How Deep Do You Go?

No, we can't do that. He goes, why not? It's just because we, you know, it's about that much water that stands in the way of being Presbyterians. And he said, well, didn't you read my book on baptism? And John says, yeah, but I didn't find it convincing. I thought, man, I would never say that to Jay Adams.

I'd have him in awe around or something. Nah, it wasn't convincing. so um now so far we've tried to understand um other views of baptism we saw the varieties of paedo-baptism we tried to get an understanding of the presbyterian and reformed view of baptism and we've critiqued that view and in the critique we've shown that believers baptism credo baptism best fits the scriptural data i mean so we've tried to establish that as we talked about the paedobaptist view. This afternoon I want to conclude with a bit about the mode of baptism and the importance of baptism.

Now what do we mean when we use the word mode? The idea of mode is the way or manner in which something is done, experienced or expressed. So we're talking about how do you do baptism? How is baptism administered? Is it sprinkling? Is it pouring? is it immersion?

Okay? So now our Presbyterian friends will sprinkle or dab the water on their foreheads. Our Amish friends, given their Anabaptist background, will pour and we Baptists or Baptistic churches will immerse. So the question is, what is the proper mode of baptism then? Now you can understand the mode if you understand the word. The word that we use in the Scriptures.

Now, our translators were no help to us here. Because in our English Bibles, they did not translate the word, they transliterated the word. Okay? Now what does that mean? Okay? To translate means to give the meaning of the word.

So, for example, the Greek word kardia means heart. Or kardia, pardon me. Sorry, I didn't mean to mispronounce it. Kardia means heart. By the way, that little thing in the Greek letters that looks like a P, that's a row. That's the Greek R, if you will.

Okay? Kardia. Translated, it's heart. That's what it means. And you can see that. We've adopted that Greek word in a lot of our vocabulary.

Right? Cardiac arrest. Cardiology. It's all about heart. All right? Now baptism, or the word baptizo, which is our word for baptism, was transliterated, not translated.

That is, the Greek letters of that word were merely given the equivalent English letter. So it's not given us the meaning at all. And so the Greek word baptizo in our Bibles is baptized. The Greek letter beta is made B. Alpha is our A. P is our P.

Tau is our T. Iota is our I. Zeta is our Z. And then the last one is Omega. But we didn't transliterate that. We just stuck an E on the end.

So what you can see is they didn't translate the word. They just transliterated it, which doesn't help us one bit. Okay, now why did that happen? I'm not sure. I don't know why it happened except that I was told that, of course, in 1611, King James of England got these scholars together. He wanted to get a Bible in the English language that everyone could use.

And they did that. And some of the theory is it was already so controversial they didn't want to translate it. They just transliterated it and let the rest of us deal with that for centuries after, at least in our part of the world. Now, what is the meaning of baptize? How should they have translated this word? When you look at the root word, bapto, it means to dip.

It's used about to dipping into a dye. It's even a word that's used to dye. D-Y-E. Okay? You put something in, you dye the shirt, right? You put it, you immerse it into the dye.

It's used of dipping things, like shirts into a dye. It's used of dipping a finger into oil or water, things like that. It's the word that means to dip. baptizo means to dip or to immerse or to submerge. Okay? Now look, in case you're thinking yeah, yeah, yeah, that's how you Baptists read it. That's what the lexicons say.

And that's how the word is used. Now it's used of cleansing of vessels. For example, in Mark chapter 7 verse 4 where it talks about being clean from uncleanness. It talks about the vessels that are bapto, they're dipped, they're immersed in order to cleanse them. Okay? The word baptizo is used of perishing Sometimes it used of perishing but more in the terms of a drowning man or the sinking of a ship Okay?

And that's how the word is used in the literature of Scripture and the literature outside of Scripture. So if I would pull down what's called my Bauer Art Gingrich Danker lexicon, which is the one that I used through seminary, if I pull that down and we looked up at baptizo or bapto, it would list, it would give you the translation and it would list tons and tons and tons of places where it is used. And so, when the lexicons want to give you the meaning of the word, they don't just look at its use in the scripture, they look at its use in everyday documents.

