All right. Yes. Yeah, it had been two weeks and I'd forgotten whether we actually finished or stopped here. What? So, uh, john chapter 19. And you know, because it's strange, because sometimes I think when I prepare, sometimes I prepare to finish a chapter, but then I don't finish the chapter, and then I mark it in my Bible that I didn't, like I'll put a mark there, but I'll forget that I didn't finish that chapter. And so when I go to think about what I'm gonna be preaching next, a lot of times I'll start thinking about the next chapter. If I don't have this Bible, like I always have it with me, If it's not handy, sometimes I'll just look up, you know, John 20, what are we gonna do? And then I'm like, kind of preparing ahead, but then get back to this Bible, open it up, I'm like, oh yeah, we didn't finish 19, gotta finish 19. Same thing with like 1 John 3. I was thinking 1 John 3 was gonna be just three parts, but we just did part four and we still have some left over of the chapter, so it's gonna be five parts. Sometimes that happens, so. John chapter number 19, we're looking at verses 38 through 42, I think. I'm pretty sure that's what we're doing. All right, 38. And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore and took the body of Jesus and there came also Nicodemus which at the first came to Jesus by night and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about a hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus and wound it in linen clothes and with the spices as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new sepulcher wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus, therefore, because the Jews' preparation day for the sepulcher was nigh at hand. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity to open your word here tonight. As we consider the somberness of your burial, we pray, Father, that you would speak to our hearts, Lord, that you would help us, Father, to to realize the importance here of this aspect of the gospel that we often just kind of rush through and don't consider in a great way. Lord, we pray, Father, now that you'd just use your word to do as you will with us, in Jesus' name, amen. Interestingly, and I kind of gave you a prelude there as I was talking to the Lord, and that is that we We realize, what is the gospel? What is the good news? The gospel, what is it? According to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul says this, I've declared unto you the gospel, how that one, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again. Right? All according to the scriptures. This is the gospel. This is good news. And we know why it's good news. It's good news because we're wretched, vile sinners, deserving hell, deserving destruction, deserving his judgment, but Christ died for that sin. He was buried and he rose again. So, we often emphasize, though, Christ's death. And then we also emphasize his resurrection. But we don't often emphasize his burial. But that's part of the gospel. It's a fact of the gospel that he was buried. In fact, had he died and not been buried, how would he rise again? Had he died and not been buried, there would have been a lot of problems, right? First of all, he said that he would be in the heart of the earth three days. He said that he would be buried. In prophecy we find that he was going to be buried. In Isaiah 53, remember, it talks about he was buried with the rich, which is exact prophecy of the fact that we see here him being put into Joseph's grave. So this thought of burial I want to maybe discuss, or maybe not, I don't know, we'll see here, the thought of burial. Why is it that we, first of all, why is it that we often miss that part? Why is it that we often, not miss it, I mean, obviously we know he was buried. It's kind of like, duh, he was buried, right? But why do we just kind of, yep, he was buried. Why do you think? You just think we never really think about the importance or something? Anybody have any ideas? We're just really excited about the resurrection, that's right. We're excited about his death because we talk about how his death, you know, was what paid for our sins, right? But the burial kind of sealed the death, right? First of all, had he not been buried, what would have happened is his body would have been left on the cross. It would have rotted. In fact, the others that were on the cross, they were taken down off the cross, but there's no record that they were buried. I know some folks who have tried to recount the history of have even recounted the possibility that his body was misplaced and not put in the grave and just thrown in the pile with the other bodies. Has anybody ever seen that History Channel thing? Not saying that they, they're not saying that it was. I mean, the History Channel, the, I don't remember the name of the show. It was the Bible, I think, or something. It wasn't the Bible. What was it? No, it was it was it was a quote unquote biblical like. It was a movie. Where they're they're looking for his body and they go to the putrefied, you know. From OK. So. They go. Risen OK, so they're they're all like what's going on here, you know, and and he's in the. You know, he's not in the grave, where is he? Maybe his body's over here, maybe it's over there, and they even tried to pretend like one of those bodies was his body. But the burial was important. It was important because the Bible says that his soul would not see corruption. Burial is a preserver for that. Because laying out in the open for just one day, the body would have seen corruption. There would have been flies and maggots and all that pretty quick. What's that? Yeah, birds and yeah, vultures and all that, like, pretty quick, pretty quick. But you notice that there's haste here. You notice they're in a hurry, they