Uncondemned
Good morning. What are the downsides of? a man is that we are just not really good at announcing the birth of children and I didn't put in there that Julia Fern Smith came into the world at 7 pounds 12oz on Wednesday, and we're excited about that and all that information matters, especially the people who had to complete X chromosomes those of us who have an X chromosome and a broken X chromosome. We we forget that and so anyway, just letting you know that my kids were like to her name is Julia Fern Jamie said and I don't know. My name is JD like burn burn so far more than a poke. Just so that your we're clear on that. We're continuing in Romans today, and I'm really excited because just of how Paul cans constructed his letter. We're getting you some kind of some real meat, I guess this morning if you want to use that metaphor and as we began, Series early on week we looked at this keynote verse and really a keynote para versus but in Romans 1 verse 16, he says Ryan not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew and then to the Gentile and so this theme of Paul's letter is that the gospel is the power of God to save everyone every kind of person and from there. He goes into end of kind of a Lupine and he begins to describe how this gospel is the power of God because it allows to Salvation because it brings about justification by faith and really Romans 1:17 through all the way to chapter 5 is this this notion of the justification by faith and that that allows for the Salvation to take place and unfortunately, I think sometimes Because we've inherited some great things for the Reformation. We've also inherited an emphasis that that salvation is the same as justification and that if God would only forgive our sins then our ticket to Heaven could be punched. And that is not a very good conception of what Paul is saying here of Salvation that for Paul salvation is a much bigger concept and it's something that requires power. Is it when we think of Salvation as God expunging our faulty past there's no power involved. It's it's a it's a merciful thing. It's a glorious thing. It's a joyful thing but there's no actual might that runs into our lives. We don't experience it as the power of God is salvation of I think that we have to when we read pulse Anthem here and by this time he's he's reached a large percentage of the of the Mediterranean area and he's in Corinth and he's getting ready to travel to Jerusalem. And so we're running at the end of some missionary Journeys and I think Paul had seen that power as he walked into Pagan areas and he preached the simple story of God sending his son to die in to rise again, and he saw the people in Ephesus piling up their magic books 50,000. Dollars worth in lighting them on fire. I think he saw that there was power that there was visible power like Barnabas all when he went down to visit Antioch and acts 11 and it said and when he had seen the grace of God he was glad And then encourage them to cling to the Lord with purpose of heart that there's power in the gospel and that salvation is a powerful experience.
SOS Paul paves the way for that in those first four chapters of Romans and he talks about justification by grace through faith. But by the time he gets to chapter 5 and verses 9 and 10, he's going to circle back and he's going to focus on this idea of Salvation and in Romans 5 verses 9 and 10. He says since we have now been justified by his blood, so he's concluding or at least he's kind of closing the loop there how much more shall we be saved from God's raft through him and so we get that because justification was needed so that salvation could happen. Pinterest so we will be saved from God's Wrath to him for if while we were God's enemies. We were reconciled to him to the death of his son how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? There's something about this idea of a being saved it implies something you see if I go up to you and I say I walk up to you and I say I can I can I can make you attractive.
If I walk up to you and say come to my salon and my Plastic Surgery Center and I will make you an attractive person. What if I just said about your appearance? You Got Me Like lyrics Right. Oh, honey. There's hope for you.
Is that a compliment is that an offer or is that a put down right? And when God comes to humanity if if if someone comes to you and says you can be saved. What does that imply about where you are currently? Edwin Paul says that the gospel is the power of God of salvation for everyone. It could be a wonderful offer and it could be a massive insult. And it is seen as the ladder in many cases since so Paul is trying to help people understand that there's a problem that we need salvation because we have a problem and when we get the Romans 5 we go down and first 18 to 21. He says consequently just as one trespassed resulted in condemnation for all people. So what is why do we need salvation because we've been condemned. We are condemned not because we might be condemned or some of us are condemned. But because if anybody is associated with Adam since the trespass if you got the verse 12, he says that Adam send resulted in all people became centers.