They look at its use in all of the surrounding culture, okay? And so when you look at my lexicon, you'll see all kinds of little notations of the literature where all this is found. And so this is what the word meant in everyday language. It didn't just mean this in the Bible. It meant this outside the Bible. it's used of all kinds of things other than this religious ritual that we do.

It's used constantly in all kinds of things. Somewhere in scripture, for example, Mark 7, 4, where it talks about vessels being cleaned. So the word means this, okay? It's used this way. Now, lest you think that we Baptists miss the mark or we're trying to be, you know, we're trying to make everything fit our view. And listen, for example, I get John Murray, he's Presbyterian, great theologian.

I talked about him several weeks ago. John Murray writes this book on Christian baptism, and he has a whole chapter on mode, and it's the longest chapter in the book, because he's trying his hardest to try to convince us that baptizo, it doesn't always mean that, right? It doesn't always mean immerse. And he'll quote something and say, see, here it doesn't have to mean immerse, although that's the way it would look.

And I'm not trying to run John Murray down. The guy was an incredibly brilliant theologian. He was considered the best theologian in the English-speaking world at one time. But his chapter on mode is unbelievable. It's the longest chapter in the book because he has the most explanations to do in order to try to convince us that a word that normally means dip or immerse doesn't always mean that.

Okay? Now look, I look at Luther. And Luther, in his book, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, is one of his tracts that he wrote. This is what he said. Hence, it is indeed correct to say that baptism washes sins away. But that expression is too weak and mild to bring out the full significance of baptism, which is rather a symbol of death and resurrection.

So he says, we always talk about baptism as washing our sins away, but it goes deeper than that. It's talking about death and resurrection. He goes on. For this reason, I would have the candidates for baptism completely immersed in the water. as the word says and as the sacrament signifies. Not that I, now listen, not that I deem this necessary. It's not necessary to immerse them.

But it would be well to give to so perfect and complete a thing a perfect and complete sign. Thus, it was also doubtless instituted by Christ. The sinner does not so much need to be washed as he needs to die in order to be wholly renewed and made another creature and to be conformed to the death and resurrection of Christ with whom through baptism he dies and rises again.

Although you may properly say that Christ was washed clean of mortality when he died and rose again, yet that is a weaker way of putting it than if you said he was probably changed and renewed. In the same way, it is far more forceful to say that baptism signifies that we die completely and rise into eternal life than to say that it signifies merely our being washed clean from sin. So he's saying, you know, baptism is more than cleansing.

It's about dying and raising. And the best way of showing that is what? Immersion. All right, here's John Calvin from his Institutes of the Christian Religion. I happen to have these underlined in my copy. Okay, now notice.

Luther has said, eh, immersion is the best way of showing this. But what does he say? I don't deem it necessary. Okay, thank you. Eh, it's not that important how you do it. Calvin, we ought to deem it certain and prove that it is Christ who speaks to us through the sign, that it is he who purifies and washes away sins and wipes out the remembrance of them, that it is he who makes us sharers in his death, who deprives Satan of his rule, who weakens the power of our lust.

Indeed, that it is he who comes into a unity with us so that having put on Christ, we may be acknowledged God's children. These things I say he performs for our soul within as truly and surely as we see our body outwardly cleansed, submerged, and surrounded by water. For the analogy or similitude is the surest rule of the sacraments, that we should see spiritual things in physical as if set before our very eyes.

So, again, he's saying we're united to Christ. The Bible talks about baptism united us to Christ, and that best seen when our body outwardly is cleansed submerged and surrounded by water And he says that the great thing about the sacraments They actually present visibly to us the true spiritual reality Here's another few pages later. He writes this. But whether the person being baptized should be wholly immersed, and whether thrice or once, whether he should only be sprinkled with poured water, these details are of no importance but ought to be optional to churches according to the diversity of countries yet the word baptize means to immerse and it is clear that the right of immersion was observed in the ancient church there's John Calvin now of course they don't want to do that so they say what? it's optional how you do it really doesn't make any difference alright but they both admit they both admit that the word means immersion ok so don't chalk this up to Baptists just trying to read their lexicons the way they want to even the reformers knew their lexicons and knew what it meant what the word meant now you can understand the word when you see the description of baptism in Scripture.

