19 verse 31, and then also Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 10 through 12. I'm going to read those passages. I think it is at least worth citing or reading in a little more detail to give you an idea of the warnings themselves. In Leviticus, I'll begin in Leviticus chapter 18 verses 10 through 12. And here's what he says, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your son, or excuse me, you shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or your daughter's daughter for, no, that's not the one I wanted. Oh, I'm sorry, Leviticus 19 verse 31. That's where I wanted to go, 1931. Yeah, that's something altogether different. That's a different kind of evil spirit. But in Leviticus 19 verse 31, the Lord says, do not turn to mediums or necromancers. Do not seek them out and so make yourselves unclean by them. I am the Lord your God. And then in Deuteronomy, yeah, it's Deuteronomy 18, verses 10 through 12. Yeah, Deuteronomy 18, 10 through 12. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer. or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. Now, a couple things to note about that, especially when it talks about the offering of children. We see this even in the book of Judges. One of the guys who makes a pledge to God, give me victory in war, and the first thing that comes out of my house, I will sacrifice to you. And it's his daughter. He comes back in victory from the war. It's his daughter who comes out, and he has to sacrifice her. Well, that practice is taken from pagan religions where you offer a human sacrifice to appease the god or manipulate or remove spirits. So somehow this child sacrifice is not only attached to quote-unquote gaining the favor of the gods, but in this case seeking to control or deal with evil spirits. So those are a couple of examples. So what we see is that As part of the Jewish tradition, even in the Old Testament, there is an understanding of evil spirits. The Lord doesn't deny that, but what He warns His people of is being influenced by their pagan neighbors in interpreting or dealing with the reality of evil spirits. Here's the second thing. There are no specific references to casting out evil spirits in the Old Testament. What we see are those warnings. But there are no Old Testament exorcisms of note. Now, although some have made the claim that in 1 Samuel chapter 16, verses 14 through 23, where we are told that the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and in the King James rendering it says the evil spirit departed from Saul and the evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. Okay? And then we are told, now by the way, in the ESV it reads a little bit differently. It says, the ESV says, a harmful spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now, eventually, we know what happens. His consultants tell him, you need some music to calm you down. And he tried out all these different musicians and so forth. And someone told him about the gifted musical talents or the gifted musician by the name of David. David comes and plays the lyre for him. And we're told that the harmful spirit departed from him. Now some, when I say some, you can look it up, there are people that try to make the case that this is an exorcism, that this is a mild example of an exorcism, that David exercises the evil spirit through music. Well, there are some problems with that. One, and largely, what we are told is that this evil or harmful spirit, we can say for certain that it's not demonic. In other words, it's not an evil fallen angel that occupies Saul. The reason we can say that is because the scriptures are clear. It is of the Lord. So this is the Lord causing a disturbed spirit within Saul. So we see the correlation. The spirit of the Lord departs from him, not in the same way, the spirit of the Lord is not indwelling him as we would say in regeneration, but Saul certainly had the favor of the Lord And a favorable spirit was upon him as he was obedient, but because of his disobedience, that favorable spirit of the Lord was removed. And so Saul becomes more of himself, and it's described as an evil spirit. So in any event, but the difference is this. It's not a separate spirit as an entity. It is the hand of God, in a sense, in an unfavorable way upon Saul, a disrupted spirit, as it were, where Saul doesn't have this peace of mind. So this is not a demonic possession. Therefore, the playing of music by David cannot be described as an exorcism. Now, the first place where we see an Old Testament era sort of, well, Old Testament era exorcism is actually in one of the non-canonical books. the book of Tobit. And Tobit covers, it was written roughly 200 to 300 years before Christ. And Tobit references an informal exorcism. And by informal, I don't, you know, you'd have to read Tobit to get all the details on what makes it informal. But it probably was without some of the rituals that were associated with later exorcisms or Jewish exorcisms. Now it's interestingly enough, so that's in a non-canonical book, and one of the things that we've said about some of the non-canonical books, especially those that cover the same span as the Old Testament, there are some interesting historical references in those books. The reason they are not included in the canon are varied. But it doesn't mean that they are all just fictitious. There's a difference between the