Promise (Romans 8:14-17)

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Good morning church. Gonna go ahead grab your Bibles, you can open up the Romans chapter eight will pick up where we left off last week, Romans eight verses 14 to 17, Romans 814 to 17, as you’re turning there, if you’ve ever been ziplining, or anything like that, you know, the terror that accompanies that moment, especially if you’re a little bit afraid of heights, as certain members of our pastoral team are, or if you’re even more afraid of your kids on the heights, and they were there with you in Costa Rica again, I’m speaking hypothetically. So, you know, in that moment, when the terror is gripping you, you need assurances, right that like it’s going to how do I know I’m not going to fall and thankfully, there are people there to offer you those assurances. And usually it involves the carabiner, right? Because that’s the part that kind of hooks you in, so that once it’s locked, you’re safe. You’re all good, you’re not going to fall. This is I’m competent to heretical analogy. And so I apologize for that upfront. But in some ways, the Spirit is like our carabiner. Right. It reminds us that we are hooked into God and that He won’t let us go, that we cannot fall away from grace if we are well and truly saved because the spirit has us. We think about salvation. We talk a lot about Jesus and understandably but think about how important the spirit is to our salvation. Here’s Paul in Galatians three, verse 13, very familiar to us. But he goes on in verse 14, and there’s something in there that we maybe sometimes miss Paul writes, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. He redeemed us in order that the blessing blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ, Jesus said that by faith, we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Did you hear that? Did you catch that? Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law, so that we could receive the promised spirit. That’s how important he is. And that is also our topic today, the idea of promise, the spirit is the promise. And at the same time, the spirit seals all God’s promises to us so that we know he will bring them to fruition, there’s that carabiner idea, because God promised him to us, we can be sure that he will keep all keep us until all God’s promises are true in. So that’s what we’re gonna see as we keep going in Romans eight. So last week, if you weren’t here, or just remember, we were talking about the power that the spirit provides for us the power to overcome sin so that we are transformed. What it is just agonizingly slow change sometimes isn’t it’s he ever had that where like, I could use more of the power. And so in those moments where we struggle with sin, still, you know, the question comes up, like, how do I know that I’m saved? you’ve ever had that thought? Never just been like, am I even a Christian? In light of what I keep doing? Or when that happens? You know, you have that sense of is the father displeased with us disappointed that we haven’t put sin to death fully yet. There’s their real questions. Let’s see how Paul answers them as we proceed. And Paul’s gonna walk us through this really chronologically, almost. And so that will be our outline today, as well. So we’ll start in the past who we were. And Paul talks about our past slavery. Let me read Romans 814, in the first half of verse 15, for us, for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God, the Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear, again. Alright, so a little context, notice that verse 14 begins with the word for that means he’s building on what he just said in the last paragraph. Like one of the ways we know that we belong to God is by putting our sin to death by the Spirit. But Paul is always very careful, though, to remind us that it is not our works that save us. So it’s interesting even says those who are led by the Spirit of God, there’s that passive tense that we see so often in Scripture, our putting sin to death is one part of our being led by the Spirit. This, if this is true of us, if we are slowly but surely putting sin to death in our lives, and that’s their, you know, one proof of our salvation then Paul says we are God’s children are literally the sons of God is an important phrase. Paul did not invent the phrase sons of God. It comes from the Old Testament and is used of Israel. So for example, the Lord is As to Pharaoh at one point Israel was my first born son in Exodus for 22. It did it to explain why he’s about to bring Israel out of Egypt. In fact, Hosea says as much the Lord through his prophet Hosea says, when Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt, I called my son later is applied to Jesus, of course, or the passage that Kyle read for us earlier in Jeremiah three, how gladly would I treat you like my children? Literally sons right there, how gladly would I treat you like my sons, and then I thought you’d call me father and not turn away from following me, which just shows us that connection, again, of our being adopted as God’s sons on the one hand, and then following him, on the other hand, like keeping his commands putting sin to death. For Paul, though our sonship is dependent on another son. He’s already talked about this in Romans eight even you can look at a verse three For what the law was powerless to do, because it was weakened by the flesh God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering for us. And then all of this culminates in the end of Romans eight with what happens, knows he for new Paul says, He predestined to be conformed to the image of His son said he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. So what does it mean to be conformed to the image of Jesus? Well, it’s putting sin to death, living in the spirit, living and loving, like Jesus. So this is all very tightly connected in Paul’s mind, God’s choosing us and God’s changing us are connected.