gotta get him down off the cross, they gotta get him prepared for burial, right, they have the spices and all of that, and they prepare him for burial and they put him in the grave, all before sundown, right? Because it was a drawing night of the Sabbath. Here being the, you know, the Sabbath actually is like during the Passover, it's like a whole week of Sabbath days, right? So they had to get this taken care of before that, right, before that happened. Now, it was not Friday, just so you know. It was likely, well, I won't say what day I think it was. People argue. What's that? It was a day that ended in Y, yes. And it was a day that was three days before Sunday morning. So there you go. You do the math, you know what day it was, all right? That's not Friday. Three days and three nights. But he was buried. The body was laid in a grave. And this, again, is important because there would have been some in that day that might have accused or said, oh, he wasn't buried. The reason that his tomb was empty was because they never put him in it. but he records, we have recorded in the Gospels, that he was buried for a reason, because he was, right? Is that the way the math works? Okay. Yeah. That's a good question. Some will say that I've heard theories. I've heard theories of Friday. I don't know why. I've heard theories of Thursday. I've even heard theories of Wednesday, like a Wednesday afternoon before the sundown. So that's why I said it was three days before Sunday morning. There you go. So whether you want to argue whether it was like six o'clock on Wednesday when he was put in the grave, or whether it was Thursday sometime, or during the day, or what, it was three days and three nights before Sunday morning, because that's what God said, and that's what it is, right? We know that it was the first day of the week when he rose, right? And he said three days and three nights. There you go. Easy answer. But the fact is he was buried. He was buried. Now, some things to consider about his burial, there was some secrecy, but it wasn't secrecy surrounding the burial itself. It was secrecy surrounding the person who loaned the grave, right? Now, Joseph of Arimathea didn't realize that he was just loaning his grave to Jesus. He thought he was giving to the Lord. his grave. Now, that's something, by the way, there's a picture in that, right? What is it that the Bible says about he that giveth to the poor? He lendeth to the Lord, right? When we give, when we give to take care of the things God cares about, we're not actually giving, we're just loaning. Not loaning to that person, but loaning it to God, right? That's why when the Lord allows us to give, we have to take into consideration that that's not a debt that that person owes us. By the way, if somebody owes you something, guess what that does to your relationship? It often makes it hard, right? Because they feel like they need to pay you and whatever. If I've ever given you anything, I gave it to you. If it comes back, that's the Lord giving it back. Not my problem, not your problem. I'm not worried about it, right? So that's the way we ought to always be, right? We're giving because it's what the Lord has laid upon our heart. It's not a loan. It's not a debt. It's a gift, right? Now the loaning part, we can give and then we can hope that the Lord will provide in return, and he often does. In fact, I have never seen it fail. As a matter of fact, I don't keep track exactly, but I know that the more I give to God's things and God's people, the more I give, the more he provides. Yes, sir. That's why we often find ourselves wanting. is because we're trying to keep, and we're trying to keep, and we're trying to keep, and we're trying to keep. But what is it Solomon said? Cast your bread upon many waters, right? It's gonna come back, right? What is it that Jesus said? He said, give, and it shall be given unto you, right? And this, by the way, the message isn't about giving, but there's an aspect here that deals with it, and that's the fact that Joseph gave, right? He gave, expecting nothing in return. He gave just wanting to bless the Lord, right? But three days later, his grave was freed up again. I suppose that it wasn't used because they have this whole sepulcher thing over there. If that was the grave that Jesus laid in, I don't know why it's really all that important to people that that space is held sacred. I mean, Joseph could have, and maybe neither one of the two sepulchers over there are actually the place where Jesus laid. Maybe the place where Jesus laid is where the bones of Joseph are, you know, because it was his grave. He had every right to use it after Jesus was done borrowing it, right? But the Lord gave it back, which we'll look at here in the next chapter. But But we do find that that is absolutely true. As you said, it's better to be a funnel, right? By the way, as a funnel, what happens? I was picturing this the other night. I was just thinking about just how, like, when I really focused more on taking care of my family and this little thing and that little thing and whatever, I was more of just, you know, what I needed came in. In fact, I never really was able to do a budget. I'm not saying that you shouldn't do a budget, by the way. Budgets are very smart to do. It's a very good idea to have a budget. But I have done budgets in the past, and usually the way my budget works is you've got income and you've got expenses, and then at the bottom line you've got whatever's left over, right? That's the way a budget usually works, right? You've got income and expenses and what's left over. Every time I would do a budget, this number down here would be negative, sometimes hundreds of dollars negative. And I'm like, no, how I exist, because this is what's coming in. These