non-canonical, especially the non-canonical Old Testament books, and what they call from the New Testament and post-New Testament, the pseudepigrapha books. The pseudepigrapha books are books that were written, that tried to explain things that took place during the life of Jesus, and what they do is they use names that were recognized by Christians and putting them on the book and then writing stories. For instance, one that deals with the hidden years of Jesus. You know Jesus is born, we know he's taken to Egypt for a period of time, and he doesn't show up again until he's 12 years old. And then there's a gap between the time Jesus is 12 and he goes into the temple and baffles the rabbis there, and then when he's 30. And so in some of the pseudepigraphal books, they give an outline or sort of a chronology of, quote unquote, the missing years of Jesus. And they have him doing everything from causing dead birds to fly to a lot of different things where he demonstrates or is conscious of his deity, demonstrates it as a child, but not in the way that is consistent with New Testament writers. I'm simply saying that to say both in the New Testament period and post-apostolic period and in the Old Testament period, there are books And there's a difference between the pseudepigraphal books that correspond to the New Testament period and the non-canonical books that are referenced especially in the Old Testament. The Book of Tobit is a non-canonical book. And for whatever reason, you can search that out on your own, but it's in the book of Tobit that there is a reference to exorcisms. Now, apart from the Old Testament period covered by the book of Tobit, there are two other sources from historians. In the first place, there is the Jewish historian Josephus. And Josephus, one of his books, one of his more famous books is called The Antiquities of the Jews. And in The Antiquities, Josephus, he's a neutral historian. He's neither a Christian Jew, nor is he completely devoted as a practicing Jew. But he's a historian, and he writes that there were a number of Jewish exorcisms that covered probably during the Inter-Testament period and even going into the period of the New Testament. But also, the Christian historian, Origen, Now Origen was a converted Christian. He was a Christian, and he was also a historian. One of my favorite quotes from Origen in his histories is from the Old Testament. He gives a summary of the Old Testament, and in talking about the Exodus and the golden calf incident, it was Origen who famously said, God told the children of Israel to ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold, but he didn't tell them to make a god out of it. But in any event, that's Origen. But both Josephus and Origen acknowledged the practice of exorcism among the Jews. And also in the Talmud, you might be familiar with that term, the Talmud, which is a writing down of the practices, its commentaries on the Mosaic law. Because the Mosaic law, written in stones and then written in books or scrolls, but it was not distributed. So what you had was you had the written word, which was contained in scrolls, and then you had the verbal transmission of what was held in or what was written in the scrolls, which is called the Mishnah. And the Mishnah, eventually they began to write down the oral transmission of the law. which became the Talmud, and the Talmud contained the oral traditions contained in the Mishnah and their interpretations and applications of the law. So in both the Mishnah and the Talmud, there are references, enough references to exorcisms performed by Jews and some of the things that were part of those exorcisms. Now I think it would also be safe to say that we can put the exorcisms within the Jewish community on a spectrum of orthodoxy on the one end and then syncretism on the other. So if you were to look at what we see, and this is going to lead us into an understanding of these itinerant Jewish exorcists. So if we have the tradition, the Jewish tradition of understanding where evil spirits came from and who has the power over them. and then dealing with these exorcisms, if you put them on a spectrum of orthodoxy, on the one end, you would find those who made use of the varied revealed names of God from the Old Testament scriptures. Because we know God reveals himself through a number of names. So on the orthodox scale, the exorcisms consisted of using or invoking any of the revealed names of God. And according to both Josephus and Tobit, I think, well, no, in the Talmud, they referenced the use of Psalms and perhaps some of the imprecatory Psalms in particular that would be cited in a Jewish exorcism. And again, this is going to be on the Orthodox end, where they would invoke the names of God, they would use some of the Psalms, and they would sometimes use water or oils. as a part of their rituals. Now on the other end of the spectrum, so on the one end we would have the Orthodox, and the Orthodox Jewish exorcists would invoke the various revealed names of God And in fact, I was reading one writer where he says even the unspoken name of God, the tetragrammaton, the unwritable name of God, they would use the various revealed names of God and invoke him in casting out these evil spirits. On the other end of the spectrum would be what I would call syncretism. And the syncretism in this regard is where they would use, they would