It's truly been a blessing to be here already. Going through the song service and just witnessing Martin, you putting the stake in the ground saying, I'm going to follow Jesus. And I just want to bless you for that. And you will never regret it. It's a lifelong commitment. Jesus doesn't say it's going to be easy. He says I'll be with you to the end. I'll be with you through all. All that you go through, I will never leave you, forsake you. This morning, the title of the sermon is Pouring Out of the Holy Spirit. You know, this morning we we do two different modes of baptism, and we let the applicants choose. One is the immersion, and where we might go to Ivan's Lake or might go to the Dowdy in the creek. And we immerse them into the water backwards. A picture of we're burying our sins, and then we raise them up, a symbol of raising into a new life and washing away our sins. The water doesn't wash away the sins, it's Jesus Christ. But that's a sim that's symbolic. Myron chose this morning to be poured. We call this pouring baptism. So I just had to think what's the symbol, what's that symbolic of? So that's what we're going to be touching about this morning. What is the pouring symbolic of in baptism? I think we've most of us probably heard baptism is an outward sign of an inward cleansing. We can't see what's happening inside, but we outward can see what's happening inside. Jesus knows what's happening inside. So the baptism is an outward sign of an inward cleansing. As I said, it's not the water that does the cleansing, it's Jesus Christ that does the cleansing. Baptism is more than a tradition. Much more than a tradition. It's a visible sign of God's invisible grace at work in our lives. So what we're gonna do, we're gonna take us back this morning to the Israelites. Way back. The Israelites were just human beings like you and I. God chose them to show his holiness to the world around us. And that's that's a very um that's a weighty, weighty. Uh it's not an easy thing to do to be show God the holiness around us. Actually, we can't do it on our own, as we're gonna be touching on later on. But that's what he called the children of Israel to do back in Deuteronomy. I'm just gonna start a little bit here with a song that Moses was reciting to the Israelites. He was reciting it to them as an encouragement because the Israelites they messed up a lot, just like you and I. We're all sinners, they were no different than us, they messed up as well. When God was even taking care of them, they would tend to not see what he was doing for them, and they would turn their backs on him, turning to idol worship, gods that they didn't even know. And God, this caused a very, our God is a very jealous God. This caused God to become very frustrated with the children of Israel. So I'm gonna start reading the scriptures in Deuteronomy 32. I'm gonna reading, we're gonna be reading quite a bit of a scripture this morning, trying to lead us through, starting with the children of Israel, going through some of the prophets, and seeing how the Holy Spirit has come to us. And then we want to end up in the New Testament in Acts 2 and a few different scriptures after that. So starting in verse 1 of Deuteronomy 32, just gonna read part of this song. Um, it's a lengthy song, but we're gonna read verses one through twenty. Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, like gentle rain upon the tender grass and like showers upon the herb. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock. Here Moses is calling God the rock. His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. They have dealt corruptly with him. Talking about the Israelites, they have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children, because they are blemished, they are crooked and a twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is that is not he your father who created you, who made you, and established you? Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations, ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the people according to the number of the sons of God. But the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is allotted his allotted heritage, which Jacob he's also referring to, the children of Israel. Jacob, his allotted heritage. He found him in a desert and in the howling waste of the wilderness. He encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Just bringing out how God was taking care of the children of Israel. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him. No foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the land, and he ate at the produce of the field, and he suckled him with honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock, curds from the herd, and milk from the flocks with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan, and goats with the very finest of the wheat, and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape. Just saying how God was just abundantly taking care of the children of Israel. But Jezuron, Jezuron is a name for the upright one, grew fat. Talk about the children of Israel. They grew fat on what they were experiencing. We could maybe say fat and lazy. But Jeuron grew fat and kicked, and grew fat, stout and sleek. Then he forsook God, who made him and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations, they provoked him to anger. God gets angry if we get into idol worship, because he's a jealous God. They sacrificed to demons they were not God that were not God, to gods they had never known before, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the rock that bore you, you forgot the God who gave you birth. The Lord saw it and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters, and he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be, and they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness. And the and the this song goes on then just to talk about God's fury of his wrath over the children of Israel and how this idol worship, God just can't stand idol worship. So God was very frustrated with the children of Israel. And so we see the state that the children of Israel were in here. They were just a very needy group of people at this point, needing salvation, needing um, they were very dry in their spiritual life, just very unfruitful in their spiritual life at this point. So we see here it contrasts God's care with Israelites' ungratefulness. They were just ungrateful for what God was doing for them. And that's so easy for us to do sometimes is when things are going to good, we tend to be ungrateful at times. So the psalm also goes on to just warn the children of Israel about the judgment that God will put on them if they if they don't turn around. Now we like to move on. Like to move on to Isaiah chapter 1, verse 4, and also verses 28 and 31. So let's remember the state the children of Israel are in right now. There are a very needy group of people. And here Isaiah, the prophet, is saying, Ah, sinful nation, talking about the children of Israel, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly. They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are utterly estranged. That was verse 4. Now we are moving to verse actually it's 27. Verse 27 of Isaiah chapter 1. Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. For they shall be for they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired, and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers and like a garden without water. Going back to verse 29, he says, And they shall be ashamed of the oaks. And there he's talking about idol worship. You know, in our lives, how many times when we sin, we're just ashamed of what we did. And that's what he's bringing out here. You will be ashamed of what you are worshiping. For they all shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired, and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers. In other words, an oak that is dry is dead. Spiritually talking about us that uh uh in our in a sense of our spiritual lives, we're just spiritually dead. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers and like a garden without water. We could see that this summer when we had no rain for a while. Cracks started coming up in our lawns, and we know how it is. It's just dry. Grass starts to grow, go brown, and that's the picture of what we're having here is just like a garden without water. That's how these people were. And the strong shall become tinder and is work as a spark, just bringing out the strong. You know, it's easy for us to depend on our own power sometimes, but that is just like becoming like tinder that just burns up, just like it's just not worth a whole lot, just burns up. You know what we do with wood that's too dry, it doesn't have too much value, does it? It's too dry, it just burns up real quickly, and that's what we see here. And his work as a spark, you know. Sometimes our work that we do, things that we take interest in, they're all gonna burn up eventually, and that's what he's bringing out here. And both of them shall burn together with none to quench them. It's just a picture of a spiritually dead person, very dry, just no use spiritually when we're so dry. Now I'd like to go to Isaiah chapter 44, verses 1 through 8. And here we are now. We're still very dry, the children of Israel are still very dry, no fruit in their spiritual lives. But here we see Isaiah promising, he's prop, he's he's uh prophesying that God will bring spiritual refreshment to the children of Israel. So Isaiah is prophesying about what God will do for the children of Israel. Isaiah chapter 44, verse 1 through 8. But now hear, O Jacob, my servant, Israel whom I have chosen, I want you to remember that Israel who I have chosen. Just like Israel has been chosen, chosen for what? Israel was chosen to show the holiness of God to the rest of the world. Just like they were chosen to show the holiness of God to the rest of the world, you and I are chosen today to show the holiness of God to the rest of the world. Verse 2 Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. Here's that Jezuron again, the upright one, talking about the children of Israel. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. Jeuron, the upright one, whom I have chosen, for I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. Let's stop there for just a little bit. It seems in the Old Testament there were just a select people that had connection to God, like Moses. We know he had connection to God. He was letting leading the children of Israel. He talked with God, but he got frustrated. And then finally, in one point, I think it was in Numbers, he said, I wish there'd be other people that would have this connection with God, so I don't have to do all this by myself. So he was just frustrated with the people, and I don't blame him. And there were also, we could see kings had connections with God, and there were priests that would have connections with God in the Old Testament. And so there's, but there's the select few that had that connection with God. But here Isaiah is prophesying, for I will pour water on the thirsty land. This is symbolic of the this the pouring this morning baptism is symbolic of God's spirit being poured out. For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. So we see the result of when God's spirit enters into our lives. Here it's like water coming onto a dry land. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, I am the Lord's, saying, They'll be proud to serve the Lord. They're going to say, I am the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob, and another one will write on his hand, calling himself the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. Here we see God is speaking to his chosen people, Israel, in a time when they are spiritually dry and in need of refreshment. And he is prophesying that they will somehow, someday, God will pour his spirit upon them and they will be able to have that relationship with him. And we see here, this is also a picture of how Israel, a picture of us as people, before Christ comes into our life, we are dry spiritually, we're empty. We feel like I don't want to say we don't feel like we have worth, because we can still have worth, but we don't, we just life, what's the point of life? Sometimes we would think. But when the Holy Spirit enters into our lives, comes into a life of a repentant sinner who is going through a dry, sinful life without hope, to a life that is vibrant and overflowing with joy. Other people will see it when Christ enters into a person's life. Overflowing with joy that affects the people that they come in contact with. The result is an outpouring of his spirit, vitality, and flourishing community as people confidently declare, I belong to the Lord. And that's what you're doing this morning. You're confidently saying, I belong to the Lord. And that will affect other people. Going on to verse 6 in Isaiah chapter 44 here, God is saying here, Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it, let him declare and set it before me. Since I appoint an ancient people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid, have I not told you from of old and declare it. You are my witnesses, talking about the children of