Lesson 31b

So Romans 8, 11 through 13. Would somebody mind reading just those three verses for me? And if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, it is not to our lower natures that we are under obligation that we should live by their rule. For if you so live, death is near. But if through being under the sway of the Spirit you are putting your old body's habits to death, you will live.

What version is that? What translation? Wyman. So I'm just going to repeat verse 12. So then brethren we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. So we kind of covered verse 11 last week. We got through question 1 through 3 I believe. And we'll kick off this morning with question number 4. What does it mean to live according to the flesh?

I want you to answer that question, but is everybody here got a body? So in the beginning, what was that, Genesis 2-7, God created. Did he just create a body? What happened to that originally created body? It was created with the spirit and soul. So he breathed life, literally, into the nostrils, the breath of life. So, in the beginning, we ain't got a body.

Does everybody here got a spirit? A light spirit. Are you sure? I'm just going to fill this out for her. In the verse in Genesis, life is plural. Okay. Explain to them the breath of life. Body plus spirit equals what? You're a living soul. Alright. So now, with this body, plus the spirit that God breathed into your life, originally created, you were given a soul. And with your soul, you had what's commonly called five senses, right? I don't have several of those senses right now. They're not working. What was the point of the senses?

What could man do when he was created in the garden? He had a consciousness. Okay, he did. What did he also do? What did he use? He could talk. He walked with the Lord, right? He did. He could function in the environment that God created for him. He could have emotion. He did. And all of these senses, in their original state, what were they designed to do? Communicate with God? Communicate with God. He walked with the Lord, literally in the garden. He was able to take in every creative thing that God had given to him.

And what was his responsibility? Still eat of the tree in the middle of the garden. There was that one, what were the other ones? Man the animals and plants. To care for the creation that God had designed his body to function within, right? To keep that mortal body without sin. Innocent. That was the state. I don't think he knew that. I don't think he fully understood all that either. No, I think he had this environment.

Wednesday night we were just starting Genesis and having fun with it because were going through the creation, the first 3-4 days of creation. What's interesting is that God created the heavens and the earth which were totally uninhabitable when he started. But then he spent the next 5 days making the planet inhabitable for man. He did it all so that man could function and live in it perfectly. And so when he created Adam, Adam fit the perfection of the creation.

And he didn't know anything outside of that, so he was never operating on a negative basis, like, I can't, I can't. He knew not. This is what I'm doing. I totally agree. Well, we know that something happened in the garden. What happened to this whole combination? He took of the tree. And what happened at that very moment?

He died spiritually. He died spiritually? Did he die physically? Yes. He began to die. He began to die physically. How else was he separated? Fellowship. Spiritually, fellowship was broken. His body began to be separated from his spirit, right? The process was beginning. He's also eternally separated, right? Didn't the spirit die at that point? What happened to the body? Let's talk about that one first.

The body took over, didn't it? We call it Lordship. The body took Lordship, right? We call that, what's the synonym for the body at this point? So was that something added at this point when he fell? We talk a lot about the sin nature, he obviously didn't have one of those before, but now he does. So would you say the sin nature is the lordship of the body?

The spirit actually at this point becomes a slave. To death? To the body. It starts to serve the flesh. That's what happened. When Adam fell, his spirit now could only serve under the Lordship of his flesh. And the soul, in all of its five senses, what do they do? It follows the Lord. What's that? It follows the Lord. I don't know. Right here. He'd follow his self, his lord. It just rolled right back up.

What does my body want? My senses want what my body wants. It's controlled by the flesh, and all the ways that we function under the fall, at the end of the day, we can mask those, we can set those aside, but our senses are under simply this fallen state. Yeah. Would you say that, well, when God created Adam, that he essentially was a spirit, that had a soul that lived in a body? I refer to the soul as a combination of the two. a spiritual being who has a soul so he can interact with the environment God created and he's got a body in which he can function within this environment. Now, when he falls, I think the spirit is not the controlling factor anymore. This fallen man is a what? Is he body controlled? Is he self-controlled? How does that work?

We're not saying that the thoughts of man's heart in this state became only evil in that continually. He became soulish? Yeah. I mean, they all end up serving the same evil focus, right? That's all a man can do in this state. His heart became evil continually, right? Yeah. So the question that we started off with, what does it mean to live according to the flesh?

