Denny, John: More Physical Aspects Of Worship

Start this message because nobody'd be listening to that part anyway. I sort of felt the same way this morning, didn't have a real good introduction, so I thought I would just, um, distract. I've been, uh, sharing last week and this week on the liturgy of the church, our way of doing things. Uh, we tend to pride ourselves or take, not pride, yeah, probably that too, but one of the things we do is we want to do things scriptural. We want to do things the way that God prescribes it. And the last week we talked about a few, um, shouting. Shouting is something that is all through the Bible, where people would shout praises to the Lord. It's something that God respected and he liked. Uh, we talked about praying. Do you pray with your hands lifted up? Lifting your hands is all through scripture. People would pray with their hands lifted. And we also talked about kneeling. Should you kneel to pray? Well, this week I want to take up a few more topics. There's very many things in scripture. I listed some. I'll read that again as a review, but, uh, another thing we talked about last week was singing, uh, songs with instrumental accompaniment. Uh, tambourines and cymbals and trumpets and things like that are all through scripture. Uh, we... one thing I was wanting to talk about is, uh, should you pray out loud or should you pray silently? And then this morning I want to talk about what should we wear when we worship? Uh, does scripture say anything about our clothes? Uh, should we wash before we come to church? Should... it's in scripture, we'll look at it. Incense, should we use incense and candles in our worship? That's very scriptural. Um, fasting, uh, should we be joyful or somber? Should we worship with feasts and have food when we, when we come together to worship? What time of day should we come together to worship? Should we worship facing Jerusalem, uh, like Solomon said to do. Uh, clapping and stamping your feet in scripture. Uh, men and women are in scripture, the differences in how they worship. We'll look a little bit at that this morning. I was just thinking of all the different physical parts of our emotions in scripture, that that they're all through there, that people jump and shout when they're happy, they laugh, uh, weeping when they're sad, they'd sob, beat their breasts, tear their clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes. When they were angry, they would gnash their teeth, they would throw dust, they would tear their clothes. Their, the physical is very important for most people with their emotions. I said last week that it's not so much for myself. I'm not very physical on any of my emotions. I don't do any of those things. I don't weep or punch the wall when I'm angry, or I just not, my body doesn't get into emotions very much, but other people do. And if you are, it should come out in your worship. Your, your body will be part of it. The Jews, when they pray, believe that you ought to pray with your whole body, and, and if you go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem or something, you'll see them, and they pray like this, they bob, because they're supposed to pray with their whole body. Uh, that's what they feel is part of it. I tend to weave whenever I'm standing or singing or anything, but, um, that's about as far as my body gets as far. But our, our religion is very physical. There are many parts to it that are, uh, just looking, making a list of things that are in the New Testament, of things. Well, Old Testament, they had circumcision, they had trips to Jerusalem, they had sacrifices and feasts, uh, Sabbath rest. They had a lot of physical things that were part of their, their religion, and in the New Testament we do too, uh, to varying degrees. We have baptism, we have the Lord's Supper, we have fasting, head coverings, laying on of hands, foot washings, uh, sexual absten- abstinence, anointing with oil, wearing sackcloth and ashes, shaking the dust off our feet, shaking the dust off our feet and our clothes, uh, haircuts, uh, speaking in tongues, healings, and greeting with a holy kiss. This is just a list that I came up with, and there might be a lot more, but these are all physical parts of our religion, and we practice them to a greater or lesser degrees. And, uh, a lot of what we do in this meeting, we, we feel pretty strongly about what we do. We believe that we do things because there's scriptural precedent for it. The Bible teaches it, and if the Bible teaches it, we want to obey it. That's one of the things. We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God, and the inspired word of God tells us how to live and how to worship and do things. And, uh, yet at times, I think some we, a lot of our liturgy, a lot of the way we do things is reactionary. Uh, we don't use candles and, and kneeling and incense because Catholics do it, and we're not Catholic, and so we react to it by not doing it. Uh, some groups, Pentecostals and other people are real emotional, waving their hands and dancing and bowing, and so we, well, we're not Pentecostal, so we won't do it. And a lot of what we do is reactionary to other people who do. But we need to go to scripture, I believe, and say, well, what does the scripture teach about these things? And I said last week, there's plenty of shouting in scripture. Uh, we don't very often shout at a breaking of bread meeting bec- but so there ought to be a time where we are able to shout to the Lord, like that song we just sang, Shout to the Lord. This is scripture. Uh, I mentioned last week this raising of hands, that that if somebody feels worshipful to the Lord and they want to raise their hands in worship, that's scriptural, that's, that's normal. That's, uh, we have to think, how come I'm never led to raise my hands and worship the Lord? Why am I never led, feel in my heart such humility that I feel I need to bow down and worship the Lord? Well, those are some of the things we talked about last week. This week I'd like to talk about, uh, the first one is, is clothes. And that's why I wore this, get