But there’s this problem that we have, of course, in our mindset. And so that’s where Paul goes next, where he says the the promised Spirit, who leads us is not a spirit of slavery so that we live in fear again. Now, word again, seems important, because it means we used to live in fear. Why? What were we afraid of? But we were afraid of life under the law, whether that’s the Old Testament law, or even just our culture’s moral code, are we going to keep the standards that have been set for us? There’s this anxiety that plagues us when we think well, maybe I won’t live up to the standard. And you can picture a pious Jew in the in the first century, trying to keep the law, we would always have that question in the back of your mind, what if I mess up? Like what if I succumb to temptation? Or even with some of those harder laws? Like am I coveting? That’s a really hard one to discern sometimes, am I coming in here have I messed up so you could have this whole life of of godly living, of striving to keep the largest erased in a moment, because you do succumb to temptation or something like that. This is like the original canceled culture. So you’re just out I think of akin and Joshua seven, in a moment of madness, gives into his sin and keeps for himself what was meant to be devoted to the Lord and he and his family are cast out. stoned to death as a result of this erased all that godly living in a moment. Of course, I mentioned canceled culture because that spirit is alive and well still today. But you can still just be done like your life erased in a moment, a job you were about to get. You don’t get because of a tweet that resurface that you tweeted 10 years ago, we have to be perfect. We have to be perfect. We’re at least imperfect in socially acceptable ways. And so there’s just this tremendous pressure on us all the time. I mean, you stop performing at work, you get fired. You stop performing in your marriage, spouse might walk out, stop performing with your kids, you probably get shamed. Stop performing in church. Well, you’d never be judged in a place like this, I’m sure. But without grace, without grace, that’s what we all live under that relentless pressure like no wonder we live in a culture of escapism to get out from under that pressure, whatever that looks like whether that’s pornography, or gambling, which is just on the rise in insane ways, media, all sorts of different media consumption habits, whether that’s doing scrolling on social media or binge watching the latest TV show. Or I don’t know if Mother’s Day is the best time to talk about this or the worst time to talk about this, but it’s one of those two for sure. The rise of alcoholism among young mothers, so called mommy juice, which is wine by the way or something else. But why is that happening? Because young moms in particular feel this pressure. I mean, nevermind that having kids is stressful in its own right. But then you do have to live up, you know, the people around me think like, you know, cultivated this perfect life on social media so that people know what a good mom I am. There’s that relentless, nagging question, am I good enough? Have I done enough? How can I know for sure that I have measured up when you might be feeling it right now? I’m asking you these questions. And you’re like, yes, that’s what’s on my mind. There’s that little knot in your stomach. That’s like the start of a panic attack, because you know, where you are not measuring up at this point. But we don’t have to live there. Because remember, Paul says, we have not received a spirit of slavery. So that we fear again, we are not enslaved to a harsh master whose approval we have to earn who’s who’s watching our every action, looking for us to fail so that he can punish us. We don’t belong to a harsh father, whose approval we have to earn, man, how many of you are still trying to earn your parents approval? Even if they were good parents, right? Like just a lot of us. I just wanted to know I do this all the time and asked my journey group guys, except they’re bound by confidentiality, but I release you you can talk about this. About every third week and journey group, I talk about how I’m trying to earn approval still, and how that has led me into sin. Because we got these tapes playing in our head like is that really the best you can do? Is this how you repay all my sacrifice on your behalf with an effort like that. So with every deal you didn’t close, every time you hurt your spouse, or kids or friends with a careless word, every time you return to sin, like a dog returning to its vomit confirms your worst fears about your self. How could anyone love or accept me when I’m like this, except when we turn from our feeble efforts, and are wildly fluctuating performance and trust in Jesus’s perfect performance? Well, all that changes. And that’s where Paul takes us next, let me keep reading the rest of verse 15. In verse 16, I’ll read all 15. Again, the spirit you received does not make you slaves that you live in fear, again, rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. We are not slaves any longer. We’re not in you know, like the worst imaginable foster care situation. I don’t want to throw