Finding Peace in God's Grace: Part 2 - Revelation 1: 5b-6

1:07It pertains to the text so much because one of the ways that we know he will hold us fast is this guarantee, this down payment that he has put inside of us, his own Holy Spirit who dwells inside of us. One of the things that does bid our anxious fears away. Of the things that settles our hearts is that we know that the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead, as we're going to read today, the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead lives in us and dwells in us. And so we know that that same Spirit has the power to raise our mortal bodies from the dead. So, just such fitting songs that we sang this morning. So, we'll be in Romans chapter 8, verses 9 through 11. Periodically, we've been studying through Romans, and as we got to Romans chapter 8, we hit some of the most precious words in all of Scripture, words that are treasures to our hearts, words that make our hearts sing with the freedom that we have in Christ. Romans 8, verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 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. And so we can fulfill righteousness because. We have this Spirit of life within us. We can fulfill righteousness because God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that we are free in Christ Jesus. Wonderful words, victorious words, that there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation for those who walk according to the Spirit.

3:34Look at verse 5. Paul goes on: 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 to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

4:14So he says that those who live, those who are of the Spirit live according to the Spirit. And that means that we can have life. Since we set our minds on the things of the Spirit, we can have peace. We can please God. This is. What we studied the last time that we were in Romans together. But those who are of the flesh, they cannot please God. That's a pretty clear statement, isn't it? Those who are of the flesh, they cannot please God. Those who are of the flesh cannot please God. Which brings us to our text today. Romans chapter 8, verses 9 through 11. Paul writes, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

5:01That's good news, right? If those who are in the flesh cannot please God, what wonderful news that we who have believed. Verse 9, 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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If 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 through his Spirit who dwells in you. That's our text for this morning. And really, this is such a special text. This text is really a hinge in Romans chapter 8. In verses 1 through 8, we had a lot of doctrine about the Spirit in the flesh and who can please God and what it means for the Spirit. to be our righteousness, for us to be able to walk according to righteousness and fulfill righteousness. In these verses, verses 9 through 11, we really see a transition from that doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of the flesh, to now he is applying those truths directly to believers. He is saying, this is about you. The Spirit of life lives in you.

6:30And then he will move on after that in the rest of the chapter to give application. How do we live in light of that? If this is true, if our text today is true, that the Spirit lives in you, then what does that look like as we apply that truth? Well, another reason why this passage is unique is because this passage teaches us so much about the Trinity. We get to see the Trinity on display, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You'll notice that in verse 9, Paul calls the Spirit the Spirit of God. In our reading this morning, we saw that Jesus called the Spirit the Spirit of truth.

7:13Earlier in Romans 8, he's called the Spirit of life. But here in verse 9, he calls the Spirit the Spirit of God, and then he calls the Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Have you ever noticed that before? I think it's hard. To escape the reality that Paul views Christ as divine, if the Spirit is the Spirit of God. And then he's mentioned as the Spirit of Christ. Paul clearly views Christ as God. Then in verse 9, he says, the Spirit of God dwells in you. But in verse 10, he says, if Christ is in you. And so we see another close connection between the Spirit and Christ. In verse 11, we'll see that he seems to be saying that the Spirit of the Father raised Christ from the dead. The Spirit of God, the Father working through the Spirit, raised Christ from the dead. Again, you just see all of this Trinitarian work on display in the resurrection, right? The Spirit of God raising Christ, and he applies that to us as believers. He says that this power is the power that is at work in you.

8:34So you can see that our text today is special. It is this special hinge in the chapter of Romans 8, these special verses that apply these truths about the Spirit to you directly as believers. And it's a special text because we learn so much about the Spirit. And so we ought to take these things to heart. We need to learn from these verses. It's important for us to understand what our relationship to the Holy Spirit is like.

9:10Paul is going to give three realities for the Christian in our text. Three undeniable realities for the Christian that are already true right now for any believer that is in this room. Realities that are forever true about any believer that is in this room. I'm going to keep these realities a secret until the time comes. I'm not going to tell you them ahead of time until we get to each point. So try to follow along. I know many of us in this room are tired from a late night last night. But try and pay attention and take good notes and see these three realities for the Christian. Let's pray before we begin. Father, we are so grateful that we get to learn from your word again this morning.

