[0:00] Amen. Well, please take your Bibles and let's open them up this morning to the book of Romans. The book of Romans. This is week three, the final week in our mini-series on the resurrection. We'll be back in Genesis, Lord willing, next Sunday.
[0:16] But for this week, we're in Romans, in Romans chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. Romans 6, 1 through 14. And when you found it, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning.
[0:30] Amen. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who have died to sin still live in it?
[0:48] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[1:09] For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
[1:27] For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.
[1:40] Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[1:57] Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[2:18] For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. This is the word of the Lord. Father, we thank You for this word.
[2:31] We thank You for freedom in Christ. We thank You, Lord, that for those who are in Christ, sin no longer enslaves us, no longer rules us.
[2:42] That there is freedom, truly, and power. By the power of Your resurrection, there's power to walk in newness of life. We pray, Lord, that we would see it, take hold of it by faith this morning.
[2:55] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Again, this is week three of our series here on the resurrection. Our final week looking at the resurrection and its implications for us.
[3:09] Week one was Easter Sunday. We looked at Jesus' resurrection. We saw how His resurrection shapes our faith. Because Christ, in fact, has been raised from the dead.
[3:21] We are not in our sins. Our faith is not futile. We're not worthy of pity. His resurrection changes everything. That was Easter Sunday.
[3:32] Last week we saw how His resurrection shapes our future. We look ahead and see that because He is risen, we too, who are united to Him by faith, we too will be risen, resurrected to be with Him and like Him.
[3:49] We will be raised up with new, glorified, resurrected, perfected bodies, made fit for eternity with Him. This week, today, as we look here to Romans chapter 6, we get to look at the implications of His resurrection for life in the in-between.
[4:10] Right now. And we get to see how His resurrection shapes our fight with sin. In other words, church, His resurrection, it matters for us right now in our fight with sin.
[4:25] Because Jesus Christ has raised from the dead, those who are united to Him by faith are also raised to walk in newness of life.
[4:37] Because Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, then those who are united to Him by faith are right now empowered to live right now in resurrection power.
[4:50] Victory over sin. Now, I assume that you recognize that we are in a war with sin here and now. Do we understand this? J.C. Ryle, the bishop, J.C. Ryle, he says, We must not conceal from ourselves that true Christianity brings with it a daily cross in this life, while it offers us a crown of glory in the life to come.
[5:15] The flesh must be daily crucified. The devil must be daily resisted. The world must be daily overcome.
[5:27] There is a warfare to be waged and a battle to be fought. And all this is the inseparable accompaniment of true religion. Heaven is not to be won without it. Never was there a truer word spoken than the old saying, No cross, no crown.
[5:42] If we never found this out by experience, our souls are in a poorer condition. He goes on. The true Christian is called to be a soldier and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death.
[5:58] He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, laziness, and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like on traveling in an easy carriage.
[6:12] If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his course laid down very plainly in this matter. He must fight.
[6:24] So this morning, as we look to Paul in Romans chapter 6, we get to see how we are to fight. And we'll see three ways that the resurrection shapes our fight with sin.
[6:37] This will be our outline this morning if you're taking notes. There's three ways that the resurrection of Jesus shapes our fight with sin. First, we see the resurrection of Jesus gives us a new identity.
[6:52] The resurrection of Jesus gives us a new identity. Look, they're starting in verse 1. Paul says in chapter 6, verse 1, he says, What shall we say then?
[7:02] Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Now, obviously, I need to give a little bit of context here because we're jumping into the middle of a book, in the middle of an argument.
[7:13] Paul, in the first five chapters of Romans, has been laying out the riches of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these first five chapters. And he has just finished insisting that we are saved, not by our works, not by our effort, and not by our birthright, not by anything in us, but sheerly by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
[7:39] We are justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, not by our goodness, not by our effort, not by our law-keeping, not by our cultural identity, as the Jews insisted, but rather, Paul's been saying here, we are declared righteous in the sight of God apart from anything in us, completely apart from our own obedience, separate from it.
[8:04] We are declared righteous in the sight of God simply by receiving Christ's righteousness in our place. So then the objection that he anticipates to such free grace is this.
[8:21] Well, if that's how this whole thing works, Paul, then I guess I can just keep on sinning. In fact, Paul, if grace is the whole deal, if grace is what magnifies the glory of God, if God is so eager to show sinners grace, why don't we just keep on sinning so that God can be gracious to us, and then He gets the glory?
[8:45] Why not just walk in sin if we're so covered by grace? You see the issue here. How does Paul respond? By no means. No.
