Romans 6 - Who Is Your Master
Tom Shrader explores Romans 6:11-14, explaining that believers are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. He emphasizes that sin no longer has dominion over Christians because they are under grace, not law. The teaching focuses on the practical reality that believers can choose to present their bodies as instruments of righteousness rather than unrighteousness, having been freed from sin's enslaving power.
“Sin has been dethroned and replaced by Jesus.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Romans
Recorded: 2013
Duration: 39 min
Themes: freedom, slavery, righteousness, sin, grace, obedience, choice, victory, struggling with sin, new believer, feeling defeated, seeking freedom, mature christian, pastor, mentor, young adult
Scripture: Romans 6:11-14, Romans 6:3, Romans 6:6, Romans 6:8-9, Ephesians 1:3-13, Titus 3:3-7, 1 Corinthians 10:13, Romans 12:1-2, 2 Corinthians 5:14, James 1:13-15, 1 John 1:9
Theological Themes: sanctification, becoming holy, justification, union with christ, law versus grace, spiritual warfare, mortification of sin, progressive sanctification
Full Transcript
Open your Bibles—I love saying that—to Romans chapter 6. That's where we are today. As you turn there, just a couple of things. I've been around campus, and typically this is the hour that I usually come and worship, which gives me a chance to see people leaving the first hour and coming in at the next hour. You're all so gracious and always asking how I'm doing, so let me just give it to you on two planes.
On a personal level, Sandy and I are doing great. We've been married about a year and a half now, and we have found something we have in common that's going to make this thing work. We both love me, and that's amazing how well that's perfect. So I tease about that, but unfortunately it's probably a little bit true, so we're doing great.
Physically, Tim mentioned about six weeks ago I got hit with a little uptick on some inflammation stuff. Nothing serious, but one of the things it did is put me back on the medicine that I'm on—the steroids—which have some really good effects. I have almost no pain, which is great, and I feel like I could lift this building, which I can't. The bad side of it is there are side effects to it. A little bit tired, and I'm vain enough to have to mention it just because I can hear you laughing, but I'm bloated. I don't want you to think I'm home just watching TV and eating. I'm home watching TV, but not eating as much—it's the steroid stuff. And very emotional. It's amazing, I start crying. I stopped at Arizona Avenue and Elliott the other day, red light, and there's a Circle K there now, and that's been a Christmas tree lot forever. All of a sudden, it occurred to me we were never going to have Christmas trees. It's dumb, but it's just a lot of stuff that's associated with it.
So the takeaway is thanks for asking, and I really am doing well, just that stuff. But I'm already tapering. Went to a mega dose of steroids, I'm already a third off of that, so that's the doctor this week. Anyway, so all good, okay?
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
Romans chapter 6, and we parachute right into where we left off last week. We'll put the words on the screen. We're going to look at verses 11, 12, 13, and 14. There they are: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God"—and a key phrase for us here is "in Christ." So I want to make a bunch of little comments along the way today, a little bit scattered maybe, and I have a big point that I hope I can communicate at the end.
So He says, "Now, because of that, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies." So we want to look at a "therefore." Whenever you see a connector word like that, He's connecting thoughts together. So because I'm in Christ, don't let sin reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its passion. "Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness"—so we're talking about now how you're going to use the members of this body, not for unrighteousness. But—so there's the contrast—"present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life," because that's what's happened, right? We're dead in our sins and trespasses, now we're alive, "and your members to God as instruments of righteousness."
So the contrast, and then finally, "For sin will have no dominion over you." Why? Well, because you're not under the law and the guilt and the penalty of the law, but you're under grace.
Jesus Is My Victory
So that's the passage we'll look at. I gave you some explanation there. Can we do what we did first hour? I worshipped first hour, and the way that I love to do it is come in—I don't know exactly what the songs are—this is a song, and Jed wrote this song, and this verse and lines from that song are a perfect commentary on those verses: "Satan has no power in me, Jesus is my victory, sin has lost its hold on me, Jesus is my victory." That's what those verses say, right? Those words that we sang, those words that we read: don't let this sin reign in your body anymore. And He wouldn't tell you to do it if you didn't have the power to do it. You don't have to do it. Sin has been dethroned and replaced by Jesus.
