Please take your Bibles and turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 21, if you would please. Deuteronomy chapter 21. While you're turning there, I'm going to read something I got from Kyle Guyman, who's in Uganda, one of our missionaries. Dear praying friends, this is to continue the story about Moses, who I asked you to pray for in our last update. Moses is one of the men there that he's been working with. Milton, one of the preacher boys, went by his house and confirmed that his father was indeed a Moslem witch doctor. His family was greatly disappointed that he had been saved. Well, Jeremy and I were going up to the site on Tuesday to play a game of horse. When we drove onto the church property, there were two boys sitting under a tree in a restricted area, and I was preparing to ask them to leave when I recognized Moses. We went over to greet them, and Moses said he had brought a friend to hear about Jesus. Wow! He had not been saved a week, and he was bringing a friend to find out about Christ. Does that say anything about what happened Saturday when Jeremy led him to the Lord? First fruits of repentance. No one will ever persuade me to believe that street preaching is not worthwhile. Anyway, we tried to share with this young boy, and he was not understanding our English. So we loaded up the truck and went and found Milton, who shared the gospel with this young man, and he also prayed and received Christ as his Savior. Guess who was at church tonight? You guessed it, our two young friends. Please keep praying for these two Moses. Much more later. Love in Christ, Kyle." It's good news. Amen? Amen. I had you turn to Deuteronomy chapter 21. I want to tackle a topic tonight that is not real controversial to many of us. It may tweak a little bit of interest. And I don't mean to upset anyone by, you know, showing the Bible belief on this particular topic. I just want you, I trust, to take some notes because this has been a topic that I'm getting asked about more and more as time goes on. And that is the subject of cremation. The subject of cremation. Now, you may have been a part of a family that you have had loved ones cremated. And I'm not passing judgment on you as such. Maybe there's a particular point that you have not been taught in this particular area. I've had a lot of people say, you know, I heard people say that it was wrong, that cremation was not of the Bible, but yet, is that true? Is it just a position that has just been passed on like tradition and so on? And no, I want us to see from the Scriptures where we get our beliefs. And this particular topic is one that I think is important, because one day we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account. And I want you to know the Bible position. Amen? There are a lot of topics that we would just as soon not address. There are a lot of topics where sometimes we just like to skirt around and say, we'll let someone else deal with that. And yet, I think it's something, as it gains more and more popularity, that we need to find out what God says about it. Why cremate a body? Now, of course, cremation is the act of burning a body, right? Okay? Now, why do some cremate a body? Number one, it's requested of the one who is now deceased. There are some people who just say, look, I want to be cremated when I die. I've heard folks, I've been there in the room, and folks have been lying on their deathbed, and they ask me about cremation because they want to know if it's all right for them to be cremated. Some people do it because of the money issue. You know, to be cremated in most parts of the country, in most places, is cheaper than a conventional burial. And so if people are on a tight budget, or folks are saying, look, I'm going to be dead anyway, why do I want to spend a lot of money just to put me in the ground? And so they'll try to pinch penny, so to speak, and have the cheapest burial possible. But some cremate a body because of the money issue. Some cremate a body because of embarrassment. Folks realize that people are going to come by as they do at a time of viewing, and they don't want people gawking at their body. In fact, I had someone tell me, he says, I just hate the thought of me laying there in the foyer of the church and somebody coming by and staring at me. And so rather than do that, I want to be cremated. You know, they weren't really thinking about the right or wrong of the issue. And I look at that as a sincere statement and a sincere request. They weren't trying to be ungodly. They weren't trying to be, you know, rebellious. And most folks who go into this type of a burial or a way of having the body handled at their death, they're not doing it to be obstinate or to be rebellious against God. But I want to just give you Scripture as to why we are against cremation. Some people cremate a body just because of the flexibility of an ash placement. I mean, there's some folks, I know they use the ashes of their loved one in their, is it an urn? And they have it, there's a doorstop. Or they put it there on the mantle. Or I know folks who, when I went with Mark Bowman, and there was about 27 preachers, and we went over to Israel, and unbeknownst to us, when we were on the boat of the Sea of Galilee, there was another group there, and they said, well, you know, all the way from the United States, they'd come, and they were on our boat, and they wanted to kill the motor right there in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and spread the ashes of their loved one, over the Sea of Galilee. And so they thought that this was a wonderful thing to do. And so there are various reasons as to why people choose cremation. Cremation, though, through the centuries, has always been viewed as an unchristian practice by Bible believers. With the secularization of society and the refusal