So one righteous act resulted in justification in life for all people know we might say well that's not very fair that I'm being condemned with somebody else did and if you look back at that sermon, I thought on that and on Romans 12, you'll see that God did it that way so he could save us. Because he knows that every one of us given the chance will make the exact same mistakes. And so he allowed for Adam to become the archetypal Center resulting in condemnation for all so that Christ can come to be the archetypal righteous man. So that righteousness can be given to all it's not about Fair. It's about Mercy. It's about Grace and love. That's so when righteous act resulted in justification in life for all people just as through the Disobedience of the one man so many were made Sinners. So also Through The Obedience of the one-man many will be made righteous.
The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase but we're sending creased Grace increased all the more I was trying to explain to Gentile and to do that. They need to be saved right in the Jews are saying wake God is already answered the same problem. He gave us the law. Impulse that so how's that working out for you?
He says the law was not given to solve sin and I'm afraid so many times. We think that that that religion is about Sin management, and I'm telling you that God cannot possibly be about Sin management. Because you gave Humanity something to increase the trespass. That was God who did that? I want us to get out of our heads of puritanical moralistic mindset that I'm growing as I'm managing sin better. Because God In His Infinite Wisdom in his love and his Purity and his Holiness gave Humanity the law so that Humanity would commit more in fractions.
Got to get our heads around the Hat. It sounds insane. He says just so that just as Sin rained in death. So also Grace my train through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord, and then Paul goes on this kind of detour right before I get there. He goes on his detour really he's got to spend chapter 6 and 7 answering this very controversial statement. The God gave the law to increased trespass so that he could show right that he could put his grace on us and so he goes to chapter 6 and he says so we should just send for the grace of balance each been 6 answering that at 7. He says so as soon as the Lost in You spend 7 answering that says that's not true. I recommend that you go back and look at some of that if if you're confused, but I but I want us to understand that he's really closing the loop from what he began in 520 and 21 here today. We're going to get there because what we need to understand is that we're all on death row. If you don't believe you're on death row wait a few years.
And you will discover. At the end of the road you're on is death. But it's not just physical death. See death row is something that that is something that has an eventuality that is dreaded, right? But there's also a current circumstance to death row. And if we want to know what that's like we'll have to we'll have to explore the circumstances that were in but for this morning the big idea is at our worst. God will reverse the curse. Two were all born in this death row. Brawl on our way to death from the time were born, but we're not just on our way to death. We're experiencing death today.
The first point I want to make under this main point is is that God has reversed our sentence. You want to know if you're on death row. Here's how you know you can't get out.
You're somewhere and you can't get out you are confined. You are a captive. You do not have freedom of motion. freedom of choice you cannot pursue the things that are highest and deepest and greatest. That's how you know, you're on death row.
Romans 7:21 225 just to give us a little recap Paul shows us what it looks like to be on death row. He says I find it to be a law that when I want to do right evil lies close at hand. for I Delight in the law of God in my inner being But I see in my members another law Waging War against the law of my mind making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in. My members books every person on the planet who descended from Adam is in is wearing a prison of Flesh everyday. That's how you know, you're on death row.
Wretched Man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death. You see when you're in a prison cell. Guess what? There's no latches on the inside. There's no keys on the inside. And if our prison is our flesh then there's no way to escape this prison in which we are dead and dying. We must look out through the bars and say is anybody out there.
And Paul cries out if anybody out there.
Who will deliver me?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord so that I and I put this because that's a since the Greek of myself serve the law of God with my mind. But with the flesh I serve the law of sin and that's what it is to be dead. It is to be trapped in a body that will not cooperate.
It is to have high ideals and great aspirations. But to be in a body that continues to do things that are self destruct full and struck there that are shameful. That's what it feels like to be dead and dying on death row. There is a savior. That's what we need salvation from and there is a savior Romans 8 1 and 2 there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. This condemnation that were in this this prison that were in that is leading to our demise has been opened. Not by the law. but in Christ Jesus for the law of the spirit of life has set you free from free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death and I want to point out that when he says the law of the spirit of life has set you free and really this word is through Christ Jesus I read this for years and I thought if I follow the law of the spirit of life, I can be free from condemnation and that's true. But that's not exactly what Paul saying here. Paul is saying the same thing that the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 9:14. It says Christ who by the eternal spirit offered himself and operating that Jesus follow the law. And that law is the spirit of Life remember back in Romans 7. He says when I try to follow the Mosaic law, I find that there's a law in my flash the log death. That won't allow me to fulfill it. The law sin instead rules me and now he's saying that there's another light there's another law and it's a lot of Jesus followed. It's the law of the spirit of life. A written draw a text the Bible. It can't address The Lofts in it only inflames it and when it inflames it it fulfills the law of death if it says I can't do it.
See how these three laws they work with each other even though one of them came from God but there is another law that will work. It's the law of the spirit of life. And through Christ Jesus, it's Set. Me Free from the law of sin and death. See Christ is the last Adam. Do you want to know how this law of the spirit of Life came about Genesis 1 1 through 1 through 3 and 1/2 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth now they're Arts was foremost an empty Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said let there be light you want to know what the law of the spirit of life is is where the spirit is there is life. And so here's the dead void Planet. You want to talk about bringing dead people back. Forget it man. The law of the spirit of Life can awaken an entire planet.
President relate to us personally, then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the spirit. the word for breath and spirit of the same of life and the Man became a living being folks That's the Law. We were made to follow from the beginning.
Adam what's the first and the last person to follow that law until Jesus?
Jesus came to follow the law of the spirit of life. Is he at his baptism. He had fulfilled all righteousness. He walks up to John and says, I'm ready do it and John says we're out here and he's like, I'm not here to repent of sin. I'm going to check the last box and that is to obey without sense through you. I'm going to get baptized and Jesus does and he checks the last box in a spirit of God falls on him. And from that moment on Jesus is playing fast and loose with the law. Why because he's under a different law. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath the Jewish leaders began to prop to persecute him in his defense. Jesus said that my father is always at work to this very day. And I too am working. That's the law of the spirit of life.
What is reason they tried all the more to kill him Not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer very truly. I tell you the son can do nothing by himself That's the Law of the spirit of life. He can only do what he sees his father doing because whatever the father does the Sun Also does for the father loves the son and shows him. All he does. Yes, and he will show him even Greater Works than these so that you will be amazed for just as the father raises the Dead. And gives them life. Even so the son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15:22 for the first Adam became a living soul in the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. It was through his obedience that he becomes a life-giving spirit to us. And so where we were condemned because of the law of sin and working our members. He has awakened God's original intention. Bet that ancient Magic from the foundation of the Earth has now been Shattered by the older Magic from before the foundation of the Earth. Deluded Lewis sentences for God has done with the law. We can buy the flash could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin he condemned sin in the flesh. Do you get the beautiful irony here? He says we were condemned in sin. But Jesus came and we're knocking down sin is. Jesus is the ultimate Perry Mason. Return to the prosecutor and says you kill them.
She has the last Adam. He's the final solution to Sid. Here's what it's like Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh. What does that mean that when we see him hanging on that cross in a human body. We see that we see the shamefulness of sin. Fox people who commit sin live in the dark because they're ashamed they don't they don't live out what God intended for them because they're living a double life from that moment. the dad I told Jesus Takes our shame and he hangs it out God in his love takes his only son he sends him from outside of the sinful planet and he hangs him on a cross for all the world to see in a public execution to say this is what your sin looks like this and you have been hiding in your closet This n That you wait till dark to commit. I'm going to stick it out on a side of a road and say this is what it looks like.
the likeness of sinful flesh
I'm going to I'm going to nail this body to a cross. I'm going to mobilize it until the life drains from it all of its power and potential will drain from it and it will become utterly weak and helpless because that's what sinful flesh is. Is Paul said I wanted to do good that I do the thing. I hate I am helpless. God says look you keep on telling yourself. You're going to do better next time. Because you don't see that you are helpless. And so I'm going to nail my son to a cross so you can see yourself just like the bronze serpent is left it up as a picture of of the sin and the punishment. So Jesus is hanged up. And he's dying and when you take shameful and helpless and dying and you add those up what you get is condemned. You want to know what we are born into we are born into condemnation and it is this tendency towards shame. and helplessness and dying That's the condition that Jesus means to save us from. He says force in he died. And when we look at Christ on the cross, we can know that you know, what's in you can't blackmail me anymore.