[8:59] Absolutely not. That's not how Christians ought to think. That's not how Christians ought to live or how they ought to act. We don't just keep on living in sin.
[9:09] Why? Because if you are united to Christ by faith, then you have been given a new identity in Christ. That used to be who you were who walked in sin, but now, if you're in Christ, that's you no longer.
[9:25] In fact, he says in verse 2, the new you is now dead to sin. There in verse 2. How can we who have died to sin still live in it?
[9:37] In other words, it doesn't add up here. It doesn't make any sense. Paul says there is something fundamentally off, something fundamentally inconsistent with somebody who claims to be a Christian and yet lives in unrepentant, persistent sin.
[9:57] Why? Because that old person who once lived in unrepentant, persistent sin, who walked in it, that old person is dead.
[10:08] We've died to it. We no longer live to sin. We no longer live for sin. That's what it means to be a Christian. That you have died to sin. Now, let me be clear because I want you to notice what I said and what I did not say.
[10:22] I did not say that if you're a Christian, you will never sin again. Raise your hand if you've known that to be true in your own life.
[10:34] That's every one of us. Clearly, Christians still sin. You're looking at a Christian who still sins. In fact, the more I walk with the Lord, the closer I walk with Him, the more I see His holiness, the more I see the depth of my sin in my life.
[10:53] Every single week, I mean, my goodness, I see my attitudes to be sinful. The way I respond to my wife and my children is often sinful. I see the depth of my selfishness, the way I allocate my time.
[11:07] I am a sinful, sinful person. I am not without sin and neither are you. Paul is not demanding perfection here. Okay, I want to be clear.
[11:17] There is a difference, though, between battling with sin and living in sin. Do we see the difference?
[11:29] There is a difference between wrestling with your sin and walking in sin. There is a difference between recognizing sin in your life by the grace of God and repenting of it and grieving it when you see it and saying, Lord, I need your help with it and saying, well, this is just who I am.
[11:51] You have your own flaws. I have mine. Nothing to see here. I can do what I want. I can live what I want. I'm covered by grace because I can live however I want because I prayed a prayer at VBS when I was six years old.
[12:06] I can live however I want because 20 years ago, I walked down an aisle and said, I want to be a Christian. Paul says, if you are in Christ, if that's genuine, then you have died to sin as a power over you.
[12:22] It doesn't reign over you any longer if you're in Christ. In fact, he says, don't you know that your baptism is a picture of this new life? Look at verse 3.
[12:34] Do you not know, verse 3, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
[12:45] We were buried with him, therefore, by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
[13:00] Now, I can't miss this opportunity to teach a little bit about baptism. Okay, so we're going to divert here just for a second. We'll come back. Notice here that he just assumes that everybody in the church of Rome, every member of the church in Rome has been baptized.
[13:18] That's the assumption. Now, what is baptism? Baptism is the public initiation into the church community. It's marking you off from once belonging to the world, now to belonging to Christ.
[13:33] And not just to Christ, but it's affirmed by a community of believers to say, you belong to this local body of Christ here in this place. Also notice that clearly these Romans have been baptized as believers.
[13:51] This isn't a children's book. These people, these Christians, are capable of understanding this teaching. By the grace of God, they're capable by the power of the Holy Spirit in them of walking in newness of life.
[14:06] They are capable by the grace of God and the Holy Spirit in them to look back on their baptism and reflect on the meaning and the message of what it means for them in Christ.
[14:18] So what does it mean? He says, look back on your baptism and remember your identity in Jesus. Remember, you're going down into the water.
[14:29] That's symbolic of Jesus' death and not just Jesus' death but your death in Him. You were buried with Him by baptism but you didn't stay down in the water, did you?
[14:42] Praise God. I haven't lost one yet. We brought every one of them up. They don't stay dead down in the water. They are raised up to walk and newness of life.
[14:54] Just as Jesus Christ didn't stay in the grave but was raised and resurrected by the power of God just as Jesus Christ has now victory over sin, victory over the grave, Paul says, you believer in Him share His victory over the grave.
[15:15] He says, Christian, remember what your baptism represents. It's just like a married man might look down at his wedding ring and see in this physical visible sign a picture of his union with his wife.
[15:33] It's a reminder of the vows that they've made to each other. It's a reminder that his identity now is I am a married man. That's who I am. So now the believer looks back on their baptism as a picture of their union with Jesus Christ.
[15:51] A reminder of the vows that are made of Him to us and us to Him. It's a picture of their new identity in Him. Yes, Christian, of course, we will wrestle with sin.