are the expenses. That's what I should have a lot of debt negative. But God always worked it out. So I was just like, whatever. I'll just try to do what God wants me to do. I'll try to, you know, I'll just pray and God will provide. And I've had many, many years of my life that we scraped and scratched and scrounged and all that. But I did find, though, that when we changed the focus from being receiving to focusing on what we can give and changed it from a bottle, like you said, to a funnel, Now I'm not really worried about that whole thing. Yeah, at the end of the year, we do our taxes and whatever, and we find out how much we had come in, where it all went, and then what went to us, right? And I'm amazed that God just, he just provides, but then he gives us so much to be able to do other things with, right? just a matter of testimony, not saying I'm not again, I'm not saying, Hey, look, you know, I did this and I did that. No matter of testimony. When we stop doing this, we start doing that. What happens? It's like, Where'd that come from? You know, it's like you have reach in your pocket and you pull out $100 bill and you're like, Where'd that come from? No, never happened. Okay, well, it's happened to me before. Um, when you open your bank account to check your balance and you're like, how'd that happen? Right. I'm not saying, you know, again, I'm not I'm not don't don't don't misunderstand this. I'm not saying like, you know, you get big bank accounts and all that. And, uh, you know, I'm not I'm not going to start saying, you know, send your seed in and all that kind of stuff. Okay. But what I am saying is that I have found that the more you give, the more the Lord entrusts you to have, because He knows you're not trying to hold on to it, right? Because God would prefer to use us as vessels that He can pour out and fill up and pour out and fill up than He would have us to be storage containers, right? What good? What good is it, right? This morning, the message was about not setting your affection on that which is not, right? And when we do that, what do we do? We become a storage container. We say, Lord, fill me up so I can hold it all over here for me. Well, that's all you're going to get. But when we set our sights and set our affections on that which is, eternal, right? When we look at those things that are, and the fact that, hey, whatever I'm holding over here, guess what? In a hundred years, it's not going to matter, because I can't do anything with it now, right? But if instead it comes in and I do this, and it comes in I do that, and it comes in I do this, and I'm able to put it out, then The Lord continues to flow it in, and I continue to, as He leads, put it out, and then what happens? I can start seeing the effects. of what it's doing further than me, further than my generation, further than this life. We start seeing that things that we, instead of thinking about things that we can invest in that we can get a huge return on the investment today, instead we start thinking about things that we can invest in to see a return in heaven, right? And so we invest in our thought process for that changes, right? We make investments that some people would say, well, that's stupid, you're not making anything off of that. I say, oh, but the Lord's working, right? Sometimes we end up in situations where, even in our ministry, sometimes we end up where things are upside down sometimes, right? Has that ever happened? Those of you at the board meeting, you know, sometimes things go upside down, right? Sometimes you have, what's that? conversion table, that's right. Sometimes you have months that end in the red, right? And it's not fall months, right? Well, sometimes they are, but we're not talking about the leaves, we're talking about the fact that more went out than came in. But then we look and we see what God's doing with that. So rather than just looking at everything based on the financial record, although sometimes that can be an indicator, but rather than just looking at things on the financial record, we can look at things on the spiritual record. Our souls being saved, our lives being changed, our people influencing others for the Lord. We start looking at what is it that certain people... I was talking to somebody earlier this week about the fact that because of the situation that they're in, a bad situation, because of the situation they're in, in fact I've talked to a few people this week about that. It's great how God puts us, multiple people, in bad situations and we can look at that and we can see because of this, that person heard the gospel. Because of this, that person's going to church now. Because of this, God's doing a work over here. Because of this, How many bad things have you seen turn out? Sometimes they don't turn out good the way that we'd like for them to turn out, but often they turn out good for somebody else, right? Think about this, think about this right here. Not such a good thing for a man 33 years of age his life to be snuffed out early. And he's put in the grave. Not a wonderful thing for him, per se, at that time, right? The suffering, the suffocating, right, on the cross, and then being buried, not a great thing for him. But think about what it's done for others. Think about the fact that all of humanity now has the opportunity to be born again, to be saved, to go to heaven, to have your sins forgiven because of this bad day, right? And it wasn't Good Friday. But he was buried, he was put in a grave, again, that had to be given, right? He didn't have, Jesus didn't have life insurance. Um, not that I'm against life insurance. I'm for life insurance. You should have life insurance. And so it's a responsible thing to do. But he didn't have a grave. You know, he didn't have cemetery plot