this out of the way. This is a, um, high priest robe that Golda made, uh, for me about twenty years ago now, and I've used it for different things. Uh, it's pretty authentic. Uh, the jewels aren't real jewels, but, uh, they're, we tried to make it exactly according to the plan that God gave to Aaron. And, uh, so we tried to make Aaron's clothes. I've got a microphone and glasses and some other technology that isn't quite right, but, um... And, uh, but anyway, that what you see is pretty much authentic. This is what it would have looked like. Clothes in scripture mean a lot. Most of the time, clothes are symbolic. Uh, it starts out in the very beginning of the Bible where, where Adam and Eve were naked. They were innocent. They didn't need clothes. They didn't, they weren't not ashamed. When they sinned, they, they knew it, and they could not appear before God in their sinful state. This, and clothes represents that. They realized that they were naked, and they were ashamed, and they tried to make clothes for themselves out of, uh, fig leaves because they did not want to appear before God naked. Now, I think a lot of that, I believe it's literal, but I also think it's symbolic that, that clothes represent our standing before God. We see this in the New Testament in many, many places. Jesus told a parable about a man who came to a wedding feast, and he was not dressed right, and he got, and the, the man says, what are you doing in here without the right clothes on? Depart, and they kicked him out into the outer darkness for his weeping and gnashing of teeth. This symbolizes our salvation. And so a lot of times, when we look at these passages in scripture, it's hard to tell they're being symbolic in this story, representing our status, our salvation. I mean, there are plenty of places in the Psalms where it says things like, um, let thy priest be clothed with righteousness, or her priests also I will clothe with salvation, and her godly ones sing aloud for joy. Many times clothing does represent our, um, status before God, our salvation or our righteousness. And, uh, uh, Paul talks about, uh, clothe yourselves properly, um, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. There are things that, that use it symbolically. So I wanted to try to pick out some passages that it wasn't, that the clothing wasn't symbolic, but that the clothing was literal, and, uh, we'll see what we can make of some of this. Uh, Leviticus eight two through nine, and this is more about what I'm, I've got on. Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bowl for the sin offering, and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread, and assemble all the congregation at the doorway of the tent of meeting. So Moses did just as the Lord commanded him. When the congregation was assembled at the doorway of the tent of meeting, Moses said to the congregation, "This is the thing which the Lord has commanded to do." Then Moses and Aaron and his sons came near and washed them. Then Moses had Aaron and his sons come near and washed them with water, and he put the tunic on him and gird him with the sash and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. Then he girded him with the artistic band of the ephod, which he tied it to him. Then he placed the breastpiece on him, and the breast piece he, in the breast piece he put the Urim and the Thummim. He also placed the turban on his head, and on the turban at its front he placed the golden plate, the holy crown, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. And so this is what Aaron would have worn. It's got the breast plate, it's got the turban, the, the, the crown that says holy unto the Lord, and uh, shoulder things that God would see the tribes of Israel on his shoulders as he was standing before the Lord. Um, got bells. They really sound nice. Can you hear them? God said, uh, that, that put bells on the hem because then when the priest would be walking in, um, he would hear it and he wouldn't be angry. Um, I've heard that tradition also says that they used to tie a rope around the priest, uh, so in case he was died while he was in there in the Holy of Holies that only the high priest could go into once a year, then they could just drag him out, and so they could tell if they stopped hearing the bells. Well, I don't find that in scripture, but if it's true, uh, it has to do with another point about, um, audible or silent prayer. You wouldn't be able to hear my bells very much over public, I mean, if I was praying out loud to God, and so, and Josephus does talk also about the silence in the temple, uh, that it was silent in there, that nobody said anything in there. So, um, we'll talk about that maybe if I don't run out of time. But the priest did have to wear physical, liter- literal clothes when he came before the Lord. Uh, special clothes. He couldn't wear just anything. He had to wear specific things. There's a lot, uh, about the Levites as well, that, again, there's other aspects to this that we might talk about, but this is in Numbers eight six. Take the Levites from among the sons of Israel and cleanse them, and thus shall you do to them for their cleansing, sprinkle purifying water on them, and let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes, and they shall be clean. The Levites mostly just wore clean clothes. That comes in, uh, other places as well, that they need to be where, uh, Numbers eight, the Levites too purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them as a wave offering before the Lord. So the clothes were literal, they were important in their, in their worship. Uh, Samuel, the boy was, uh, now Samuel was ministering before the Lord as a boy wearing a linen ephod, and his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Even as a boy working in the temple, he wore a special clothes for the temple that were made, uh, by his mother. Now, there's an inter- there's a strange one, I would say, is is Saul, uh, because Saul, when he went to prophesy among the prophets, uh, stripped off his clothes and lay down naked all night and day and prophesied naked. I