to acknowledge God, the practice of cremation is gaining popularity. And there are many of the practices that we've heard our relatives, we've heard our grandparents and great-grandparents and maybe the church leaders of day gone by saying, hey, that's not right. And we sit back now and we say, well, why isn't it right? And because we never really learned the whys and the wherefores, we don't think it's a big deal. But many of the things that we do are biblically based. And I don't want to see that eroded. And I also want to understand why. So for my own reason, for my own knowledge, I wanted to get into the Scriptures and just find out where we get the teaching that it's wrong to cremate. Okay? Now, with the growing illiteracy of the Bible among Christians, many are opting for this heathenistic method of laying the dead to rest. And I want us to see from the Scriptures some scriptural facts concerning cremation, number one. And I trust you have your Bibles. This is what we advertise, prayer and Bible study. Okay? So I trust you've brought your Bibles. I trust you'll take some notes. Because you may need this. You may have a loved one ask you, hey, what's wrong with cremation? Hey, can I be cremated? You may have even been toying with that. You may even have it written in your will that you won't be cremated. I trust you'll reevaluate in light of Scripture. Number one, God commanded that the dead be buried. God commanded that the dead be buried. Now this particular context, he's running through some of the various laws of society and so on, and how they ought to conduct themselves, and this context is in light of a criminal. And let's look at verses 22 and 23, and it says, If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree." Now, I know that there are some who don't like the death penalty. They think it's wrong and so on. But God has a statement in regards to that all throughout His Word. And it says, "...thou shalt not commit murder." Of course, Jesus said that, reiterating the command there in Exodus chapter 20, "...thou shalt not kill." That's what the context means there, "...thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit murder." But if you do murder, your blood is required. So God is for the death penalty. Amen? Oh, we don't like that, do we? Sort of goes against the grain in our sense of sensibility. But God is God. It says here about this man who has been hanged on a tree, his body, verse 23, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God. Now you see the Old Testament veracity of the statement there, why they wanted to take Jesus down off the cross, right? And why it says, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. That was a quote from this passage of Scripture. That thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. And so here we see that even a criminal, who if there was any reason to not treat his body with any sense of decency and respectability, it would have been a criminal, and yet God said, you need to bury him. You need to bury him. So God commanded that the dead be buried. Number two, God buried Moses. Let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 34. Deuteronomy chapter 34. Let's look at verses 5 and 6. It says, So Moses, a servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor, but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day. Here you have an account where God said, look, Moses, you can't enter into the promised land because instead of Speaking to the rock, you smote the rock out of anger, and you had already smitten the rock once in days gone by, and Jesus is a picture of the rock, and because you messed with my type, I'm not going to let you enter in. And so God knew how man was, and they knew they loved Moses. The people loved Moses. And if they would know where he was buried, they probably would have set up an idol in worship or used a sepulcher as a place of worship, because the children of Israel were that way. You remember how that the god of the Egyptians was the golem, was the calf. And so when Moses went up on the mount, There was Aaron left behind, and the people formed by taking their gold and their earrings and their bracelets and everything, and they formed a calf, which was a symbol of the god of the Egyptians. And so the children of Israel were really into idolatry. We have changed in our industrialized society from setting up brazen altars as such. We set up other types of altars, gods that we worship, like pleasure. money, possessions, self, things of that nature. But here we find that God buried Moses. God did not want people to worship the body of Moses, for it says in Jude verse 9, yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. They were arguing about the body of Moses. Here at the death, the devil wanted the body of Moses. Michael said no you see he says he durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said the Lord Rebuked a you see the children of Israel once again were in the habit of raising up idols and for second Kings chapter 18 verse 4 he removed the high places and Break the images and cut down the groves and break in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made For unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it, and he called it nehushtan. That means a piece of brass. In other words, you remember when the serpents were going through the land, or the nation of Israel, and they were biting the people, and they were dropping dead because of their murmuring against God and His leader? And so what happened is Moses made this brazen serpent lifted it up on high, and whoever looked at the brazen serpent was healed. And so what had happened was, even though that was a symbol of the healing power of God, they turned around instead of directing their praise and adoration to the God of heaven, they started putting