Slave to sin. What did you say? Slave to sin. Slave to sin. At that point did he, he never knew consciousness until that point of fall? No. He didn't become conscious of sin until the fall, but he was conscious of his relationship to God. He knew who he was, where he came from, and why he was there. So he made a choice. He did. And that choice led to this. Was this a constant state? It is the constant state for following me.

So when we say, what does it mean to walk according to the flesh? It means that your body has now taken Lordship and serves sin consistently. Your spirit now is absent of God's life and a slave to the body. As a result, you as a soul, combined with body and spirit, use all of your five senses, all of your thoughts continually, are now slaves to sin. What does that result in? What does a walk of the flesh look like? It could look like so many different things. You probably are.

Right? So, are you saying that the soul is not a separate entity? It's a combination of a body and a spirit? Equals a soul? That's how I've understood it, yes. It's how we function with both body and spirit. The spirit is within the soul that has a body. So the spirit is the only thing that can communicate to God where the body communicates with our surroundings. What we might do is answer question number five to maybe finish out the Because what question number four is having you do is think back before salvation. Which is sometimes, it's sometimes easy for us to think about and sometimes difficult because now we have so much more information about who we are that it's hard to recognize what this really is at times.

I'm stuck on that idea that When God breathed into Adam, the breath of lives, what sort of life did he get? Well, he got spiritual life. He also got soulish life. Soulish meaning? Mind, emotion, will, you know, but not damaged by sin. It was perfect.

So, he actually is functioning, and those two entities, the spirit and the soul, is what gives the body physical life. You take the soul and the spirit out of the body and the body is dead. It can't function. Although the body has desires and needs, I really think that the problem is with the soul, not necessarily the body. Because the soul is where the will is. The will is not in the body. The will is in the soul.

The soul is the determiner. of the fallen man's direction that he goes in, and he willfully does evil continually, all the time. But he's also at the same time, he's a slave. Where Adam, before he fell, was not a slave. He willfully obeyed and did whatever God designed him to do and called him to do.

I have in my notes, man was essentially a spirit living in a body, possessing a soul. I think so. Thanks, Richard. I think going back to Donna's question, I think maybe it's the way the equation of body plus soul equals, or body plus spirit equals soul.

I think there are three distinct things in that, you know, Looking up in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete. So I think there are three different entities, not equals or whatever, so maybe that's the way the equation is.

I guess mine is the definition of a soul. I thought the soul is kind of like our essential being. by her identification and all that, that's a little with the body, basically, or is condemned with it. But if you're new, which we're getting to on the third column there, you're attached to a new spirit, a new entity of their body. So, in light of that, how would you describe when God said, let's create man in our image and in our likeness, Was the soul part of that? In other words, my essential identity is the soul, but that doesn't make me like God. And that's what God wanted to do. That's why I think that my real essential identity is spiritual, not soulish.

We've had this discussion, what goes through when we step into eternity? My soul goes, my spirit goes, and I'm getting, I don't know if I'm getting a new body then or not, It's the soul and the spirit that leaves. The soul at that point, because of its union with Christ and his death, is not attached to the sin nature. And the nature is what stays here, not the soul. But see, again, I thought the soul was like who created me eternally. doesn't either get a new body, new spirit. Those are going to be a fleshly body, a new body, spirit. We have a new spirit, which is the spirit of life in Christ.

But one thing that is the essential me, I thought, was associated with the soul. And that's just kind of how I split up those things. And whether it created in his image, is that more informed than in the essential I, who I am? Well, I think who we are, God knew us as persons, and persons have all of these things. I thought the soul was kind of dead, because that's the thing to do. Well, I think it is here, and I think that we're totally focused in on the soul, coming out of sinful Adam into Christ. But I think the essential identity in Christ is spiritual, not soulish.

So the way of your mind, your emotion, your will. Right. Okay, so he was created with a body. He was breathed life into as a spirit. And now the combination of those and the fact that he became a living soul, he now could use his senses, his mind, emotion, and his will to choose, which makes him unique from the beasts, right? What do beasts have? Are they the same in the sense that we are? No. Why? They were never given a spirit. I think it's because they don't have a spirit. They just have a soul.