Paraphrases Illuminate the Truth
So let me read you a couple paraphrases of this passage. Let me explain to you what a paraphrase is—it's not a translation. So like your ESV or your New American Standard would be a word-for-word translation. You get into the NIV, some of the others, you'll get a thought translation—less accurate, I think. These are paraphrases. This is a man sitting aside, or a woman, and saying here's what I think this passage says, and sometimes you just get great insights.
Here's the New Living Translation: "Don't let sin control the way you live. Give yourself completely to God. You were dead, you have new life. Sin is no longer your master. You no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead you live under the freedom of God's grace."
The Phillips is an older paraphrase, one of the first ones that I was ever familiar with, and He always has a really great way of expressing stuff—J.B. Phillips: "Do not allow then sin to establish any power over your mortal bodies in making you give way to its lusts, but like men rescued from death, put yourself in God's hands as weapons of good for God's own purposes, for sin is not meant to be your master. You're no longer living under the law, but under grace."
Here's The Message—this is Eugene Peterson: "This means that you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves full-time, wholeheartedly remembering that you've been raised from the dead. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under the old tyranny any longer, but under the freedom of God."
The Question of Control
And you start to hear some words—the words about control. So who's going to control you? Paul admonishes us to be filled with the Spirit, not drunk with wine.
I'm under the influence of wine or alcohol, what's happening is, that's who has control over me. Paul's saying, you don't need to be controlled by sin or dominated by sin, but live under the control of the Holy Spirit, and part of this is going back and remembering what God has done. When it comes to living, don't present my body to be used for sin and destruction, but present my body, and by this we mean mind, choice, will, all that we are, present ourselves for God's righteousness. Because I'm no longer living under the law, but I'm living under grace, I'm no longer under the condemnation of an enslaved man, but I'm now freed.
In fact, one of the commentators uses as a title on this section, whose slave are you? So Paul, who's telling us, don't let sin reign in our body, in chapter one, verse one of this book, identifies himself as Paul the bondservant, Paul the slave. So Dylan was right, everybody's going to serve somebody, everybody's going to have a master somewhere, and what Paul is saying is, listen, you are a new creature.
What You Know and What You Believe
Look in chapter six, this is what Tim covered last week. He begins in chapter six, verse 11, and He said, even so, so even so carries with it the idea of, here's what Paul's been talking about. He's been talking about what you know and what you believe.
So chapter six, verse three, do you not know that all of us have been baptized into Christ? Verse six, here's a fact, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him. Verse eight, we believe that we shall be alive with Him. Verse nine, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again, death no longer has mastery over us. Because all of that is true, Paul says. Verse 11, consider yourself, it's an accounting term, reckon it is done. Know this, that you yourselves are dead to sin, but you're alive, here's the key phrase now, if you mark, underline, circle in your Bible, got to get this one, in Christ Jesus, that's our status.
The Importance of Being "In Christ"
Keep your finger, we're going to do a little bit of turning today, keep your finger on the book of Romans, go to the right, to first and second Corinthians, Galatians, to Ephesians. When we studied Ephesians, I remember teaching that first chapter and making the same point there that we just made, and that is the importance of understanding this in Christ.
As you look at Ephesians chapter one, one of the things I find helpful is that when I'm looking at a theme in a passage, I mark it. Maybe in this case, it was the phrase in Christ or in Him, with a square or a squiggly line. So my eye just goes to Ephesians one, and immediately, here are the circles I see.
Verse three, the end of it, in Christ. Verse four, chosen in Him. Verse seven, in Him we have redemption. Verse nine, His kind intention, which He purposed in Him. Verse 10, the summing of all things, in Him. All things upon earth, in Him also. We've obtained an inheritance, the end of verse 10, verse 11, verse 12. And to this end, we also have the first hope in Christ. Verse 13, in Him you also have listened to the message, and you were sealed in Him. It's this idea of being in Him, in right relationship.
God and Sinner Reconciled
What it means is to be a follower of Christ, to believe in Him, to understand that we come into the world separated from Him by our sin. I was just talking to Ben. We were talking about Christmas. We taped last year's and recorded last year's Christmas service so that it would be part of a CD that we could release this year, and it's ready to go. I said, are we working on, what do you think for Christmas this year? Well, we'll be in a new building. Well, I know there'll be all these things, but I know at least once in this Christmas season, we will sing a song that has in it the line, God and sinner, what? Reconciled.