foster care under the bus know many wonderful foster parents who are truly doing the Lord’s work. But you know, there’s that stereotype of a certain kind of foster family that is in it for themselves. They want the check that comes from the government. And they’re not there to love the kids. There, they’re there to you know, use and abuse the kids, like, just send me you’re gonna be in this house, you’re gonna work for us kind of thing. Like, that’s not what we experience any longer. Because we have been adapted to the parents show up at that foster home and go, we choose you. We want you to come and live with us to be not a foster child, our child, our son, or our daughter, that says, We’ve been adopted by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, so that we’ve received the Spirit of adoption, and that changes absolutely everything. Because think he chose to love us, in spite of our poor performance, that we did not earn our adoption. There was no merit in you, that made the Lord think I better I better make sure he’s on my side. So he knew us at our worst and still chose us. Ephesians one verse four in love, He predestined us for adoption to sonship it’s his love. That’s the ground of our adoption, and that overcomes our fear. Because why would he choose to love us and save us at the cost of his son’s life? When we were at our worst while we were still sinners? Christ died for us? Why would he choose to love us, then only to reject us later? That doesn’t make any sense at all. And we need to be clear here, and this is a hard piece to save, but we need to understand it. This adoption is not true of everyone, automatically. An invitation is open to all all are welcome. But we are not born adopted. John one verse 12, the prologue of John’s gospel, it says this to all who did receive him to all who did receive Jesus, you know, the Word made flesh to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. We must become children of God by risk. sieving Jesus and believing in His name, go back to our, our foster home. You know, it’s like the Father, Son and Spirit are there outside the home going, we choose you come and live with us and and you could run back into that foster home. Because even though you’re on your own, no one loves you there. You know it’s filth and squalor, at least it’s your filth and squalor, like it’s a familiar place to be how often do we do that with our sin, but the offer stands. And the father is there with open arms beckoning, you turn from your performance, and trust in grace. And then look what results by the spirit we cry, Abba, Father. This is what Jesus called his father, in get somebody when he was praying. About if it’s possible, take this cup from me, it’s this term of respectful endearment like Papa. And now we get to call God what Jesus called him. I mean, it’s such a wonderful privilege to be able to call the unit the King of the universe, Papa.
Did you notice too, that it’s by the spirit that we cry, Abba, Father? We don’t say Abba. We don’t just, you know, like call on him. No, it’s it’s crying. It’s in these moments of desperation. The Spirit points us to our father ever seen, like a little kid lost at a zoo or something like that? And just inconsolable, right? I just dissolved in tears. I want my mom I want my dad. That’s all I want everybody all these strangers round trying to help kind of thing like, nope, one thing. One thing only is gonna work right here. When mom and dad show up. Like that’s it. There’s the consolation. I was crying. And dad came he came to me actually saw this just a little bit ago. So I was meeting with one of the young moms in the church here. You know, had some questions wanted to go through some stuff. Because she’s young Mom’s got a kid with an in school yet so the kid came with son came with so we decided it would be best if we met in the nursery, instead of in my office nursery has toys for him to play with my office has books which you are not allowed to play with. So more precious to me in my own children. So yeah, no other people’s children don’t get to touch them. So we’re down in the nursery, we’re heading down to the nursery. You know, Mom’s got her son there. The problem though, is that this is a family from the church, which means the Son has been in the nursery before. So he knew where he was going. And he started bawling because you know what happens in the nursery? Mom drops you off. And then she leaves like, I’ve got abandonment issues now kind of thing. So he starts doing that like koala thing you know, like, tighten the grip is like climbing up her fingers in her eyes and nostrils and stuff. Like he’s not she keeps saying like it’s okay, but like, I’m not like Mama’s gonna stay. I’m not dropping you off. So I heard that before. Okay, not gonna fool me this time. So she like we both sat down, you know, to the rockers in the nursery. She’s still holding him. He’s still uh, you know, slowly settling, slowly settling, we start talking and having our questions and stuff and after a little while we realize he’s asleep. He’s asleep and his mother’s lap. Of course. That’s exactly what the Spirit helps us experience. Intimacy with our father, the boldness of intimacy with our Father, we can cling to him like that, and then that we can rest in our Father’s arms, what we just saying, right held in loving arms. Because of the spirit, right, Romans five, verse five, God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, that’s exactly what verse 16 says, right? It’s almost just the same statement in synonyms. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. That is the Spirit makes us aware of the Father’s love for us, reassures us that we belong to God and we can experience the peace and security of a little child lost at the zoo, who is finally back with his or her parents. appears in preacher Thomas Goodwin says it’s a little bit like this, you know, you picture a dad walking with his young son, you know, maybe they’re holding hands or something. They’re walking down the road road, and all of a sudden, Dad scoops his son up into his arms and just kisses him on the cheek and says, I love you so much. Like, I’m always gonna be here for you. I’m so proud of you. And Goodwin says, you know, in that moment, you know, think for a moment. Right before that happened. Was he any less his father’s son? No, of course not. But he is much more aware of it now. He feels it now. He’s beaming. He’s safe, because he knows his father loves them. That’s what the Spirit does for us. He assures us of our Father’s love for us, that the father delights enough. And even when we fall short, we don’t have a spirit of fear any longer. Now, I know when we fall short, we think Yeah, but isn’t the Lord angry with our sin? Do parents get angry with their children when they rebel against their authority? Yes, of course. And the father does too. Absolutely. Do parents stop loving those kids in that moment? No, not usually, at least most parents know. Exactly. That’s the Father with us. The Spirit takes the truth of the gospel. But there is no more wrath. If we are in Christ, there is only love There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That’s how the chapter begins, right? No more wrath. Only love that the Spirit takes that truth, which in certain moments can feel like dry theology, it certainly isn’t. But it can feel that way sometimes takes that theology and like turns it into a multi sensory media experience. It’s like when you go to the museum or something, and you’re learning about something that you learned about in school, and you’re like, it was so boring, and the textbook made it sound even more boring. But when you’re there, and you like, put the VR goggles on, or you got the, you know, like the the whole presentation going, and all of a sudden you’re like, Ah, now I understand. That’s what the Spirit does. Because we don’t always feel it. Our Father’s love Dewey. It’s always true. If we are in Christ, we don’t always feel it. That’s where we ask the Spirit to help us. That’s why we pray. Some of us just worked on memorizing Psalm 90 and journey groups, right? And what’s part of Psalm 90 satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love. If that’s what we asked the spirit to do. Right? Would you remind me of how much my father loves me? You can almost hear the Father saying to you, especially in light of the cross, do you think I’m gone? Like, do you think I’m distant? Do you think I’m unloving? See how much I love you. I bought you with a blood of my own son. It’s the Spirit who reminds us. Before we move on, can we just acknowledge how hard this is to accept? Like, it’s too good to be true. I think that’s why Jesus tells us the parable, the prodigal son, so that we’re just like, No, okay, Jesus said it like it has to be true. Because what is the prodigal son, when you talk about someone who didn’t measure up? There’s a guy who goes to his dad and says that I wish you were dead? Because I’d rather have your money than your relationship. In fact, could I have the money and dad says, Okay, give him his portion of his inheritance, you know, at cost himself again, cells, part of the field kind of thing. He’s poor now as a result of his idiot, son, idiot son takes that money and squanders it on sex and drugs, and rock’n’roll. And then he gets a job caring for pigs, just an unclean animal. So he’s the lowest of the low and he looks at the pigs food and gets a little jealous because they’re eating better than he is. And he comes to his senses. And he comes back home. And as he’s on his way home, what is it that he’s thinking about? He’s got a spirit of slavery, that leads to fear. Because he comes home saying, maybe my dad will hire me back as a worker on his farm. Maybe he’ll let me be a slave again, and I can earn back all that I stole from him. That makes sense to us. That makes a lot of sense to us. What does dad do? Friends to my son, my son is back. Welcome back. He gets the ring, he gets the robe. He gets the you know, slaughtered TAF and whatnot, the big feast? How do we know we’ve measured up we just give you the most free news I could possibly give you today. You didn’t and you won’t. It’s a cross on the wall behind us as a reminder that you and I could not possibly measure up to someone else had to measure up for us. But we have been adopted in Christ if we’ve received and him and believed