Julius: Yeah. Good morning. Wonderful to gather together with you to celebrate Pentecost. You can see that we have changed to the color red, and not hard to see why. On Pentecost, tongues of fire were above the heads of the disciples, and the Holy Spirit still comes to us, maybe not visibly in fire, but he works through the power of his word. And so we'll celebrate the Holy Spirit today. Our order of service is one maybe we haven't used for a little while. It's matins. Morning praise and most of it is printed in the bulletin, but you'll notice the very start isn't. So if you'd like the music and I would recommend that, you can use page two hundred eight in the hymnal. Page two hundred eight in the hymnal is where morning praise starts. But first we'll start with our opening hymn. I believe it's him five hundred and eighty nine. Five hundred eighty five. May God bless our worship together. Page two hundred seven in the hymnal if you're following along. Page two hundred seven. Please stand. O Lord open my lips and my mouth shall declare your praise. Hasten to save me, O God. O Lord, come quickly to help me. The spirit of the Lord fills the world. Praise and thanks to God. ⁓ come let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise, for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods. The deep places of the earth are in his hands. The heights of the hills are also his The sea is his for he made it and his hand form thy land O come let us worship and ⁓ Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. You may be seated. We'll continue with the Psalm of the Day, Psalm one hundred four. It talks about God's life giving and powerful spirit. The soloist will sing the first refrain and the verses we're invited to sing the rest of the refrains. And five your spirit alone and renew the face of the earth. The Lord I soul, Lord God, how great you are. Wrapped in a garment of glory. Sand bive your spirit along and reno sand by spirit alone. Sabia To your works in wisdom you make them all riches the earth and filled with your life bless the Lord who bless my soul. Sat on your spirit alone and dream you don't ⁓ Sand your spirit along and drink the face of the earth. Your creatures look to you to give them their food in time. You give with abundance they gather it time. They have their food send forth your spirit already send forth your spirit and drink. Sabia. The first reading which will serve as the sermon text this morning from Genesis chapter eleven. The whole earth had one language and a single vocabulary. As people traveled in the east they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. They said to one another, Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used mud, brick, instead of stone for building material, and they used tar for mortar. They said, Come, let's build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky. And let's make a name for ourselves so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. The Lord said, If this is the first thing that they are doing as one people, who all have one language, then nothing they intend to do will be too difficult for them. Come, let's go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. It was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. The word of the Lord Thanks be to God. We'll sing the first two stanzas of Him five hundred and eighty nine. The second reading, the account of Pentecost from Acts chapter two. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the rushing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw divided tongues that were like fire resting on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, since the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak fluently. Now there were godly Jewish men from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. When this sound was heard a crowd came together and was confused, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were completely baffled, and said to one another, Look, are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them speaking in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, Residents of Mesopotamia and of Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring in our own languages the wonderful works of God. They were all amazed and perplexed. They kept saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocked them and said, They are full of new wine. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and spoke loudly and clearly to them. Men of Judea, and all you residents of Jerusalem, understand this and listen closely to my words. These men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day. On the contrary, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. This is what God says will happen in the last days. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and a rising cloud of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And this will happen. Every one who calls on the name of the Lord Will be saved. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. At this time I invite any children interested forward for the children's devotion. Välkommen, välkommen. Tack tack det är så härligt att se er vad fint som många barn. Titta här och vet ni vad vi pratar om idag. I dag pratar vi om heliga anden. Vet som helige anden är, han kom ner som äldre över huvudet, han pratar om Jesus Kristus. Did you guys understand? No, no. No? What? ⁓ right. That was, do you know what language that was? No. Not English, right? That was Swedish. Okay. So you're saying you didn't understand that. You don't speak Swedish? No. Okay, let me try that again. Welcome, welcome. Good to see you all. It's so nice. Today we're celebrating. Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, and he came down like fire above their heads, and he talked about Jesus Christ. Did you understand that? Yeah. Whoa, cool. It makes a lot more sense when you hear it in your own language, doesn't it? On Pentecost, there were people from so many different countries. You just heard them. Maybe you didn't even know those places existed. Parthians, Elamites, Medes, residents of Mesopotamia, all these places. And guess what? They all heard about Jesus in their own language. The Holy Spirit gave them all the ability to talk to the disciples, the ability to talk to everybody in their own language and hear about Jesus. Do you think it's important to hear about Jesus in your own language? Would it help you if we did the whole service in Swedish? No. No, you wouldn't understand anything. God wants you all to understand about Jesus. So he makes sure that everybody can hear about Jesus in your own language. You know what? Jesus didn't speak English. Peter spoke Greek and Aramaic. They didn't speak English, but God made sure that you could hear about Jesus in English. Because the Holy Spirit works through people like you to share Jesus with everybody everywhere. Now, let me think. Your friends, do they speak Swedish? No. No? Your friends, do they speak Russian? No. No? Do they speak English? ⁓ good. Do you know English? ⁓ that means the Holy Spirit has given you the ability to share Jesus with the people around you who know English. Isn't that amazing? So we ask the Holy Spirit, ⁓ Holy Spirit, help us share. Share about Jesus in whatever language we know. So let's pray. Holy Spirit, thank you for bringing God's word to us in languages we can hear and understand. Help us share the good news about Jesus in whatever language we know. In Jesus' name we pray. Thanks for coming up, everyone. You can go back to your spots. I invite the congregation to stand. We'll sing stanzas three and four of hymn five hundred and eighty nine. Chapter fourteen where Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Jesus answered him, If any one loves me he will hold on to my word, my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who does not love me does not hold on to my words. The word that you are hearing is not mine, but it is from the Father who sent me. I have told you these things while staying with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I told you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid. You heard me tell you, I am going away and I am coming to you. If you loved me, you will be glad that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. I will not speak with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, but I want the world to know that I love the Father and that I am doing exactly what the Father has instructed me. Get up, let's leave this place. The gospel of the Lord. Praise be to you, O Christ. You may be seated for the hymn of the day, hymn four hundred and seventy nine, which reviews the events of Pentecost and applies them to our lives. We pray. Come, holy light, guide divine, and cause the word of life to shine, teach us to know our God aright, and call him Father with delight, from every error keep us free, let none but Christ our master be, that we in living faith abide, in him our Lord with all our might confide. Amen. Dear friends, we're living in another time of seeming seemingly limitless human potential. It's happened several times throughout history. After the invention of the book, whoa, now we can collect knowledge in one place. After the invention of the printing press, wow, now we can print that and share it everywhere. After the invention of the internet, whoa, now we can communicate with people around the world, and now we're living through the age of artificial intelligence. Seemingly a time of limitless human potential. What will humans do with this new technology? In Genesis chapter 11, humanity was also living through a time of seemingly limitless potential. They had had this before at creation, when God created this beautiful, wonderful world, and he put Adam and Eve in it, and they had this limitless potential to go out into the world and take care of it, fill it, subdue it, and enjoy it all according to God's command and to his glory. But pretty soon Adam reached out his hand. Not for God's glory, but for his own glory, and he took the forbidden fruit, and he fell. And after that we saw the dark side of human potential, their potential to descend, not ascend to the glory of God, but to descend into inglorious selfishness and sin. And humanity was showing its potential to the full before the flood. There was wickedness filling the earth. And so God sent the flood. Those great waters, in a sense, to wash away sin and save Noah and his family and start fresh in a new creation. And here was a time of potential for good. He said to Noah and his family, Go, fill the earth. Fill the earth. They could do it. They could spread out into all the world and enjoy God's creation to his glory. But they didn't make it very far. In Genesis chapter eleven, so soon after the flood we hear this. The whole earth had one language and a single vocabulary. As