purchased. He didn't have something set up for him. It was loaned to him, or rather was given to him. He gave it back, but it was given to him. And not only that, but All the preparation, the mixture of myrrh and aloes, and 100 pound weight, the cost of that is pretty significant, right? It's a relatively significant cost. Joseph gave up his grave. Nicodemus and Joseph together gave up of their treasure, right, and their time. to obtain and to put this, the myrrh and the aloes and the linen clothes and the spices, right? All of this to prepare the body of Jesus. These men, most likely not morticians, now dealing with the dead body of their savior. The reality of his death. When he rose again, I'll bet these guys were pretty impacted by it. I put the myrrh and aloes on your body and wrapped you in the linen clothes. I put you in the grave. I watched them close. the entrance, I watched them seal it with the stone, and I watched them put a seal and a mark on it to make sure that it was secure. And here you are, right? Pretty amazing, right? This burial aspect is something that we can't just ignore. It's something that we can't just, oh yeah, he was buried. Yeah, this happened, yeah. You think about this. disciples. Now, the ones who were his closest disciples were all still hiding, right? But we find that these who at risk of death for themselves are now, because they weren't close to him in his life, they became very, very close to him in his death. close enough that they're touching him, close enough that, you know, this is a process where the body is prepared, where every part of the body has to be covered with this, or at least all the major parts of the body. And so they're touching his face. And just imagine the face of the Savior and the head of the Savior in their hands as they put his hair back, you know, and I don't know, he probably had hair like mine, so it probably wasn't a big deal. In one of those pictures, yeah. Not the hippie hair, right, but they were They're putting the myrrh and the aloes there, you know, and cleaning him off and cleaning the blood away from his face and off of his cheeks and off of his, out of his beard, whatever's left of it. They did pluck his beard from his face, but they obviously didn't pull it all out. But they're wiping the blood and cleaning that off and on his chest and they're preparing him and they wrap him up and wrap the linen clothes around him. And then they take him and they lay him in the tomb, in the sepulcher. Think about what a difficult task this had to be for Joseph and Nicodemus. Very difficult task. And in fact, we find that Mary and some of his disciples want to come three days later to check on things and to be there to honor. In fact, in one of the passages, it talks about them bringing things for him, for his body. And they're going to go in there and make it all smell good again after three days. And this, we find that, and by the way, that was a common thing, that a lot of times bodies would lay in waiting for three days and then be prepared for the burial. So this was a very quick burial, right? They had to hurry to do this, but you have to really think and contemplate on the fact that they're laying the body of their Lord to rest. All the thoughts going through their minds, We couldn't imagine all the thoughts going through their minds when they expected that the Messiah was going to come and be the king, that he was going to come and overthrow the Roman occupation. He was going to come and he was going to bring usher in righteousness and all these things, and here he is now, deceased. And their thoughts perplexing them. All hope is lost. that the Messiah was going to be who they thought he was going to be. His disciples all in complete hopelessness. Talk about depression. You expected a certain thing and completely the opposite takes place. They just missed Scripture. They didn't understand that they were interpreting. Here's a key problem. They were interpreting the Scripture through their present-day situation. By the way, that's wrong. We don't interpret the Scripture through our present-day circumstances. It ends up putting us thinking that the Messiah was coming to rule when instead he was coming to die, right? It messes up our theology when we begin to try to interpret the scriptures based upon our circumstances and our present reality, so to speak. And that's the problem that they had there. That's why it was such a dark and gloomy time, was because they were expecting something different. But they got to bury him. A new sepulcher, Nobody ever laid there clean. And then, after all of that, think about the thoughts that go through their minds as they all practice the Passover week, as they continue to practice the Passover week, and they think about the lamb. They think about this lamb that they have to slay. You know, Passover is a family thing. It's not something that they do at the temple. It's something that they do in the home, right? The lamb has to be... Now, a lot of times they would sacrifice and, you know, and then bring it home or whatever, but... And even today, now, they just go buy a leg of lamb and it's symbolic, but... this lamb has to be sacrificed, they, again, go through the motions of applying the blood to the doorposts and all of that just as a reminder, right? They remember these things. And as they remember these things, you think about the disciples as they're remembering, as they're in their homes and they're eating the bitter herbs, and they're remembering the bitter bondage of sin and Egypt. And they're remembering the bread, and the disciples specifically that were at the Last Supper, they're remembering the body broken. And remembering, this is what he said was going to happen. They're, for a week, nothing leavened for a