combine perhaps some of the things from orthodoxy, perhaps the use of scripture, but they would also use formulas and rituals from pagan religions. So on this end of the spectrums, now what we don't know, for instance, and even though I would argue that it seems as if It may have been a case of these itinerant Jewish exorcists, that they may have been on somewhere in between, on the spectrum between the orthodox and the syncretistic, or they may have been on the syncretistic part. We don't know, because we don't know how effective they were. What we do know is that, and we also, by the way, don't know their full success rate. We can't say that nothing ever happened, because we know that even in the Old Testament, the witch of Endor conjured up the spirit of Samuel for Saul, even though it was forbidden. But we can say that it was, the way that is recorded in 1 Samuel, is that it was the spirit of Samuel But it was who was the ultimate source or the authority over life and death? It's God. So God allows Samuel to be present before Saul in order to convict him. Why are you doing this? You know this is forbidden. So we can't say there was no success rate, but we don't know. Here's the third thing. What we do know is that the incarnation and earthly ministry of Jesus marks a shift in the casting out of demons. Now we know that. And by the way, one could argue whether or not the case could be made whether or not in verse 13 of our text, whether or not these Jewish itinerant exorcists are distinct from the seven sons of Sceva. Because it seems on the one hand that they might be the same, but they are identified differently. In verse 13 it says, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord. And then it says that the seven, in verse 14, seven sons of a Jewish priest named Sceva answered, or excuse me, were doing this. So whether these seven sons were in partnership with these itinerant exorcists, we don't know, okay? And I think it's safest in those areas where we don't know to just present the facts that are, look at the facts that are presented and reason from there. But here's what we do know. We know, as I said, The incarnation and the public ministry of Jesus marks a shift in the casting out of demons. Now this is summarized in, especially, it's in various places in the gospel records that talk about the earthly ministry of Jesus, who follow him, where he casts out demons, but we see it especially early on. And Mark is very helpful in this regard. Mark, because of the way he outlines his gospel, where it's very action-oriented and it goes straight to the chase. So if you look as early as Mark chapter 1, verses 21 through 27, even those who are present acknowledge a difference because these itinerant, and you know what the word itinerant means, right? They travel about. So that indicates to me that these itinerant Jewish exorcists were probably distinct from the seven sons of Sceva, who was a high priest, because that meant they didn't have a home, they just went about. In other words, you know, have exorcism, we'll travel. You know, they had all of the stuff that was packed, and wherever there was needed, an exorcism was needed, they would be on hand. But in any event, in chapter 1, of Mark's gospel. Again, we'll look at verses 21 through 27. And it says, and they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath, he entered, he being Jesus, entered the synagogue and was teaching. And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority and not as the others. And immediately there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him saying, be silent and come out of him. And the unclean spirit convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, what is this, a new teaching with authority? He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. Okay? So we see a new era, and I would argue largely this is because what Jesus is doing in confronting these unclean spirits is the same in His humanity. It is the same authority that Adam had and did not exercise in the garden. Adam had the authority to tell the serpent to rebuke him and to not speak. But by failing to exercise the God-given authority as the image-bearer of God, and exercise because remember the Lord gave him dominion over all things. And so his lost authority is what is now assumed by Christ. But there is a difference. Because instead of Satan occupying a serpent by the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, we have Satan or an evil spirit of Satan occupying a human. Okay, so there's a difference. So in any event, we see that, so Jesus in his public ministry speaks with authority. Now notice this, also in Mark's gospel, in Mark chapter 6 verse 7. Jesus gives his disciples authority over evil or unclean spirits. In chapter six, verse seven, it says, and he called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. So the unique miracles that are associated with Peter earlier in the book of Acts, and as we pointed out last week, the miraculous miracles or the real exciting miracles that were extended power that was the unique miracles performed by Paul in this case, is a matter of them both representing the authority, the unique authority of Christ. And it means that the authority of Christ is, it continues, the authority and power of Christ continues through the apostles and through the church. In a moment I would, well, yeah, I