Israel and talking about us today. You are my witnesses. God is depending on you and I to show the world around us his holiness. You are my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? He says, There is no rock. I know not any. I know not of any God is all knowing. He says, I know not of any other God. God is the only true God. Just brings out, and this goes on, and we're not going to continue here, but in Isaiah here, this chapter goes on and talks how God is just despises, again, despises idolatry. And that God cannot stand idolatry. Idolatry was a real issue with the Israelites. How is it with us today? It is so easy for us to sometimes all at once our work might be our idolatry without us almost realizing it at times. Our interests, some of those things, how is that affecting us? Now we want to keep moving to Joel chapter 2, verse 28. And this is in Acts 2 what Peter he recites this in Acts 2. Here we see now, we saw in Isaiah, it was about God pouring out his spirit to the children of Israel. Here in Joel, this is becoming more personal. Joel chapter 2, verse 28 and 29. Actually, we're going to be reading through verse 32. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. He's starting to talk to us about individual relationships with Jesus Christ. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days, those days, I will pour out my spirit. You don't have to be high ranking here, he's saying, to be have a relationship with me, if we want to rank people. Verse 31 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It is for all of us. It is not just for the select few people. For everyone that calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord hath said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. So we see here this relationship is getting personal instead of just the Israelites as a group, where Moses was the one that had the connection. Yeah, they later on added people to that. But at one point, Moses was the only connection between the Israelites and God. And here Joel is saying, this is going to get personal. You're going to be able to personally, individually, have this relationship with God. I'd like to move on to Ezekiel 36, verses 22 through 33. Not only is he saying here that we can have this relationship with Jesus Christ, but God will give us a new heart. Which, Myron, you have experienced that, a new heart of what you know what it was to have the old life. But you see, you buried those sins. Christ forgave those sins. Now you have a new heart, and you're going from here. Ezekiel 36, verses 22 through 33. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act. I want everybody to get this here. What he's saying, it says, It is not for your sake that I am about to act. Talking to the house of Israel here. You know, we tend to think that it's all it's it's for our, you know, Christ saves us, and he does. That's a very huge part of it. But here it's saying it's not because of that that I am acting. Let's let's listen to what he says here. Therefore, say the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. He's telling them, I'm about to act. I'm about to act for you for the sake of my holy name, because you profaned my name, because you weren't, you didn't live up to my name. And that's how it is still today. We cannot live for God on our own strength and and be and and live a holy life. And that's what he's bringing out here. That's not why he's acting, it's not because of our salvation, but it's because of his holy name that he wants to proclaim to the world, and that's why he gives us the ability to have the relationship with him. It's all about him. Isn't that something? He wants us as a people to show his holiness, but we're not able to do that. So he gives us the on our own strength. So he gives us the ability to do that by entering into by being able to receive him into our lives, his spirit comes into our lives, and that is the only reason why we can show his holiness around us. So he is actually the reason why we can be holy and show the world around us his holiness. Verse 23, and I will vindicate, in other words, I will prove the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nation nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate or approve my holiness before their eyes, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Myron, I know we've talked about this before, but you know, we're ashamed of the sins that we've done in the past. But Satan wants us to bring doubt into our lives. Did God really forgive me? I know we've talked about this. Never let him convince you that God didn't forgive you. Jesus forgot about those sins and he forgave you. That's for each one of us. He forgives us our sins and he forgets them. Here it says, And you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant, and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of the famine among the nations. Then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loath yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. It is not for your sake. There he repeats it again, it is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded by your ways, O house of Israel. He wants us to be ashamed of how of our past sins. But it's not and I had to, I want to say I had to work through this a little bit, but I really it gets my attention when I see God lives in my heart. Not main the reason is not mainly to save me, even though that does save me. It's about God's holiness. He wants me to proclaim his holiness to the world around us. That's why he lives in my heart. And because the Spirit lives within us, that's why we can show the world us God's holiness. He has chosen us, just like the Israelites, he has chosen us to show his holiness. God's restoration of Israel is a display of his own holiness, not a reward for Israel's righteousness. And that's how it is for us today. It's not our righteousness, but it's because of God's holiness. The Israelites disobeyed, disobedience and exile had profaned God's name among the nations, who mocked them and questioned God's power. By restoring his people, God vindicates his name and reveals his holiness to the world. The restoration begins with an inner change. God promises to cleanse his people, give them a new heart and a new spirit, and replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh. His spirit will empower them to obey his laws. We can only live the Christian life because of God's power in us. Bear with me a little bit. I messed up last night and deleted some of my notes. But luckily I had a copy, so I'm a little unorganized with my notes. I gotta siphon through them just a little bit here. Moving on to Acts chapter 1. Now we are in the New Testament where Jesus has He was crucified, put on the cross, and now He was in the grave, and now He's resurrected. And here in Acts 1, I'm gonna start in verse 1, reading through verse 11. And this is the promise that Jesus gives of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 1, verse 1. In the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during the forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them to not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Here we have the promise of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Going on to verse six here. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight, and while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. We're gonna go right into chapter two here, where now Peter this is on the day of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave utterance to them. This is what we were talking about this morning. This is where the Holy Spirit was poured out into for all of us. Not just for select individuals, but for all of us. Here we see the next few verses, people were starting to talk in different tongues. People actually thought they were drunk of the people that received the Holy Spirit here, of because of how they were of what was happening. And it says in verse 12, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But other but others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. This was a new age. But Peter standing with the eleven, verse 14, but Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. This was morning. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and this is what we had read earlier, and we'll just quickly read through it. Verse 17. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit. This is a fulfilled prophecy right here. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants. In those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to dry, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that every one who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There we have that again. It's whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Going on to verse 22. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, this is Peter speaking, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This Jesus. Now these were people that rejected Jesus that he's talking to. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan, the foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says, concerning him, now David was a patriarch to these people. Um they really looked up to David, and you know it's through the lineage of David that the Messiah was going to come. So, verse 25, for David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will know, for you will not abandon my soul in Hades, in Hades, or let your holy one see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. This was this was David speaking. Now Peter's speaking here again in verse 29. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried. In other words, he's still in the tomb. It says, and his tomb is with us still to this day. You know, this David that we look up to, he died, and he's still in the tomb today. He's he's dead. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he first saw and spake about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did he his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and that, and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Peter is telling him, This was the this is the Messiah. And now listen to what they say. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? In other words, did we miss the Messiah? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It wasn't too late, because the Spirit had come, for the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his words were baptized. And there were added that day about three thousand souls. They must have been pretty efficient at baptizing. I'm not sure how they did it, but three thousand souls. That's an amazing story. To think that they thought maybe they forgot they missed the Messiah, but no, because of the Holy Spirit coming down, they were able to receive Jesus into their heart, and that is still today for each one of us. Such a blessing. That is the only thing that will carry us through is Jesus Christ. Just a few scriptures here that I want to read yet, just as an encouragement. Titus 3, verses 3 through 7, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out onto us richly. God poured his spirit on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So this is again, we talked about what's what's what was the baptism this morning symbolic of? It's the Holy Spirit being poured out for each one of us. One more scripture that I'd like to read, and I forgot to put the reference down, but that's okay. What shall we say? It's Romans 6, verses 1 through 6. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in the sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we do how can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you know? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism in death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. This is newness of life, walking in spiritual after Christ has reserved into our lives. For if we have been united with him in death like this, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like this. That is what is so exciting. All the gods in this world that people serve, they're all dead. And cannot do anything for them spiritually. They cannot take us in through eternity. But through his resurrection, Jesus Christ is still alive and well today. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So my encouragement to you, Myron, just is Psalm 37, verse 4. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Just blessings to you as you go from here. And you're not alone in this. We're all together in this. We need each other. We can't make it through this by ourselves. We need each other. Let's bow forward of prayer again. God, we just want to thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you for the ceremony this morning. Pray your blessing upon each one that is here. As we go from here, Lord, that we can display your holiness. Only because of your spirit are we able to do this. Only because of what you do for us are we able to show your holiness to the world around us, Father. Lord, we have failed many times. We just thank you so much for your forgiveness. We ask you that we could continue to serve you faithfully. We commit this all into your hands in Jesus' name. Amen.