10:16The realities that we'll learn this morning are realities that can be confusing to us or can be things that we are unfamiliar with if we haven't meditated on your spirit and health. The Spirit dwells in us and what that means for us. And so I pray, Father, that those who are Christians in this room, those who are believers, would leave this morning, understanding more about your Holy Spirit, understanding more about how they are empowered for life through your Spirit.

11:01I pray that you would fill us with joy as we learn about this great gift that we've been given, this staggering reality that we, who are so undeserving, yet forgiven and washed clean, that we have been made into a temple for the Holy Spirit. Help us not forget. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the first reality for the Christian is that the Spirit of life lives in you. The Spirit of life lives in you. And this is not a trite saying. You know, this is not a Disney idea of the blood of our ancestors lives on in us.

11:58This is not a Disney idea. Of the blood of our fathers lives in the stars and guides us mystically. This is not mysticism at all. This is an objective reality. The Holy Spirit is a person, and it is a fact that as a believer, the Holy Spirit lives in you. Look at verse 9. 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.

12:36Jesus said to Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Those who are Christians are born of the Spirit. Those who are born of the Spirit belong to Christ. And so if the Spirit of God dwells in you, then you are of the Spirit and not of the flesh. And that word for dwells is just what it sounds like, to dwell, to abide in. Saying that the Spirit makes his home in us. The Spirit dwells in us. It's staggering, isn't it?

13:18But we hear this truth all over the New Testament. Sometimes the New Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us corporately as a body of believers. Listen to Ephesians 2:22. He says, in him you also are being built together. This is speaking to a church. You also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So you have a corporate idea there of a church being built together as a dwelling place for God, being built by the Spirit. But sometimes the New Testament speaks of the Holy Spirit dwelling within an individual believer. Listen to 1 Corinthians 6:19. Paul writes, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. And here it seems like this is what Paul is saying in our text.

14:15If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, singular. This is not you, plural. This is not y'all. He says, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you, singular. Another important point here is that he is not using this word if in a way that we might expect as a normal kind of conditional statement. He's not trying to open up this idea that maybe as a believer you might not have the Spirit dwelling within you, right? If he is speaking to believers, then it is true that they have the Spirit dwelling within them. And we know that because of what he says next. Anyone Who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So he is not opening up this idea that we could be believers, but maybe the Spirit isn't dwelling in us yet.

15:13He puts to rest that heresy that teaches that there is some kind of second blessing that we're waiting for as believers, that maybe we believed in Christ, but we're still waiting for the Holy Spirit to enter into us and cause some new phase of existence for us in our Christian life. That's not true. If you do not have the Spirit, then you do not belong to Christ. And so if you do belong to Christ and you have believed in Christ, then you do have the Spirit.

15:46And so as he is speaking to believers, we take that as since you are a believer, since you do have the Spirit dwelling in you, then this is true about you. And so the point of what he's saying is that all that he has just warned, listen to this, all that he has just warned about in verses 7 and 8, this is not true of them if they are believers. So he's just said in verse 7 and 8, 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. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. He has just emphasized this. Idea that unbelievers, if you are stuck in the flesh, then there is no way you can keep the law. There is no way that you could ever please God as an unbeliever. He is saying that is not true about you as a believer, because if you are a believer, you do have the Spirit.

16:49You can please God, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. It is not true of the believer that he cannot please God. It is not true of the believer that he can only set his mind on the flesh. It is not true of the believer that he is still trapped under the law of sin and death. Instead, the Spirit of life lives in you. In the second part of this verse, he does call the Spirit the Spirit of Christ. This is a pretty unique phrase, right?

17:27Normally, we refer to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit or as the Spirit of God, but here he is called the Spirit of Christ. Some think that this is Paul equating the Spirit and Christ, as if he's saying that the Spirit and Christ are the same person, that the Spirit is just Christ's Spirit. But we know that can't be true because in the next verse he's going to distinguish between them, that Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Trinity is different from the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. But I think that if there is a Trinitarian lesson to learn, like I mentioned in the introduction, if there is a Trinitarian lesson to learn, it's not that Christ and the Spirit are the same in this verse. It's instead that Christ is divine, that the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ. That they are so closely related, and it is this Spirit, this Holy Spirit, that lives inside of you as a believer. So, what does this mean for you? Let's keep going in the text. What does this mean? The second reality for the Christian is that the Spirit of life gives you spiritual life.