think it is an important thing to point out that the greatest, if what Paul says in Ephesians is true, even though it's not a full-blown possession as we see in, you know, in these cases where an evil spirit actually possesses these individuals, but if what Paul says is true in Ephesians, and we certainly believe it is in Ephesians chapter 2, where he says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Notice this phrase, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So in a broad sense, not in the same way that these individuals have demons that can talk back to Jesus, but in a sense all fallen humanity is under the influence of Satan. or this evil spirit. And so the one miracle that all of us experience who have faith in Christ is that we are no longer under the power of the evil one. Paul goes on in Ephesians 2 to say in verse 4, or continue in verse 3, it says, among whom we all lived in the passions of our flesh Now even though we know that when we live according to the passions of our flesh, we're only doing what comes natural to us in our fallen state. But what comes natural to us in our fallen state is according to the agenda and plan of Satan. So in a sense, he is at work in that, enticing, encouraging us in our rebellion against God, making right to look wrong and making wrong to look right. establishing ourselves as authorities. And so in that sense, when the Spirit, notice what Paul goes on to say, it's in whom all live according, we all live according to the desires of the body and were by nature the children of wrath just like the rest of mankind, but verse four, but God being rich in mercy. Because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive. That is the miracle that is shared by every believer. being brought from spiritual death to spiritual life, and the power of Satan is broken on those who are now in Christ. So notice what he says, and this is why we can't be possessed. He says, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him. and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not the result of works. So, in the era of Christ, in the coming of Christ, the earthly ministry of Christ, Christ comes and expresses His authority over the evil spirits. And you notice that even the evil spirits acknowledge Him. And they know that He is their ultimate judge. And so Christ has power, and that power is given by extension to the apostles. And it also is experienced to some degree and at various places and in various ways through the church that we have the keys to the kingdom, we have the message of the gospel, and the power of Christ, the power that was at work in Christ is the power that belongs to the church. But that doesn't mean everybody in the church performs miracles. And it doesn't mean also that God doesn't, because we're not just talking about miracles here, we're talking specifically about casting out evil spirits. And so notice what follows. Next thing, in verses 13 through 15, the evil spirits that are in this particular man, The evil spirits acknowledge Paul and his authority. Again, let's go back to the passage in chapter 19 and verses 13 through 15. It says, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus. Now the question would be, why do they invoke the name of the Lord Jesus? Because they heard Paul do it. There's no commitment on their part. Remember what Jesus says in that day, there will be those who will say, Lord, we perform miracles in your name. We even cast out demons in your name. And what is he going to say of them? Depart from me, I never knew you. He doesn't deny that a work was done. In this case, the demon doesn't come out. In fact, the demon rebukes them. In this case, so why do they use the name of Jesus? These are itinerant the Apostle Paul. They see the effectiveness of him invoking the name of Jesus, and therefore they invoke the name of Jesus. In the name of the Lord Jesus, it says, excuse me, they undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. But he says, I adjure you, or they said, I adjure you in the name, I love this, by the name, by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. It's pragmatism. They are not entrusted by Christ as being His representatives. They've not been given the message of reconciliation or the ministry of reconciliation. They have not been entrusted as Christ empowers His disciples both in Mark 6, and that's only one place because the other place He sends out 70. They have not been given the authority of Jesus to cast out evil spirits, but they invoke the name of Jesus whom Paul proclaims. And then we are told in verse 14 that seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, the same thing. They were doing the same thing, but instead what we are told is that neither these itinerant Jews or the seven sons of Sceva were able to have the same success that Paul has. And to make matters worse, the man who had previously been possessed leaps on them. And we are told he causes them to run out of the house, and I love this, naked and wounded. Now, in verses, and this is the final thing that we want to look at and kind of bring it all together. In verses 17 through 20, and notice how it began. It begins with the mighty power of God, or the way Luke describes it, God doing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. But where does it leave us? In verses 17 through 20, and many of