Reconciled means this. It has with it the supposition of a preexisting hostile condition. So if I say Timmy and I were reconciled, that's all the information you have, from that you can conclude that there had to be a preexisting hostile condition. If God and sinner are reconciled, then what we know is there was a preexisting hostile condition.
Our Greatest Hits List
Now, keep your finger there. Let me take you to a passage. This is one of those that you'll want. You want to mark up and put in your greatest hits list. Titus chapter three. I usually teach out of a different Bible, but I have this emotional, nostalgic moment, and I grabbed, this is my first ever study Bible. This is the first Bible I had as a believer. Here's 2071 East La Jolla Drive. 8209649.
In it, I began what was a really smart practice. You'll see blank pages. And what I did is I realized there were certain passages that either Larry went to over and over again, or I would go to over and over again, or when they were mentioned, they had this profound impact on me, and I just started to list these passages. After a while, they become second nature. The very first one listed is 1 Corinthians 15. It's the resurrection chapter. 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. I would suggest you do that, by the way. It's kind of like a player when you see the quarterback, and they're flashing in signs, and He's got His cheat sheet here. That's like your cheat sheet.
Our Former Enslavement
Titus 3.3 through verse seven should be on it. Let's get this idea, because this is what Paul's driving home. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, here's the theme now, enslaved to various lusts and pleasure, spending our life in malice and envy and hateful and hating one another.
But that's who we are. That's who we are by nature. Corresponding passages to this would be Ephesians 2:1-4, where Paul says we're by nature children of wrath, separated from God. The wage of sin is death. Death means separation. I'm separated from God.
But when the kindness of our God, of God our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared—what's that? Jesus—He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we'd done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration, renewing of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the full hope of life. Part of that inheritance is back to Romans 6—I'm no longer in this bondage to sin, because I'm in Christ now that bonds are broken.
There's that updated version of Amazing Grace that has the line in it about the bonds, and I've been set free. Set free from what? Set free from the guilt and the bondage of sin. I've been forgiven.
From Bondage to Freedom
It was great when Jeremy was talking about the adoption and taking kids out of the system that they're in. These are kids that have—and he described it—they haven't been loved, and they've been abused, and maybe they've been isolated. Here's what I want you to get: that was you separated from Christ. That was you working hard, maybe, to try to earn His pleasure, but you could never do it.
That was you, but now you're forgiven. Now you're delivered. You're not under the law and its condemnation—no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We can call Him Father. We have an intimacy with Him.
The Power to Overcome Sin
He said, because that's true, in verse 12, therefore, because that's true, I don't want you to let sin reign in your body. He's affirming that truth. He's telling you what's already there. Sin's been displaced. You have the power now and the confidence in the midst of temptation to know—1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13—that no temptation's overtaken you but such is common to man, and God is faithful, and He won't allow you to be tempted beyond that which you're enabled to endure. He'll provide you a way of escape.
You have that confidence that you can't out-sin God's grace, that you're not on probation. Your relationship with Him is permanent, and that's really hard for some who humanly have never experienced that. So many—I'd probably say most human relationships—are somewhat conditional, aren't they? I'll love you if, I'll love you when.
Conditional Love vs. God's Love
When I was a young boy, I was a decent athlete. You wouldn't know it now, I guess. By high school, I went out for basketball, but they already had one, so I was done by then. But my sport was baseball, and I don't mean this as a criticism—it's just the way it was. If I was 0 for 4, the ride home was very different than if I was 3 for 4. "I'm really proud of you, buddy"—but I never heard that after you struck out.
The boys played yesterday morning, Braden and Yale. I didn't get to go. I was speaking downtown, something that was arranged a long time ago. Braden asked me on Friday, "Are you going to be at the game tomorrow?" I said no, I'm going to be downtown speaking to grandparents that they need to go to their grand boys' baseball game. Stupid, I got it, but it's the irony of it.
Haley called, and I said, "How was it?" She said good. She said there was a Tom moment in there, and I said, "What's that mean?" And she said, "I was over by the other team's dugout, and this kid had made an out, and the dad was there. Put yourself in this moment, what you can do." And the dad said, "You didn't do what I told you to do. That's why you made an out."