their trust in that brazen serpent. And so rather than do that, this king tears it down, grinds it down because the people had lifted up an idol. And so here in Deuteronomy chapter 34, That's why we believe that, hey, here was the devil arguing about Moses. He wanted the people to get all enraptured with a man and worship at his sepulcher. And God said, look, I'm going to bury him, and you're not going to find his body anywhere. If there had ever been an excuse to burning and to spread his ashes over the then known world, it would have been in this particular case. But God said, I'm going to bury him. I'm going to bury him. Okay? So, number three, number one is God commanded that the dead be buried. Number two is God buried Moses. Number three, God commanded Israel not to burn their children. And that was a heathenistic practice and one of dedication that many parents would send the best of their children would send the firstborn of their children and offer them as sacrifices and they would be burned in the fire to the heathenistic gods. It's definitely a cremation practice that had heathenistic roots behind it. Let's go to Leviticus chapter 18. Leviticus chapter 18. I'm going to take the time and I'm going to show you the Scriptures here so that We know that this is scripturally based. Leviticus 18 verse 21, the scripture says, And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God, I am the Lord. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 10. There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. You see, God takes things like this seriously. And even though we may not understand always the whys and the wherefores, when God says that we simply need to say, okay, that settles it for me. And yet we have today people messing with witchcraft, looking at horoscopes, having their palms read, calling 900 lines and trying to figure out what's going to happen in the future. Watching the shows to find out you know about this guy who's talking to so-and-so and you know a lot of that stuff is true But it's demonically controlled And we need to stay away from it. That's serious business. God says I hate that you see Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths you don't need to go to some wizard some warlock and some you know a psychic to try to find out what's gonna happen to you in the future walk with God walk with God but God commanded Israel not to burn their children no one's was the pass through the fires number four God punished Moab because they cremated the king of Edom God punished Moab because they cremated the king of Edom. And I'm going to go to Amos chapter 2 and verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. Now, when you look at this context, you can read chapter 1 if you'd like. You can finish reading chapter 2 if you'd like. And we don't have the motive behind the burning of this particular king given to us. So we don't know the motive, but one thing we do know, it was considered by God to be a transgression. God was against it. Would you agree with me with that? Amen? Amos 2, verse 1, for three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom. God was upset that they burned this king, that they cremated him. So God punished Moab because they cremated the king of Edom. Number five, cremation is associated with idolatry. Let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 28. 2 Chronicles chapter 28. Let's just see some things. It's not going to be a long study tonight, but I think it's a good one, an important one. At least you'll know now, even if it's not going to affect you as far as reaching someone else, you'll know why we practice what we practice, and why it is a Christian practice to bury someone. 2 Chronicles 28, verse 1, it says, Ahaz was 20 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. But he did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father. For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Balaam. Moreover, he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places. The burning of incense, if you know anything about the tabernacle, incense was a symbol or a sign of the prayers of the saints. And so when that's the importance as you're reading the Old Testament, and God put so much emphasis on the incense, it's because it represented prayer. See? And so these folks, by burning incense to these molten images, these other gods, were essentially saying, we don't trust in Jehovah God, we trust in this God. See? God said, I hate that. Because He says, I am the Lord, and there's none else. He says, He sacrificed also, and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Wherefore, the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. Let's go to 2 Kings. 2 Kings chapter 16. Verse 3, "...but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire according to the abominations of the heathen whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel." Chapter 17, verse 17, "...and they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger." Verse 31, And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites, get it out in a minute, burnt their children in fire to Dan-melach and Anam-melach, the gods of Sepharvim. You like that? Amen. You laugh at me, try to read it yourself. Chapter 21, verse 6. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger." 2 Chronicles chapter 33, verse 6. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. Also he observed times and used enchantments and used witchcraft and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger." Jeremiah. Chapter 7, verse 31. And they have built a high place as Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart." Chapter 19 of Jeremiah. Say, but Pastor, this is talking about idol worship and so on and so forth and people sacrificing children, but the fact of the matter is, even though we may not understand and people may not go into it with that particular line of reasoning, we need to see that its basis, cremation, has as its root a heathenistic practice and it is an act of worship. Okay? So, chapter 19, verse 5, "...they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire, for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind." Ezekiel chapter 16. Verse 20 and 21, Moreover, thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, and thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? Chapter 20 of Ezekiel, verse 31. For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you." In other words, he says, I don't want to hear your prayers. You're going to be participating with the heathen, doing these ungodly things, then you want to come and talk to me? Okay? Chapter 23. That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bear unto Me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them." 2 Corinthians chapter 6, a very familiar passage of Scripture. I'm going to start reading in verse 14. It says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? It says, And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Now, since cremation was a practice, and you can even go to World Book, there's another well-known Encyclopedia said it sold a lot in this area by dealers and so on. The name escapes me all of a sudden. But you can go there and check it out, and you'll find that cremation has been around for many, many years, but in its early days, in its roots, was an act of worship. It was an act of worship. And it's a heathenistic practice. God's people, the Israelites, had always been respectful of the body because God made the body. Amen? And he said it shall return to dust. Okay? And so we have always used that same respect that God had towards the body. And so since cremation is a practice of idolaters, we should avoid it. The Bible says here, come out from among them and be separate. So even though it may be the cheapest route to go, it may be the easiest route to go, there's some inconveniences about it, I believe that God says we ought to practice a burial. Amen? And then number six, God's people burned the dead to show contempt. Whenever they were going into, you know, you say, well, Pastor, I know some Bible characters that they were burned, and it seemed like God's people were doing it. Well, let's look at that. Let's go to Joshua chapter 7. You'll see here that any time God's people were involved in burning a body rather than burying one, it was to show great contempt and derision and hatred towards the acts of that individual. And here we have the account of Achan. You know, Achan took of the accursed thing? Because Achan took of the accursed thing, over 30 men lost their lives, and the children of Israel suffered their first defeat there as they were going through the land of promise. They had just won Jericho. They were going up to Ai, and there we go. Because of sin, God had to withdraw His hand of blessing. And I wonder, because of some of us taking on the heathenistic practices, how we've really limited the power of God upon our personal lives and also our churches. And we think these are light things, but God, we see, is very, very sensitive to anything that might be associated with idol worship, heathenistic practices, or spirit worship, or those that would somehow lean towards worshiping of the devil. Because the devil, see, was Lucifer. And he wanted to be like God. He wanted to sit on the throne of the Most High. And so God does not like anything that tries to usurp His place on the throne. Amen? So God's people burned the dead to show their contempt. Look at verse 15 of Joshua 7. And it shall be that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath, because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel." So this was a show of contempt against Achan and what he had done. And look at verse 25. It says, and Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? The Lord shall trouble thee this day. People outside the will of God trouble people who are in the will of God. Christians who are not walking with God can cause great trouble and distress to those who are walking with God and hinder the forward progress of God. It says, And all Israel stoned him with stones and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. So here we have an account where, hey, this was to show contempt towards Achan for what he had done in taking the accursed thing. Let's go to 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 23, verses 6 and 7. But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands. But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron, and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place." 2 Kings chapter 23. 2 Kings chapter 23, verse 16. And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it according to the word of the Lord, which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words." Verse 20, And he slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them and returned to Jerusalem." The most ultimate of contempt and insult for the people of God against these individuals. So God's people burned the dead to show contempt. Number seven, the fact that burial follows death is important spiritually. Let's go to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Now here we get into the gospel. Romans chapter 6, verse 3, "...that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." So here we see that death is important spiritually, and a burial. We have the privilege of baptizing tonight, and we say in the death Burial and resurrection. Not in the death and cremation and the scattering of the ashes. You see? We picture here the gospel. Amen? So the fact that burial falls death is important. Okay? So after dying with Christ, we are buried with Him in baptism. So after the body dies, it should be buried. Okay? And Colossians chapter 2 and verse 20. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 20 is another passage of Scripture. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances? And so on. And if you read the context there, it's talking about the body and the dying of the body. So Colossians 2.20. So Romans 6.4 specifically, the fact that burial follows death is important spiritually. And lastly, number 8, Burial is a part of the gospel. And of course, that great passage of Scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 and 4, or 1 to 4, "...Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved. If ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain, For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried." Jesus Christ was buried, right? and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. So burial is a part of the Gospel. And so there you have another example, another opportunity, even in the burial ceremony, to be able to talk about the coming resurrection. You see, so you have, when you take communion, you remember the death, the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. In marriage, you have the opportunity to talk about our union in Christ, how that we become one with Christ. In baptism, you have a picture of the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection. And then even in the burial of a human body, you have the opportunity, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, to talk about the great resurrection again, amen, of the body, the Bible says. So we see that Jesus was buried. Now folks, God is able to raise everyone, no matter how they died and whatever way the body was treated. For example, I've seen some films in the war where folks had been killed in battle and then they had been sent overboard, over the side of the ship. Have you ever seen that? There are many men who died in war that were thrown into the sea. They were buried at sea. Well, you know, at sea you have the decomposition that takes place. You have the fish that feed and so on. And so you say, well, how is that going to happen? God is able to gather all the molecules and everything together in the last time and bring it all together. Amen? The issue is not, you know, all those things and all the exceptions. The issue is, is burial a Christian practice? And what is cremation? Is cremation a Christian practice? I think the Scriptures we can point out that God was forbearing. And He's against burning the body. Amen? And so I think that's why many of our relatives before us said, hey, you don't cremate. You show respect to the body. And that's why we have some of the formality at a funeral that we have. It's not because we are morbid in our thinking. It's not because we want to gawk at a body. It's because we respect who God has made. Amen? And so we look upon it with that respect, with those memories, and we treat the body accordingly. So the issue is not resurrection, but whether a believer should practice the same things that a heathen practices. So we, I believe, as Christians, we ought to bury our dead, not cremate our dead. Now, folks, as I close this message up, I know it's not the most bombastic thing in all the world. And it's not something that you ought to just run out of here, and next time you listen at nine o'clock, about ten minutes after nine, on the weekdays of the funeral announcements, and you hear that someone's being cremated, that you think you have got a charge now to go and straighten people out in regards to the practice of cremation. They need the gospel, number one. Number two, if they're Christians, If they're not asking you about it, and you don't have any authority in the matter, then you just need to be quiet. But you need to practice the biblical way. Amen? And so you can just rest assured that the preachers here, we're going to really push strongly for a burial, not a cremation. Amen? Amen. Let's all stand with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. Say, Pastor, how in the world are you going to give an invitation In regards to a sermon like this, well you know it's amazing to me how the Holy Spirit of God works. Could be that there is one person here that's not saved. Could be that there's several folks here that's not saved. And you need to trust Christ tonight. Many times I've preached messages and folks have made life-changing decisions in areas of their life that I never touched on because that's the way God works. God the Holy Spirit works through the preached Word. And when His Word is lifted up and honored, the Holy Spirit is speaking to hearts. Has God spoken to your heart tonight? Are you saved? Do you know you're saved? Christian, are you right with God? If anything, as I was studying for this message and started looking, I said, you know, we take the little things too much for granted. We don't think it's a big deal. We've been slowly conditioned that some of these practices are just a matter of opinion, and yet we see that at the very root, scripturally, we've missed out so much because we are biblically illiterate. And we're setting aside a lot of the teachings of those of the past because we don't understand why, and maybe they didn't convey the reason why, but now we see in this area, they had a biblical basis for the practice of bearing. Maybe there needs to be those here tonight, there needs to be that commitment in your heart and in your life that you are the best you know how with the knowledge you have as God gives you light and He illumines your mind that you're going to fall in line with Scripture. In any area of your life heretofore that you have been practicing improperly, you're going to say, I will start doing it God's way. I will start doing it God's way. As Betty plays Invitation to Him, if you need to come, you come.