[0:00] You know, as we sing, I know that there are some songs that I don't know, maybe strike a note within each one of us. Some songs that, you know, maybe are your favorite that aren't mine and some are maybe my favorite that aren't yours.
[0:12] But, you know, there are so many songs that we think of the purpose of the reason that we sing, the reason that we come and sing songs of praise. And that is it gives praise to God, but it's also to direct our hearts towards Him, isn't it?
[0:25] And, you know, I'll be honest as we're singing that, you know, talking about how holy He is. You are holy. You are holy. And it just, it almost gives me goosebumps just thinking about how holy God is and how unworthy I am compared to the holiness of God.
[0:45] And yet God loves me anyway. What an amazing thing to think of God's grace and God's mercy. And, you know, we're going to look at some scripture in the book of Romans today. And again, Paul is the one that penned Romans, that God inspired him as he wrote it.
[1:00] And there's a line that we're going to read in this scripture where Paul says, O wretched man that I am. What does that word wretched mean? What does it mean? When you see something, you say, that's wretched.
[1:13] What does that mean? Unworthy. What else? I'm struggling coming up with words, so help me out.
[1:23] What else does wretched mean? Repulsive. That's probably a good word. What else? Gross. Falling apart.
[1:36] Awful. All those things are kind of synonyms for wretched. And Paul says, O wretched man that I am. And that's Paul understanding himself next to the holiness of God.
[1:48] We sometimes get this false impression in our minds that we're just, we just have this goodness that we are. That's not true. Apart from God, what is left?
[2:00] What remains? Is it good? No. No. It says our own righteousness. If we're apart from God, it says it's like, you've heard me talk about this before. It's what the Bible says.
[2:11] It's like we're filthy rags. It's all we are apart from God. Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. We're in Romans. Chapter 7. And again, before we get into chapter 7, we're going back to chapter 1, verse 16.
[2:23] I know you're tired of it. We're going to do it anyway. Let's read it together. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe in it, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[2:41] Do not be ashamed of the gospel. There is a gospel message that this world we live in needs desperately to hear. Do you truly believe that? If this world is desperate and needs to hear that, we need to be the ones to share it.
[2:56] Don't expect someone else to do it. Do we ever expect others to do it instead of us? We maybe sit back, somebody else will take care of that. We need to be bold, not to be ashamed, and we need to share it.
[3:09] All right. Hope that's in your heart and in your mind. So turn to Romans chapter 7 is where we're going to be this morning. And we're going to start in Romans 7, beginning in verse 13. So I encourage you to find that, follow along in God's word.
[3:23] And again, if you forgot your Bible, there's always Bibles on the rack in the foyer right before you enter the sanctuary. If you forget your Bible, grab one of those. Feel free to use it. If you do not have a Bible, keep it.
[3:35] Put your name in it. It's yours. If you know someone that doesn't have a Bible, keep it. Give it to them and put their name in it. It's theirs. We need to have God's word. Romans chapter 7. We're going to start in verse 13.
[3:46] If you're able, I'm going to ask if you'd stand as we read the word this morning. Romans 7, beginning in verse 13. Romans 8, verse 13.
[3:57] Romans 9, verse 13. death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would not, I consent to the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing.
[4:40] For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would do not, for the good that I would, I do not, but the evil I would not, that I do. That's kind of hard to say, isn't it? Now, if I do that, I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Let's pray together. Lord God, we just thank you for this morning that you've given us that we could come together as family and Lord remind us that is exactly what we are. The Lord also remind us as we come together in your presence that you are holy, that with you, there is no wrong, there is no sin, there is no imperfection. With us, there's all those things.
[6:04] You are holy. So we just thank you that we can come into your presence this morning, Lord, that we can read your word and that it can direct us how to come to you and how to be holy in your eyes.