Haley knows how I feel about that. She said you could just see all the air go right out of this kid. My tendency is to get mad at that dad, but that dad probably heard that all his life—not as an excuse, I'm just saying. Some of you have been raised, even in the idea of God, that you think He's in heaven going, "Ha, if you'd have done what I told you, you wouldn't have made an out."
He says no, you're My kid. You've been rescued and delivered, and I knew that was going to happen, and I loved you anyway. You're Mine. Here you go—you see it on restaurants every once in a while—you're under new management. You're not under this sin and authority any longer. You're a new creature, you're a new creation, driven by God's love for you.
Grace and Truth Together
Sometimes, that's really hard for us to get, because we flinch right back into that. To talk about grace is really difficult, because I want to go, "Well, what about truth? What about when I sin?" I got it. Here it is: you're forgiven. That doesn't become an excuse to sin. That breaks your heart, because you look at God's love for you and say, "How can I do that to You?"
One of the great indicators of how you're doing spiritually is how you respond to sin. If you can just sin and say, "Well, boys will be boys, girls will be girls, I'm forgiven"—that's the question that Paul is really dealing with: Can I just be the same old person? If I say Jesus is Lord, is everything going to stay the same? He said no, because it's a new relationship.
Understanding Temptation
You don't let sin reign in your body. It's in this flesh. It's what John talks about in 1 John—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life. There's going to be that attraction. It's James 1, where James gives us a description of temptation and sin.
I'll read it to you. James 1:13: "Let no one say when he's tempted, 'I'm being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He does not tempt anyone." But here's this process of temptation and sin: "But each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust. And then when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death."
Something internal in the flesh, that old flesh, is attracted to something external. I do watch a lot of television—
I watch a lot of good television, but then I watch stuff that makes no sense. I'll watch Home and Garden, and I'm not only never going to do anything—I don't even know how to turn on a hammer. I don't even know where the switch is. I don't know anything. I watch cooking shows, but I'm not going to cook.
Well, I watched a fishing show the other day, and this guy had a new lure, state-of-the-art 2013 new lure—the real thing. Then they showed this picture of some sort of fish. They showed a real one, they showed the lure, and they looked the same. Then they showed a fish coming along, thinking he was going to get dinner, and he became dinner.
The Deception of False Promises
That's James 1. The world comes along, and it'll shake something, and it looks like the real thing, but it never produces. False gods never fail to fail. Those things that look so good—and he says, think about it, consider. Don't just live like an animal, driven by your desires. Think about it. It looks good, but you know how this is going to end. Don't do it.
Don't present your instruments, or your body as instruments for unrighteousness, for sin, for rebellion, but for righteousness. You've been delivered from the slavery of sin. You're not under its bondage any longer. There's no condemnation for you.
If I can put a bow on this section: you're not under the law, you're not under the guilt of the law, the penalty of the law. That's what the law does—the law condemns. But I'm under grace. I'm under forgiveness.
The Call to Present Yourself
When I read that passage, there's a phrase in there. Tyler—I saw Tyler the other day, Tyler's teaching today at Tempe—and he said, "Where are you going to go in this passage?" I said, "Well, the phrase in verse 13. You see the word at the beginning of the phrase, 'don't present,' but in the middle of verse 13, 'present yourself to God.'" That makes me think of another passage in this book.
So I want to take you to that passage, and then I want to share with you something that happened to me yesterday that was awesome, and see if we can pull this together. Still in the book of Romans, turn to Romans chapter 12.
Romans chapter 12 is the pivot point in this book. Romans 1:2 through 11, Paul just lays out these amazing doctrinal truths. In fact, look how it ends in 11:33: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Who has known the mind of the Lord?" "Who can separate us from the love of Christ?" At verse 36: "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things." Paul looks at Romans 1 through 11 and breaks out in doxology.
Romans 12: The Practical Response
When he gets to Romans chapter 12, he moves toward exhortation, toward the practical part of this. Here's what he says: "I urge you therefore, brethren"—so he's talking to believers—"by the mercies of God." He said, here's your motive: because of the mercies of God. Let me list some of those for you: salvation, His kindness, the freedom, reconciliation. Because of all that God has poured out on you while you were a sinner, while you were helpless, while you were a child of wrath—in spite of you, not because of you—because that's true, I want you—here's the word again—present.