All right? Now, actually, there aren't very many descriptions of baptism in Scripture. There just aren't. Usually the word is just said. You know, John baptized, and Jesus' disciples baptized, and Paul went to Corinth but didn't baptize, but except for Crispus and Gaius and Stephanus and things like that. So we don't see many descriptions.

But there are two that really show us what goes on. One is Mark chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. Someone read that for us. Mark 10, 9 and 10. This is the baptism of Jesus. That is, he's the one being baptized.

In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the tomb. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavenly one and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Alright, now notice. He was baptized in the Jordan. That's the Greek preposition, not to bore you. It's the Greek preposition en, e-n in our letters, which means in, and it's not by, it's not beside, it's not near the river, which all would require different prepositions.

It says he baptized him in the Jordan. And if that's not enough, It says that Jesus came up out of the water. And that's the Greek preposition ek. In our letters, ek, which means out of. Okay? And it doesn't say that he came away from it, which would be an entirely different preposition, apo.

It is he came up out of the water. Okay? Going in and coming out strongly suggests immersion, not sprinkling or pouring beside the river. I remember years and years ago, and I don't even know the series or the movie, it had Jesus, it had John kind of standing knee-deep in the Jordan, and Jesus walks up and John just takes some water and goes... Like, come on!

Mark doesn't give us that impression at all! Jesus went in the Jordan not by it and he came up out of the Jordan John 3.23 also talking about John the baptizer says John was also baptizing at Anan near Salim because the water was plentiful there and people were coming and being baptized now it doesn't prove it but it just fit immersion better It wouldn't take much water for sprinkling and pouring. But there's a lot of people who want to be baptized, right?

So he was at the Jordan at this place where there was lots of water. All right. Let's look at Philip and the eunuch. Philippian, I'm sorry, Acts chapter 8, verses 34 and 39. 34 through 39. Now, we're not reading the whole story.

But you remember the story. the Holy Spirit takes Philip from Samaria and plops him down in the desert. I just wonder, Philip was always getting transported that way. I thought, wow, that would really be cool, wouldn't it? How did the Holy Spirit pull him out of a town and plop him in the middle of a desert? He did. Wow.

How'd I get here? Hey, there's the guy over there in the chariots. So he walks up to the eunuch from Ethiopia and the eunuch is reading from the book of Isaiah. The passages in 52 and 53 about this one and who's going to be killed and crushed. And Philip walks up and starts talking to him and he says, what is this about? And so Philip explains the gospel to him, the gospel of Jesus.

All right, so having said that, let's pick it up in verse 34. Who wants to read that for us? 34 to 39. And the eunuch said to Philip, About whom I ask you, does the prophet say this about himself or about someone else? Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with the scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, See, here's water.

What prevents me from being baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, and Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away and the eunuch saw him no more and went on his way rejoicing The transport system just amazes me but let not get tied up on that So notice what happens here.

They travel along until they come to a body of water before he's baptized. If the guy, which he probably did, we don't know, but if he had a bottle of water in the chariot, it would have been sufficient. But he didn't get baptized until they found a body of water. And then what does it say in verse 38? It says, they both went down into the water. And what does verse 39 say?

It says, they came up out of the water. Now, does it prove immersion? Well, pretty close. For one thing, it uses the word baptize, which means immersion, and it talks about them getting into the water and coming out of the water. All right? So here's two descriptions of baptism, just two of the very, very few, that surely indicates immersion.

Okay? So the evidence of the word's meaning and the word's use surely indicates immersion as the proper mode of baptism. Okay. Okay. Now, the last thing I want to talk about is the importance of baptism. Baptism is important because it shows obedience to the command of Jesus.

Let's look at Matthew 28. Someone read for us Matthew 28, 18 through 20. We're very familiar with it, but let's look at it. Someone can read it or quote it if you would like. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Alright. So, the first reason why you ought to get baptized is Jesus commands it. And that should be the end of the discussion. Right? Jesus says go out and teach them to obey all my commandments.

And the very first commandment he gives is baptism. So that's what we ought to do. that should be important enough to convince you that baptism is important. It's the first command of all the commands. Okay? Be baptized. Why?