people traveled in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there. How far did they get? They had an entire globe to explore. It says, here they are in the east, and they made it to this nice looking plain, this nice looking field in the land of Shinar, and they thought, ⁓ good enough. Let's stay here. And they start making plans. We'll not spread around the world. We'll stay here and build something cool. We read, They said to one another, Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They used mud brick instead of stone for building material. They used tar for mortar. They said, Come, let's build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top reaches the sky. And let's make a name for ourselves so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. They had limitless potential, it seemed, to obey God's command and spread around the world. And what do they do? They say, Let's stay right here and build a tower. The tower of Babel. And they were using the most advanced technology. It might not sound that way to us. They say, let's use mud bricks instead of stone. Whoa, this was a leap forward. If you're using mud bricks instead of stone, you can build a tower. You can build it up, seemingly to them, to the heavens. And why? Why are they staying there? And why are they building a tower? They explain it pretty clearly. They say, Let us build a city for ourselves, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky. Let us make a name for ourselves so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. You hear it, don't you? Us ourselves. Us ourselves. Let us make a name for ourselves to directly contradict what God said. God said, spread out, and they said, let's do this so we don't have to spread out. God tells us in the Lord's Prayer to pray, hallowed be thy name, but they were saying, hallowed be my name. Let's build a tower for ourselves using the most advanced technology we've ever used. And here we see that humans do have potential, but their limitless potential doesn't go up, it goes down. Not up to God and his glory and his perfection. But down to themselves, to their basest desires, to their selfishness. That's their potential. And it's the first thing they would have thought of. If you read along in verse six, God looks down at them and says, If this is the first thing that these people are doing, the first thing, their first inclination, is to go against what God says and to be selfish, their first inclination, and why? Well, our translation, God calls them people, but literally it says they are sons of Adam. Sons of Adam. And here we find the teaching that we call original sin. The original sin, Adam reached out and took that fruit, and he was corrupted. And after that, every single descendant of Adam became corrupt and sinful. So that the first inclination of their heart was no longer to live for God in his glory, but to live for themselves. Selfishly and to descend into evil. That was their first inclination then. And we still confess today that if humanity has potential, it's mostly potential for this to do evil, to be selfish, to think about me, me, me instead of God, God, God, to go down instead of up. And this is still the inclination of our sinful nature. Now, all of us who have been baptized have had a sort of flood happen to us. With those waters, God washed away our sins and gave us a brand new start. We are like a new creation. And so, yes, according to our new nature, we can live for God, live for his glory. But we still confess that until this body dies and gets resurrected, that original corruption is still there. We say it at the start of church. You might think the confession of sins at the start of church is. Well, I don't really remember a specific sin I did this last week to confess. Well the first thing we confess is I am by nature sinful, which is worse by far. Our nature itself is corrupt, inclined downward instead of upward, and so we confess that and we still have to fight against that and repent of that, that we still have this inclination to live for ourselves instead of God, to go against his will, to chase after my will and live for my name instead of his. And think about how it's our gut reaction in life in a lot of things. You think about the miracle, God gives us a blessing of a child. And often the first thought when receiving that blessing is: How is this going to affect me? And my life, and my sleep, and what I want to do. God gives some the blessing of marriage. And our thoughts often in marriage are: How is this person, this spouse, Helping me or hindering me from the life that I want to have for myself. In both of those things, instead, the Christian thinks, wow, here's a child. How can I glorify God in how I love and care for this child and raise him or her in the Lord? In marriage, the Christian thinks, here's a spouse. How can I declare God's name and God's grace in how I interact with my husband or with my wife? You think about other things that happen to you in life. Think about health. When your health is taken away from you, what's your gut reaction? What do you think? ⁓ no, I don't like this. This isn't good for me. When our inclination as new creations could be, should be how can I glorify God when I don't have good health? Just like how can I glorify God when He restores my health? Whatever blessings the Lord gives us. We do have this sinful inclination to take that and use it as a building block in