Present your bodies, and your bodies are a living sacrifice, not those Old Testament dead sacrifices. It's a holy sacrifice, because this is what you've been set apart to do. It's acceptable to God. It's your spiritual service of worship. It's the only logical response when you contemplate this.
A Personal Illustration
I have been in Sports Illustrated twice. Once as a photographer, which is interesting because I don't own a camera, but I took some pictures at an Iowa-ASU game that were published the next week: "Tom Schrader, AP." They were in there. I was in there previously—I did a chapel for the University of Arizona Wildcats years ago, and there was a writer from Sports Illustrated covering the U of A that week. I didn't know it, and part of it was the chapel.
In the chapel I talked about Romans chapter 12 verse 1, "present your bodies," and I came up with the phrase "give your bod to God," which was stupid then, or silly then, and silly now, but it got picked up by that. Probably all I had for U of A really—I didn't give them my best, but I gave them what they deserved. I heard they won last night, is that right? That's a big game for them.
The Logic of Surrender
This is all Paul's saying: Paul's saying give your body, your mind, your will, your emotions—all that you are—you give them to God. You present them. The idea there is to yield or surrender. You present them to Him. Why? It's the only thing that makes sense.
When I stop and I contemplate all that Paul's written about in Romans 1 through 11—the passage that I've taken you to a thousand times in Romans 5 verse 6: "while we were helpless"; verse 8: "while we were sinners"; verse 10: "while we were enemies"—Jesus moved. Remember what we saw in Titus? He saved you not on the basis of what you've done, because anything you would present as a sacrifice in terms of atoning for your sin, anything you present would be flawed, and it requires a perfect sacrifice. That was Jesus who died in your place.
So the most logical thing is to present to Him your bodies, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Worship Beyond Sunday
Ray Stedman writes this: this is your logical worship, this is the way you worship God. He says, "I hear a lot of people talking about worship these days. When you come to church and you come to worship corporately, but worship doesn't start and end at church. You are worshiping or not worshiping all week long, depending on what you do with your body." Is it His? How you do what you do—it's important, it matters. Your job tomorrow is a reflection of your relationship with Christ.
If you're a stay-at-home mom, if you're a CEO running a Fortune 500 company, either way, it's a reflection. It's your worship. I'm just reading a book on leadership—more because of the biography—but this guy is talking about following a corrupt leader into his company. He takes over this multi-billion
dollar company from a guy who's on his way to jail, and then when they're done, it's the CEO and the CFO and the COO, and it's every branch manager, and there is just illegality spread all through. He told these guys, we need the business, bribe who you need to bribe to get it. Take the product and make it less efficient, less effective, lie about what's on the label.
Well, how would you represent Christ in the middle of that? You're in those situations all day long.
The Key to Transformation
Now, here's the key, we've got six minutes. Verse two, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Again, from some of these paraphrases, they're helpful. The Message says, "Take your ordinary, everyday life, sleeping, eating, going to work, walking around, and place it before God as an offering. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without thinking." You're just going with the flow. Going with the flow is great if the flow is going where you want to go.
The Living Bible says this: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of the world, but be a new and different person with a freshness in all you do and think." Here you go, the Phillips. This is much more aggressive now: "Don't let the world squeeze you into its mold. It will. But let God remold your minds from within you so that you may prove in practice the plan God has for you."
That unlike religion, biblical Christianity changes me from the inside out, and it begins with the renewing of my mind. Long before I get to action, I begin to see the world differently.
A Different Perspective
Here's one of the old songs that we sing every once in a while: "I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be His than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses or land. I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced hand than to be the king of a vast domain and be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything the world offers today."
Is that true? See, that's what it means to not be conformed. It's to say, listen, I got it. It's not to say things aren't important. It's to say they're in the right perspective.
This all begins in the renewing of your mind, to have a mind like Christ. Sandy's teaching a Bible study in the Gospel of John, and she read this to me yesterday. She said, "I'll bet you can use this." And she was right. The author writes this: "Men will flock to a teacher or preacher who can really give them guidance for the tangled business of thinking and living. Jesus is the one who, amidst the shadows, makes things clear, who, at many crossroads of life, shows us the right way, who, in the baffling moments of decision, enables us to choose right, who, amidst the many voices which clamor for our allegiance, tells us what to believe."