[6:15] So, Lord, just speak to our hearts this morning. Give us an understanding and help us to be the people you want us to be. And we ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
[6:26] You can be seated. You know, this section of scripture that we read, is it confusing at all? You understood everything we read, right? You know, we read through it and it's kind of sometimes a tongue twister, but also sometimes it's kind of a mind twister. You know, you read it and you're like, what did I just read? It's sometimes kind of hard to wrap your mind around or really understand what it is that God is trying to get across to us through Paul as he writes. But you know, Paul begins in verse 13 and he uses the word and he's talking about the commandment, the commandments of God. What are the commandments of God? Thou shalt not kill. We know the list, right? The 10 commandments that God gave to Moses way back in the Old Testament that he brought down to the Israelites and said, this is God's word for us. These are his commandments. And then there were lots of other commandments that God gave to expound on those and rules that he gave them. But we understand those are God's commandments. Are they good? Yes. They're God telling us how we should live our lives, things that we should do and things that we shouldn't do. And that was God's message in the Old Testament. This is the law. This is a commandment. This is what I want you to follow.
[7:47] What was the problem with that? And the problem wasn't with the commandments. What was the problem? The problem was with people, right? The problem is not with God and his commandments. It's with us. What is the problem with us, with people? The sin nature. The problem is God gave the commandments, but are we always capable of following all of them? No. And we might say, well, yeah, I follow Him. I haven't killed anybody lately. I haven't lied lately. I try to put God first in my life. So you're following all the commandments, right? You know, Jesus, when He came, He made it clear that God is more concerned, more than just concerned about our physical actions.
[8:39] Jesus said over and over again that God is also concerned about what? Not just what we do, but what we think. And that's sometimes where the wheel falls off in our lives, isn't it?
[8:51] Let's be honest. Isn't it? We can sometimes control our actions, but what about our thoughts? Do we ever fall short there? Do we? Do you want to admit it? I hope I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but you fall short. I'm not telling you anything you don't know. I hope so. We fall short.
[9:14] We have minds that think things we shouldn't think or don't think things that we should think. We fall short. And in Romans, it talks, it says, all have fallen short of the glory of God. We fall short. And the law, the commandments, they point out where we fall short, but you know what the problem is? They can't correct it. They show you what's wrong, but it's not capable of correcting it.
[9:37] It's kind of like your car. If you have a car and something is wrong with it, where do you take it? If you don't do the work yourself, but where do you take a car and something's wrong with it? Don't say Ron either. He's good with cars, but you take it to a mechanic. And what do they do?
[9:54] I mean, you're going to say fix it, but what do they do before that? They diagnose it. They go through it and they try to figure out what is wrong with this car. What if that is all they were able to do? You take it in, they say, all right, this is what's wrong with it. And you say, okay, we'll fix it.
[10:18] And they say, no, I'm just here to tell you what's wrong with it. What would you think? That's not real helpful, is it? Pass it on to another. That's kind of what Paul is talking about. With the commandment, it was able to point out sin, but it wasn't able to remedy that sin.
[10:41] And then we come to the New Testament where Jesus Christ came and God gave us a remedy for that sin. You know, in the Old Testament, there was a remedy, but it includes sacrifices that were temporary and constantly had to sacrifice for this or that. The law pointed out the sin, but it couldn't fix it.
[10:57] Jesus came to give us a solution to that sin. But Paul goes on to talk about something else here that I think goes even a step deeper for a Christian, for a believer. Because once we come to accept Jesus Christ, then it fixes it all and we don't sin again, right? Is that the way it works? I'm asking.
[11:19] Is that the way it works? Some of you, I think, probably accepted the Lord many years ago. Is that right? I think for me, when I first accepted the Lord, I don't know, I was maybe seven or something like that. So it's not quite 50 years ago. I don't know how that happened. Anyway, some of you, I know it's been much longer than that. And I think, well, I accepted Jesus Christ then, so have I sinned since then? Well, you were all quick to say yes. I have. I'll admit it and so have you. I mean, we understand you accept Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean that immediately you're not going to sin anymore. I mean, your sins are taken away. That's very clear. It says they're separated as far as the east is from the west. They're blotted out. But do we then sin again?
[12:11] And that's the level that Paul is getting here. He talks about the struggle that goes on within us in our spiritual lives. Is there a struggle? Look in verse 14, because it tells us why there is a struggle. For we know that the law is spiritual, but then Paul says, but I am what? Carnal. What does that mean? Fleshly, sold under sin. So what is he saying there? What's Paul saying there, do you think? What's that? We're still human. We are still human. We are still in these human bodies, aren't we? I mean, I think I can speak for all of us. We're in these human bodies.