[16:03] We will fall into sin and the more clearly you see the holiness of God, the more clearly you will see your own sinfulness. And yet, Paul says, if you are in Christ, your identity is no longer sinner.
[16:21] By the grace of God, you are no longer sinner. You are saint. You're no longer a child of the enemy. You're no longer a child of wrath.
[16:34] You are, by the grace of God, a child of God. By God's grace, you are no longer dead to God and alive to sin. By the grace of God, you are now dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
[16:49] That's your identity in Him. Paul says it like this in Galatians 2, verse 20. He says, I have been crucified with Christ.
[17:01] Therefore, I no longer live. But Jesus Christ now lives in me. The life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.
[17:12] who loved me and gave Himself for me. The resurrection of Jesus gives us a brand new identity in Christ.
[17:23] Not only that, but second, second, the resurrection of Jesus gives us a new victory. A new victory.
[17:35] And that new identity in Christ, it comes with a new position in regards to sin. it comes with Christ's position in regards to sin. If you are in Christ, you have a position of victory over sin.
[17:51] Not just in the future. Right now, in the present, you have a position of victory over sin. Do you believe it? Look there to verse 5.
[18:03] It says, for if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. And we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
[18:22] One who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.
[18:34] Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death He died, He died to sin once for all. But the life He lives, He lives to God. I want you to notice there's two words here.
[18:47] Two images that give us a picture of the power of sin over the non-believer. Did you see those? He says in verse 6, Christ has died and risen that by faith in Him we may no longer be enslaved to sin.
[19:05] That's the first word. Enslaved to sin outside of Christ. The non-believer is enslaved to sin. That's number one. And then there's another here in verse 9.
[19:17] Christ died and rose from the grave never to die again. He is right now in the present, in this moment, totally alive to God. Paul says death no longer has dominion over Him.
[19:31] That's the second word. It's dominion. Outside of Christ, the non-believer is under the dominion of sin.
[19:42] There is no neutral territory here in the spiritual realm. There's no Switzerland in the spiritual realm. Okay? No neutrality. And so, Paul says it again here in verse 14 to the believer.
[19:54] He says, sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. It's one or the other. Let's just think about these images for a minute.
[20:06] We should realize here the way Paul's talking about sin is not just the bad things we do. Okay? It's not just isolated bad thoughts, bad actions, mean words, bad things that we do, isolated mistakes.
[20:23] Paul says, Paul describes it as a power over us. He says, sin enslaves people. People walk in sin because they are slaves to sin.
[20:37] Sinful actions, they flow out of a sinful condition. They are the result of sin waging authority over us. We're not neutral here.
[20:49] Outside of the freedom of Christ, we can't do anything other than be a slave to sin. Why? Because that enslaving power of sin has dominion over us if we're outside of Christ.
[21:05] Outside of Christ, it has authority over us. If you're not in Christ, you are in sin. If you're not submitting to Christ, you are submitting yourself to sin. You have no power, no freedom in this situation.
[21:17] You know, people fool themselves into thinking that they're free as they live in sin. They say, I'm free to live and do and act as I want.
[21:28] How in the world if I can do whatever I want? I can choose to live however I want. How in the world am I a slave? I have the power here. Friend, that is a lie.
[21:38] The Bible says even your wants are controlled by sin. Even your very desires that are the impulses that your actions flow from, that is under the dominion of sin.
[21:55] Sin is the master and you are the slave. He tells us later on in verse 16, you are slaves of the one whom you obey. This is the natural state of every single person outside of Christ.
[22:11] What they need more than anything. It isn't behavioral control. It isn't moralism. It's not to hear somebody tell them do this, don't do that. Stop doing that.
[22:23] Try harder. Be better. Clean yourself up. That's not going to help anybody. What they need more than anything is to hear the good news of the gospel of Christ.
[22:34] That Jesus Christ has come to set sinners free from the power of sin. And that is only by coming to him in faith that one is set free from the bondage of sin.
[22:46] And so, Paul tells us in Romans 10, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[22:58] All who are outside of Christ are slaves to sin. But Paul isn't talking to non-believers here. He's talking to believers.
[23:09] He's talking to those who are professing to be in Christ. And so, he says, don't you get it? Christ has come to set you free. Don't you understand what Jesus has done for us?
[23:23] That's who you used to be. You used to be enslaved to sin. You used to be under his power but no longer. Christ died to set you free from the power of sin.
[23:35] Christ raised from the grave to give you new life. How can you submit again to the powers of sin? You're free from it. His victory is your victory.