a tower to myself, to my life, to what I want. And why is that not a good thing? Because man's potential doesn't go up, it goes down. And you kind of see that in what the Lord has to do to the Tower of Babel here. It's kind of funny. The Lord looks down and he says, What are we going to do about this? And originally, when I was reading these verses, I was a little confused. It made it sound like God was threatened. What does God say about it? He looks down on this tower and he says, We have to stop them because nothing they intend to do will be too difficult for them. Nothing they intend to do will be too difficult for them. Think, is God threatened? Does he think, uh-oh, these guys with their united will and united language, they're actually gonna build a tower up to heaven and invade? It's not that. And you can tell because how the Lord has to come look at the tower. The Lord says, the triune God says, let's go down and see what's going on down there. Let's go down. Do you see how far down the tower is from heaven? It's like God has to get his magnifying glass out and say, Hey, wait a minute. What are they doing way down there? So it's not that they're threatening God and they're making their way up to him. No he says, Let's go down to stop them because whatever they intend to do, they'll accomplish. This is more like a parent opening a door and looking into the room and seeing a child with a permanent marker. And the parent thinks, ⁓ man, they're gonna do whatever they want with that thing. What potential for a mess? I better intervene. And so what the Lord's doing here is he's looking down on humanity's potential to do evil, and he says, I have to limit that. Because if they want to do evil and they keep doing that, it's gonna cause no end of trouble and destruction to them. Because living for yourself only lives to self-destruction. And so the Lord goes down and he puts an end to it. It kind of makes me think of this Italian guy named Silvio Saba. Silvio Saba. He's in his 30s, and he has a seemingly limitless potential to set Guinness World Records. You mean you haven't heard of this guy? He has set such records as the most paper or the most clothespins clipped to your face in 60 seconds. Very impressive. Beans moved from one location to another with chopsticks. And my personal favorite tallest Lego tower built in thirty seconds with one hand. Wow. And he's only in his thirties. He has fifty records already. Aren't you excited to see what he does with the rest of his life? I'm not really. Because if you set the world record for putting clothespins on your face, all you've really accomplished is putting a lot of clothespins on your face. If you set the world record for building the world's largest Lego tower, you have built something that a toddler can knock over. And that's what the Lord is showing to humanity here. When he comes down and says, Stop that. You're not building as glorious a thing as you think. He says, Come, let's go down there and confuse their language, so they cannot understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them from over there to the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. It was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. One moment they're working together smoothly, hand me a wrench. The next moment his partner hands him a sandwich. ⁓ I thought that's what you said. The Lord comes down and He scrambles their language. Miraculous language is such a miracle. God comes down and instantly creates hundreds of them and he scatters them. And the Lord doesn't just stop their potential for self-destruction here. He does something else. He shows his limitless potential for glorifying his name, which is what humanity really needs. Because when God glorifies his name, he glorifies his plan of salvation that saves humans and is the only way. To glory. And it doesn't look very glorious at the start, but look what God has accomplished. Remember when Noah came out of the ark, God said, Go scatter, fill the whole earth, and they said, No. What happens here? It says, From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. God is accomplishing his plan despite humanity's rebellion, and they're scattering over the face of the whole earth. And it doesn't seem very glorious, but you got to keep reading. Even though this is the part of the Bible where if you started a reading plan, you may be stopped. Because right after Genesis chapter 11, what do you get? Genealogies. Names. Right after this, we hear about the sons of Shem, Elam, Ashur, Arfaksad, Lud, Aram, Soon, this guy, the son of this guy, this guy, the son of this guy. And you go, ⁓ man, I started in Genesis and I made it to chapter eleven. I think I'll put my Bible down for a while. But don't miss what's being listed there. Names. The Tower of Babel, these glorious people, they say, Let's build a name for ourselves with this tower. You know what's not listed in the first nine chap nine verses of Genesis eleven? Any names. They worked so hard, selfishly, to build a name for themselves, and they were forgotten forever. But after that, when the Lord starts working his plan, now, now we have names. Because the Lord has the potential to build a name not just for himself, but also for people. When they're brought into his plan of salvation, and that's what you see as you go through this genealogy. The Lord is not picking the big, powerful, famous people who build themselves up to heaven. He's