[13:04] These human bodies are a long way from perfect. Would you agree? In every way. I mean, we understand sometimes the physical things. We know our bodies aren't perfect because what happens is we age or we start to get what? Old. Yeah, we start to get old, but what does that mean? We start to get gray hair.
[13:26] Mine isn't. It's just the lighting. I keep telling the kids that. What else happens as we age with our bodies? Our what? Our minds change. Things wear out. We lose things. We get wrinkly. We hurt. We may stumble more. We have aches and pains, and maybe we know where they came from. Maybe we don't, and they hang on longer. That's part of our physical existence, isn't it? Because these bodies aren't perfect. That's the physical side, but the spiritual side, we're in these bodies, and you know, our mind is a part of our body, isn't it? Is our mind any more perfect than the rest of us? No. Paul says, I am carnal. That means there's still the flesh that we deal with. I would like to tell you we don't, but we do. We are in a fleshly body. That means we will continue to deal with the flesh. That means that part of us that draws us away from God. And Paul said he's no different. He says, I am carnal. And then look at what he says in verse 15. For that which I do, I allow not.
[14:34] For what I would do, that I do not. But what I hate, that I do. What is he saying there? Some of you are like, I don't know. What is he saying there? What's he saying there?
[14:47] There are things he knows that he shouldn't be doing, and he does them. And there are things he knows he should do, that he doesn't. It's as simple as that. That's what he's saying.
[15:07] And when he says, for that which I do, I allow not. Do you know what that means, that allow not? It means I understand it not. He says, I don't understand this sometimes. The things that I really know I should do as a Christian, as a believer, the things that I want to do, sometimes I just don't do them. And sometimes the things that I know I shouldn't do, I find myself doing them. Why is that? It's because of the flesh. It's because we're still in these fleshly bodies, and that means there is going to be a struggle that goes on. That there is this constant struggle within us. That the Spirit of God that's within us is battling with the Spirit of flesh that's within us, and there is that constant struggle for us. Do you ever find yourself struggling spiritually?
[15:55] And sometimes we think, oh, it's just things like lying, or things like looking at things you shouldn't look at, or reading things you shouldn't read, or watching things you shouldn't watch. But it's so many other things. It's being angry with people that you really shouldn't be angry with. It's holding grudges that you shouldn't be holding. It's gossiping when you shouldn't be gossiping. The list can go on and on of just things that we think of as little things, and yet they're still sin, aren't they? Driving and thinking in your mind, that jerk over there, how'd he do that?
[16:28] You know that's a weakness of mine. I'm not going to lie to you. That's falling short, isn't it? Everybody say yes. It is. I recognize it.
[16:40] Do I struggle with it? I hope so. Because there's an alternative to struggling with it. What's the alternative? Just doing it and not caring. That's the alternative. That's even worse, isn't it?
[16:54] But the struggle is finding myself wanting to do that and saying, no, I shouldn't think that way. This is someone that God created. I'm supposed to be showing them love. Can you call someone an idiot and show them love at the same time? If you can, let me know how. I'm not there yet.
[17:12] And I use that as an example that we can kind of joke on, but it's so much deeper than that. That struggle is there. Maybe it's just the struggle with discouragement. Does God want us to be discouraged in our lives? Does He give us things to be hopeful about, things that we can find peace in, in His Word? There's that struggle there. Where does that discouragement come from? Does it come from God?
[17:37] If it doesn't come from God, where does it come from? It comes from Satan, but that's the fleshly part of us, isn't it? Isn't it? There's that fleshly part of us. And I would love to tell you that once you become a Christian, that fleshly part is just erased and you never have to deal with it again. Folks, I think most of us would agree, we still deal with struggle and temptation, don't we?
[18:04] Yes. That is part of our existence here on this earth. And that's what Paul is talking about. He says, I get frustrated. I don't always understand because I know there's things that I should be doing and yet sometimes I don't do them. I know there's things I shouldn't do and I do them and things I should do and I don't always do it. We've talked about not being ashamed of the gospel.
[18:26] That means we should share the gospel with others. You ever find a situation where you look back and say, I should have shared with that person and I let that opportunity go. Do you think that's part of what he's talking about? Not doing the things we know we should do? Are we ever guilty of that?
[18:44] We just think of the big sins. Things like murder and things like lying and things like theft and adultery and those big sins. But folks, sin is sin. When God calls us to share his word with others and to share the gospel and he puts an opportunity in front of us and we turn our back on that and walk away, is that a sin? I believe it is. God has given us something to do and we choose not to.
[19:08] Is it really any different than Jonah when God said, go share with the Ninevites? And Jonah said, I don't want to do that. So what did he do? He went the other direction. He let that opportunity go. Was that a sin? Well, yeah. Was God happy with it? No. So when we do that, is it any different?
[19:27] Oh, but we don't like to think ourselves of being like Jonah, do we? Do we? But are we ever? I should say, am I ever? And the answer is yes. Sometimes I am. And folks, that's what Paul is talking about. And you know, we look at ones like Paul and was he a man of God? Oh, absolutely.
[19:51] We just got done a while back studying through the book of Acts in Bible study. Man, Paul did an awful lot for the Lord, didn't he? He was shipwrecked. He was beaten. He was thrown in jail numerous times. He was on the sea and on the roads and in parallel robbers and bandits and nakedness and starvation. All kinds of things he talks about. He was a man of God. So was he a perfect man?
[20:19] No. Why? Because he still had a fleshly side. There's a struggle there. And that struggle, folks, it's temptation.
[20:31] I would love to tell you that you'll get to the point in your spiritual life where you don't have any more temptation. Do we ever get to that point? Not on this side. You're right, Becky. Not on this earth. There will always be temptations. That's a fleshly side of us. Even Jesus, when he was here on this earth, he was in the flesh, wasn't he? So did Satan come and test him with that? Yes. Think of the things Satan tested him with. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days when he was in the wilderness.
[21:05] Do you think he was hungry? There's that physical fleshly side. Do you think he was hungry? So what did Satan tempt him with? Turn the stone to bread. He took advantage of that fleshly form and tempted him. Now, Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus relied on the Word and Jesus overcame that temptation. Can we overcome that temptation? Yes. But is there still a struggle that goes on?
[21:29] Yeah. And that's what Paul is saying. The things I want to do, I don't. The things I don't want to do, sometimes I do. And that's where it comes down to verse 18. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, in the flesh means apart from God, dwells what? No good thing. Think about what that really means. Apart from God, what really is left? Nothing good. That's what Paul is saying. If it's true for him, do you think it's true for us? Apart from God, there is no good thing. We alone are not enough. Do we understand that? Sometimes we want to overcome sin or overcome these temptations.
[22:17] We want to do it just with our own self-control, right? And we try to rely on ourself. Maybe we have a problem with getting angry when you're behind the wheel. I keep using that just because I understand that one, all right? Maybe we get angry when we're behind the wheel of a car. And we can say, all right, I'm just, I'm not going to do that anymore. I resolve. I'm just not going to do that anymore. Can I say that and mean it? Yeah? Does that mean it's going to happen?
[22:44] No. You know, I might be able to resolve to do that. And so the next time I get in the car, I'm good and I don't do that. What are the chances I resolve that and from that point on, it never happens again? Folks, our own self-control, if we rely on ourselves, our own strength, our own resolve, we will come up short. We are not enough on our own. And that's what Paul says, in the flesh, apart from God, there isn't any good thing. I will fall short. Then look down in verse 23 and it talks more about this. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. He's talking about, he says, warring against the law of my mind. There's an internal war going on there, isn't there?
[23:40] Is that true for all the rest of us? There's an internal war going on inside, a struggle to do what's right, a struggle to follow God, a struggle to stay on the right course. Folks, God understands that and so did Paul. I want you to look at another scripture that talks about this too. Look in Galatians. So just keep going back in your Bible, the book of Galatians.
[24:01] Galatians 5. Chapter 5. Look at verse 16. A couple of things here that I think are worth pointing out.
[24:20] Galatians 5, beginning in verse 16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
[24:32] So he's talking about when we rely on God and not ourselves, when we're able to focus on God, when we're able to put our trust in God, when we're able to follow God in His Word, that's walking in the Spirit, having the Holy Spirit living within us.
[24:46] It says, you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. You will overcome that lust of the flesh. Then look at verse 17. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would.
[25:07] But if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under the law. You know what it's talking about there? Again, it's talking about the inside of us that is that battle that's going on between the fleshly side and between the spiritual side. Can you just get rid of that fleshly side? Wouldn't that be nice?
[25:26] You know, you think of the New...Jesus, when He's talking, you think of the New Testament. It says, if your eye offends you, just pluck it out, right? Isn't that what it says? If your hand offends you, what do you do? Cut it off. Wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy?
[25:39] So the problem, maybe you're looking at things you shouldn't be looking at, so just pluck your eye out. That'll solve the problem, right? Will it really? Why not? Because your mind's still there, isn't it?
[25:52] You can still think things that you shouldn't think. That's always there. That is that fleshly part that is always going to be battling against the spiritual part. And then Paul comes to the summary in verse 24, back in the book of Romans, chapter 7, the line that I said earlier.
[26:11] So that's where he comes to the, O wretched man that I am. So that's a summary of it all. We're wretched. Isn't that great? Isn't that summary of what Paul's saying?
[26:26] O wretched man that I am. And really, folks, man is wretched, isn't it? Look all the way down from the beginning of the Bible. From Adam on down, we're wretched.
[26:39] We fall short. Did Adam fall short? Yeah, it was all Eve's fault, right? They both fell short, didn't they? You can go on down.
[26:50] What about Abraham? He followed after God. God called him. But did Abraham ever fall short? Did he ever lie? He said his wife wasn't who she was.
[27:01] He said his wife was his sister. I mean, did he ever fall short and failed to have the faith that he should have? Yes. What about Moses? Did he ever fall short? Yep.
[27:12] Struck the rock. What about Aaron? Did he ever fall short? Moses goes up to get the Ten Commandments. People didn't think he was coming back down, so the people said, we don't think he's coming back, so we want an idol to worship instead.
[27:24] Who said okay? Aaron. What about David? Man after God's own heart. Was he a wretched man?
[27:35] Why? He was a man after God's own heart. Did he ever fall short? What about Solomon? Wisest man that ever lived? That's what the Bible says. So he certainly had enough wisdom that he never fell short.
[27:47] Did he fall short? Yep. What about Peter? Did he ever fall short? Yeah. What about you and me?
[28:00] Whoever fall short? Yep. Oh, wretched man that I am. But the thing is, God doesn't leave us there.
[28:15] Look in verse 25. Because therein lies the answer. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Folks, the Bible always gives us the answer.
[28:28] It never leaves us without the answer. And you know what? Sometimes the answer is so simple, we don't want to accept it. What is the answer? Jesus. It talks about walking in the Spirit.
[28:40] What does it mean to really walk in the Spirit? What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? First of all, look on down. Look in the next chapter, because this all ties in. Look at the first two verses in chapter 8.
[28:54] There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit is life in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
[29:09] So what does it mean to walk after the Spirit? Seeking after the Lord. And you know what we find in that? It said it has made me free from the law of sin and death.
[29:23] We find freedom in that. Freedom from what? Freedom from sin. Freedom from the penalty of sin. Freedom from sin. We have that freedom, but what we have to remember, does that mean the war is over for us?
[29:35] No. The war wages on inside of us every day. Every day we will make the choice whether or not to follow God. Isn't that right? Every day we will make the choice whether to walk after the Spirit or whether to walk after the flesh.
[29:50] Whether to do what pleases God or what pleases ourselves. We will make that choice continually. And folks, we need to be praying, Lord, help me to make the choice you want me to make.
[30:00] Help me to continue to follow after you. Help me to be the person you want me to be. Folks, we find freedom, but the battle continues on. And that battle goes until when?
[30:15] Until we draw our last breath. And when that point comes, the battle is over. And if you have Christ in your heart, that struggle, that war is over. But until then, whether you like it or not, you're in a war.
[30:33] Don't try to win the war on your own. Ask Christ to give you the strength. Ask Christ to help you to walk in the Spirit. Spend time in His Word.
[30:43] Spend time in prayer. Those are things that help us to walk closer to Him so that we can have the victory He wants us to have. Will you fail at times? Okay, I'm going to ask again.
[30:55] Will you fail at times? Everybody say yes. That's reality. We will fail at times. And you know what else happens when we fail? Satan often tries to beat us over the head with it.
[31:05] You failed. You might as well just give up. You're not good enough. Yeah, you can tell Satan, yeah, you're right. I'm not. But my God is. And the one I serve is.
[31:17] And I may have failed this time, but I ask for forgiveness and I'm going to strive not to fail next time through His Spirit and through His power. The war will continue on, but God will give you the strength.
[31:30] Let's pray together. Lord, I just thank You for this day and I thank You for Your Word. And Lord, I think it's just all the things that Paul wrote. And we know he was a man of God.
[31:43] We know he was a man that followed after You. But Lord, perfection is not something we're going to achieve. while we're here on this earth. The perfection that we achieve is only through Jesus Christ.
[31:53] It's not through ourselves. We will continue to fail. But it's through Your grace and mercy and through Your Son, Jesus Christ, that we can still be perfect in Your eyes. It's not through what we do. It's through Jesus Christ.
[32:05] But Lord, in this war that we're all in, in the struggle we're in over temptation, I just pray You give us strength and power. Help us not to rely on ourselves, but to rely on You. Help us to follow after You.
[32:16] And Lord, when we do fail, help us not to allow Satan to get a foothold. Lord, help us to ask for forgiveness. Ask for strength to move on. And know that You're a God that is full of grace and mercy.
[32:29] And just help us to strive to live a life for You. Lord, continue to work in our hearts. And we ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. This morning, as we close, the altar is open.
[32:41] If you have a need, come and pray about it. It's as simple as that. Don't try to solve it on your own. Bring it to the Lord. You know, I hope as we sing that we think about the words we're singing. You know, we're singing about grace.
[32:52] That's one of God's gifts to us. And it says, He will pardon and cleanse within. That means when we sin, those times when we do fall short, what will God's grace do? Pardon and cleanse. Why?
[33:03] Because in the end, it says, grace that is greater than all our sin. The reality is, the Bible tells us, greater is He that is in us than He that's in the world. When we rely on God, we will have a victory.
[33:16] When we rely on ourselves, you know what we're going to face? Failure. Over and over. So rely on God, not on yourself. And I'm just going to ask if we bow our heads right now. Just for a moment, I want you to think about the grace that God is showing you.
[33:33] That all the sin that you have in your life, all the sin that you've ever done, God is willing to forgive you of that. And if you've put your trust in Christ and asked for that forgiveness, God has already forgiven you of all that.
[33:46] Folks, that's grace. Nothing you deserve, but just out of God's love. But this morning, if you're here and you've never asked Christ into your heart, that sin is still with you. God doesn't want you to carry that sin and to carry the penalty of that sin.
[34:02] So if you've never asked Jesus into your heart, I encourage you to do that on this day. Just invite Jesus Christ into your heart. Ask Him to forgive your sin. Tell Him that you believe in Him and strive to live a life for Him.
[34:16] I'm just going to ask if we can pray together. Lord, we just again thank You for this morning that You've given us. And Lord, we pray if there's anyone here that has never accepted Jesus Christ, that they would do that today. That they would invite Christ into their heart and into their life.
[34:31] Lord, for those maybe that have been a Christian for years, help us to understand that we still need to rely on that grace just as much. That we still fall short and we still need You just as badly as we did when we first accepted You as our Lord and Savior.
[34:47] That that fleshly part, that sinful part, that sinful nature is still there, warring away. And we continue to need Your strength each and every day. So Lord, just fill us with Your strength.
[34:58] Help us to walk in the Spirit. Help us to rely on You, not ourselves. And help us to live lives that would be pleasing to You. Lord, thank You for being such a wonderful God. Thank You for the knowledge that as we leave here, we leave in Your presence and in Your Spirit and it goes with us.
[35:13] We don't leave it here. Thank You for all these wonderful gifts You've given us. And we ask and pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior, and all God's people said. Amen.
[35:24] God bless you. Have a wonderful week. And remember, if you wouldn't mind, just leave the hymnals right there on the seats.