That's what we get from this word. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. How? I begin to get the mind of Christ through His word, and now I see the world differently. I see people differently. It's biblical life change.
The Purpose of East Valley Bible Church
I did a memorial service here yesterday for a man that I never met. And I know that sounds awkward for you all, but I've done it so much, and it doesn't bother me. Because I get to hear people paint a picture of him.
Tim mentioned we started East Valley Bible Church 22 years ago, next week. And I thought about that the other day. I've invested a third of my life in the church. And I was trying to think, what are the things that are the most satisfying?
And if I go back to the original purpose statement of East Valley Bible Church, which I really like, and maybe because I wrote it, but it was this: to help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives. It seemed to me like that said a lot. That we're learning, what are we learning? We're learning God's truths. It's one another. You get them in a redemption group, you may get them here. You may get them with five guys having coffee, or three ladies meeting in the commons on Wednesday. But the end result of this is that there's a change that takes place.
That seems to connect to me right where we are today. I don't let sin reign in my body. I'm not just driven by impulse anymore. I'll still do what I want. I love this. I'll still do what I want, but God changes my wanter.
A Transformed Life in Prison
Yesterday at this memorial service, it was, as I said, for a guy I didn't know. He died incarcerated. Wasn't a famous guy. There might have been two dozen of us here. It might have been the most powerful memorial service I've ever been to.
His mother-in-law, father-in-law, and wife spoke. Both the wife and the man, the deceased, had drug backgrounds, and obviously, his landed him in prison. And in prison, he's getting written up quite a bit for behavior. And then there's this moment comes where people would say he kind of got it together. Well, he didn't get it together. God saved him. And everything began to change.
See, that's what this is about. This is about a life that's transformed. It's not about perfection. It's about, you sang about the love of Christ. The love of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:14. The love of Christ compels us.
A Letter from Prison
Well, as she closed, as Jen closed yesterday, she read a letter that her husband had written her on New Year's Day. And it's not the type of letter, I think, from an incarcerated druggie. It's the letter that I think represents a transformed life. And my point in reading this to you is his sin is just more obvious than yours. But like he was delivered, though he remained physically in prison, he was spiritually delivered. You've been delivered.
Listen to this letter. This is awesome: "Lord, I pray that you would give Jen and Rusty, the two of them, a vision for our future. Help us to understand that your plans for us are for good and nothing else. To give us a future of hope. Fill us with the knowledge of you in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that we may have a walk worthy of you, fully pleasing you, Lord, being fruitful in
All good work and increasing in knowledge of You, Lord. May Jen and Rusty live in the Holy Spirit and not walk in doubt or fear, but in faith. Lord, help us to mature and grow in knowledge of You daily, submitting to You our dreams and desires. I pray, Lord, that You give us the opportunity to achieve goals that seem overwhelming at times.
Jen and I will, in fact, have the motivation to be active in service as a family for the remainder of our lives. Lord, I pray that You have a hand in keeping us from losing our purpose and keep us filled with hope in our future as an anchor of our soul in both sure and steadfast. Lord, place our family in Your house and keep us fresh, Your knowledge of You, current, flourishing, bearing fruit in the old age together. Watch over our kids.
I wanted to take it and cross out Rusty and Jen and put Tom and Sandy and send it to her. But I thought honesty was a better policy. And that's a transformation we're talking about.
The Joy of Christian Living
My fear, and we have to close, my fear is that we spend so much time talking about sin and don't reign that you're beat up in the battle and never get to the joy of living the Christian life. Not easy, not free from sin, but free from condemnation. Tim will pick up there next week.
If you're here this morning and that was just gibberish, that you're going, I have no clue what he was talking about, there'll be some guys in the front of the service here right afterwards that would love to meet with you and talk to you about what it means to know Christ. I hope for those of us who would say Jesus is Lord, that was 45 minutes that we're encouraging. That's what I hope.
Let me pray. Father, thank You for this awesome truth. And drill it deep to us. I look at the clock and we have to go. But God, thank You that we have forever to be Your kids. Thank You for loving us and saving us. We pray to You in Christ's name, amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.