don't see that anywhere else in scripture that that was prescribed. As a matter of fact, I think it was not prescribed, and it was taboo. So that's an interesting story that I don't really understand, uh, and it's sort of an an- anamoly, anau- anomaly. Uh, it's not normal. Um, then other people, when they came to worship, here's David. David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes, and he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He got dressed up. He had been sad over the death of his son, or his sickness of his son. When his son died, he got up, washed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Uh, when David came bringing the ark, and we'll look at this later, but when David was bringing up the ark to Jerusalem, it says, now David was clothed with a robe of fine linen with all the Levites who were carrying the ark. David also wore an ephod of linen. First Chronicles sixteen says, um, ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name, bring an offering and come before him, worship the Lord in holy array. Again, talking about clothes, but again, I'm not sure, and that's also in Psalms, ascribe to the Lord the glory do his name, worship the Lord in holy array. And it's hard to know in those passages if it's talking about literal or not, because a lot of the Psalms does talk about dressing yourselves in righteousness or other things. He has wrapped me with a clobe of, a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. So sometimes it is symbolic, uh, and sometimes it's literal. So let's go over to the New Testament and see what the New Testament says about clothes. Now, I'm a, uh, those of you know me, I don't wear ties hardly ever, um, almost never. It's been a little bit of a problem to me, but I just, just sort of rebel against it. Partly it's my age. I grew up during the hippie era when everybody over thirty, the suits, they they wore ties, and nobody, they we were rebelling against that, and that's sort of ingrained. And then later on in my life, as I was a a hardware store manager, the only people that wore ties into the hardware store were salesmen. And and I hated, well, maybe it's a little too strong, but I hated to see a salesman coming. They were going to tie up my time and and try to convince me to do something. And I got thinking, well, why does people, why do people wear ties? And some people might say, well, I've had people tell me it's a sign of respect. It shows, um, respect. Well, in my experience, those salesmen were not wearing ties out of respect for me. They thought I was a fool, and that's why they were coming in trying to sell me something. They were trying to use their, they're trying to somehow fool me into thinking they were more honest or something by wearing their ties, and I, and I just sort of got a real negative thing to me. I know there's a lot of you wear ties, and, and I don't, I'm not preaching against it, but I'm explaining why I don't. That a tie just seems to me a fakey thing. It seems to me almost like a lie, that you're trying to make yourself something that you're not. Now, people who wear ties all the time because of their job, they look normal in their ties. Uh, but other people, they just sort of look like, well, who are you trying to impress? That's my feeling anyway, that's why I don't wear a tie. And so I was feeling a little bit convicted. Should I be wearing a tie? One of my jobs as um, uh, camp director, they want me to travel around and speak and represent the camp in various churches and so forth, and and not wearing a tie is a little bit of a handicap, and I'm not sure I could always fake something like this, you know, do something else so nobody knows that I don't wear ties, or I could wear a KBC t-shirt or something else, but, um, but I just sort of have a personal revulsion against them, and it's nothing personal against anybody that wears them. I just think that, uh, that's the reason I don't. And so I was wondering, well, should I be wearing a tie? Should I swallow my pride and, and conform and, uh, be all things to all men? And, and so I thought, well, I'll just really check this out in the New Testament and, and, um, see if, if, you know, the Old Testament's pretty clear to me that clothes were important when you come to the temple. You wore certain clothes. There's many preachers who preach that when you get up and you're handling the word of God, you ought to be wearing your robes. And you see people like that on TV and other places that they wear robes to preach in because they're handling this, the word of God, and it's such a serious, important thing that you need the robes to remind yourself of who you are and what you're doing. Well, uh, I was just wondering, well, what does the New Testament say about clothes? My conclusion is that they're not very important, and I'll give you the, uh, the reasons for this. Matthew six twenty eight, Why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so erased the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more do so for you, o men of little faith? Do not be anxious in saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, with what shall we clothe ourselves? For these things the Gentiles eagerly seek, for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things, but seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Seems from that passage that clothing is not something that he found real important. It's something that, uh, don't worry about it, God knows you need it, um, but it's not very high priority. Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. One more thing about ties. I really do appreciate the fact that people wear ties here, and the reason is, is that if a visitor comes, I think a visitor ought to feel comfortable here, no matter how they come. If they would come in in a tie and nobody else is wearing one, they might feel out of place, and they wouldn't feel as welcome. They'd be self-conscious about what they're wearing. Or if we all wore ties and a visitor would come not wearing one, I think they would feel self-conscious. And I think it's a good mix that some people do and some people don't, and I meant to say that. I don't mean to, uh, uh, denigrate anybody for a tie at all. Um... Let's go on, look at another New Testament passage. John the Baptist was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. And I was thinking, you know, there wouldn't be very many churches in America that would allow John the Baptist to preach. Um... and yet he was a great preacher that many, many people went out to listen to. And so there's something there, maybe. Another passage. And he summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and he was giving them authority over the unclean spirits. He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey except a mere staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals. And he added, do not put on two tunics. They weren't supposed to even have a change of a clothes or wear one suit of clothes. It's something that they weren't supposed to worry about. Again, talking about John the Baptist. But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet. Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. So again, John the Baptist was a prophet, a great man, greatest in the kingdom of heaven. No one born of woman is greater than John the Baptist at that point, and yet he wasn't to be judged for his clothes. And then in James two, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there, sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich man who oppresses you and personally drags you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Fine clothes is not to be the measure of the man. Uh, we are not supposed to put somebody on the podium because he's wearing a tie and a suit, or forbid him because he's not. This is, this is scripture. There are certain, there's not, uh, the clothes does not make the man. And speaking about the women as well, First Peter says, and let, talking to the women, and let not your adornment be merely external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses. It's, that's not the important part. It's the inward part. It's the, it's who you are inside that God finds important. It's not the clothes. God thinks of it being as insignificant. Uh, then in the book of Revelation, there's a lot about clothes, but I would put that more in the symbolic category. Well, I think I'm going to be running low on time again. So I ha- I was going to talk to you about washing. Um, whether you ought to wash before you come to church. The, the Levites did. I told, said, mentioned before that the first thing you saw when you came into the temple or tabernacle was this thing called the sea, a great big brass bowl to wash in. The first thing you did was physically wash yourself when you came into the temple, when you came into the tabernacle. Washing was very important in the Old Testament that it talked about many places about any kind of uncleanness you had to wash, any kind, just all over and over, there are times in the Old Testament you had to wash yourself. But it, and it's physical washing. So anyway, I want to look at New Testament and see what it says about washing. Mark seven, For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and copper pots. And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands? And he said to them, rightly did Isaiah prophesy, you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me, but in vain do they worship me, teaching the doctrines, the precepts of men, neglecting the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men. So Jesus sort of treated washing as not important. He didn't require it of his disciples that they do these ceremonial washings. They could eat without it, and people noticed that because it was different. Um, there's a story about Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Uh, he says, do this also, uh, one to another. Uh, again, that g- should we do that literally, or should we do it, um, figuratively in the sense of forgiving one another? Uh, he says you're, you don't need your whole body clean. You are, you are clean except for your feet, and we think that this Peter was saved. He, he was clean, but he still gotten trapped in the daily walking on the earth in the world. His feet got dirty, and he needed his feet cleaned. He needed to be forgiven of his daily sins. He didn't need to be completely washed again. And so if that's what Jesus is talking about, is forgiveness, then he says, do this likewise. And it, and it could be symbolic that we are to do that, um, symbolically by forgiving one another, or it could be that we're supposed to be doing it literally. Um, there's some disagreement on that, and I'm, and I'm not gonna say which way. Uh, it is a requirement of the widows in First Timothy that a widow is one who washes the disciples' feet, washes the, the feet of other people. Again, whether it's figurative or not. Um, Hebrews says to, uh, let it, therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let's press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, of faith towards God, of instructions about washings and laying on of hands, and so forth. This is treated again, washing is something that's not very important. Let's don't spend a lot of time on it. So it probably shouldn't. Uh, Hebrews chapter nine, talking about the sacrifices, um, the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the worshipper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and, note, various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation. Then he goes on to talk about, but the whole, but the Jesus as the high priest has gone into the holy place once for all. The cleansing of washing our hands at the laver at the sea, or the cleansing that we needed was done once for all by Jesus. And I think that the cleansing, the sacrificial, the sacrum, the uh, the washing of the phys- the physical washing that they did importantly in the Old Testament is no longer necessary for us for the same reason that we no longer have to do physical sacrifices. A few other verses that I think are probably, uh, symbolic, but I'll read them. Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Again, that's probably symbolic, but it does say our conscience is cleaned and our bodies washed with pure water. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Um, and then in Revelation, there's many people who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and they are now white. Blessed are those who have washed their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. And so I'm pretty sure that washing, like the robe, is symbolic, uh, that as a Christian, that this is part of the thing that was done once and for all and doesn't need to be repeated. Okay, um, next thing I wanted to talk about, major change in subject here, was dancing. When in our liturgy, when in our church do we have a time where we dance? Should we or shouldn't we? Old Testament is very, very common with Exodus fifteen when they, when they crossed the Red Sea, Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out with her with timbrels and dancing. And the song that we sing, the Lord, uh, horse and rider thrown into the sea. Uh, when Jephthah had the big victory, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. Uh, skipping some of them here. Uh... When David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, with musical instruments. The women sang as they played and said, Saul is slain as thousands and David as ten thousands. And then the famous story of David dancing before the ark. Uh, I think I'll go ahead and read it because it's real important for the subject. Now it told King David, saying, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that belongs to him on account of the ark of God. And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with gladness. And so it was, when the bearers of the ark and the Lord had gone six p- six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling. And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel, bringing up the ark of the Lord, were shouting in the sound of trumpet. Then it happened, as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, that Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. So they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent which David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. Further, he distributed to the people, each one of them, and so on, cakes and of raisins. But when David turned to bless his household, uh, Michael, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, how the king of Israel distinguished himself today. He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovered himself. So David said to Michael, it was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. Therefore, I will celebrate before the Lord, and I'll be more lightly esteemed than this, and I will hum- be humble in my own eyes, but with the maids of whom you have spoken, with them I'll be distinguished. And Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. David, pointing toward the ground, said Reverend Doctor Blunt. Last year I fell in Hodkin's Well headfirst, said Cyrus Brown, with to see you acting like that. He said, that doesn't matter. I'm doing this for the Lord. I'm doing this before the Lord. Um, dancing was an important part of his worship, and, uh, when he was rebuked for doing it, uh, he, um, rebuked her. Uh, Psalms, thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing. Um, let them praise his name with dancing. Let them sing praises to him with timbrel and lyre. Praise him with timbrel and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and pipes. Um, all through the Old Testament. Well, what does the New Testament say about dancing? I have a book that, uh, I used to, it's such a good book, I bought several copies and gave them all away, I think, but it's called, uh, uh, Real Christians Don't Dance. And that was just one little st- little paragraph or little sermonette in the whole book of Little Sermonettes. It was a real good book by a man named Fisher, uh, but it's pretty good on why, why Christians don't dance. New Testament, um... John the Baptist leaping in her, in his mother's womb for joy when, um, Mary saw, I mean, Elizabeth saw Mary. Uh, Jesus said, blessed are you when men hate you and ostracize you and cast insults at you and spurn your name as evil for the sake of the Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets. Talks about when one sinner comes to repentance, how there's joy in the presence of the angels, and there are times, uh, Psalm, uh, hundred and thirty one, uh, surely I have composed and quieted my soul, like a lean, like a weaned child rests against his mother. My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forever. The words of the wise man heard in quietness are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. There, there's a lot in Psalms about, about, uh, being silent and how good it is. Um, Lamentations three, the Lord is good to those who wait for him. To the person who seeks him, it is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent since he has laid it on him. Uh, there, there's plenty in scripture, not near as much as there is about making noise. Most of the time being silent is because of sin. You know, David says, I was silent, uh, because of the sin that was in me until it's taken away. Then I can praise the Lord. So being silent is, is very rare. Uh, there is some. My soul wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from him. It's usually when there's sadness, when there's problems, uh, that they are not able to sing. One passage talks about, uh, uh, they were only able to whisper a prayer. Uh, things are so bad they couldn't, they couldn't hardly even pray. I would like to, um, sing a song with you this morning. It's an- another new one that we sing at camp, and I wanted to invite all the, uh, high school students, uh, high school age to come up and help lead this one because it's a little bit of a dance to it. Um, it's a little bit leafing more than it is dancing. But I'd like you to, to learn this one with us. So if all the high school people that know this song would come up, I would appreciate it.