those who were now believers came, excuse me, in verse 17, and fear fell upon all of them, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled." Now what we want to connect are two things here. The name of the Lord being extolled, and then we'll look at the framework. The name of the Lord is extolled. The name of Jesus is extolled among those who believe. But then in verse 20, it says, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. The name of the Lord, the name of Jesus is extolled and the word of God multiplies. Therein is the ordinary, extraordinary work of God through his church. Okay? Are there miracles? Yes. Yes. But the ordinary, extraordinary work of God in a world in which He allows unbelievers to be under the influence of the one that seduced our first father, He allows that. They are under His control ultimately. And what God does is He snatches us from the grip of the evil one and makes us His willing servants, removes and seals us by His Spirit so that we cannot be — well, can we be influenced? Absolutely. That's why we fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we cannot be possessed because the name of the Lord, claimed by us, and at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and tongue confess that He is Lord. And what do we do in our profession of faith? We confess that Jesus is the Lord and has been raised by the power of God from the grave, that He lived for our righteousness, died for our sins, and He presently lives to intercede for us. That is what we profess because the miracle of God's grace is that He's called us out of darkness into His marvelous light and transferred us into the kingdom of his son. But look at what's in between these two verses, okay? The name of the Lord Jesus is extolled. And in verse 20, the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord continues to increase. And so what happens in between? In verse 18, verses 18 and 19. And many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. Okay? Both Jews and Gentiles. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they continued, and they counted the value of them and found it to come, it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. Now notice the shift. You begin in verse 13 with the description of God doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. And it concludes with the ordinary miracle of the Word that's been given to the people of God, the church of God, and the apostles. And it is the power of the Word that causes, and the name of Christ, that causes these who confess. They were under the delusion of other spiritual sources and so forth, and that power is broken. You don't see You don't see all of the exorcism rituals, but it does reference the authority of the name of Christ as it is extolled by those, both Jews and Gentiles, who have been brought to saving faith, and the word continues mightily. Okay? I'm going to end there. Are there any questions or comments on anything that we've covered here? Hang on a second, we have a microphone here. Is it on, Sam? Yeah, I think it is. Thank you, Pastor. That was very rich. So many big words. I was trying to write down as many as I possibly could. I'm going to go back and I'll re-watch this, but anyway, so there's difference in spirits and there's difference in other evil power and the stuff that the Jewish pastors were doing. They're all different pertaining to some different notes that you made for us. Do I have that kind of thing? What I'm saying about the Jews, you start on the Orthodox end, where we know there is a reference to evil spirits and so forth. God does not deny that. And they acknowledge that. But at some point, they become influenced in their dealing with, quote unquote, the spiritual world. The very thing that God tells them not to do in Exodus or in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, they become part, even though they put sort of Christian names, the best way I could describe it is like this. One of the older dominant cultures, that is still influenced by the time we see, we get to the New Testament, is Greek. The Greek culture is, it was dominant in terms of intellectual sources, you know, they had great thinkers, writers, and so forth, and they also had their own form of polytheism, okay? And then the power that overthrows them is Rome. Now the Romans also had their gods, but one of the things that the Romans did in various places is they were impressed by the Greek gods, so they just gave those Greek gods Roman names. Okay, so I would argue that at some point, not all, we're not putting all of the Jews who believed in exorcisms because we see they are familiar with casting out evil spirits, but as we saw in the Mark passage at the time of Jesus' earthly ministry, they weren't used to that kind of immediate, clear result. Okay, not to say that things didn't happen, but they saw something different. And they say, whoa, wait a minute, even the demons obey him, and they recognize him. So they see something greater that is experienced in Jesus. So there are on the one end, on the orthodox end, there are Jews who are trying to deal with the reality of evil spirits at work within humans. according to the word of God and according to the traditions that have passed on. On the other extreme, these itinerant, I think the reference to itinerant Jewish exorcists means that they were not as tethered