18:46The Spirit of life gives you spiritual life. Maybe that sounds obvious, but listen to verse 10. He says, But if Christ is in you, parentheses, and he is, if you're a believer, right? He's made that clear. Verse 10. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

19:24So if the Spirit is dwelling in you as a believer, then Christ is in you. Christ is in you, and if Christ is in you, then the Spirit is life to you because of righteousness. That's what he says. So, first he admits that, yes, your body is dead. There is nothing redeemable about your body. Your body is headed for the grave. Your mortal body will pass away. You will shed it like a seed that is planted. And if you're a believer, you shed it like a seed that is planted in the expectation that someday God will raise you up again in a new body. But the body you're in now is already as good as dead because of sin. But even though that that's true, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now, some translations translate this, and maybe this is how your translation translates this, as a lowercase spirit.

20:34As if Paul is saying that, yes, your body is dead, but your spirit is alive because of Christ. Do you see that? He could be saying something like, Yes, your body is dead, but your spirit is alive because of Christ. It's just the word for spirit. So that's generally a valid way to translate the word spirit. This is something that is true. That, yes, your body is dead, but your spirit has been made alive. You died and rose again. We've seen that even in the book of Romans. You died and rose again with Christ.

21:11But there are two things that point to this being the capital S spirit, the Holy Spirit. The first, I think, is the context, right? He's already mentioned over and over the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. So, why would he suddenly switch to speaking about our spirits instead of what's in the passage, the Holy Spirit? But I think the second thing is that he doesn't actually say that the Spirit is alive, or your Spirit is alive.

21:40I think that if he was trying to say something like, Yes, your bodies are dead, but your spirits are alive, I think he would have used the normal language for that and said, Your spirits are alive. But instead, he says something a little bit different. He says, The Spirit is life. That would be kind of an odd way to say, Your Spirit is alive. Instead, he says, If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

22:16This is a present reality. This is something that is true about you as a believer: that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, is life to you. As a believer, you have been. Made righteous. You have been washed clean of all of your sin. You have been forgiven, and so you have this righteousness. And since that is true, the Spirit is life to you. You have life that is dependent on the Spirit, even though your body is dead.

22:52And though sometimes we'd like to pretend there is a way around applying this text, there really is no way around applying this text. If you are a believer, you cannot claim that you are stuck in sin, right? You cannot claim that you are dead in your trespasses. You cannot claim that you can't get out of a sin, that you're stuck in a sin, because the Spirit inside of you is life because of righteousness. If you try and say something like, the Spirit doesn't work in me for life.

23:33If you try and say something like, yes, I'm a believer, but the Spirit isn't working in me, and so I can't get past this sin, well, then you have a problem because you have to go back to verse 9 and say that you don't belong to Christ. If you do belong to Christ, then the Spirit does dwell in you, and so you really have no excuse. Because if the Spirit dwells in you, then you do have life. You are not stuck, and you are not dead. He has granted you this. Spiritual life, even though your mortal bodies are dead. The Spirit is life. Now, the response to this is not to just beat yourself up. Maybe you have a sin that you haven't been able to get victory over. Maybe you have a sin and it feels like you have been struggling with this for way too long. Well, if you're an unbeliever, if you have never trusted in Christ, if you have never come to Christ and asked for the forgiveness of your sins, if you have never trusted that the price that He paid on the cross when He shed His blood and died on the cross before He rose again from the dead, well, the answer for you is to come to Christ, believe in Him, trust in Him, repent of your sins, and place your faith in Christ alone, His sacrifice to pay for your sins, so that you can have this life, the Spirit of God dwelling in you.

24:58But if you are a believer, again, the response is not to beat yourself up over the fact that it feels like you can't have victory over a certain sin. Instead, the response is to have hope that if you are a believer, you do have the Spirit of life. The Spirit of God dwells in you, He gives you life, He is the Spirit of life, and so be joyful that you have such a gift. I think that even those of us who came to church this morning as a believer disheartened because we fell into a sin again over this weekend, or our character is not what we want it to be, and we haven't been glorifying the Lord. I think we can leave this morning knowing that dwelling within us is this Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, that we can overcome, that we do have this life, this eternal blessing that has been given to us that we don't deserve.

26:11This verse speaks of how everything you need in life has been granted to you, except a new body. And this is where Paul goes next. So the third reality for the Christian is that the Spirit of life will raise you to eternal life. The Spirit of life lives in you. The Spirit of life gives you spiritual life. And the Spirit of life will raise you to eternal life. The Spirit of life will raise you to eternal life. Look at verse 11. If 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 through his Spirit who dwells in you.

27:01If the last verse was speaking about our life in contrast to the fact that we still live in these mortal bodies, then this verse is specifically mentioning the future promise that he will give life to our mortal bodies. The Spirit who dwells in us is also the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. To raise from the dead. You know, this is the greatest, most unimaginable power of God to raise from the dead. Resurrection power.

27:46God's power. The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. And so we can know that He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. And so we can see the life that we have already been granted as believers. We can see that we've been changed. We can see this life that's already inside of us. We know that we have the Spirit of God already. And so we can trust that our own mortal bodies will be given life as well.

28:30Days to come through his Spirit who dwells in you. And so we have this strong testimony. We have a strong testimony within us, this Spirit of God who's been given to us. We have a strong testimony that we will personally be resurrected and given life if we are believers. If God's Spirit dwells in us and God is the one who raised up Jesus, then we can know that our bodies will also be given life through God's Spirit. I think that this must be at least part of the reason why several times in the New Testament the Spirit is referred to as a down payment, as a guarantee to us as believers.

29:23Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. Paul writes, In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him. So he's speaking about when we became believers. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise. Of his glory. So the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance.

30:09He is someone who is dwelling in us now that guarantees this future, these future riches, this inheritance in the age to come. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 4 and 5, he says, For while we are still in this tent, speaking of our bodies, while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

30:47He who has prepared us for this very thing is God who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. Have you ever thought about that? This guarantee? You know, I don't know about you, but it can be terrifying sometimes to think that I am going to shed this tent, this earthly mortal body, that I am going to be rid of this body someday. But one of the greatest comforts to our hearts is that we have been given the Spirit as a guarantee that that's not the end of the story.

31:27A guarantee that we are not shedding this body. Merely to be bodiless for all of eternity, merely to be lost or fall through the cracks, but instead that we will be reclothed with immortality. And so, as we wait for this, we wait, knowing that we have a guarantee we have the Spirit. I think the fact that all of these verses, including our text today, that it ties together this idea of the fact that you have been given the Spirit here and now, and the Spirit is working in your life and changing you and changing your character. And this is a down payment that someday He is going to resurrect you, that you will receive this inheritance. I think the fact that these are closely connected should cause all of us to do a little bit of introspection to see: is the Spirit in us?

32:37I think that sometimes introspection, when we get too caught up in it and when we spend too long in it, can be dangerous. We can go down rabbit holes. We can begin to get anxious. We are sinners. We can begin to think, How in the world could God ever save me, a sinner? But I do think that we are called to examine ourselves. Paul says, Says in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 5, he says, Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test. We are supposed to look at ourselves, even if it's a brief look, before we get discouraged. But I think that we are meant to look for: is the Spirit changing me?

33:31Has the Spirit molded my character? Do I see the fruit of the Spirit in my life? Or if I can't see it, do others around me that love me, do they see the fruit of the Spirit in my life? As I look at my heart and I examine whether this guarantee has been given to me, I think that this will reveal certain things in certain people. I think that some of you may have become a believer by profession when you were a child, but then you've lived a life that never changed, that never cares anything about the Lord, that doesn't care about his word, that only cares about riches or gratification or comfort.

34:11I think that should give you pause, and that should cause you to return to the gospel, to the truth, that Christ forgives our sins, and we should come to him in faith and repentance. For those of us who are believers, I think when we see the work of the Spirit in our life, on the one hand, we might be tempted to. Be discouraged, thinking, oh, I can't take credit for this. But I think that instead we should be greatly encouraged, right? That these acts of kindness, this change that we've seen in our character, is more than just something positive or the power of positive thinking or being happy about our good character or something. Instead, it's a testimony to the fact that the Spirit is working in our lives, and this Spirit is a down payment, a guarantee of our future life with God as He raises us up to immortality. You have a down payment, a guarantee.

35:11Back in our text, verse 11: If 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 through His Spirit who dwells in you. So, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That's what He had already said. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But if you belong to Christ, then you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in you. An encouraging, beyond encouraging reality. This means that you have spiritual life now, even though your bodies are dead.

35:53This means that your mortal bodies will also be given life, since the Spirit of Him who raised your life. Jesus from the dead dwells in you. This is a guaranteed reality. And so at the beginning of this sermon, we saw how in Romans chapter 8 he has transitioned from this doctrine about the flesh and the spirit to now in verses 9 through 11 targeting that right at you as a believer. This is true about you. The spirit lives in you as a believer.

36:29And so what is the application of these truths? That the spirit of life lives in you. The spirit of life gives you spiritual life. The spirit of life will raise you to eternal life. Well, if he takes those doctrines and he applied it to you in verses 9 through 11, then he takes those realities that are true about you and he teaches us how to live in light of that in the rest of the chapter. So how do we apply this truth? How do we deal with this amazing knowledge that we've seen in these verses, this staggering reality that the Spirit is in us? What do we do with that fact? You know, it seems too good to be true. How do we leave this room and actually live in light of that? Well, I think we see several things in the rest of this chapter. Look down at verse 12. I think first we put to death the deeds of the body. He says in verse 12, so then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live. According to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deed to the body, you will live. So there's an application. If the Spirit is in you, then by the Spirit, put to death the deed to the body. Another application: we can understand our adoption. We can understand the reality that God is our Father because of the Spirit. Look at verse 14. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.

38:16So another application is that we meditate on. We understand that we are God's children, that God is our Abba, Father. Third, we anticipate, we look forward to the redemption of our bodies. Look down at verse 23. We look forward to this future full adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Verse 23, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruit of the Spirit, we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So as we consider that this Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, Spirit lives inside of us. It should cause us to groan inwardly as we wait for this redemption of our bodies, as we wait for that time when we will shed this body and be raised again to immortality. We groan inwardly as we eagerly wait by the Spirit. Fourth, we depend on the Spirit and our weakness. In our prayers, look down at verse 26. He says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. We depend on the Spirit. If the Spirit lives in us, we depend on the Spirit and our weakness.

39:43We depend on the Spirit to speak on our behalf, to intercede for us with groanings too deep for words. As one who knows the mind of God, the Spirit of God intercedes for us. Well, I'm sure we could find even more applications as we search in the rest of Romans, but you can see that these realities, these truths that we study today are foundational realities for the believer. That you, as a believer, should not be somebody that forgets that you have the Spirit of God. That this should be a central aspect, a central reality that Christ spoke about in the Gospels and that the apostles echo. Such a glorious gift that we have, this Spirit. Of life within us, and so we can walk according to the Spirit instead of according to the flesh. We can please God. We can put to death the deeds of the body. We can understand our adoption. We can understand that God is our Father. We can anticipate and wait for the redemption of our bodies. We can depend on the Spirit in our weakness. We can depend on the Spirit in our prayers. We have this guarantee of future life that dwells within us. We have life now. The Spirit is life, present tense, even though our body is dead.

41:10So we should live accordingly. We should live expectantly, looking forward to the day that we shed these tents. We should live knowing that the Spirit is working in our lives even now for righteousness. It's encouraging, isn't it? Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would help us meditate on this reality. Help us remember that the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in us as believers. This is not just a possibility, this is a reality.

41:52If we are believers, if we have turned to you, if we have repented and had faith, in Jesus Christ's Our only Lord and Savior, that this is a reality for us even now. Help us, Father, internalize this truth. Help us live according to this reality. Help us meditate on this and help our lives show this truth as we seek to bear fruit. Help our lives be molded and changed by the Spirit's work in our hearts and in our lives.

42:39For those, Father, that are struggling with the sin, for those believers that are struggling with the sin, I pray that you would comfort their heart this morning, that they can walk out of this room with fresh joy, that they can walk out of this room with an expectation that they can, by your Spirit, be free of their sin. And Father, I pray for those who are unbelievers in this room. I pray that even this morning you would work in their hearts by your Spirit to draw them to yourself, that they would turn from their sin and turn to you and find forgiveness, find this freedom, find this love. This gift.

43:36We thank you, Father. May our hearts worship you this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.