picking the weak, the lowly, the second born. He's picking Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He works his way all the way down to a nobody, the lowly Virgin Mary. Who says, I'm nobody, and the Lord says, I know, and that's why I can lift you up. And she gets it. She sings in her song, The Lord has scattered the proud in their conceit, but has lifted up the lowly, the humble, the meek, those who confess that they can't build a name for themselves before God, those who look to the Lord and his name for mercy, the Lord picks them up. And Mary gives birth to who? A nobody. Jesus of Nazareth. And people say, Nazareth, can anything good come from there? And yet the stone the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone of a new tower, of a new temple that the Lord Himself would build, a true building that can get people to heaven. Jesus was born in a miraculous way, so that corruption of Adam was not passed down, so that he truly had the limitless potential. To live for good and live for God. And that's what Jesus did. Every moment of his life, every action and reaction was all about the Lord, his Father, and the Father's glory. That's who Jesus lived for perfectly, constructing a true temple of glory. And then he died in the place of people who live for themselves. You know, when Jesus was lifted up on the cross, he showed the fate of everybody who tries to lift himself up. It will only lead to shame and ridicule and self-destruction. But Jesus also showed as he was lifted up on the cross that he was taking that in our place, taking away the results of our sin, reversing the curse of Adam to give you the results of his life. Connected to Jesus through faith, you are connected to that true tower, the better tower. The temple that Jesus rebuilt in three days when he rose again from the dead. And that temple does give you the glory of heaven. So you have a name, and it's not yours. It's the name of Jesus placed on you in baptism that writes your name in the book of life. And that's what was happening on Pentecost. In Babel, everybody was united for what? For selfish reasons. United to build a tower for themselves, and that didn't work out so well. And they were scattered and all speaking different languages. But that is reversed on Pentecost, isn't it? People from every nation under heaven who can't understand each other are all of a sudden gathered in one place, united in one purpose, hearing one message in their own language. And what is that message? Not the wonderful potential of humanity. The wonderful works of people, we read, we hear them declaring in our own languages the wonderful works of God. The wonderful works of God. And what is the most wonderful work of God that accomplishes what people never could? The message is: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone. Everyone who tries to build his own name apart from God will be lost and forgotten forever. But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, who looks to the only name that is above every name that can save, everyone who calls on that name will be saved, and united in the Holy Spirit's limitless potential to share that message with the world. And that's really what we want to do. That's the message of Pentecost for us. You know, as part of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, you are united with 300,000 plus other people around the world from different backgrounds with different languages in one purpose to proclaim the name of the Lord. In just a few days, my parents are flying over to Africa for the Confessional Evangelical Lutheran Conference, a gathering of over 25. Lutheran church bodies around the world, all speaking different languages, but all gathering together in one place to talk about how we can share the gospel together around the world. The Holy Spirit has limitless potential to work through you, to work through Christians to share the gospel, and He's doing that here. Like I mentioned in the children's sermon, the disciples did not speak English, but you do. Which means the Holy Spirit can use you here in this place to share the gospel that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. What potential? You think about times of great change? When the book was invented, who were the first people to use it? Christians to bind together the scriptures, to share the Bible. When the printing press came, who used it most? Christians to bring the Bible into every home. When the internet came, you know what Christians thought? We can use this to share the gospel around the world. What are Christians going to do with artificial intelligence? Remains to be seen. But I know this. As the Holy Spirit works through his word to inspire Christians, yes, to use these great advances in technology, the Holy Spirit has a limitless potential to spread the name of Jesus around the world through you in one voice. Amen. Please stand. And the peace of God which goes beyond all understanding. Guard and keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen. For our creed today, we're singing a song. The Te Deum, the church has been singing this for over fifteen hundred years. We sing, We praise you, O God. We praise you ⁓ God, we are Worships you for earth. Change to All the powers of hand, cherubim and seraphim singing and less praise Holy, holy, holy Lord God of heavenly hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. The glorious company of apostles praise you. The noble fellowship of prophets praise you. The white-robed army of martyrs praise you. Throughout the world, the Holy Church acclaims you. Father of Majesty unbounded, your glorious, truth, and only Son, and the Holy Spirit advocated and guide. You Christ are the King of Glory, the eternal Son of the Father. When you became man to set us free, you humbled yourself to be born of a virgin. You overcame the sting of death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all bears. You sit at the right. And of God in the glory of the father We believe that you will come to be our judge. Come then Lord and help your people. But with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting. Maybe seated. This time we gather our thank offerings to God. If you're a guest with us today, please don't feel obligated to participate. This service is our gift to you. Please stand. Hear my voice when I call O Lord, be merciful and answer me. Lord have mercy Christ have mercy Lord have mercy. Let us pray. O God, on this day you once taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit. Grant us in our day by the same Spirit to have a right understanding in all things, and evermore rejoice in this holy consolation. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. O Lord, our Heavenly Father, Almighty and Everlasting God, you have brought us safely to this new day. Defend us with your mighty power, and grant that this day we neither fall into sin nor run into any kind of danger, and in all we do direct us to what is right in your sight, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. And before we pray the Lord's Prayer together, I have a special prayer for Memorial Day. On this day, set aside to honor those who have died in the service of our country, O God, we thank you for giving us such patriotic citizens in a country that chooses to remember them. Also, we give thanks to you for the saints who have gone before us in your service and have preserved for us the rich heritage of your gospel. We remember the blessings you gave to them and to us through them. Praise to you, O Savior, in your eternal glory. And we join to pray as our Saviour taught us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. Let us praise the Lord. Thanks be to God. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. You may be seated for the closing hymn, which reflects the gospel reading for today. It's hymn eight hundred nine. Yeah. Again, good morning. A joy to gather together with all of you. Thank you for being here to celebrate this special festival of Pentecost. Now the Holy Spirit comes to us through the Word of God, and so we love to have the Word of God dwell in us richly. And I know personally it's hard to keep my Bible reading plan going in the summer because schedules are crazy. But we have some options for you here if they are helpful to you. I handed out to some of you before and hopefully get the rest of you after, and there's a stack back there. This is our 16 memory passages for the summer. So Sunday school is on hold until after Labor Day weekend. So here's one memory passage for each week until then. You can put it on your fridge, check off the box each week. I use the Evangelical Heritage Version for this translation, but if you like King James or NIV, you can use those for yours. So memorize one Bible passage each week, check it off, and if you show this to me after week eight. And after week 16, you'll get a prize, and it might involve ice cream. So that's for the whole family to work together on. And that's connected to our summer Bible studies. Now, our summer Bible studies will start at 10:30 and go for just 19 minutes. Everybody has an extra 19 minutes to fill your life with God's Word, and they will be based on the Bible passage that you're memorizing for that week. So we'll study it together here as a church family, that Bible passage. And then we'll go out and memorize it and use it throughout the week. And by the end of the summer, you'll have 16 Bible passages dwelling in your heart richly. And that's how the Holy Spirit works. So that's an option for you. And then a reminder that every bulletin tells you what's coming up. So there's a handout or an insert in the bulletin that looks like this. Worship at home for upcoming whenever it is. Next Sunday is very exciting because it's Trinity Sunday. So these are the readings for Trinity Sunday. These are the hymns coming up. And you can use this to do devotions at home. Sit together for a meal as a family. Start in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Pick one of these readings, three verses, eight verses. They're pretty short. Talk about it if you want. Or if you don't want, you can move on. And then you can say a prayer, say the Lord's Prayer and conclude. Or if you're ambitious, add in a little bit of a catechism review. There's just one little part each week. And Look at one of the hymns. If you don't have a hymnal, let me know. I will get you one. This is another way to prepare for the coming Sunday, and then you'll think, okay, I remember these readings. I study them during the week. Or I have a question. Come ask Pastor about it. Lots of different reading plans out there. ⁓ Here's some options for you. So hope to see you in Bible study in just a couple minutes here and see how our memory passages are going. Any announcements out there? Alrighty. God bless your week through faith in Christ.