Their dichotomy or trichotomy. Trichotomy. I like that. Getting back to the soul, in verse 11 it says, He who raised up Christ from the dead will give life also to your mortal bodies. Yep. So let's talk about that. Is that the soul? The soul in the body, which has the spirit?

So, at salvation, because this is a salvation passage, right? In fact, this ends up becoming not just a salvation passage, it becomes a resurrection passage. So, do the body's demands in the flesh go away after salvation? So here we are. We're saved. What happens to the body when you are saved?

Nothing. What does it do? It's not going to die. It's the same. It's heading to death. Does it still bark at us? We call it Lordship. It wants to take over. It wants to be the Lord. Ray and Rule. The body hasn't changed one bit. anything that happened as a result of the fall. Take worship over your spirit. That's what it demands. It will not stop. But through hope it has a new body.

What happened to the spirit though? The spirit is alive. Our spirit? Are we given a new spirit? I think it's our spirit. Maybe, I don't know. We're given a new nature, the spirit is quickened, it's being alive. It's already dead. Dead to God, separated.

So if the Holy Spirit comes and occupies my old spirit, in that sense is it a new creation? You tell me. Or is it his spirit, Christ? Well it's Christ's spirit that occupies my spirit. You get a new birth here. What's being reborn? Or being born new? Maybe Mike is talking about the union of the spirits? What's the transaction? Maybe we back up to the cross. When Christ is on the cross, he has made sin for us.

The nature that I possess as coming from Adam, that is the propensity to sin, that controls all of my activity and is unpleasing to God, that nature is somehow identified with Christ and when he dies, he separates from it. And I separate from it because I was baptized or placed into his death. That's when I go in, when he dies. So whatever he separates from, I separate from. But it's positional. It's something that God does in eternity that may or may not be recognized by me and my condition. So when I'm separated, I'm not left in a void.

I'm raised in Christ, like you're saying, in resurrection. What's new? If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Would you say the Spirit's? Yes, I think so. But is the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells my spirit, is that what makes it new, or is it a whole new spirit? The spirit is resurrected, so its position fills the soul, fills the whole man. You can't take, see the thing about a man, he's a three part entity, and you can't, eventually all three parts will be redeemed. A man can't function with two good ones and one bad one. You know, like my body's bad, but my spirit and soul are okay. That is the way God designed us. We try and do that, though. Yeah, how's that working out? So, you know, I'm okay, J.D., I think, with either way.

I think that when the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in my spirit, I am a new creation, a new creature. And I do enter into what is known as the new creation, because that's When Christ rose from the dead, did he have a new human spirit? A renewal. We could continue. Now in the new birth, the dead spirit, dead to God, is by divine creation made alive, or enlifed with Christ.

And the Holy Spirit becomes the seer of man's newly created spirit. For whatever the believer's progress may be, he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit. The body's demands are the same as ever, still assume lordship, because the body is not yet redeemed, and to live after the desires of the body, according to flesh. So one thing I had also in my notes is that now the soul, in its five senses, etc., is under no obligation to carry out the demands of the body. That's different. Here you're a slave. Here you are free.

Free to what? Do whatever you want? No. Free to what? What does the verse say? So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. So free to what? Free to serve the Lord which you weren't before as a slave to sin. Free to put to death the deeds of the body and have life.

How does that happen? only because of the spirit of the Holy Spirit. Our spirit, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit, is now free to live by faith to God. So I think that lines up with the way God originally created us, which was a spirit that had a soul that lived in the body, which meant the spirit was a controlling factor of that. and when Adam sinned the spirit no longer was the controlling factor it was the sin nature and the bodies demands and because the senses of the soul were infected with the sin nature they had desires too and now when we are recreated in Christ the spirit ascends again to the control of the man positionally does anyway, and that what he's supposed to do is live by faith, which he's to trust what God reveals to him in his spirit. He willfully does that, and in turn, the Holy Spirit, through that process, controls, keeps the body under control. So you can draw an arrow from no obligation to body and put a cross on it. So we have no obligation to serve the lordship of the body.

How great is that? Is that death? It absolutely is. Separation. Do you believe that? As Courtney would say. Well, there's this one little sticky part in Romans 8.13. It says, if you are living according to the flesh, alright, you got this guy, you must die.

Who is Paul talking to here? Is he talking to unbelievers? No believers. Because unbelievers are already dead. So here we're talking about believers. I think you need to define death as separation. Death is separation. Don't get into your mind that death is an annihilation, because it's not. Right. Does everybody agree with that?

Let's go back to Romans 6.23. Someone read that, in a non-amplified.

So I think we have this Romans 6.23 principle being mirrored here in Romans 8.13 For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

This is a Romans 6.23 that we just read. That's a sanctification verse. We use it as a salvation verse a lot. But it's, again, written to believers. The wages of sin is death, and this is the wage for all sin. Right? That's what we get paid for as a result of sin. Even the personal sin of a Christian. And that's what I think Romans 6-3 is talking about.

When we sin, we're automatically separated from fellowship. Are we separated positionally with God? When we sin, when I sin, I am separated from fellowship with the Lord. Death always means separation. And that's the wages. That's what I get paid for sin, is losing fellowship with the Lord. Okay? We're not separated from God in hell.

That's not what Romans 6.23 or Romans 8.13 is talking about at all. We have the Spirit of God indwelling in us. So we talk about that here. Excuse me.

For those of you that kind of came out dealing with allergies and congestion. situation, what happens? What does he lose? What can we call this life? If it's a new birth, have you been fully resurrected in the sense of your body? No. Have you been resurrected in the sense of your spirit? Yes. This is resurrection life now. You're going to get, this is going to get replaced the moment you leave this earth. But this experience of resurrection life is now. And how is that resurrection life limited for us? How do we limit our experience of that life? By not believing. By not believing what? That we did die. Okay. Could we say that any truth that God has told of us that applies to us in this age and not believing that truth results in a lack of experience of the resurrection life?

I would say that as a believer, when I sin, I go right back to the default position of being outside of Christ. I can't understand anything spiritually, even though I may have it in my head. And if the Spirit of God wasn't indwelling me, I would probably stay there. Do you understand what I mean? That sin is such an enslavement. That even as a believer, if I walk in the flesh, I'm back under slavery again. And I can't get out of that on my own effort. I couldn't get out of there originally on my own effort. I don't think I can get out of that on my own effort as a believer unless the Spirit acts upon me.

And then what is required? The Spirit can convict, convince. But what's required on your part? You're not a robot. Just because the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces you of your sin, doesn't mean that you get to enjoy that resurrection life. Why? All things work together for good. You have to agree with God. Agree with God? Yeah. About what?

About what he did on the cross, about who I am, about all of these positional truths that we are learning about. You have to agree, we have to, you know, I trust him that what he did is true. If I don't trust him, I just stay where I am. The Christian life is a life of works, faith. It all comes back to that one simple concept.

But just like you said, we're walking by the Spirit, the body continues to take Lordship, assume, bark constantly. Barking back. We decide, even though we have no obligation to that whatsoever, we're not under that authority at all, we choose, with our will, being the soul that we are, without obligation, we choose to enter back into slavery of the flesh. You know the hungry heart this morning.

If we want our own way, we will find that everything is against us. But if we have chosen that God shall be sovereign in our lives, then everything is for us. I love that. Say that first part again. If we want our own way, we will find that everything is against us. But if we have chosen that God shall be sovereign in our lives, then everything is for us. I can totally relate. Isn't that awesome?

I think it's almost Even as new believers, if we want something, we're going to find a way to make that happen, right? If that desire is evil, under the non-authoritative, condemned, judged, sin nature, if we want it, we're going to find a way to make it so. To be rich. Whatever it is that you want to find a way to do. There's nothing wrong with being rich.

I didn't say that one. You know what's interesting is that the choice that we have is not a choice of control, it's a choice of who controls us. Oh man, that's not very fun. Say that again. The choice that we have is not that we control, it's who controls us. It's either the spirit or it's the system. You get to choose who controls you. Is one the other? Absolutely. You had to choose.

That's why we believe sin died. Or believe. Sin did not. Right. Well... The Christian life is a life of faith. Not worse, right? Right. A life of grace through faith. The same way you are justified, how are you justified? By grace, through faith. The same way you were justified is the same way you are sanctified. By grace, through faith.

So when the sin died, the flesh died. No. We still have flesh. The sin nature is not who we are, but it continues to assert authority in our condition over who we are in Christ. One is dead to God, the other is dead to sin. As we live by faith, what's produced in our body? Resurrected life. Resurrected life. Who does that? The Holy Spirit. He does the living through us. Right? As we live by faith, the life of Christ is produced through us, by the Father, through the Spirit, who indwells you.

That's a present truth. That's not a future hope. That's a present truth. You think that's one of the best spiritual truths that we can come to understand? I think so. So, if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. What kind of experience does that give you conditionally? Misery. I think in that hungry heart it said, everything's against us. Totally. Ever feel like everything's against you?

And that's the result of not understanding the truth of God's sovereignty, which is what that point was being made there. It's also, to Courtney's consistent reference, of our God, it's not just that He's sovereign about our situation, He loves you. And at the end of the day, and this is something that Vern said a long time ago that I've held on to, God is a holy and righteous God, is offended by sin. But really it's more than just His offense to sin for the believer that is the problem, He wants intimacy with you. And that sin is staying in the way from His desire. It's not just that he's got a problem with you and your sin.

Sometimes we get in a path of not trusting the Lord, and we kind of recycle through that for a while. Because we're going to find a way to get what we want. So we cycle through that, and then finally we come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. We realize that, hey, I agree with God about this. Sometimes we get really frustrated with ourselves and we sit there and say, man, God, I'm just really, really bad. It's just me. I get it. I'm 100% in agreement with you, but I feel like I'm worse than Mike. I'm worse than Russ. Yeah, I'll let you guys battle over who's worse.

But sometimes we get in this self-condemnation train. And we think that that is in some way pleasing to God because we're admitting, I'm just filthy rotten, I can't seem to get my mind out from my sin. I'm filthy, I'm rotten, and God, I don't know how, I'm so, it's always me, you know, the, the, I don't remember how you referenced it a few weeks ago, but, you know, I'm a sinner, saved by grace. Thanks be to God, I'm saved by grace, but man, I'm just a really cruddy sinner. Sinner. Sinner. Have you ever felt that way, and just kind of like, hey, this is somehow pleasing to God that I feel as bad as I do about what I really am.

But that is, in fact, the very thing that's standing in the way of what He desires. He's not interested in condemning you for that. He's interested in having a fellowship with you that results in intimacy with Him. That sin, and you're sometimes beating that sin over the head constantly, thinking it pleases the Lord, is still standing in the way of what He actually desires. Because He's not just sovereign. He's not just bringing about the circumstances in your life to teach you about how this thing works, and how untrustworthy it can be in its lordship over you, its attempt at lordship over you, because it has no authority.

That's because you're beating the sin down. Yeah. And we sometimes get, we kind of think that that's the best way to think of ourselves. Just beating down an old sinner guy over here. The problem with that is that It keeps you driving the bus in terms of, well, I'm feeling sorry for my sin. Well, who's the I there? And does God ever ask us to feel sorry for our sin? No. He asks us to what?

Agree with Him about it. That's right. And what does that result in? You agree with Him by faith. Life. What's that? I didn't hear what you guys said in the back. Oh, I said life. It's conditional life. It's the resurrection life now. Not just positionally being, you know, in the presence of the Lord. We get to see His life lives through us by faith in a consistent state of grace. That's not the sinner's being is feeling sorry for your sin. That's what I'm trying to say. Resurrected life too is interesting because the word Jesus said in John 17, that resurrected life was to know him and the one who sent him. I find it interesting that resurrected life is not a commodity in a jar someplace.

That it is, in fact, knowing the father and the son. That's what it is. If you feel like I'm talking directly to you, you just know that I'm talking directly to me. This is the story of Romans right now. This is what we're talking about. I mean, first, I just want to read it again because it's that powerful.

So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. We're free over here. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. What is the same wages? Death. Separation. Death. That's what you get to experience by walking in the flesh as a sinner. I'm sorry, as a saved man or woman, walking by the flesh, you get to experience the same wages, which is separation from God. Separated positionally? Separated conditionally. And what could that look like? Could a person potentially distinguish that life from this one? I'm sorry, this one? Not so easily.

So, we're not saved sinners, but saved saints? Yeah, both, but it's the fact that you are a saint, that the Lord is interested in that part of you. He's not interested in the fact that you commit sins. Yes, they can result in discipline, but at the heart of God, He's interested in loving you.

Yeah. I guess that's the point of my sovereignty and internal support. What can you do to separate yourself from God's love? There's nothing. And if you sin, did Christ not take care of that? And so when you sin, when believers sin and they beat themselves up, the only thing you're doing by beating yourself up is prolonging that separation of fellowship from God. He loves you eternally. He's constantly after you. Constantly wants that intimate relationship.

And the only thing that's hindering us is us either wallowing in the sin or worrying about the sin or, you know, just it's the, yes I agree, this is not who I am and going back into the fellowship with him. I'm a wallower. That's what I do. Somehow, by nature, even as a believer, I feel like if I feel worse about this, it's somehow going to get me through it. That's how I gravitate.

Other people may have different experiences there. That is prolonging, to Corny's point, the opportunity to walk by fellowship with the Lord and experience His life and know His love. That's something that an unbeliever can never experience. They can wallow in their sin, just like we can. And we can all look like a bunch of folks walking to therapy in the same way to try to talk it out.

And I'm not suggesting that therapy is a bad thing per se, but I'm just saying that we can spend a lot of time talking about what we want. What is it that you want? I know that you've talked about what everybody else wants, but what do you want out of your life? Well, I'm just a pig in the mud. You waller.

I was going to say, the thing that's so very beautiful is one of the 34 things that happen to us that instantly we believe is the Holy Spirit places us into Christ We're positioned there safe and secure forever. And while we do sometimes sin and the Holy Spirit gets us out of that and back in fellowship, as far as our eternal security, we're secure, safe, sound. Nothing can change that. You can wallow in your condition for the rest of your Christian life, but it's not going to change what you just said. You know, the wallowing part. And it always comes back, we're to fight the good fight of faith. That's the whole battle, is what I'm wallowing.

I'm not believing. I'm not believing what he told me. What do you want from me, God? What do you want? But once you believe, you can't unbelieve. I can fall back into the same sin. Right, but that's... Trying to trust is a... Yeah, but that's spiritual insanity. We haven't talked about that. Absolutely. Can I add one more thing? Yeah.

One of the coolest things also is that I really understood Romans 8.1. You know, it says that, can you quote it for me? There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. And Paul tells us 67 times in Ephesians. that we're in Christ, that we cannot be condemned. That was a big light bulb for me. That we are set free.

I would say too, one other aspect of this, not to chase this rabbit very far, but in Reformed theology that's under law, they teach remorse. They teach, I mean they modify the word repentance to mean you have to feel sorry. You've got to really feel sorry for your sins in order to be restored. That's ridiculous. And you're taught that because you violated the law.

Yep. Well, it keeps people chained to the fuse. Sure does. One last thing. Oh, yeah. If you, like in the Catholic Church, there's a sin of presumption. They call it, if you believe, I know for sure I'm going to heaven, absolutely. They say that's a sin of presumption that will keep you out of heaven because you cannot know for sure.

How subtle is that? Anybody dealing with the Senate presumption in here? I sure hope so. I think this is a pretty easy answer. I'm going to ask it because it's that straightforward. Number seven, have our bodies as believers been redeemed? Not yet. Not yet. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the truths of Romans 8, and specifically here in verse 13, we recognize that our sin produces in us a condition where we do not have fellowship with you, and it's separation. It's the sin wages.

And Lord, while we can wallow in those, and find ourselves stuck in those, it is simply an opportunity to be convicted and convinced of the Holy Spirit and simply believe. We have life by grace through faith and we're so thankful that we've been crucified with you and that we've been given new life and it's no longer we who live but it is you who lives in us. We thank you for that truth. I do now ask for a good rest of the morning and for the main service that your word would be presented clearly and you may be glorified in all that we say and do. In your name we pray. Amen.