Because Jesus says you should. Alright? Baptism is important because it is a public proclamation of faith in Jesus. It is... And none of this is going to be new. You hear it every time we do baptism.

It's the public proclamation. It is saying to everyone watching, I believe in Jesus. Now remember, as we talked about last week, you remember in some places like Acts 2, 27 and 28, Acts 22, 16, Galatians 3, 26 and 27, Romans 6, 1 through 11, 1 Peter chapter 2, what's the verse? I think it's 11. and Colossians 2, 11 and 12, you notice that baptism is looked at like the instrument of salvation.

Union with Christ and taking all the benefits of salvation are attributed to baptism. So remember this. Always remember this, that when you read those passages, faith is somewhere in the neighborhood. Okay? In Acts chapter 2, the Apostle Peter, they say, what should we do? And he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

Well, what's he saying there? Baptism is the means by which you call, that you call on the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Apostle Paul testifying about his baptism in Acts chapter 22, verse 16 says, Ananias said to him, Paul, be baptized and forgiven for your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. That is, you're saved by calling on the name of the Lord, which happens, and some scholars think it was you pronounce the name of Jesus over the person being baptized and they're calling on Jesus to save them in their baptism.

The point I'm trying to make, Galatians 3, 26, 27, Colossians 2, 11-12, the point I'm trying to make is simply this, that it certainly is clearly a public proclamation of your faith. It is. So those passages shouldn't scare us because they're talking about calling out in faith to God in our baptism. So baptism is just merely the instrument. At Pentecost, when 3,000 people responded to Peter's gospel message, what happened?

The apostles publicly, clearly baptized them. Everyone who was there, there were probably more than 3,000 people who heard that message, but everyone who was there knew that those 3,000 people had accepted this message about Jesus as Messiah and they had identified themselves with Jesus by that fact. They were not hiding the fact. There was no hiding the fact that they had believed on this message of Jesus that the apostles had preached that day.

There's no doubt. Anybody watching that would have known that. They would have clearly seen that. So Jesus commands us to make disciples by going, baptizing, teaching to obey, and so baptism publicly identifies a person as a disciple of Jesus, it formally and publicly identifies a person as a disciple of Jesus. enrolls a disciple in the school of Christ.

It is clearly a proclamation. I love Bobby Jameson, and I don't know why southern guys do that. Bobby, I don't know why he does that. This guy is getting his PhD from Cambridge University. I wonder if it says Bobby Jameson on his diploma. But Jameson writes this, God marks his people by baptism. by getting baptized we are essentially putting on a jersey that says team Jesus we're playing by his rules and following his commands that's what baptism means and you know what baptism is the point of no return you know we take it for granted you go to Azerbaijan and you're baptized they know this guy's a follower of Jesus he no longer is a follower of Mohammed.

He is now a follower of Jesus. That's the point of no return. After you're baptized, you can lose your job, your family can disown you. Same thing in so many other countries. That's why baptism is so essential. Because it marks you out as a disciple of Jesus.

It's the thing that says you're really a Christian. Okay? Now, the last point is baptism is important because it's a public commitment to Christ's people. By baptism, you become part of the local church. Acts chapter 2, verse 41. Can someone read that real quick?

Acts 2, verse 41. those who received this word were baptized alright those who received this word were baptized and three thousand ran into the church that day alright by baptism you become part of the local church those who received the word the gospel message were added to the church and they were received into the church through baptism again let me quote Jameson, in baptism you step out of the world and into the church. In baptism you declare your loyalty to Christ. In baptism you enlist in Christ's company.

Your commitment to Christ's people follows logically, necessarily, and immediately from your commitment to Christ. Alright? Okay, so I hope after this that you see that the credo-baptist position is the one that most accurately reflects Scripture. I hope that you're not ashamed of your beliefs, nor no longer intimidated by the beliefs of others. And I hope that you see the importance of your baptism as obedience to the Lord Jesus and as reflecting the realities of the Gospel.

So, so ends our series on baptism. short of your questions. Yes, Daniel. I have two comments. First one is that Catholic, you know, Catholicism is only effective if holy water is used. And the second contribution is that when I think of submerging in water, also means that it's setting us apart from the air. From what?

