It's good to be here today. I just wanted to tell you something before I get started. Is the mic doing OK? Yeah. Before I get started, I don't know if this happens to any of you, but I was looking for something in the house that I knew where I had put it, but I couldn't find it. And in my searching, I went to the closet in my office. And up on the top shelf, there was these two big notebooks. And I thought, what in the world is that? And so I pulled one down, and I just said out loud, oh, my word. I had forgotten. A few years ago, I had signed for an online class from the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Future. I thought it'd be good for my gray matter to answer questions. And I even had to write a paper, which was challenging. This is just one notebook of information that we got, charts and everything, and the second notebook isn't quite this thick. But I just wanted to show you, Lee, so aren't you glad I didn't find these before? Just think how long we would have talked. It was a lot of fun to take that class. Like I said, challenging, but that's what I wanted when I signed up for it. I went, they still do have the Institute of Jewish Studies, but they don't do online classes anymore. So I thought that's probably a good thing. So I was half way tempted to, maybe I should do that again, but no. Okay, let's open in prayer. Father, we are so grateful for your word. I just pray that you would challenge our hearts today. to be women who want to follow their God as close as possible. I just thank you for the truth of the word. And I thank you for sending your son, Jesus, to die as we think of this Easter season. Lord, we just owe you everything. And I thank you for that. And I pray that you would challenge our thinking, challenge our hearts today. May we honor you. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Well, this is by far the fewest number of verses that I have had to cover in any of my talks, but they are also some of the most intense and far-reaching than I have covered before. I mean, the Millennium itself could take quite a few sessions to cover it totally because it's talked about extensively in the Old Testament. There are different views about it, and there are so many interesting characteristics of it. So Gals, I'm going to tell you right up front, we're just going to cover the bare bones, because there are so many things that we could get into, and so many things we have to cover today. And there's also things that I want to include, being this is my last time teaching Lyft this year. And who knows, it might be the last time ever. Only God knows. I'm getting old. So if you were here last time, Christie covered Revelation chapter 19 and the first four verses of Revelation 20 and That's where we are today. We will pick up where she left off in Revelation 20 Now those four first four verses that she covered in Revelation 20 were about when Satan was seized and he was thrown into the abyss and And he was bound there for a thousand years, it says. And why was he bound for a thousand years? Verse 3 tells us it was that so he could not deceive the nations anymore. But then we find that word until. And that's what we will get to today. He was bound there until. So let's read Revelation chapter 20, verses 4 through 6. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for 1,000 years." Now, I am going to tell you briefly the three different views of the millennium. Like I said, there's three of them. The first view is called post-millennialism, and that view teaches that world conditions will gradually improve until the millennium arrives, after which then Jesus will return to the earth. In other words, Jesus won't come until we get it all together. That view isn't as popular as it was a few centuries ago, and I think you can understand why. Does anybody see us getting it all together in the world? Do you see it getting better? I don't see that. Another view is amillennialism. They teach that there is no future, literal 1,000 years. They believe that the present church age is the millennium. They believe that Satan is bound now. And they believe that the saints, us, are currently reigning with Christ, and it is a spiritualized thousand years. It's not a literal one. And there won't be a literal one. And I think you can see some problems with that as well. Which probably tells you that I believe the third one. I see problems with the other two. But the third one is called premillennialism. And that's the one I hold on to. That's the one our church holds on to. And this teaches that Christ will come first. We saw that in chapter 19. We take that literally. Christ came back on his white horse. And we were on our white horses right behind him. And then when he sets foot on this earth, that's when the millennium starts. This is based on a literal interpretation of the scripture that we have before us. So let's look at our timeline here. We have been talking a lot about the tribulation period there. Now, this is the second coming of Christ. This is when, chapter 19, when he comes on his horse, and the church-age saints are right behind him, and this ushers in those thousand-year reign, the millennium. So, remember how we talked about when the tribulation starts here, there is only unbelievers on the earth, because all the church-age saints have been raptured up, they've been taken up with God. We've studied that before. So at the beginning then of the tribulation, or the millennium, excuse me, God in the last chapter had judged all the unsaved. So in the millennium, those on earth are only believers. So the tribulation starts with unbelievers. The millennium starts with only believers. So who are the groups of people that will be on the earth at the start of the millennium? One group is the Old Testament saints, all who have been saved from the very beginning of time, creation, way past there, until the Church Age started, right there. When that started, all those saints, the Old Testament saints, will be resurrected at this time And they will be ruling and reign with Christ in the millennium. That's talked about in Daniel and other places. And after, when you start your discussion time, I gave your leader some handouts. Christie had made a resurrection chart. It has all the resurrections on there and the scripture that proves them. So if you weren't here last year and didn't get that, that could be a resource for you. So they'll be the Old Testament saints. Another group is the Church Age Saints. That will be us, those who were resurrected at the time of the rapture, those that were dead in Christ and were raised to unite with their glorified bodies, and those who are alive that were taken up with Christ and given glorified bodies. The Church Age Saints will be there during the millennium. That includes us. As we said before, Revelation 19 tells us that we come back with Jesus at his second coming. Another group is the group mentioned here in these verses, the tribulation saints. These are the saints who died during the tribulation. They will be resurrected at this time. Notice that it says that they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. So all those people who started out as unbelievers at the beginning of the tribulation, but during that time they became believers in Christ. And they made it through that horrible tribulation without losing their lives. They will, or no, I'm sorry, those that have died because of Christ. That's what it's talking about in these verses. They will be resurrected and will rule and reign with Christ. So those three groups will be there. I'm not going to take time to take you to all the scripture, but I will mention them here. If you want to jot some down, there's more. Daniel 7, 27. promises that the Old Testament Saints will reign in the Millennial Kingdom. The Church Age Saints, that's us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6-2, do you not know that the Saints will judge the world? That's during the Millennial Kingdom. And here in this passage, it says that the Tribulation Saints will reign with him. So God will somehow use all of us to rule and reign with him during the Millennial Kingdom. Now, how exactly will that work? What will it look like? I don't know, and I'm not even going to try to guess. I just know that all of us will have jobs to do, and they will be very fulfilling jobs, jobs for the king of kings and lord of lords. And we will be able to rule and reign with him during the millennial period. But there is another group of people who are on the earth at the start of the millennium. They will be those believers who made it through the tribulation without dying, both Jews and Gentiles. There will be that group going into the millennium. They will still have their earthly bodies. They won't have glorified bodies because they haven't died yet. So they will go on living. They will live normal, quote unquote, lives. They will get married. They will have children. Those children will have children, life will go on, and this will go on for 1,000 years. So as the tribulation starts, like I said, with unbelievers on the earth, the millennium starts with only believers on the earth. And can you imagine going through the tribulation? becoming a believer in Christ and making it through that horrible time, and then to be able to step into the millennium when Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning. It'll be amazing. So what will the conditions be like during the millennium? As I was studying, I was researching. I didn't bring it. My prophecy textbook is about that thick. Things to Come by Dr. Dwight Pentecost. That was my textbook on prophecy when I was at Grace. But I was looking under the heading of conditions existing within the millennium. And he started out with A was peace, B was joy, C was holiness. And he went on clear through W. We don't have time for that, ladies. But he also included scripture. There's scripture from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Malachi, Revelation. We just don't have time for all of that. But ladies, there's a lot of information in the Old Testament. Some of that gets tricky, because the prophets weren't said, OK, now tell them that this is the millennium. So it takes scholars smarter than me to figure out what timeline they're talking about. But you can find that information out there, and it is amazing. But I do want to go to a couple of scriptures that give a unique picture of that time. Isaiah 11, 6 through 9, says, the wolf will live with the lamb, The leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and the little child shall lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. as the waters cover the sea. Can you imagine? That's what the millennium will be like. Can you imagine your child saying, Mom, can I have a grizzly bear for a pet? Sure, why not? But seriously, I think this is a strong passage to also show that post-millennialism and amillennialism just don't work. Because even if we thought as humans, we were going to straighten out society and make it better and have that perfect millennial kingdom like it talks about in the Bible. How in the world would we change the animal kingdom? We can't. There's just no way. It has to be a divine presence of God. So the animal kingdom will be changed. And I have to admit, God is going to change me big time over that snake business, because I can't imagine even in my glorified body that I'm the cobra. But I know when I'm in my glorified body and it'll be the millennium, I'll have a totally different attitude. But right now, it's not happening. So another interesting verse is Isaiah 65 20. It says, never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days or an old man who does not live out his years. He who dies at 100 will be thought a mere youth. He who fails to reach 100 will be considered accursed. And there's more verses after that that go into the Millennium that I didn't print out. But if you want to read more about the Millennium, there's some following that that are really good verses. Um, this will be an incredible time because Jesus Christ will rule in rain. No one will be in want. No one will be left out. No one will be dissatisfied. It will be utopia here on earth. The lifespan will be like it was before the flood, you know, when people lived hundreds of years. Can you imagine? I mean, if I was in the millennium, I'd just be a kid now. It's hard to imagine. So it's really going to be an incredible time. Honestly, in my human thinking, I can't even imagine totally what it will be like. But it will be amazing because the government is a theocracy. God is in control. And it will be amazing. But back to Revelation 20, verse 6. It says, blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them. Do you realize, ladies, that if you have two births, you will have only one death? But if you only have one birth, you will have two deaths. That's what scripture teaches. You can have two births, your physical birth, of course, and your spiritual birth. Remember when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he said, you must be born again. That's talking about a spiritual birth that takes place when you recognize that you are a sinner, that you need saving, and recognize that Jesus died in your place, and ask him to forgive you your sins. So the two births. If you have those two, unless you are one of those that go in the rapture, then you won't have any physical death, of course. But normally, you will have only one death, your physical death. But if you only have your physical birth, without having a spiritual birth, you will die twice, you will die physically, and you will die spiritually. And that brings us to our next set of verses in Revelation 20, verses seven through 10. They say, When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. In number they will be like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown and They will be tormented day and night forever and ever To be honest with you ladies these verses just blow my mind Satan is released from his 1,000 years Imprisonment in the abyss and he goes out across the earth again Like he is doing now to deceive the nations to deceive the people And here are all these people who have been born during the millennium, who have lived under the perfect reign of Jesus Christ, who have had nothing but good. There's been no crime, no anything. And those who turn and side with Satan, it says, are like the number of the sand on the seashore. Isn't that incredible? But, you know, this shows the truth of the Word of God. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? You know, we're good at blaming our sins on everything but us. You know, it's our parents. It's our environment. It's whatever. You know, we don't take responsibility for our sins. But the truth is, it's in us. We have an old sin nature. And those people that are born during the millennium, they still have that old sin nature because they're human. That has to be dealt with. And some of them will accept Christ, but many, many, many will not, even though they live in a perfect environment. It has to be a heart choice. And thousands are going to side with Satan. I was trying to think of an illustration of this. And one thing I thought of is most of you are raising kids now. Most of us have raised some kids. But we've all been around it. And maybe you were part of this growing up when two of the siblings were fighting. And your mom and dad say, tell your brother, tell your sister you're sorry. Sorry. Ever seen that? Done that? You know, outwardly, you are saying it, but you can tell inwardly, and no, they don't mean a word of that. You know, that has to come from inside. We can't make them do that. So when Satan deceives these people and they decide to side with him, it shows what their heart really has done. It has rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior. They go out to war against God. And in this war, he just calls fire down from heaven. And it's done. They're gone. There's no big battle. The people are dead. And it's at this time that Satan is thrown into his eternal destination, the lake of fire. And notice that it is constant. It's day and night. It's forever and ever. Don't believe those who say that eternity isn't eternity, that it's not going to last forever. That's not what the Bible says. The truth is it is forever and ever. God says that. So we learned last time the beast and the false prophet were already thrown in there. So Satan joins them. And that is his eternal destination. And now we come to what has to be right up there with the saddest verses in the Bible. And to tell you the truth, studying these verses has made me weep many times. It's just gotten to me. And I hope I can make it through, because if I start crying, I can't see my notes. So forgive me. But this is about the great white throne. Let's read Revelation chapter 20. verses 11 through 15. And I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were open. Another book was open, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone's name was not written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." On our chart, I think I have that. Right at the end of Lumenanium, see at the top, there's the great white throne. That happens at the very end of that 1,000 years after Satan is judged. Then the great white throne comes. John sees a great white throne. The description of that is really cool. It's great because it's the throne of God. It's white because it symbolizes His purity and His perfect righteousness. And it's a throne because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And they are there to face Him. But there's a very interesting sentence here that I want you to know. It's kind of just tucked in there. It says, Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. Excuse me. I need to get a sip of water. I'm getting pretty dry. This is the moment in time, after the millennium, when this earth and our atmospheric heavens are gone. Do you realize what scripture says about creation? We all probably know Genesis 1-1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In Psalm 33, verse 6 and then verse 9, It says, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry hosts by the breath of his mouth. And then verse 9 is, for he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. So Psalm tells us in other places, I couldn't include all the scriptures, but God just spoke the word. And it came into existence. He's God. So creation in six days was nothing to God. He just spoke the word. And then look at Colossians 117. It says, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Do you realize that you, everything in this room, everything you see in creation, is held together by the power of God, by the word of God? That's the only way it is held together. God is doing it. But now look at 2 Peter 3.10. It says, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire. And the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. This is a verse that corresponds with that sentence we have in Revelation 20, that earth and sky fled from his presence. Do you realize that God just has to speak the word? All he has to do is release the atoms and everything. I mean, talk about a roar. It's gone. And that's what will happen at this time. Now don't worry, because you'll get to Revelation 21 where there's a new heaven and a new earth. So all will be good. It's amazing when you stop and think about it that we are here just because God is holding us together. And when he releases that atom, it is gone. It doesn't almost seem real to us, but it will happen because God says that it will happen. And it's just amazing to think about. And then at this time, there is a final resurrection. I don't know if I have the chart next. Nope. I won't go back there. On your charts, at the end of the millennium, there will be one final resurrection. And it will be the resurrection of all unbelievers from the beginning of time, from creation until the end of the millennium. All unbelievers. They will be there standing before God, before his great white throne, at the end of the millennium. John says he saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before him. So again, it's all unbelievers of all time, whether they were kings or slaves, whether they were famous or not famous, whether they lived in castles and mansions, or whether they were homeless. whether they were what the world thought were somebodies or the world thought were nobodies. Everybody who does not have Jesus Christ as their savior will be there. And it says he opened the books and they weren't in the book of life. So they were judged according to their deeds and were thrown into the lake of fire the second death. The thing that has really made me weep over this passage is because they didn't have to be here. They didn't have to be here. Jesus could have been their defense lawyer instead of their judge. if they had just turned to him, but they didn't. So now he is their judge. And gals, if there is a part of you that thinks, you know, it's really not fair of God to send them to the lake of fire for all eternity. And in our humanity, it's sometimes easy to fall into that trap. I beg you to turn that thinking around. Because the truth is, it's not fair that I'm not there with you. Because that's what I deserve. That's what Easter is all about, ladies. Jesus came and took my place. He died on the cross. So I wouldn't have to be where I deserve to be. It's such an incredible truth. I came across a couple of verses in my study of this that have become very precious to me. They're in Job chapter 16, verses 19 and 20, the first part of verse 20. Even now, my witness is in heaven. My advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend. Isn't that amazing? He's my witness. He's my advocate. He's my intercessor. He's in heaven doing that for me. I have these verses underlined. I hadn't had them in my memory verses, but they're there now because they're such precious verses. What an amazing truth. If Jesus wasn't my advocate, if he wasn't my intercessor, I would be standing along with the rest of these people at this point in time and deservedly so because I was lost. Daniel talks about this setting in Daniel 7. And he says there that there are myriads and myriads standing before him. I mean, we can't even imagine how many people this will be all believers of all time. Can you just imagine? And with our finite minds, we kind of tend to picture this Tremendously, tremendously long line, and one at a time going before God and getting their judgment. And if that were the case, it sounds like it would take all eternity, right? Because unbelievers of all time. And this is just a thought of mine. I have no idea, but I suspect it might be this way. Because God is everywhere. If you are a believer in Christ, he is in you. I'm a believer in Christ. He is in me. He is everywhere. So I just wonder if during this right white throne judgment, that one person is having their one on one time with God. And it just seems like there's just the two of us, two of them, and they are getting their judgment. But at the same time, another person might be having their one on one time with God, getting their judgment. because God is everywhere. Does that make sense? I don't know. We'll see how God does it. I don't know. But everyone will be judged. And they're all judged and thrown into the lake of fire. And I just want to mention here, we don't have time to get into it because I really want you to have plenty of discussion time at your tables today. But The scripture is clear that there will be degrees of punishment in hell. Some will get severe punishment than others because of the deeds that they have done while they were on earth. But make no mistake, they're still in the lake of fire. It's still a place you don't want to be. Eternity apart from God, and it's going to be awful for everyone. As Christy mentioned last time, I wanted to go back for a few minutes to the marriage supper of the Lamb. In my old textbook, again, That Thing's to Come, Dr. Pentecost made a case for this event taking place during the Millennial Kingdom that we've been talking about. And some scholars think it will be during the Tribulation, while we are up in heaven while the tribulation is going on in earth. I have no problem with either one. I'll find out someday. But it made sense to me that it takes place during the millennium. I'm not going to get into the whys of that, but I do want to focus on a verse here. So while I get another drink, flip back to Revelation 19, verse 7. This verse talks about the fine linen. Well, let's read it first. Revelation 19, verse 7. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory for the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And the next verse talks about the fine linen that will be given to us. as a bride and we know that we don't receive these until we get to heaven and we are at our judgment, not for our sin, but for what we have done for him. But until that time, while we're down on earth, we are still going to struggle with our old sin nature. We are never going to arrive as long as we're on this earth. There are scripture verses that tell us that we should be a bride making ourselves ready now. Are you working on that? Are you wanting to be confident and unashamed at his coming as 1st John 2, 28 says. There's been a couple of people who have called my attention to a teaching going on right now called full grace. One gal I know, and she's not from here, her brother has gotten into this, and this is what is being taught. They say God offers you full grace for all your sins, and that is true. If you have received Christ as your Savior, all your sins are forgiven. But then they teach, so therefore, God doesn't care what you do. He doesn't care. You can do whatever you want to, because you have full grace. That sin is forgiven. To which I say, what Bible are you reading? Because that's not what my Bible says, gals. That God doesn't care about what you do. I, when I was at Grace, I had a professor named Dr. Brooke Holder. He's with the Lord now. And one of the classes he taught was Romans. And the classes at Grace, most of them were in this great big white building. We called it the big white barn, the students. There were all the different floors, the academic classes were in there. And whenever Dr. Brooke Holder got to Romans chapter six, I thought I had it in there. Well, I'll turn there. I must have missed one for Christi. I'm going to blame her. She missed it. Romans chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. It says, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? And when Dr. Burkholder would come to this verse, Say, I want to show you how much emphasis in the Greek is in that by no means. And he would just yell to the top of his lungs, no. And I don't want to do it here, because I'd scare the babies. But it stuck with us, because through all the building, everyone would say, Dr. Burkholder's on Romans 6. You should hear it everywhere. But that's what God says, no, we don't keep sinning so that grace may abound. Gals, there are tons and tons of verses that we could use to prove that God cares about the way we live our lives. If you look through my Bible, I think I've told you this before, I underline commands in pink. There's a ton of them. Do I do that perfectly? Absolutely not. But Romans 8.29 tells us that we are to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. We are supposed to be becoming like Him. Does that sound like you can do whatever you want and God does not care? I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 3. These are some verses that I wanted to touch on because they talk about the last days, which we've been talking about here in our prophecy lessons. 2 Timothy chapter 3, I'm going to read verses 1 through 5. But mark this. There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, have nothing to do with them. Paul talks about the last days and we need to heed his word. Does any of that sound like it's happening in our time? I don't see anything really on that list that isn't happening now. And as believers, we have to be so careful. Move your eyes over to chapter 4 of 2 Timothy. Read verses 3 and 4. It says, for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. That sounds like what I've just been talking about, doesn't it? We tend to gravitate to teachers that tell us what we want to hear. If we don't want to hear that the lake of fire is eternal, then we'll find those teachers that will say, oh, don't worry about that. You're just annihilated, or it's temporary, or whatever. We have to be so, we have to be women of sound doctrine like it says here. We can't pick and choose around the Bible. To pick what we like, this part I don't like, so I'm just going to throw it out. It's God's word to us, and we need to be women of sound doctrine. And I wanted to, as we approach the summer months, and eventually our weather will get there, I think, but I want to challenge you a little bit about what you do this summer. During the summer, we tend to take a break from things. We get a break from Lyft. If you're helping in Iwana, you take a break from Iwana. Leaders are going, yes. If you're in a discipleship group or maybe a Bible study, you take a break during the summer because summers are busy with vacations. Don't take a break from church. Realize there'll be weekends that you're gone on vacation or stuff. But if you're around. You need to keep going to church. But we get a break from what we have going on. But I want to challenge you now. Don't take a break from God. Don't take a break from God. Keep coming like it says in Revelation 19, like a bride who has made herself ready. Do what you can do to be a bride that is making herself ready. So I want to challenge you, I want to, if you are willing to set up a goal for yourself this summer, of what you can do to keep yourself growing deeper into Christ, to become a bride that has made herself ready. Now what will that look like? I don't know. It'll probably differ from each and every one of you. Some of you are raising little kids, so I assume that your goal might be a little bit less than what mine might be. And that's great, because you're investing into the lives of those little ones. You're teaching them about God. I remember those days. It's tiring. It takes time. But that's your priority, too, and it should be. So maybe for you, if you're busy with little kids, maybe your goal could be just to memorize a handful of verses that you get up in your mind. Maybe that could be your goal. If you have more time, like I do, maybe you could find a couple books. And I have, along with a handout for the resurrections, I have at your tables a list that a couple of the pastors gave me some books that they enjoy for growing deeper into Christ. I listed a couple. I didn't tell who listed what, but there's some suggestions there that you might pick. But I want you, that's why I wanted plenty of time. And we are going to, well, That clock is wrong, I think. But you're going to have plenty of time to discuss, brainstorm around your tables. Tell books that have really helped you. I want to hear at my table what books have helped you. Give some ideas of what you might do, what that might look like. But set a goal for yourself to attain so that you can be growing this summer in Christ. Maybe you could Choose an accountability partner. I suggest that because sometimes we say we're going to do something and nobody knows about it Nobody knows I made it Maybe could be your spouse. Just would you ask me once in a while every couple weeks? You know, how you doing? I'm reading your book or you know, whatever I actually I asked my old roommate from Grace, she lives in Arizona, and I asked her if she'd be my accountability partner, and she was happy to do that. Probably because we ended up talking for an hour on the phone, so hopefully. But sharing books and stuff, it was a blast to talk to her again. So anyway, I don't know what it'll look like for you, and maybe you don't want to do it. I'm obviously not forcing anybody. But I think it's good because, like I said, I don't want the summer to be a break from God. Just spend time getting to know Him. A couple of Sundays ago, in Sunday evening, Pastor Jake was teaching about the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. And he was talking about how she did that because she had been forgiven so much. She loved him so much. And ladies, let's grow in our love for Jesus because of him. I don't have to be at the great white throne judgment. I should be growing in my love for him so much more than I am. So oftentimes I pray, Lord, I love you. Help me to love you more. I don't think it'll take us all the eternity to realize how much Jesus really has done for us. Grow in him. Let it increase your love for God. Be a bride that has made herself ready. Let's pray. Father, these truths here are so thrilling and yet so terrifying at the same time. Lord, help us to be women that see the loss is really lost. Sometimes I think I miss that. Help us to be bolder in sharing the faith. Help us to be more consistent in praying for those that we do not know, do not know you yet. Neighbors and relatives. I pray that you would help us to grow in you to be a bride who has made herself ready. Lord, thank you for this Easter season. Thank you for sending your son to die for us. Thank you for that crown of thorns that he wore for our sake. And I pray, Lord, that as we discuss around the table, that you would give us wisdom, help us to honor you, and help us to be women of sound doctrine. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.