whole week, right? Now, obviously, in the midst of that week, he rises again, but As far as they're concerned, you know what it's like, right? Something happens, and life's not the same. Anybody ever have something happen, and life's just not the same? Somebody passed away, somebody's, you know, it's just not the same. Everything stops, and everything's different. And that's what it was like, right? I remember when my dad passed away. I tried to just keep on rolling with it, right? But life wasn't the same. It wasn't the same. Right that night. Something was missing. Sam. That night, there were things that we, there's things that you try to remember. In fact, for months later, I ended up giving Brother Holderman his phone, and so his phone number was still, in fact, he still has that phone number. He has to get that iPhone so he can have it on, but he still has that phone number. That's my dad's phone number. I call my dad, now obviously it's saved as Rob Holderman now. But I could call my dad on that number, and my dad would answer. Then I call, and now Rob answers. I had it on a contract. I had to keep it. He didn't have a phone. It worked. And then he eventually transferred it out onto his own plan. But I remember living in Acton and coming downtown to work. And I would drive by where my dad lived before. all the time, right? You're driving down the highway and you're like, yep, I remember that place over there. This is before the church planting and all that stuff. I'd point to, in my mind, I'm like, yep, that's where dad lived. That's where dad lived. I would drive out of my neighborhood. I would drive down Acton Road on my way, or up Acton Road on my way to the highway, and every time, stop at the stop sign, look over, there's this tombstone. Life's different. Things changed, right? Something's not quite the same. And there's certain things that you think about, like I was bringing up, as you're driving down the highway and I'm passing the Raymond Street exit, which I had no reason to get off at, because I'm going downtown, the only reason I would ever get off at the Raymond Street exit was to go visit my dad at my grandma's house, right? Over on Cruft Street, close to where the new church building's gonna be. And I would remember that, and I'd be like, I think I might stop by and visit my dad after work today. No, not gonna do that, right? The disciples. What's that? Right, well I live right off the Raymond exit now. But the disciples. being reminded, remembering what Jesus just said to them yesterday. Remember he just told us this. Remember when he said this. Remember when he did that. Remember that one time, the one guy that he healed, the guy that was by that pool, he couldn't even, he was trying to get in the water to maybe have some healing from this angel and stuff, and Jesus comes up, he says, get up and take up your bed and walk, right? they say, Oh, you remember that? You remember when he did this? You remember when he did that? Right? I don't think they necessarily got together like that. I think they did after a while, right? But probably not that night. That night they were running for their lives. But right. It's like, Hey, you remember anybody? You know I'm talking about? You've been to Funerals and then after the funeral a lot of times you get together and you talk about that person. Sometimes you say, oh, you remember when he did this? Remember when he did that? Remember when this happened? Remember when that happened? Remember when, you know? And you talk about those things, right? And you share those memories. And this is what's going on. But at the same time they're sharing these memories, they're also remembering the things that he said. And they're going through a week of memorial about the Passover. And there should have been, if there wasn't, there should have been some connections made. His blood was shed. It was applied in our place. His body was broken. Isaiah 53, right? He was bruised for our transgressions and all these things happen and the burial seals the deal for the death. When the, When the stone was rolled to close the tomb, it was done. The door was shut, and it was final. He was really dead. And this is probably what his disciples uttered in unbelief. He's really gone. I can't believe he's really gone. And I know this is a solemn thing. We know what happens next. Chapter 20, right? We can be excited about that. But the fact is, he really died. And it really did make an impact. in the lives of all those who he touched, the ones who he healed, the ones who he saved, all of the people whose lives he affected during that three years of ministry. We have now thousands mourning his death, even though many of them probably cried out, crucify him with the others. Some of them, I believe, it hit them what happened, what they had done. It's final. The sky has turned dark, and the Son of God has left, and his body's placed in the tomb. But the third day, we'll talk about next week. But the question for you, of course, we always had to bring this back around to some application. Of course, we talked about, you know, how his disciples gave, so you can apply that if you need to apply that to your life. But most importantly, has the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ affected your life? If you're saved today, it most certainly has in that way. He saved you. You may not have sat and thought about it too much. Might have just thought about just his life and what he did on the cross. We talk about he died on the cross. He died on the cross. We may not talk about his burial too much. My kids even, before they even really understood what they were saying, you could say, what did Jesus do for me? He only died on the cross for my sins. They don't understand what that means. Or they didn't