From the air. Okay. So we're submerged in living water and disconnected. Set apart from the air. Okay. Yes.

All right. Yes, Dennis. Why is it not more common that church members who are not part of leadership baptize incoming congregants? Why is it not more common that members of churches who are not part of church leadership do baptize incoming members? Thank you for asking where I'm going with that. Why is it past re-divorce?

And why is it other than others? Why are they baptizing? Why are they baptizing? Yeah, why? Why can't people under the leadership baptize for a believer? Because we're power hungry.

Why? One of the early Baptist confessions makes the point that it doesn't have to be. They looked away from that in 1689. Did they? So 1646 is the one that says that? I believe so I think 1689 is a little more specific with the leaders I think the movement moved in that direction Because I wasn the big in the 1600s who should baptize And I couldn't draw my future as more specific in 689, that they prefer to be leaders, unless there's no leaders available.

Okay. All right. So I would say it's more custom reflecting. Yeah. So Andrew and I just had a discussion here. The first London Baptist Confession of Faith was published in 1646.

The second London Baptist Confession of Faith, which is much longer, and which was ours mostly that we had for our Confession of Faith for membership, the second London Confession came out in 1689. So there are two confessions of faith from the early Baptists. so I knew I read it in one of the Baptist confessions the earlier one not the later one by the way just to make the point clearer the title of the first London Baptist confession is the confession of churches in London not to be confused not to be identified with Anabaptists alright Anabaptists means re-baptizers which meant came out of Switzerland moved into the Netherlands and so forth where people were baptized as believers. That's where the Amish came from.

The Mennonites came from. And we were often painted with that brush as these crazy radical people. But the first Baptist did not want to be identified with the Anabaptists. They came from a different line. We talked about that. But anyway, go ahead.

Any other questions? That's kind of the answer, Dennis. Right? Is there a debate for this man too? the emotive communion. We don't have that. What do you mean?

What emotive communion? The first communion was the last one. Jesus broke the bread. He sat around the table. We read something this morning in Sunday school about the love feast that the early church did. Ours is a little more abbreviated.

More suitable for the masses. Is she talking about the load in terms of love feasts and so forth? Yeah. Are we kind of more lenient on the load? That's a good question. From what we can determine from the early church is that there were love feasts and the Eucharist was part of but separate.

That is to say. The communion that we have would have been connected to a love feast, but it wasn't. So in other words, the love feast wasn't the communion. Communion came after the love, but it was usually in conjunction with that. so the Brethren the Brethren churches have I should note this I went to a Brethren seminary have one two three four ordinances instead of two we have Lord's Supper and that's it I hate when I do that because now my family is going to send me to a unit.

I just can't. Oh. So the brethren have four ordinances. Baptism, what they call Eucharist, love feast, the Lord's Supper, and foot wash. They have four of them. so with that kind of complication, they only do foot washing, love feasts, and communion twice a year. Okay?

So to answer your question, we have separated more clearly the Eucharist or communion from the love feasts. Okay? So I don't know, I wouldn't say that we've loosened it up, I'd just say we just don't necessarily do it conjunction with all of us getting together. Okay? Andrew. This is where I thought Brian was going with this originally.

I'm just going to push it to you. I don't know what I'm going to ask. What's the conjunction between baptism and taking up communion? Should there be a deeper connection there? You know, I was going to hope for you to preach that sermon. I believe the scripture teaches, but that we haven't really enforced it to.

Baptized people partake in communion. You say well communion for all believers That true But in the New Testament you were counted really as a believer when you were baptized It's so closely connected. So, that's where we're going to be heading, folks. Although, Andrew's going to have to be the one who has to deal with it. Do you hear churches that say that only members can participate?

You know what? Okay. So, there are three different views of communion. They are open, which is what we do, close, and closed. Open is, hey, you say you're a believer, go ahead. Closed is, help me out here, Andrew.

I'm aware we're open and closed. Close, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, there is a difference. I'm trying to remember it. There's close and closed.

