pray especially for the elders. Let us hold them worthy of double honor, that when they are sick, these men may be called and there may be faith that thou wilt heal and raise up the sick.

My God, we thought we were a biblical church and we were not. My Lord, may you give grace for a new build up. Lord, thoroughly and exactly according to your pattern as you have left it to us. Lord, take us all and bless us from the riches of your grace.

I thank you with all my heart.

You will do it.

Hallelujah to your wonderful and glorious name.

Amen.