IPhone rings and it says I know what you did. You said me to go ahead and tell him? paid
and it's saying is now condemned in the flesh. What does that mean? It means the same thing it meant for us to see we were dead and dying. In the same way. Jesus has turn the tables on the law of sin and he says you don't have any rights here. You don't have any power here and your days are numbered.
That's what Jesus did. Decondense said he put it in the cell and he let us out.
God the father has reversed our sentence by sending the sun to set us free. through the spirit the spirit has reversed our polarity. Sentence has been reversed polarity has been reversed. What do I mean by that Aroma is 8/4 is in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
The spirit will make us righteous if we'll trust them. Do you want to know why the Holy Spirits in us? It's to make us what God wants us to be that there is this connection between life and righteousness just as much as there is a connection between sin and death. And so the spirits going to make us what we're supposed to be. He says that the Christ has done is God has done us to Christ so that this will be fulfilled. Did you notice he doesn't say so that we will fulfill it look at it. He said so it will be fulfilled that you know that when you read the passive in the New Testament, it needs that God's doing it.
God is making us righteous Galatians 5 5 4 through the spirit. We eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope did you get that? Books as we look out into the future. We have to see righteousness. We have to have an expectation that God is making us righteous folks when we fix it on her ass. And do you know what we're doing? We are disbelieve in God.
Where is saying Holy Spirit you or inadequate you are a failure and you will not accomplish what you set out to do in me hear Let Me Take the Wheel.
Reading on and Romans 5 and 6 is this for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit for the set. The mind on the flesh is Dennis, but the set their mind on the spirit is life in peace we can get lost in a lot of this. So let me show you here. I got the mind of the Flesh on the left no offense to you engineer types and I got the mind on the of the spirit on the right. That's no compliment to you creative types. Just random. Okay, but here's what I want you to know. Here's what the mind of the flesh says. Am I doing the right thing. The money the flash it's not focusing on sin. It's focusing on well, it's not focusing on wanting to do sin. It's focusing on what it's supposed to do, right? And we get stuck. And we are in over here. We say I'm pretty good relative to others. We say I do need to do better. And then we say one hopefully God will will see that I'm trying. I can't believe some people.
And I can't believe I gave in again. At least I've never see when it's on us when it's in our flesh. We're constantly comparing ourselves. We're constantly renewing our resolve. We're constantly chiding ourselves than and bludgeoning ourselves for our sins. And it's all self-contained. It's all the mind of the flesh. It's all focusing on self. Even if it's self-loathing. It is focused on self and there's no way for us to conquer the sin that sin within the self by using the self. Do we get that? You ever get up there if you're working on something guys, maybe you're working on the car and it's and your got oil and stuff and you have this rag that you've been using it and you realize that you got some on your head you take that you wipe your face with it and you realize that you just completely made yourself way dirtier than you started.
But we can't take the dirty thing to make ourselves clean.
Here's what the law of the spirit of life. It says forget all that. I've never checked every one of those things. I'm going to reject. I'm going to flash renewed resolve. I'm going to relative performance. Cooking a ditch renewed efforts. I'm going to ditch attempts to just try to control my behavior from outside. I'm going to forget it all because I trusted somebody else is gone, but me Am I going to have one thing? more of you hard the Holy Spirit has one real longing in that is just the presence of the father in the Sun. Union with the father in the Sun and when we give into that craving and we allow the rest of this nonsense to stop distracting us we experience life and peace even in this time and these bodies for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law indeed it cannot you want to know I think saw is given to us in the Old Testament is a picture of religion in the Flash. 1st Samuel 15 19 through 23 it says why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord and he says but I did obey the Lord. right cuz in the flash we think about all the things we did to
really so much concerned about what God really wants. We're just concerned about how we're doing relative to other people. How we're doing just how many boxes have we checked right that I went on the mission the Lord assign me I completely destroy the amalekites and it brought back a r King the soldiers took the sheep and cattle from the plunder the best of what was devoted to God in order to sacrifice them. The religion in the flash is trying to buy God off through performance.
But Samuel reply does the Lord Delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much and obeying as in obeying the Lord. To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Rebellion is like the sin of divination and arrogance like the evil of idolatry because you have rejected the word of the Lord. He has rejected you is getting so I was sitting there going. Well, at least I'm not like those idolaters. At least. I'm not like those those traffickers in witchcraft the same thing.
Now look at Samuel look at how resilient the mind of the flesh is. He says that's all salt replied. I have send but please honor me before the Elders of my people. And before his real come back with me so that I may Worship the Lord your God. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I disobeyed God. Yeah, okay, whatever. Can we just can we just paint a veneer of of religiosity on top of it and move ahead?
That is the mind of the flesh.
Paul says so then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with the flesh I serve the lost and you see the mind of The Flash is trapped within the Flash.
But the spirit has reversed that he gives us a new set of desires Christ has restored our destiny. By the way. I'm intentionally using God the Father the holy spirit in and Christ because Paul is weaving the Trinity together here and work and I'm going to show you why.
Romans 8 8 through 9. He says those who are in the flesh cannot please God you however are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. This is very nuanced. So I want to point it out. Do you see the reciprocity here?
You must be in the in the spirit and you can be in the spirit if the spirit is in you. You get the reciprocity. God says be in my spirit and let my spirit be in you. You see the mutuality. You see the given take of almighty. God between Piney send for Humanity being me and I'll being you. And then he says any sense if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ if anyone doesn't possess the spirit of Christ Christ does not belong to him.
Crisis take of mine and I will take you when I will belong to you and you will belong to me. It's almost like a wedding vows. I'm calling you in the mutuality because I am three persons one being I'm calling you to share my spirit and so to be mine and I will be yours to be in me and I will be in you. That's the original intention. We're being restored to original relationship with God Genesis. 1 26 and 27. Then God said let us
Not me. Make Mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky diver the livestock and over the wild animals and over all creatures that move along the ground. So God created Mankind in his own image and image of God. He created them.
Male and female he created them. That we are made to be bound to God by one Spirit to be included in this community of love that is existed from eternity past and then to express that community of love into the world. As man and wife as members of community empowered by the Holy Spirit God saw that all he had made that it was very good and there was evening and there was morning those six days. You remember back in Romans? 8:8 where Paul says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God you want to know what pleases God you want to know what the only thing that pleases God is what God does. Because only what God does is worthy of God. And so when God had created Humanity the expression of himself. He said now I like that.
And when we try to buy him off with the efforts of our flesh it is an insult.
Genesis 3:8 through 9. It all comes crashing down. It's his then the man in the wife or the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid from the Lord God Among the Trees of the garden that the Lord God Called to the man. Where are you? Do you hear the the sound of a rejected love? I do. And I will not accept anything less than all of us because he's giving us his love Romans 8:10, but if Christ is in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness. Do you notice this? This is an adjectives and this is a noun Little grammar today dad is an adjectives life is a noun been hard for translators. But Paul is making a point here. And that is that your body is dead adjectives, but the spirit inside of you is life noun. He's planted life in our dead bodies. Remember back in Romans 7 24 and 25 Wretched Man that I am who will deliver me from the body from this body of death. I want to go on record and say I've gotten this wrong until this week. I have not believed that there was room in the kingdom of God for this to be a statement of God's people. I want to retract that and say this is biographical the autobiographical for Paul. This was his experience. This is your experience. This is my experience.
But there's an answer C. That we may experience death as Christians. We may cry out Wretched Man that I am who will deliver me Richard woman that I am who will deliver me as Christians. Because we're in a body that is dead. Okay, but when he says who will deliver me, it's not nobody. That's just how it is.
The answer is thanks be to God through Jesus Christ Our Lord that he is delivering us today. Why because he has planted his life in us and like a sea growing up through the the cracks of a sidewalk it inevitably Will Conquer if we will feed that life.
Forgot it's done. What the law weakened by The Flash could not do right that he has puts in unnoticed. You don't win any more you are condemned. CNN is now on death row. And we have been sprung Romans 8:11 for at the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Stop and think about that a minute. He's not saying that after you're dead buried turn to dust in Jesus comes back and you come up in a renewed body. You'll be alive. He says that the body you currently wear will it will come to life spiritual life. He'll give life to your mortal bodies. Through his Spirit who dwells in you as we watch sin diminish and die in our body as sweet time and again discover that the thing I want to do I do.