Close is just a member of this church. That's it. Close is you have to show that you're a member of the church somewhere. You can only partake if you can show you're a member somewhere. okay so those are the three views yes Levi I'm going to start back to Brian's question yeah so the question now like you read it right it's it'd be better if you learned to put it right yeah I'm trying to hear you listen I'm trying to hear so So it seems to me, and maybe this is what Brian was asking, but maybe it's not.

We have a lot of emphasis on the word baptizo, but we don't really have an emphasis on things like wine, or other literal words that are not very confusing, but we choose to do other things, because we take the Luther approach of, it's not that important that we drink grape juice instead of wine. Yeah? So... No, I'm not saying that. It does diminish the argument for the importance of mode if we really focus only on mode when it comes to this one word.

And the word is rected, though? Yeah. As opposed to one. Well, yeah. That's just an example. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The reason why churches, most churches don't have wine. You know what the reason is? The temperance movement... I'm telling you what the reason is.

I'm not telling you I agree with it. I'm just telling you where it came from. and so the temperance movement really gained a lot of in the church and and a guy by the name of Welch capitalized on it I am not joking I am not joking really capitalized on it so Levi I think you're making I think you're making a good point no no no no I understand my point is that the argument isn't very strong unless we're consistent with that particular approach yeah well I would you know I would say that immersion is pretty clear it's very clear I would also like to add we don't drink out of the same cup yeah we don't We don't. Don't.

Listen up. Listen up. If we go to one cup, you better not have a problem with it. Because you have to be in communion. So... So Levi, I don't know how to answer your question.

I should have been giving that more thought since you brought it up to me a couple of years ago. I will die on immersion. I won't die on wine. Why? Because that leaves with great use. It's the representation still there.

Right, the blood of Christ. Whereas, you know, to be baptized in mercy, it needs to signify death and life. Where put in a water where it doesn do that So there is a difference So oh I get what what you saying and in some part I agree in some part that wine would probably be a better choice but I see why we don't do that. But there is a difference, I would argue.

At least Richard still grabs hold of the meat. Yeah, but I mean... Whereas, if you put water in your party, it doesn't do... But it says wine, it's wine. No, I mean, my God, I'm just saying that I'm sure that there could be an argument made for something about it. And this all caught my head.

The fermentation and the sourness and the fact that Jesus drank actual wine on the cross. I'm sure that arguments like that could be made. But what you're saying is it's just the content of the symbology that makes the difference? Well, I would argue that at least the British captures it to a certain degree, whereas if it is unimportant, it's not. So, if all we're talking about is symbolism and not substance, I mean, I guess, what difference does it make spiritually on anything?

What do you mean by spiritualism? So, mode, why is mode important at all? Because it, I mean, like John Calvin says, or Luther says, It's dying and being raised. Yeah, that was a great phrase. That was not what I meant to say. Okay.

Why is mode spiritually beneficial or edifying? Well, the first thing I would say in response to that is Jesus commanded it. And when He commanded it, He meant immerse. so just on that basis alone I would do it that way is there a spiritual thing? yeah it's what Jesus commanded he didn't command sprinkling that's the lowest level I'm going to start at right? right?

37 years ago Sharon no I know you guys if you know Levi you know he's not trying to upset the apple card he's just trying to get us to think I know it you were gonna bring him up in the elders meeting weren't you All right. Once more. Don't go out and find some Presbyterians and pick a fight. Or other Baptists. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, again, and again, this isn't clearly stated, but in 1 Corinthians 10 it talks about we partake of one loaf. And we used to do that. We used to do that. Some... Yeah. And you know what?

I think there's something to be said about those kinds of adjustments. In Romania, the churches there used to at least where no one drinks alcohol. Right? But they had wine at their communion service. I think they put aspirin in it or something, thinking that it would do something. I don't know what.

And by the way, in terms of baptism, the brethren, right, with the four ordinances, the brethren dunk three times forward. You get on your knees, and they just dunk your head. Or they put you under three times. Greg? God says, whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the way in which he walked. Christ was submerged.

I won't be submerged. Yeah. All right. Well, let's pray and we'll be dismissed, okay? Thank you, Father, for our time together. help us now and we will thank you give us direction as a church help us to be faithful to your word and Lord we will thank you that you have helped us thus we pray now again help us to truly do what scripture says in every area of our lives.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright.