WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:15.599 Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:20.480 ! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.679 either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:32.159 that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself? 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.359 The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:42.159 we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the 00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:48.799 Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.120 what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian, 00:00:55.119 --> 00:01:00.320 checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:05.280 questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.759 that you're really struggling with. So God bless. 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.400 Bow our heads in prayer for a moment, please. Father, 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:24.719 you know how we talk to ourselves, you know the fears we have, you know those things that we desire, 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:31.280 you know those things that we don't think we can live without. And Father, you look at some of these 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:36.400 things and you weep, so to speak. You look at some of them and you laugh. But we give you thanks and 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:43.200 praise that in all things, when you look at us, you love us and desire us to know Jesus as Savior and 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:52.000 Lord and to walk with Him under His direction and care, filled with the Holy Spirit. And so Father, we know, 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:57.200 and we thank you that that's what you desire for us. We ask that your Holy Spirit would bring the words 00:01:57.200 --> 00:02:05.840 of this Bible text deep into our hearts to form us, so that we might live lives where the evil in our 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:12.000 lives is diminished, the virtue in our life grows, and it's all done for your honor and glory. And we ask 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.199 this in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:23.919 So this week I had a couple of unusual things happen to me. One of them is, well, actually it's the one 00:02:23.919 --> 00:02:28.719 thing that happened twice. I had two different people ask me in advance what my sermon was going 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:33.520 to be on. And both of these, in both cases, these would be people who wouldn't call themselves 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:40.800 Christians. And the second one, he asked me, oh yeah, what do you, he saw me yesterday actually. He 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.640 said, well yeah, like what are you going to be preaching on tomorrow? And I told him, I'm going 00:02:44.640 --> 00:02:50.879 to talk a little bit about, the main thing I'm going to talk about is how does moral change happen? 00:02:51.600 --> 00:02:58.640 How is it, what are better ways so that the good things you do increase and the bad things you do 00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:06.319 decrease? And he said, oh, there you go, that sounds interesting. And walked off. The first conversation 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:11.759 was earlier in the week. And he said, what are you going to be preaching on this Sunday? I told him 00:03:11.759 --> 00:03:18.079 the same thing. And he said, I don't think that happens. I said, I don't know, what do you mean? 00:03:18.079 --> 00:03:25.039 He said, I don't think people change. People don't get better. They're always just basically the same. 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:28.000 And then he was going to walk away and he said, no, actually that's not right. 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:36.000 I think actually people are getting worse. I think our society is less kind, more hateful, 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:43.120 less generous, less willing to listen to other people. I think actually people are getting worse 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:50.400 right now. And then he left. And the implication was about my sermon, good luck with that. 00:03:52.080 --> 00:03:56.800 But in a very nice way. He's a very, very thoughtful guy. And that's what we are going to talk 00:03:56.800 --> 00:04:04.240 about a little bit this morning. There's lots that the Bible has to say about change, your moral 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:09.439 change, so to speak, of doing fewer things which are wrong and doing more things which are right, 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:17.120 using sort of language which developed later, lessening vice and increasing virtue. And Bible 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:22.319 has lots to say about that. But this text we have today says some very important foundational things, 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:28.159 which are beautiful and hopeful. So if you would turn with me to Romans chapter 6, 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:32.240 verses 1 to 7, that's what we're going to be looking at. If you don't have your Bibles, 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:37.120 it will be on the screen. The helpful thing about looking at it with your Bibles is the Bible text 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:42.319 isn't on the screen all of the time. It gets taken off. And it's good for you just to be able to look 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:48.240 down and say, really? Is that what that text says? Like, I want you to help. I want to help you to learn to read the Bible well for yourselves. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:54.560 And so it's good to have the Bible open and to look at it to see and see if I'm missing things around it. 00:04:55.120 --> 00:05:05.840 And here's how it begins. Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 7. Now, actually, just before I read it, 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:11.920 you need to know something about why this question is being asked. So just before this in the book, 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:17.040 like all the way through the book, it's talked about how if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, 00:05:17.840 --> 00:05:23.840 then everything that you've ever done wrong and ever will do wrong is completely forgiven. And you're 00:05:23.840 --> 00:05:31.200 given new life, and you're made right with God, and you have eternity being right with God. And that 00:05:31.200 --> 00:05:38.240 happens if you put your faith and trust in Christ. And the other thing is that just before this, 00:05:38.240 --> 00:05:47.680 it was taught just immediately before this, it talks about how when you, as sin grows in the world, 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:55.199 sin might have grown and developed, but God's grace super abounded all the more. And that's what it said. 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:00.960 So, you know, sin happens and it grows, but even as sin is happening, God's grace super abounds. 00:06:00.959 --> 00:06:10.000 And so Paul asks a very, very penetrating question. It's not like an absurd question. It's actually a 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:18.839 very penetrating and human question. And it goes like this. Chapter 6, verse 1. What shall we say then? 00:06:19.359 --> 00:06:28.639 Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? George, if that's true, if all my sins are forgiven, 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:34.800 even the future ones. And if, I think last week I shared how you can never do anything to make you 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:41.199 love, to make God love you more. It's impossible. God is love. So you can't actually do anything that 00:06:41.199 --> 00:06:48.719 will make him love you more. And if that's the case, George, and if every sin just means that grace 00:06:48.719 --> 00:06:54.319 super abounds, then aren't you really in a sense saying, and this would be a critique, aren't you really 00:06:54.319 --> 00:07:01.120 saying that go ahead and sin even more so that grace will abound? And this, I've had this happen 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:06.399 in conversations. I got to the point with one person where I was so able to explain the gospel 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:09.759 to them, all of these things that I just said, and they looked me right in the eye and said, 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:14.319 if that's true, there's no incentive to ever do a good thing again for the rest of my life. 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:21.920 They actually said that to me. And on one level, they got it. And I wish I could say I gave a 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:30.000 brilliant answer. I probably didn't. But the point is, it's a good question. And it's going to 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:35.759 illustrate about what Paul means by all of these things. And it's not going to be that he's now 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:39.040 going to say, no, no, no, actually, I don't mean that. And we get back to having to do lots of good 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:44.639 things. So God will love you more. No, it's something very different. But it's a wise and helpful 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:55.259 question. And so, oh yeah, here's the other thing. There's a wag who said once that he loves the 00:07:55.259 --> 00:08:00.839 Christian faith because I love to sin and God loves to forgive. It's like a match made in heaven. 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:06.360 Like, what could beat that? I just keep sinning and God keeps forgiving. Wow. Like, who wouldn't want 00:08:06.360 --> 00:08:15.220 to be a Christian? So how does Paul answer that? So Paul answers that sort of in two verses or just 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:21.860 very, very briefly. And he answers it with sort of a big idea, a big declaration and a big idea. 00:08:22.580 --> 00:08:28.840 Look what he says in verse two. So read verse one again. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:37.679 sin that grace may abound? He says, by no means. It could also be translated as absolutely not with a 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:43.899 couple of exclamation marks because it's emphatic. And then here's the sort of the big idea expressed 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:51.339 in the next two verses. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us 00:08:51.339 --> 00:08:58.480 who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Now, here's the, I'll explain 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:02.560 what that means. I mean, in some ways, the rest of the sermon will be explaining what that means. But 00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:07.980 the first thing he says, no, no, no, no, no. If you, if you understand what I've just said to imply that, 00:09:08.460 --> 00:09:13.120 that the reason you shouldn't be a Christian is it's just going to encourage more and more vice 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:19.720 and less virtue. It's, that's, that's really, really, really wrong. And then he gives the big idea, 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.360 and it's in two parts. And the first part of it is, in how can we say, how can we who die to 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:34.480 sin still live in it? Now, it's literally, if it's translated from the original language, 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:41.340 it's very ungrammatical in English. So it, they never translate it really literally. But if you 00:09:41.340 --> 00:09:47.680 hear it literally, you start to get the idea. Because literally, it says, how can we who died to 00:09:47.680 --> 00:09:56.240 the sin, how can we who died to the sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:02.779 baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? And so what this text is saying is, 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:10.820 it's what we, the idea that Paul had introduced the week before, that at a human level, I don't 00:10:10.820 --> 00:10:15.440 know how many nations are in the world. I should have looked it up. There was an article in the 00:10:15.440 --> 00:10:20.480 paper the other day about some people think there's too many nations represented in the World Cup of 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:26.539 Soccer, which is beginning just about a month from now, just under a month from now. And the response 00:10:26.539 --> 00:10:33.820 was, well, there's like 217 nations registered with the Federation of International Federation of 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:39.440 Football Associations. And so the number we have is less than a quarter. So that's, that's not too much, 00:10:39.580 --> 00:10:45.240 given how many nations there are. But the Bible portrays this idea that there's, at the end of the 00:10:45.240 --> 00:10:55.639 day, there's only two realms, two rulers, two reign, two rulers who reign in two realms. And that's what 00:10:55.639 --> 00:11:02.500 he introduced last week. And one reign, which all of us enter, it's a biological and spiritual reality. 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:09.279 In a sense, it was under Adam. And if you go back and look at it, he, the one way to understand the 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:17.899 name of that reign is the sin. That's one reign. And that one reign, it's all about the sin. It's all 00:11:17.899 --> 00:11:25.220 about thinking of yourself as the center of the universe, that everything revolves around you, 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:30.360 of wanting to be like God. And if you want to be the center of the universe and be like God, 00:11:30.439 --> 00:11:35.539 it means that people have to sort of fit into you, not you into them, if it gets really exaggerated. 00:11:35.539 --> 00:11:44.039 And it ends in death. And that's the big realm. And part of how to understand the gospel is that Jesus 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:49.179 isn't just some isolated event doing an isolated thing that he can sort of touch you on the forehead 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:56.879 and share with you. He's actually inaugurated, he's become the new ruler, the new head of a new, 00:11:57.079 --> 00:12:03.980 and reigns of a new realm. And that is what he describes in verse three. Do you not know that all 00:12:03.980 --> 00:12:08.920 of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Where we've been 00:12:08.920 --> 00:12:19.220 entered into a realm where he is the king and he rules, and he rules over a realm with certain 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:26.899 characteristics. And the fundamental truth of this is that you enter it because of what he has done, 00:12:27.440 --> 00:12:33.019 you enter it by God's, it's because of God's grace and his love and his mercy and his kindness and his 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:39.799 affection for you. And you enter into this whole new realm. And so the human life from the rest of 00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:44.460 things is on one level, we still have obviously parts of that old realm going on, but we enter this 00:12:44.460 --> 00:12:51.840 new realm. And those are the big ideas in terms of what it's going to mean. Now, before we go any 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:57.659 further, some of you might be saying, well, okay, George, okay, now I'm really confused. Look at verse 00:12:57.659 --> 00:13:03.279 three, George, and verse four. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:10.459 were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order 00:13:10.459 --> 00:13:16.100 that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:21.480 of life. George, doesn't that sort of imply that when you do a little baptism service of a baby, is that 00:13:21.480 --> 00:13:27.100 sort of saying that that baby's automatically now going to heaven? He's automatically or she's 00:13:27.100 --> 00:13:32.220 automatically been born again? Like, is that what, isn't that what it seems to be saying, George? Is 00:13:32.220 --> 00:13:35.940 that what you're saying? And then that sounds like a really weird idea. There's this whole other realm, 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:42.399 and you enter it because you, as, and, and, you know, that, and even if it's not just baby baptism 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:46.800 and adult baptism, it still really sounds like a weird thing. Like, really, that you just go through 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:51.219 this rite or ritual of baptism, and then you're automatically made right with God and all this 00:13:51.219 --> 00:13:56.120 other realm stuff that's all talking about you. That just sounds really weird. Now, this is sort 00:13:56.120 --> 00:14:00.259 of an important, if you're outside the Christian faith, you have to give me a little bit of, just 00:14:00.259 --> 00:14:05.439 give me some grace for a moment, because this is, I'll get back to why this imagery is really 00:14:05.439 --> 00:14:11.719 important for everybody, but it's because there's a massive confusion around it. I need to take a couple 00:14:11.720 --> 00:14:17.800 of minutes to talk about it. That understanding that if you go through the ritual of baptism, 00:14:18.420 --> 00:14:23.560 you're automatically made an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven and right with God for all 00:14:23.560 --> 00:14:29.779 eternity, is not what the text is saying. And there's lots of reasons why, but I'll give you three 00:14:29.779 --> 00:14:34.840 very simple reasons as to why this is not the right way to read the text, not just because I'm a 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:41.860 Protestant. It's because it's actually not the correct way to read the text. The first reason 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:51.879 that it's not the correct way to read the text is that they misunderstand that baptism in the ancient 00:14:51.879 --> 00:15:00.720 world was a secular word, not a religious word. So, for instance, you can go research this on the 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:08.940 internet. There's an ancient pickle-making recipe, and in the pickle-making recipe, there's two 00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:14.379 different words. They say just dip the pickle or the cucumber into the water once to sort of wash it 00:15:14.379 --> 00:15:20.759 off, and then there's this other mixture of water that you immerse the pickle in for a period of time, 00:15:21.019 --> 00:15:28.259 and they baptize it. You baptize the pickle, the cucumber, and it comes out of pickle, okay? It's a 00:15:28.259 --> 00:15:34.919 secular word. It's a secular word which is used. It has several—another thing is there's several 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:41.659 meanings of the word, and one of the meanings is wash, by the way. And so, in the story in the New 00:15:41.659 --> 00:15:48.179 Testament where Jesus—a woman is crying so much, she's so overcome with the love of God and love of 00:15:48.179 --> 00:15:55.500 Christ that she bursts into really just overflowing tears, and there's this very tender scene where her 00:15:55.500 --> 00:16:01.679 tears are falling on Jesus' feet, and there's so many tears that she washes them. The verb that's used 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:08.080 there is baptized, that she baptized Jesus' feet. Well, nobody thinks she baptized his feet, right? It's 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:14.899 just—it just means washing. That's one of the senses. But the common way that it's used is to immerse 00:16:14.899 --> 00:16:24.019 so completely that it dies. The image is that when a ship enters into a storm, and the ship sinks, 00:16:24.019 --> 00:16:30.480 and it goes to the bottom of the ocean, and the implication is that everybody on that ship has 00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:36.379 died, and the ship is at the bottom of the ocean, it's dead, finished, cannot be returned, 00:16:36.659 --> 00:16:42.799 and it's an image of immersion into complete death. That's how the word was used in the ancient 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:49.480 world, as a secular word. So, to read it now as a religious rite is to misread the word. 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:59.159 Why? Well, there's a second reason, which is also very important, and that is, I mean, it's just a—it's a general 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:05.140 principle of reading if you read, but it's especially the case of the New Testament, of anything with it to 00:17:05.140 --> 00:17:10.660 do with the Bible, is you don't read and interpret one part of a book in such a way that it makes the 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:16.000 rest of the book filled with contradictions. That's just generally not a good way to read, 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:21.019 unless the reader is just completely scatterbrained, and you can't understand what on earth they're 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:26.819 saying. The more clear and coherent a writer is, you don't interpret one bit in a way that makes the 00:17:26.819 --> 00:17:32.339 rest of it nonsense. And here's the issue here. If you go back and read the book of Romans from 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:38.359 beginning to end, time and time and time again, it says it is by faith alone, in Christ alone, 00:17:38.359 --> 00:17:45.639 that we are made right with God, time and time and time and time again. If now it is saying you're 00:17:45.639 --> 00:17:53.279 made right with God by being baptized, by a ritual, then all of those other verses in the book of Romans 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:59.059 become problematic and wrong. All of them. Like every one. 00:17:59.059 --> 00:18:06.079 And usually when people debate this and use this as a text to illustrate baptismal regeneration, 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:10.599 they never go through the book of Romans and show how they haven't made the rest of the book 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:18.179 incomprehensible. So that's the second reason. And the third reason is in terms of the verbs. 00:18:19.019 --> 00:18:25.179 And so there's a verb in the ancient language within which this is written, which is called the divine 00:18:25.180 --> 00:18:32.620 passive. It's where God does something. And so if you're to look again here at verses three and four, 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:37.539 do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 00:18:38.100 --> 00:18:43.180 The word baptized there is a divine passive. It's saying that God has done something. 00:18:45.240 --> 00:18:50.580 And it would be the height of blasphemy for me to pour water on somebody, or this summer we're going 00:18:50.579 --> 00:18:57.559 to be doing some baptisms in the Ottawa River, for me to use the divine passive of what I do. 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:04.699 George's baptizing is very different than God baptizing. So the right way to read this then, 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:09.740 now that you've taken that out into account, is did you not know that all of us who have been baptized 00:19:09.740 --> 00:19:16.079 into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? So what it's saying is, don't you know that all of us 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:25.899 who were so immersed into Christ Jesus that we died? That's the first part. We're baptized into 00:19:25.899 --> 00:19:31.679 his death. And it's like an emphasis thing that's going on. We were so immersed to death into his death. 00:19:32.980 --> 00:19:38.939 God immersed us into who Jesus is and what he's accomplished us. He's immersed us to the point 00:19:38.939 --> 00:19:45.939 of death into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him by immersion to death, 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:51.460 into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, 00:19:51.580 --> 00:19:56.400 we too might walk in newness of life. And so when you go back and you read the Gospel of John, 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:01.620 and Jesus says to Nicodemus, you've got to be born again. You need to have a life that comes to you 00:20:01.620 --> 00:20:06.460 from heaven. This is all in keeping with that. It's saying, but it's just revealing even more than 00:20:06.460 --> 00:20:11.380 what Nicodemus didn't understand until you read the end of the Gospel of John, is you come and you put 00:20:11.380 --> 00:20:18.380 your faith into me. And God is bringing you into faith with me, and God brings you into union with 00:20:18.380 --> 00:20:24.860 me. And the way he brings you into union with him, it's as if he kills you into Christ's death. He 00:20:24.860 --> 00:20:31.580 puts you into death into Christ's death. And he also puts you by death into Christ's death so that 00:20:31.580 --> 00:20:38.180 you will share in his resurrection and receive newness of life. You're born again. That's what the text is 00:20:38.180 --> 00:20:44.259 saying. That's the big kingdom. And here now we get to see why the mistake, and this is why for those 00:20:44.259 --> 00:20:49.259 of you outside the Christian faith who are hearing this, this is very profound. It's saying that God 00:20:49.259 --> 00:20:54.720 does something for you. Not only does he do something for you in the person of his Son that you can't do 00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:00.960 for yourself, but even the coming to Christ is something that he does for you. That you'll find out 00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:06.039 in heaven that when you put your faith and trust in Christ, that comes with his help that you call out 00:21:06.039 --> 00:21:11.619 to him. And if it's just completely and utterly up to you, it would be a little bit as if I was just 00:21:11.619 --> 00:21:19.019 watching the first part of the second Greenland movie, and the young boy has to go across a crevice 00:21:19.019 --> 00:21:24.399 on a rickety bridge, and he says he can't do it. And then, of course, the dad just gives him two 00:21:24.399 --> 00:21:30.299 encouraging words, and he does it. And I'm thinking, there is no way on God's earth that somebody afraid 00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:35.960 of heights would be able to do that just because the dad says five words to him, completely and 00:21:35.960 --> 00:21:42.599 utterly impossible and incredible. Would not happen as one who's afraid of heights. So the image would 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:47.379 be there that somehow or another the person is, like, he may be even knocked unconscious and brought 00:21:47.379 --> 00:21:52.559 across. Like, that doesn't work entirely here. But God does something that I couldn't even do myself. 00:21:52.779 --> 00:21:58.440 He helps me to call out to him, and then he actually brings me to Christ. And not only bring me to 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:04.920 Christ, he puts me to death, immerses me in Christ to the point of my death, into his death, and into 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:13.080 his resurrection, and I am made right with God. Hallelujah! Such a beautiful teaching. And that's 00:22:13.080 --> 00:22:18.700 what he's saying. So there's these two realms. There's this one realm where, through Adam, now human 00:22:18.700 --> 00:22:24.559 beings, we all desire to differing degrees to be the center of the universe. We all desire to have the 00:22:24.559 --> 00:22:30.159 world revolve around us. We all want to have our idols and our gods and be like God and set our own 00:22:30.159 --> 00:22:34.359 rules and obviously agree with a lot of rules a lot of the time. But at the end of the day, we look out 00:22:34.359 --> 00:22:40.019 for number one. And, you know, for instance, in that Greenland movie, it's very, very human. The other 00:22:40.019 --> 00:22:44.940 parts of it, when it comes time to get on a ship, people who are all good friends, when it comes time 00:22:44.940 --> 00:22:50.859 to life and death, they all look out for number one. Ripping gas masks off of people and pushing 00:22:50.859 --> 00:22:56.839 people down so they can get in and not die. And that's, at the end of the day, what this kingdom, 00:22:57.079 --> 00:23:03.539 this realm of living under the sin is. And God does something we cannot do for ourselves to no longer 00:23:03.539 --> 00:23:12.319 live under the realm of the sin, to carry us into this new realm inaugurated by Jesus in his life and 00:23:12.319 --> 00:23:19.179 death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ and his realm and living by a different rule. 00:23:19.180 --> 00:23:24.940 And that's what's so profound. And that's, so by the way, when you read in the Nicene Creed, 00:23:25.220 --> 00:23:30.480 we believe in one baptism for the remission of sins, it's referring to Romans chapter 6. 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:36.140 If you were to have a Bible verse beside it, it's referring to Romans chapter 6, verses 3 and 4. 00:23:36.380 --> 00:23:41.160 That's what it's referring to. It's not referring to the ritual of baptism. 00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:48.820 That's what the creed originally meant. So, how does that help with the question? Remember, 00:23:48.900 --> 00:23:54.860 the question is, why does the gospel not lead us to sin? Why does the gospel help you to live a better 00:23:54.860 --> 00:24:01.300 life? In the sense of, why is it that you will, there is something actually in this gospel message 00:24:01.300 --> 00:24:06.320 that rather than encouraging you to live a more and more immoral life, saying, 00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:15.000 I love to sin and God loves to forgive, a match made in heaven. But instead, if you understand this 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:22.779 story, this teaching, you actually come to understand a different truth, which is the same faith that 00:24:22.779 --> 00:24:41.139 saves is the same faith that longs to obey. And how is this developed here? So, I'm going to read 00:24:41.139 --> 00:24:47.799 through now, we're going to read verses 3 and all down to verse 7. What you're going to see in these 00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:55.500 verses now, if you look at it, is you're going to see that it's describing the current, the culture, 00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:03.220 the flavor, the purpose, the telos, the characteristic of this new realm, and what makes it different than 00:25:03.220 --> 00:25:10.019 the other realms. Because you see, every realm, what God calls us into, on one hand, God does not call us 00:25:10.019 --> 00:25:15.779 now in Christ to create a Christian nation. My American brothers and sisters and my Canadian brothers 00:25:15.779 --> 00:25:23.399 and sisters in Christ who believe that the Bible teaches a Christian nation are wrong. They're wrong. 00:25:23.799 --> 00:25:32.500 They are not reading the Bible correctly. They aren't. Because Jesus doesn't say, go into the world and 00:25:32.500 --> 00:25:38.200 conquer lands and make Christian nations. He says, go into every people group and make disciples. 00:25:38.779 --> 00:25:45.220 Completely, radically different claim. And so, on one hand, there are going to be Canadian Christians 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:50.960 that are going to be different from Zimbabwe Christians. But on the other hand, and because 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:56.799 it's going to be, it's a different culture, but culture matters. And so, what the Bible is going 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:03.059 to be doing now is it's going to be describing the shape of what that type of reign of Christ is going 00:26:03.059 --> 00:26:08.460 to look like. What is the current? What is being proposed? What is being illustrated? What are you being 00:26:08.460 --> 00:26:14.840 drawn to? What are you being pushed to? So that things are actually going to look different as you 00:26:14.840 --> 00:26:21.720 become more acculturated to the new culture where Christ is King? I'll give you an illustration. 00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:27.460 So, when I was in Zimbabwe just recently, I mean, there's lots of differences in Zimbabwe between 00:26:27.460 --> 00:26:31.420 Zimbabwe and Canada. One of the things is they drive on a different side of the road. It's a small thing, 00:26:31.759 --> 00:26:36.100 but they drive on the different side of the road. There's other things as well. I discovered, 00:26:36.099 --> 00:26:41.740 only just the other day, because we're discussing about going back to complete the training that 00:26:41.740 --> 00:26:47.379 we started, and I discovered that I'd made a huge mistake about how names work in Zimbabwe. I 00:26:47.379 --> 00:26:54.419 discovered that in Zimbabwe, unless you are a close relative or a good friend, you don't use a person's 00:26:54.419 --> 00:27:02.459 first name. You just don't. So, I shouldn't refer to Hudson as Hudson. I would call him Boulard. 00:27:02.460 --> 00:27:08.440 And it's only if he gives me permission to use his first name that I could use his first name. 00:27:08.700 --> 00:27:13.539 And I was asking people to give me their first name, like how to speak to them, and I was completely 00:27:13.539 --> 00:27:19.340 confused by it. Another very simple thing, because one of the things which is so neat when you do 00:27:19.340 --> 00:27:26.460 cross-cultural work, is the Zimbabweans are also interested in cross-cultural stuff. Like, it's not 00:27:26.460 --> 00:27:31.380 just a white thing. Like, it's a human thing. So, one of the things I... So, we got into lots of 00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:35.059 discussions about how cultures are different. It was really, really interesting. They're really 00:27:35.059 --> 00:27:39.980 thoughtful guys. So, one of the things I pointed... I said to them is, so they do something there which 00:27:39.980 --> 00:27:47.440 is very touching. You see a senior cleric, like a very older man, wanting to talk to a younger man 00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:51.980 who is having, obviously, some problems. And so, they were going to go to the corner where they could be 00:27:51.980 --> 00:27:57.039 away from somewhere else. And the older clergy would take the... They're both men. Take the other 00:27:57.039 --> 00:28:03.319 man's hand, and they would walk hand in hand off to the corner. And I said that if you did that in 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:13.140 Canada, they'd think you were gay. And they all went, what? Like, that's terrible. Like, what could 00:28:13.140 --> 00:28:18.680 be more lovely than this gesture of taking your hand and walking you away? It shows tenderness and 00:28:18.680 --> 00:28:23.100 affection and closeness, and they're just... They go into it, right? And I'm saying, I'm not saying 00:28:23.100 --> 00:28:28.340 that Canadians are right or anything. I'm just telling you, if you come to our church and, you 00:28:28.340 --> 00:28:32.880 know, and you want to take my hand to tell me something, and I don't do it, it's a cultural 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:39.019 thing, right? So, what does the culture look like as you start to have... You enter into a world where 00:28:39.019 --> 00:28:46.299 Christ is the King. And that's what's going to be described here. And look what it says. It goes 00:28:46.299 --> 00:28:53.539 like this. We'll begin at verse 3. Verse 2. How can we who died to the sin still live in it? 00:28:54.099 --> 00:29:02.019 How can we, in a sense, continue to follow its rules, listen to its stories, obey its commands, 00:29:02.299 --> 00:29:09.159 desire the things that it desires? How can you actually do that if, verse 3, do you not know 00:29:09.159 --> 00:29:15.500 that all of us who have been... We died into that. God took you and me and died us, immersed us in 00:29:15.500 --> 00:29:21.500 Christ so much that we drowned and died into Christ Jesus. And then he emphasizes, he takes us and 00:29:21.500 --> 00:29:27.000 immerses us in Christ to the point of drowning and dying into his death. And that sounds really 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:33.539 sort of odd, but then it continues. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. Why? 00:29:34.059 --> 00:29:40.880 In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk with 00:29:40.880 --> 00:29:50.020 him in newness of life. So God does something for us passively. And now this new life is going to be 00:29:50.020 --> 00:29:56.260 characterized by walking with him, not just by ourselves. Notice again, it says that we will, 00:29:56.740 --> 00:30:02.200 that we might walk, that we, sorry, that we're going to be with him. Therefore, verse 4, with him. 00:30:02.560 --> 00:30:08.880 We're going to be with him. And we're going to walk into newness of life. That's what's going to 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:14.960 characterize this God's kingdom, is that God doesn't want to bring you, you know, the other reign is, 00:30:15.340 --> 00:30:21.100 you're under sin, and at the end of the day, you're going to die. He wants us to start to live 00:30:21.100 --> 00:30:27.500 knowing that we're walking with Christ. We're with him. We're in him. We're with him. He is our king. 00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:35.660 The purpose of walking with him is to walk new into new life, more and more newness of life. The entire 00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:41.640 direction is towards life. And it's not just life, it's also glory. Look at verse 4 again, 00:30:41.740 --> 00:30:45.519 in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. 00:30:46.360 --> 00:30:50.920 So what's going to characterize what God's kingdom is? He wants us to know more and more 00:30:50.920 --> 00:30:55.580 the glory of the Father. And the more we see the glory of the Father, the more the glory of the 00:30:55.580 --> 00:31:01.840 Father shapes us. And we walk in newness of life. And then if, look at verse 5, for if we have been 00:31:01.839 --> 00:31:07.359 united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection 00:31:07.359 --> 00:31:15.079 like his. The end of our story under the reign of Christ is our resurrection. With him. We are with 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:22.139 him. Verse 6, we know that our old self, our old man, was crucified with him in order that the body 00:31:22.139 --> 00:31:29.399 of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved by sin. And this idea of the 00:31:29.400 --> 00:31:41.200 body of sin, what its meaning is under God, under the old self, ruled by the sin, our old man, we have a 00:31:41.200 --> 00:31:48.100 body of sin. And the way to understand that is very simple. Lots and lots of people in this church 00:31:48.100 --> 00:31:52.660 should probably know at least a couple of C.S. Lewis quotes, and have maybe even read a couple of C.S. 00:31:52.660 --> 00:31:59.060 things. But I could say, very few of you, if any, have read the whole body of his works. 00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:07.060 Everything he wrote. And that's the idea here. It's contrasting, it's going to be developed, this 00:32:07.060 --> 00:32:13.420 idea between like the ruling center and the things you do. It's going to be developed as the Bible has 00:32:13.420 --> 00:32:20.860 more things to say about moral change in chapter 6 and chapter 7 and on. And so it's describing here, 00:32:20.859 --> 00:32:29.599 to go back to it, that verse 6, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body 00:32:29.599 --> 00:32:34.919 of sin might be brought to nothing. That in a sense, all of the things that we do that are under sin 00:32:34.919 --> 00:32:40.759 might diminish and get lower and lower and lower. That's what God's heart is for you, because he 00:32:40.759 --> 00:32:47.979 doesn't want you to be enslaved. To be under the sin is to be a slave. To be under Christ is to be free. 00:32:47.980 --> 00:32:52.000 It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. 00:32:54.220 --> 00:32:58.120 It's for freedom. And that's going to be developed more and more as it talks about the virtues. And it 00:32:58.120 --> 00:33:06.240 continues, verse 7, for one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, 00:33:06.299 --> 00:33:13.740 we believe that we will also raise with him. So it's describing freedom, and that's everything that 00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:21.839 God wants to do under Christ, that's what it's being described. Now, some of you might say, well, 00:33:21.859 --> 00:33:29.400 George, how does this help with living a more moral life? You do more good things and fewer bad things. 00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:36.099 That if they were to look at you now and take a snapshot of you, and in five years, if Christ doesn't 00:33:36.099 --> 00:33:44.119 return, you're more generous than you were five years ago. I mean, they look at you in the year 00:33:44.119 --> 00:33:52.619 2031, looking back at your 2026 self, and you're more generous. You're more forgiving. Some of your 00:33:52.619 --> 00:33:57.099 besetting sins, you either have stopped doing them or you do them. How does this actually help? 00:33:57.099 --> 00:34:05.539 Well, the first thing is to realize how radical this is compared to the alternatives. 00:34:07.179 --> 00:34:13.259 And what are the alternatives to how the Bible is starting here to picture the ground and the basis 00:34:13.259 --> 00:34:20.799 of moral change? And that's, I think, why my friend said good luck with thinking that there's any way 00:34:20.799 --> 00:34:25.380 that people are going to get better. And in fact, everything in our culture is shaping people to be 00:34:25.380 --> 00:34:36.280 worse. We tend to just say, use more willpower to be better. We say, what you need to be better is 00:34:36.280 --> 00:34:42.340 more information. To which I just say, you think the internet is making you a better person? 00:34:44.160 --> 00:34:49.099 Like endless information? That's making you a better person? Like really? Like that's a better story 00:34:49.099 --> 00:34:56.420 than this? And we tend to try to shame people into behaving better or try to appeal to their pride. 00:34:56.559 --> 00:35:03.460 Like, don't do this. It's beneath you. But if in fact the whole problem of human life is self-centeredness 00:35:03.460 --> 00:35:07.819 and thinking you're the center of the universe, to appeal to a way to make you even more think you're 00:35:07.819 --> 00:35:14.039 a God by being too big for little things is actually not going to really help you. Or by creating fear? 00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:19.480 Or like even look at the, and the type of stories that go around along with all of that, 00:35:20.380 --> 00:35:25.519 do they actually really help you to do fundamental lasting moral change? Obviously you can get good 00:35:25.519 --> 00:35:30.980 insights from people. I read widely amongst, I read like a novel a week and they're all non-Christian 00:35:30.980 --> 00:35:35.639 writers. And I learn lots from non-Christian writers. I'm not saying you don't learn from other 00:35:35.639 --> 00:35:41.639 people. All truth is God's truth. But really, if you look at what the Bible has just described, 00:35:41.639 --> 00:35:45.559 and you look alternative, like really, do you actually think that if you became a student of 00:35:45.559 --> 00:35:51.599 the Quran, that you would be a better person? Do you know the Quran encourages men to beat their wives? 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:01.319 That's what the Quran teaches. And it could go on. Do you know if you really think that if you 00:36:01.319 --> 00:36:06.539 believe the communist or the Marxist story and propaganda, that that would make you live a better 00:36:06.539 --> 00:36:13.659 life? Like really? The new atheism had its huge sway in the first part of this millennium. Has it 00:36:13.659 --> 00:36:19.179 made Canada and any country where it has had huge effect, has it made our countries better? 00:36:21.340 --> 00:36:23.860 I don't know. I don't think it has. 00:36:25.779 --> 00:36:32.139 But what the Bible, and all of these other ways tell you stories. And we live by stories. We're changed 00:36:32.139 --> 00:36:38.579 by stories. And so what is this? What is it that this is doing? This text is telling us, first of all, 00:36:38.659 --> 00:36:47.539 it's not just telling us a new story that pleases us. This is true. Jesus really did rise from the dead. 00:36:48.460 --> 00:36:53.900 And if he really did rise from the dead, it vindicates who he is and what he said. And it 00:36:53.900 --> 00:36:59.579 vindicates what our Jewish friends call the Tanakh and the Torah and what we call the Old Testament. 00:36:59.579 --> 00:37:07.519 It vindicates its teaching. It vindicates the New Testament. And if Jesus really did rise from the 00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:15.400 dead, when we put our faith and trust in him, then God really does take me and bring me into Christ and 00:37:15.400 --> 00:37:22.719 drowned me into the point of death, into his death and resurrection. And that is actually true about me. 00:37:22.719 --> 00:37:28.459 And now I have a completely new king. 00:37:29.719 --> 00:37:35.959 Now, it's a little bit like if the true king comes back and takes the capital city and then the other people flee. 00:37:36.139 --> 00:37:40.500 And there's still parts of me. There's gorillas still fighting and all of that type of thing. 00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:45.599 But the fact of the matter is, is that the very center of who I am, there is a new king, a new ruler. 00:37:45.599 --> 00:37:53.619 And this Bible text is telling me that it's worth my while to fight those gorillas because at the end of 00:37:53.619 --> 00:38:01.159 the day, the victory that has already begun in me with my risen king, Jesus, the crucified and risen 00:38:01.159 --> 00:38:08.079 king, that he actually will bring everything to a complete and utter victory in me. That is the end of 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:15.480 my story. So it's worth it to fight those things in me that are wrong. I have a new presence in my 00:38:15.480 --> 00:38:23.099 life that I can call out to. One who shared all my human weaknesses and shared my trials and temptations 00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:29.199 and loved me so much he died for me, knowing everything about me that I can pour my heart 00:38:29.199 --> 00:38:36.559 out to him. I can pour out my shame at failure and my sin. I can pour my heart out to him. 00:38:36.840 --> 00:38:42.659 And he is a compassionate one who listens. And he is my risen king. And he is the one who walks with me. 00:38:42.659 --> 00:38:48.799 It gives me a new story to understand my life. Not that life is one dang thing after another and then 00:38:48.799 --> 00:38:55.759 I die. But life is one opportunity now to become more like Christ and to bring him glory and to show 00:38:55.759 --> 00:39:01.379 that I am not the center of the universe, but all things come of him. And that generosity is part of 00:39:01.379 --> 00:39:08.099 the fundamental story of the universe. Forgiveness and love and compassion. And when you try to move into 00:39:08.099 --> 00:39:14.299 justice and those things, you are moving in terms of the flow of ultimate reality and the ultimate end 00:39:14.299 --> 00:39:24.259 of the story. And it is worth it to pursue it. It is worth it to pursue it. And you can challenge the 00:39:24.259 --> 00:39:28.460 elephant stakes in your life. You know, I don't know if it's true, but they talk about how when 00:39:28.460 --> 00:39:33.819 they're training an elephant and they take a baby elephant and they knock a stake into the ground and 00:39:33.820 --> 00:39:37.980 then they tie the baby elephant and the baby elephant tries to pull away from the stake and it can't. 00:39:38.340 --> 00:39:42.980 And it so trains the baby elephant so that it doesn't think, you know, by the time it becomes 00:39:42.980 --> 00:39:47.760 a huge honking elephant that can not only pull up the peg but knock out the wall, it just, it sees 00:39:47.760 --> 00:39:54.100 the peg and thinks it's bound by it. And this story is challenging us to realize we have, under the sin, 00:39:54.200 --> 00:39:57.760 there's all these elephant pegs in our lives and we don't have to follow them. 00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:03.500 Like, we should be a place that questions the assumptions about what just has to be. 00:40:05.420 --> 00:40:11.580 It doesn't just have to be. Another story. This is like 15, 20 years ago. I went to one of those 00:40:11.580 --> 00:40:16.420 gatherings of clergy that, like a continuing ed thing for clergy, and I was there about 15, 20 minutes 00:40:16.420 --> 00:40:23.840 early and I had a, no surprise, I had a takeout dark roast coffee black with me. It was a really cold day. 00:40:23.840 --> 00:40:27.920 I was wearing a very comfortable sweater and the guest speaker, one of the two guest speakers 00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:33.640 came walking by and he was a fellow who, he had become a little bit more prosperous, if you know 00:40:33.640 --> 00:40:38.900 what I mean, as he entered into middle age, but he hadn't updated his wardrobe. So he was wearing a 00:40:38.900 --> 00:40:44.500 jacket and a tie and the tie looked like it was strangling him and the, it looked like if he'd 00:40:44.500 --> 00:40:50.700 breathed the wrong way, he'd pop the buttons in his jacket. And he comes up and he says, oh boy, 00:40:50.699 --> 00:40:56.059 coffee and a sweater, boy, I wish I could wear a sweater. And I said, I have good news for you, 00:40:56.119 --> 00:41:03.339 friend. I have a car. Five minutes from here, I can take you to a store and buy you a sweater. 00:41:05.099 --> 00:41:10.159 And then we can get a coffee. Anyway, he just laughed and didn't want it. But really, you don't 00:41:10.159 --> 00:41:15.159 have to be there in a tie that's choking you, in a jacket that's going to burst. You can wear a sweater. 00:41:15.159 --> 00:41:20.059 You have permission. You don't have to live under those other types of rules. 00:41:20.920 --> 00:41:27.659 And even if it also redefines the things in your life that you can't, you know, sometimes God 00:41:27.659 --> 00:41:33.420 brings moral transformation like a moment. I know a fellow, upon his conversion, lost all of his 00:41:33.420 --> 00:41:37.599 alcoholism and his desire for drugs. We know that there's people in our congregation, that's not been 00:41:37.599 --> 00:41:41.799 the story of their lives. They have to fight and fight and fight and fight, but it's always worth 00:41:41.800 --> 00:41:48.960 fighting it. And partly, we start to redefine besetting sins as a chronic condition that God 00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:56.000 could still heal, that's treated by daily repentance and attempt to amend your life. 00:41:56.820 --> 00:42:01.980 And that this teaching is saying, given that at some point in time, this will be completely defeated 00:42:01.980 --> 00:42:06.780 in you, and the reign of Christ will be perfect in the new heaven and the new earth, it's worth it 00:42:06.780 --> 00:42:11.660 to repent against this every day and never make peace with it. 00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:21.780 It changes everything as you start to enter into this new story with a new king, with a new presence, 00:42:22.420 --> 00:42:28.200 and we fight these battles on our knees, and we fight them as a church together, and we uphold each 00:42:28.200 --> 00:42:34.360 other in prayer, and that's what God is calling to us. And that is why the gospel, when it grabs you, 00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:42.660 actually becomes an engine of moral change. Go back to my opening, I'll just close with this. I said 00:42:42.660 --> 00:42:48.160 earlier that the faith that saves is the same faith that longs to obey, and the old adamanness 00:42:48.160 --> 00:42:55.260 immediately makes us worried about that word obey. But it will make it seem, but here's the way to 00:42:55.260 --> 00:43:01.160 understand the difference that faith in Christ means. Let's say I was visiting somebody in a hospital, 00:43:01.159 --> 00:43:07.379 and let's say I was visiting my wife in my hospital. Hopefully that, you know, won't be for until she's 105, 00:43:07.799 --> 00:43:13.879 but I'm visiting my wife in the hospital, and some random woman yells in at me and says, can you go and 00:43:13.879 --> 00:43:19.500 take your own money and buy me a coffee and bring it right here? I need a coffee. If I obey her, that's 00:43:19.500 --> 00:43:28.619 like weird. If my wife asks me, can you go down and get me a tea or a decaf coffee downstairs and bring 00:43:28.619 --> 00:43:33.960 it to me, I will not obey the first person. That's not what the Bible is talking about. I will obey my 00:43:33.960 --> 00:43:41.179 wife in her request. Why? Because I love her. That's the context of the faith that saves is the faith 00:43:41.179 --> 00:43:44.679 that longs to obey. I invite you to stand. 00:43:52.299 --> 00:43:53.980 Bow our heads in prayer. Father, 00:43:54.940 --> 00:44:00.539 it's hard to know with the internet whether people are getting worse or whether they're getting better. 00:44:00.539 --> 00:44:09.980 Father, we do see, Father, we do see some types of toxic compassion. Father, we do see 00:44:09.980 --> 00:44:20.900 evil, the rise of anti-Semitism, which is very evil. We do know that it seems as if all the statistics 00:44:20.900 --> 00:44:30.000 say that fewer people are generous. And we've all probably, Father, felt how online types of things 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:37.440 can really have very toxic consequences. And Father, we don't know if that's just driven by bots and 00:44:37.440 --> 00:44:44.780 algorithms or whether it's really going on. But Father, what we do know is that when we put our 00:44:44.780 --> 00:44:53.500 faith and trust in Jesus, you bring him truly into us and us into him. And he is creating a new, 00:44:53.500 --> 00:45:03.460 new, he is the, our new king. And he is working in us that we would live under his rule. And that his rule is 00:45:03.460 --> 00:45:13.559 towards newness of life. His rule is towards the diminishment of anti-Semitism, of hatred, of xenophobia, of 00:45:13.559 --> 00:45:23.119 misogyny, of injustice, of ungenerosity, that his rule will work to diminish those things in our lives. And that his rule 00:45:23.119 --> 00:45:31.460 will work to make us desire to be more compassionate, more generous, more giving and forgiving. And we thank 00:45:31.460 --> 00:45:37.059 you, Father, that that is the story, not the algorithms and whatever else is going on, that the story to form us 00:45:37.059 --> 00:45:43.259 and the one who's forming us is your son, Jesus Christ. And so we ask, Father, that you would continue to work 00:45:43.259 --> 00:45:49.619 in a powerful way, bringing the gospel truth home deep to our lives. And we are so thankful that you desire 00:45:49.619 --> 00:45:55.659 to change us from one degree of glory to another. You desire us to walk in newness of life. And Father, 00:45:55.779 --> 00:46:02.259 help us, help us to call out to you and walk that walk. And we ask these things in Jesus' name, 00:46:02.639 --> 00:46:04.739 your son and our savior. Amen. 00:46:19.619 --> 00:46:20.619 Amen.