And the thing I hate. I avoid Not because of my renewed efforts but because of his power at work and me and you will begin to see resurrection power folks. Are you 100% sure that after you're dead and in the ground and turn to dust that you're coming back you got that kind of Faith. Well, I don't have a choice.
We've got that kind of faith. If we have experienced that resurrection power everyday of Our Lives from the time we met Jesus.
His resurrection life will animate the bodies that we currently have.
And that awesome. and here's the point for this morning that we're free to participate with God in this renewal.
So then Brothers we are debtors not to the flash to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die.
We need to let go of obligation to escape condemnation.
There you go. That there's no way for us to pursue God's law in our own strength. And not feed the law of sin and experience the law death. The only way to be free from the law of sin and death is to be free from the law of obligation. That may be frightening for some. But that's what faith feels like. Faith is scary if we're not being scared by our faith propositions. It's not Faith. It's just religion.
I want us to have the kind of faith. It says I can cast myself on God. I don't have to control my moral destiny.
And experience is power. So the first thing we need to know is that the second thing is but if by the spirit you put to death the Deeds of the body you will live. We need to take hold of the Cross and receive the resurrection remember back there in 8 to it says that Christ that that God set us free from the law of sin and death by the by the law of the spirit of life through Christ. Jesus. Jesus offered himself to the will of God by the spirit. And so raised again. We are supposed to follow Jesus. As we are called to lay down our life everyday folks. Maybe you experienced The Cross by by not having a piece of cake.
Because you know God is calling you goddess is saying don't don't do the things that are originating from the Cravings of your flesh, but do the things that are best. And so in that moment, we experienced across doesn't mean we're trying to lose weight doesn't mean we're trying to get healthy. We just say, I'm yours I give you myself your will not mine be done. Maybe you experienced The Cross by going to work tomorrow morning when everything in you would rather jump off a bridge. And you say though I know I feel that this job is peeling the very skin from my Mac.
It does not matter. Because I am casting myself on your well. Oh God by the power of your Holy Spirit. And what we discover is that apart from us outside of us power flows into us and through us to conquer the death in our flesh and to give us life. Paul said it much better than I can in Philippians 3 10 through 14. He says I want to know Christ. Yes to know the power of his resurrection folks. Have you known the power of his resurrection? If you haven't we haven't we're doing it wrong. We tried operate In the Flesh and the participation of his sufferings. We don't get to experience the power of the Resurrection without the participation in his suffering. Sorry. He didn't get it. We don't get it becoming like him in his death doesn't mean dying. It means to experience his death in the various ways that we experience in our life when we constantly saying not my will but yours and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead folks. He's not talking about that. He's going to earn renewal when Jesus comes back. He's saying that my spiritual growth aim is to conquer the Flesh and let my spirit be fully expressed. Essex United with the Holy Spirit that's Resurrection from the dead not that I have already obtained this. Jo versus after the row written him gone there yet. Or arrived at my goal, but I press on. Don't you want to know what sin does to us? What legalism does it makes us think about the past and Jesus wants us to press on right take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me brothers and sisters. I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do folks. You don't need to beat yourself up for not being there yet. You got one thing to do and that is forget. What is behind straining toward? What is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize. For which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Hey, man. At our worst God will reverse the curse. That can happen in our lives folks. If you've been going about this in the flash. I asked you to repent it's Rebellion. It is a sin of witchcraft.
I don't care how outstanding and spitting polished. You may look to the outside.
If you been pursuing it in the flash, I asked you to repent not only for the pleasure of God, but for your sake and for my sake for all of us that we need to do this if every time we catch ourselves default to that. And to cast ourselves on the will of God with the full expectation of the power of the Resurrection. We're going to have a few more songs over the next two songs. I'll be in the back and meet anybody if you need prayer that'll be an opportunity. But that won't end the invitation folks you whatever you need call one of the elders call me would be happy to pray with you visit with you. There's a life they can start today. I pray for us real quick. And then we'll sing father. We come to you God. We thank you for this opportunity. We've had to be together and to