to the Talmud or the Jewish sources of orthodoxy as orthodox Jews would be. And that's why they were able to just go, just travel, and, oh, you got a demon over here? We can cast him out, whatever their success rate is. And so you had those, basically, I think what's being described by the Jewish itinerant exorcists are those who were Jewish by virtue of birth, but their religion and practice, at least in this realm, was more akin to the pagans. than it was to Judaism. Okay? Anyone else? Okay. Brother Milton. So there's a different type of evil spirits then, right? Turn your mic on. Yeah, there you go. So there's all types of evil spirits, right? I think evil spirits are fallen angels. Yeah. And there are different types. So what I mean by that is some of them are strong, some of them are weak. So if you try to confront one of them, you got to be I think spirits by definition, these fallen angels, have a power in and of themselves that's greater than our human abilities. Yeah. Okay. Anyone else? All right, Sister Mary. I'm struggling to put it in perspective also. So the fallen angels, evil spirits, can be indwelt by man. What's happening here is the difference between those who know Jesus and those who do not. What's happening here, if you're talking about the itinerant Jews, they have rejected the authority of Jesus. They don't acknowledge him as being the Messiah. They are simply using his name because they heard Paul use it and they saw the results. The only one that's legitimate as a representative of God's sovereign authority and power is Paul. Over the evil spirits. So those, oh, okay. So they're not really believers, but acting like they are? But don't get thrown off by the fact that they are described as Jewish exorcists. All Jews did not acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. So therefore these are non-believing Jews who are aware of the power of God's name, but they have seen the effectiveness of Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus. So therefore they invoke the name of Jesus simply because they heard Paul do it. Opportunists, yes. Okay, that's it. Let's stand, close in a word of prayer. Before we pray, I want to mention, number one, Rubiette Jenkins. Her daughter-in-law died on yesterday, I think, or Monday. I think it was Monday. So I want to lift her in prayer as her, it was a sudden heart attack. but this is her daughter-in-law. Also the MacArthur family, Dr. John MacArthur passed away on this past Monday as well, so we want to keep that family in prayer. And also Sister Annie Davis, she is having brain surgery on tomorrow morning. There was a new tumor that was discovered on her brain and she's scheduled to have surgery tomorrow morning. So we want to, and Andrea, who did have, she passed part of what's necessary, her stress test, so that her heart is now strong enough for them to go ahead with the procedure. So they have not done the procedure, but she did pass the stress test. So I want to continue to lift her in prayer as she gets ready to deal with gallbladder, her gallbladder being removed. So with that, let's go to the Lord. Our God and our Father we come to you in the blessed name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We do thank you for the gift of your grace in the person of Christ. We thank you for all of your grace in him that you have saved us from our sins. You have snatched us as a brand from the burning. and You have transferred us into the kingdom of Your dear Son, and so we thank You for that privilege and all that it entails, and we pray that You would awaken us more and more to the reality of what we possess and who we are by virtue of our union with Christ. We thank you for our time of study. We pray that that which has been discussed has been handled both clearly and accurately and we pray that you would give us a better grasp of these truths as we continue to work through your word. We thank you for those who are present. We pray for those who are not able to be here as well as those who have the ability but no desire. Build us up in the knowledge of who we are so that we would live more faithful according to who we are in Christ. Not so that we can receive anything from you, but because we've received everything. We do pray for those who are sick and shut in. We pray your blessings upon this local congregation. The names that have been mentioned, we pray for Sister Davis and her procedure on tomorrow that you would be with the surgeons and guide their hands and give them the skill, that you have granted them the skill to do what needs to be done, and we pray that it would be a positive result for her. We lift Sister Andrea as she's waiting for the bigger procedure, but we thank you for the obstacles that have been overcome to this point. We pray for Sister Rubiette, that you would give her wisdom as she ministers to her family in this season of loss. All of others whose names that are on our prayer list, we lift them before you, and we rejoice and thank you for all of our answered prayers, because we know that you have done so. And so strengthen us again to know your word and know your will, and to live therein. Be with us now as we go our separate ways. Strengthen us. We pray that we would continue to meditate on Your Word and that we would rejoice in the fullness of Your grace as it is in Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.