in his name. And he measured up for us, which means now in one sense, the father is as pleased with us as he is with Jesus. And think of what that does for us. On our best days when everything’s going well. We got no calls for pride because we know that whatever good is it analysis there because the Spirit is at work in us. But on our worst days, when we mess up again, we have no cause for fear because we know the Father loves us in the sun. Don’t you want that? We got one more piece to work through though Paul’s not done yet. And that’s to look at our future. So who we were who we are, who we will be is our future inheritance. Let me read verse 17. For us now. If we are children, then we are heirs heirs Because of God and CO heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. This very good news that we just talked about has implications beyond the present moment. It has blessed assurance for all our days. This does help explain verse 15. Some of you probably had the question, why are we being adopted to sonship, because I’m a daughter, just to be really clear about all of that. Well, the reason why it’s adoption to sonship, and not sonship. And daughter ship, is because we’re in Rome, Book of Romans, right. And in Rome, in those days only sons could be errors. But if we are sons, even if you’re a girl, if we are sons, then we’re heirs. Heirs with Christ Himself, like we’ve been written into the will, at this point, the riches of glory, are our inheritance. Now,
this is very much about the future. Inheritance always is. And it’s so important because present reality doesn’t always align up with what’s been declared true of us. We’ve been talking about this whole series, right? Like last week, we know that God has broken sins power in our lives, so that we don’t have to sin any longer. And yet, we still do. And all too often, frankly, or we have been raised to new and eternal life, but our mortal bodies are still breaking down, we’re still awaiting the resurrection body. Right, it’s like we we belong to the new realm, that that kingdom of the Spirit, which is the kingdom of life, and yet we still live our days in the old realm of sin, and death. That’s like, I don’t know, you know, we live in a part of the world where even conquered by an imperial power for a time or something like that. And finally, you know, Freedom Fighters rise up, and they liberate you from this conquering power and whatnot. And yet you still speak the language of your conquerors. You still just eat the food and stuff because I don’t, that’s the restaurants that are there. Like, that’s how the Christian life so often goes. And on those days, you can start to wonder if any of this is true. We can doubt the Father’s love. Because Have you met me? How could he possibly love me? We can doubt his power to change us. We can doubt His faithfulness. Because why would he be faithful? When we have been so unfaithful? Will the father write us out of His will? That’s the question. It’s a common joke, right? Parents be like it out of the will sorry. Sometimes it really happens to like is that was going to happen here. Or maybe even the idea of a ruptured adoption, which is a real thing. I’ve met people who have gone through this where they adopted a child but the it didn’t take, and this child who had no attachment issues and whatnot, was unable to really come into the family and Ashley was destroying the family and they had to send the child back. Just heartbreaking situation. Is that what the Lord is going to do with us? I got good news for you. Here’s Ephesians, 113 and 14, when you believed, you were marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of his glory. You see, the spirit guarantees what’s coming. He guarantees what’s coming. The Promised Spirit is the Spirit of promise that all God’s promises will come true, they will happen. Now, Paul doesn’t put on rose colored glasses here, as he talks about this though, like we need this reminder because this life really is marked by sin and death and suffering. And so Paul says, We’re heirs with Christ only if we share in his sufferings, dying daily to self, just like Christ and like Christ taught us to, so that we can be raised with Him. The last day this is a foundational Christian truth that the road to glory passes by Calvary. Like Jesus, we have to learn obedience through suffering. And this is part of how God conforms us to the image of His Son. In fact, the verse right before that Romans 828 Everyone knows we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him have been called according to His purpose. God’s gonna work all things for our good. What is that good, that we be conformed to the image of Asana, that we become more like Jesus. This is how this magnificent chapter concludes with these promises, but it’s promises of glory in the midst of suffering. If God is for us, who can stand against us? If he gave us Jesus, how will you I’d also along with them graciously give us all things. But that doesn’t exclude suffering or hardship because that is the way of Jesus doesn’t even exclude our poor performance like look at the end of Romans eight. I’ll read verses 34 to 39. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life is that the right hand of God has also interceding for us. By the way, why would we be condemned? Because we messed up again. And the Satan says, See, there should be condemnation. And Jesus says, Nope, not from us. Not from our side. Okay, keep going, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or dangerous sword? As it is written for your sake, we face death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered? Does that sound like victory? Does that sound like we’ve got the inheritance? Would you wonder if the Spirit is actually guaranteeing all of this as you’re experiencing these things? What does Paul say no in all these things, in this in the hardship and the suffering, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. From convinced neither death nor life nor angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth or anything else in all creation, we both separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That’s our guarantee. If he loved us enough to save us in Christ, he will not write us out of His will. The Spirit keeps us the Spirit reminds us this truth is sealed us for God empowers our transformation. And Spirit brings God’s purposes to fruition. It’s often said of salvation. The father administers our salvation, Christ accomplishes our salvation, and the spirit applies our salvation to the Spirit takes what Christ did on the universal scale and makes it personally true for us. You actually see this mean so most of us know that Jesus was crucified during Passover. And we know that that’s originally symbolic, right? Because on Passover you, you sacrifice a lamb, and then it’s, you know, hit the lambs blood that protects you from God’s wrath so that the angel death passes over you and right Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So like, we get that symbolism. Most of us also know that the Spirit came at Pentecost. But for most of us, Pentecost is the day when the Spirit came. It’s not it was a feast. It was a Jewish festival, much like Passover. And so we missed the symbolism there too. Because what is Pentecost? Pentecost is the feast that you have at the culmination of the harvest. And we remember God’s faithfulness, thanksgiving for us, basically, right? The harvest came in all our prayers have been answered, we will have food again. That’s it exactly. The Spirit harvests what Christ’s death has purchased. Jesus ransoms us in the spirit gathers us. And so we live and walk and change in him until Jesus comes again, to bring us home to the Father’s banqueting table. That’s our blessed assurance. What is our main idea today as well, it’s this, if you are in Christ, rest assured, you have the Spirit of adoption within you rest assured, like we can rest we can fall asleep in our father’s lap. Because we have this assurance the Spirit reminds us of the Father’s love. Right takes us back to where we began this whole series. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. We are no longer slaves to fear but adopted kids. If you’ve trusted in Christ Jesus, that is who you are, no matter how you feel right now, no matter your performance, rest assured, drink deeply from this refreshing stream, walk in the Spirit without fear. If you’re here today, and you have not trusted in Jesus, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Like this could be true, have you no more fear, no more anxiety, no more guilt, no more shame nor have I done enough did I measure. The cross lays us bear you do not measure up cross lays us bear but it comforts us to reminds us that we are so dearly loved, that the father runs to us because the son has died for us. And he dies so that we might have life, the life that comes from being fully known. Including when we don’t measure up we don’t need to hide our failures any longer fully known but fully and assuredly loved. Will you receive and believe For that truth, now, there is no prep needed. Even now you could turn from your self, and turn to Jesus, and trust in His finished work. And if you do, when you believe he will be marked in Christ with a seal, which is the promised Holy Spirit, that carabiner that hooks us into the Father’s love, you can rest assured, let’s pray.
Father, we are overwhelmed by the reminder of your love for us. Overwhelmed, in large part because we know who we are. We know that we began our lives in rebellion against you that every one of us is Prone to wander into sin, to persist in a rebellion against you. But you’ve demonstrated your own love for us in this While we were still sinners, You sent Your Son to die for us. And when we believe or you send your spirit, to seal that truth for us, to keep us in your love, and remind us of that love, which is what we need if we’re going to overcome the sin in our lives and put to death and misdeeds of the body by your Spirit. Lord, remind us of your love. Now, try each and every one of us deeper into your love, especially those who do not know it yet Ford should be knocking on the doors of their hearts even now. inviting them to come into relationship with you. And then we walk in the Spirit, in light of that love for the rest of our days and to the glory of your name. Amen.Amen.