[23:48] His life is your life. His death to sin is your death to sin. If you are united to him by faith, everything he's earned is yours. Christian, I wonder if you realize, Christian, that you can walk in resurrection victory over sin right now.
[24:11] If you are in Christ, you can walk in resurrection victory over sin. This is incredible grace towards us who believe, isn't it?
[24:23] Do you realize that if you are in Christ, you have all the authority over sin that Christ himself has over sin.
[24:35] I remember when I first realized this, it was like, the lights went on. You're telling me I don't have to, I'm not controlled by this anymore.
[24:48] You're telling me I actually, I can have the freedom to resist this temptation? You're telling me I have a position of victory over sin? Paul says, yes, in Christ, sin doesn't rule you anymore.
[25:04] Yes, you can choose to slip those chains back on. Those chains leave grooves on our hearts and make it too easy to slip right back on. You can choose to slip them back on, but you don't have to. Christ has purchased freedom and victory for his people.
[25:21] One day, Christ will return or we will go to be with him and we'll be finally done with the fight, but until then, Christian, we fight from a position of victory over sin because of his victory at the cross in the empty tomb.
[25:38] So I want to close third point this morning, finally. I just want us to consider some ways practically we put this into practice. So third, let's see the resurrection of Jesus.
[25:49] Jesus, it gives us a new strategy. Let's talk strategy this morning a little bit. How do we actually put this into practice? What can we do tomorrow, this afternoon, to fight against sin and resurrection power?
[26:07] So let's read these final verses one more time and he gives us three keys here in these final verses for fighting sin and resurrection power. Paul says verse 11, in light of Jesus' death and resurrection, he says, so you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
[26:30] That's number one. Consider, consider, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
[26:44] The battle with sin, it often begins with the mind. So Paul says, fix your mind daily on the glory of God and the gospel of Christ.
[26:57] Remember, fix your mind daily on what that means for you as a Christian. I can think of no better strategy to give you this morning for fighting sin than to daily remember the gospel of Christ.
[27:09] Every single day, remember the gospel. gospel. We're six chapters into this book. I know we didn't cover the whole book this morning, but this is five chapters of gospel that's leading to this application this morning.
[27:24] Remember the bad news that yes, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Remember the bad news that yes, you are deserving of the wrath of God.
[27:36] But remember and praise God for the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Remember and praise God that you are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
[27:59] Remember and praise God that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Remember and praise God that God, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[28:14] We have access into the grace in which we stand. Remember and praise God that God's love has been poured out into our hearts through his Holy Spirit who's been given to us.
[28:26] Remember the gospel. Remember who we are in Christ and who we are because of Christ. Remember daily that Christ has lived and died and risen from the grave in victory over sin and death and so you by faith in him are also dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
[28:50] That's number one. Fix this in your mind. Remember that's number one. Second, second strategy. Refuse. Refuse.
[29:01] as one who is dead to sin and alive to God. Verse 12. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.
[29:13] Don't let it. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Your body is no longer under sin's dominion if you're in Christ.
[29:30] But that doesn't mean that it won't try and take it back under his control. You know this. Don't let it. Let me ask you something. Imagine that you were sitting at home one night, sitting there just relaxing, watching TV, and you look out the window and you see somebody pull up in your driveway.
[29:51] Now I already know because I know you guys, right? We live out here in the country. You're on itch. All right? You're ready. You're alert. But imagine you see this guy come up your driveway.
[30:02] He parks. He turns off the car. He gets out. He comes right up to the front door uninvited, unannounced. You think, okay, it might be nothing.
[30:14] Probably nothing to worry about. Maybe my wife made an Amazon purchase and he's coming to drop something off. That's usually what it is. But now imagine he starts letting himself in.
[30:25] What are you thinking now? I know you guys, again, because we're here and you're in your right mind, you're probably reaching for the gun or reaching for the telephone, call the police, but say for some reason this particular evening you are feeling unusually welcoming that night and so you let him in.
[30:45] He kicks off his shoes, pushes you aside, he goes and sits in your chair. He starts telling you how he wants the house set up.
[30:57] He gives his order to your wife for dinner and then he kisses her goodnight. He starts to tell you, I used to live in this house, this was my home. I used to be the king of this castle.
[31:10] How would you respond? You would get that guy out of there, right? Immediately. He doesn't own the home anymore. Maybe he used to take up residence there, but now that's your home.
[31:23] You kick him out. Paul says that is exactly how we ought to handle sin. It used to reign in your body, but no more. It doesn't belong in your body anymore.
[31:37] If you are in Christ, sin is an unwelcome intruder into Christ occupied territory. Christ reigns over this body now, not sin.
[31:48] Chase it off the porch. Don't give it one foot inside the door. You refuse it. You reject it. You stand your ground. You let it know it's not welcome here anymore.
[31:59] Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. It can't tell you what to do anymore. You tell it to get lost.
[32:09] lost. Which means, Christian, the moment it comes creeping into your mind, and by God's grace you see it, you recognize it for what it is, the moment it comes into your mind, that lustful desire, that jealousy, that anger, that pride, that selfishness, whatever it tends to be for you, the moment you see it, you say with all the authority of the risen Lord Jesus, get out and never come back.
[32:46] I'm not serving you anymore. You don't own me anymore. The old me that serves sin as a slave is dead, and the new me that lives by faith in Christ lives outside of the dominion of sin.
[33:00] Refuse it. And third, third strategy, present. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
[33:27] It is not enough to just play defense. Defense wins championships. But you've got to move the ball up the field, right? You have to play offense.
[33:37] Stop offering your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. But now, positively speaking, he says, now present yourselves to God.
[33:49] And you know, I looked into this this week, and I've got to admit I'm a little confused by the way it's translated here. I don't know why it's translated instruments. Because that makes me think of like a piano.
[34:01] Or a tool or something. But that's not what the word means. This word here for instruments, it's interesting. It only shows up six times in the New Testament.
[34:13] Everywhere else it shows up, you know what it's translated? It is not instruments. It's translated weapons. Or armor, one time.
[34:24] Armor. War. This is war language. Do not present your members as weapons of war used for evil, but rather lend yourself as a weapon in the hands of almighty God, as weapons of righteousness.
[34:43] righteousness. Let's just do an exercise real quick. Think with me just for a minute about your last week. Sunday to Sunday.
[34:54] Okay? All your time at work, all your time at home, all your time in traffic. Ask yourself, have I offered my mind this week as a weapon for unrighteousness?
[35:11] Or have I taken every thought captive and made it obedient to Christ? How about our feet? Where did your feet take you this week? Have we walked in the counsel of the wicked or stood in the way of sinners or sat in the seat of scoffers?
[35:29] Or do we walk in newness of life going as the Lord leaves you in paths of righteousness for his name's sake? How about your hands? Have you offered up your hands as weapons for unrighteousness to tear down and to destroy, to harm or to assault, to desecrate your body?
[35:51] Or have they been offered as weapons of righteousness to build up and to serve one another and to be used to love your neighbor as yourself and used to help and not to harm?
[36:03] How about your mouth? Have we offered up our mouth as weapons of unrighteousness? Do we with the same mouth bless our Lord and Father and with it curse people who are made in the likeness of God?
[36:19] Do we use it to gossip or slander or insult? Or do we use it to to encourage one another and to build one another up in Christ and and to share the good news of the gospel with our our friends and our neighbors and our co-workers and our family members?
[36:37] Paul says your body. The members of your body are our weapons in an unseen spiritual war. They can be lent to the service of sin and fired off in the direction of unrighteousness or now that you are in Christ.
[36:55] They can be used. They must be used as weapons of righteousness in the service of the Lord. Paul says, Christian, we must remember that we by the grace of God have been rescued from the enemy's belonging.
[37:14] You no longer belong to the other side. Don't give them guns and ammo. Offer yourselves up. Join the fight. as those who have been brought from death to life.
[37:25] This is the strategy church Paul gives us. Remember your identity in Christ. Walk in his victory over sin. Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.
[37:38] Refuse even one inch of territory to the enemy's sin and join the fight. Present your members as weapons for righteousness sake.
[37:49] The Christian life is a war. We all know it. We all experience it.
[38:01] But we praise God that it is a war that has already been won. Thomas Watson, the great English Puritan, he says, soon the battle will be over.
[38:15] It will not be long now before the day will come when Satan will no longer trouble us. There will be no more domination, temptation, accusation, or confrontation.
[38:27] Our warfare will be over and our commander, Jesus Christ, will call us away from the battlefield to receive the victor's crown. That day will come. Soon and very soon, church.
[38:39] But until then, Christian, are we walking in resurrection power over sin? Father, we praise you. We praise you for the victory Christ has won over sin in the grave.
[38:54] We are helpless in this fight apart from your strength, apart from your spirit in us. Lord, we are helpless to put sin to death, but because of Christ and in Christ and by the power of Christ, Lord, we have victory over sin.
[39:12] So we pray we would walk in it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.