understand what that means. They could tell you, Jesus died for my sins, right? But he was buried. That death was final. Until it wasn't. But it was. It was real, it happened. And it affected his disciples. It affected them in the preparation, it affected them in the aftermath, it affected them as they continued their next few days Uh, it changed their lives forever. Now, of course, the resurrection then totally flipped everything over, but it changed their lives. It changed it. They were walking with the Savior. They were they were they walked just a week ago. They walked into Jerusalem. Him on the donkey, and everybody's crying out, Hosanna! Praise God! Blessed be the Son of David! All of these wonderful things, and they're walking in, and it's triumphal, and they're just so excited, and the King has come! And here we are, marching in, like we're going to take over Jerusalem. And all the things that are happening, and the things of that week, and then, we have this. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. And then Peter has to live with the fact that before he died. In fact, I believe one of the passages says that Jesus looked at him. Am I remembering correctly? So possibly the last time before Jesus was on the cross that Peter saw him. was after denying him. He went out and wept bitterly. Think about the effects. Think about what's going on here as he's laid to rest. All of the lives, all of the things that are going on. This really happened, right? The Bible's not a book of fairy tales. It's not a storybook that this happened, you know, once upon a time, blah, blah, blah, blah. And everybody lived happily ever after. No, the end of this chapter ends with. Everybody did not live happily ever after the end of this chapter ends with. Everybody is pretty well stricken and depressed. Everybody's, at least from what we can tell, all hope is gone. It's lost. but they think about what he's done, right? And so, if you do anything to apply this, I would say that, think about, let this sink in that Jesus died and that he was buried, and that it is directly related to your sin. And that it was for your sin. So on the one side, you say, ooh, On the other side you say, whoo. And then on the other side you say, whoo, right? You have your, why did he have to die for me? Wow, he died for me. Yes, he died for me. It's like all torn in five different directions, right? But as he, yes, thank God he died for me. As he's buried, As he's laid in the grave, we looked at that in symbolic form with Eric today. As we pushed him down under the water, he couldn't hold his breath. No. As we put him in the water, this was symbolic of the cold, wet grave. Not to say that the grave was filled with water, but you know what I mean. Under the earth. Under the surface of the earth. He's put down into the grave. And we remember that, right? We remember, in fact, baptism is the picture, it's the like figure, right, of our salvation. It shows that as Christ was buried, we were buried, right? And that's what that baptism is symbolic of, right? It has nothing to do with getting us to heaven, but it has everything to do with what is getting us to heaven, right? It's showing the picture of what happened, right? Of course, we always emphasize the resurrection, but we as Baptists obviously emphasize the burial, right? Do we not? That's why we say immersion, right? That's our whole point in immersion, is the burial. And he was fully immersed in the grave. And we know that because he was there for three days. Kind of hard to have a little in and a little out when you're there that long, right? And no, we didn't hold him under for three days. It's just three minutes. No, I'm kidding. Actually, he ended up under the water for more than three seconds. Not that that's like a time thing. The fact is, it's picturing complete burial. And so, Jesus was buried. By the way, here's your other side, if you've been saved and you haven't been baptized. Have you told anybody? You obviously aren't willing yet to tell everybody that you were buried with him. That's all it is. It's telling everybody, when you're baptized, everybody look up here at me. Kids, everybody. Kids. When you're baptized, you are identifying publicly that you were buried with Christ when you got saved. That your old man, your old man is dead. That the old man is buried. Before you're baptized, here's why oftentimes if somebody gets saved and they don't get baptized, it's hard for them to live for the Lord. Before you're baptized, here's what happens. You haven't publicly testified that the old man's dead. So the old man, he's dead, but he's, you know, it's kind of like this, he's kind of running around. He's not been put in the grave. You got to put him in the grave. No, baptism doesn't wash your sins away. No, baptism doesn't do something magical to you where you're now a victorious Christian, except for the fact that you stopped disobeying God, you've obeyed him now, right? Now, there's a difference between being baptized, or being saved, going through discipleship, and then getting baptized because you understand it, and refusing to be baptized, that's different. That's disobedience, right? you gotta tell everybody, I've been buried. Let me show you I've been buried. Right? And so, there's your applications. And by the way, here's the other application. If you've died, quit letting the old man live. Right? If we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection, right? That we're not any longer dead in sins, but we're dead to sin. And now alive to Jesus Christ our Lord, right? We're alive in him, that we can now be used of him. So, are you buried? Jesus was. Have you been? Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word. The death and the burial and the resurrection of your son.