Christians are called to mortify the deeds of the body through the power of the Holy Spirit, not merely confess sins but actively put them to death. This involves identifying specific sinful strongholds in one's life, such as sexual immorality, idolatry, or evil attitudes, and then, with the Spirit's power, crucifying these deeds by rendering them inactive. While confession restores fellowship, mortification grants victory over sin, enabling believers to live a life pleasing to God and reflecting Christ.
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morning everyone nice to see you all looking bright and cheerful today we'll need that we're going to do our reading in Romans chapter eight and then we'll have a prayer Romans chapter eight and we'll also read a little from Galatians five so if you'll save those two places together Romans chapter eight reading from verse twelve therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live for as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God now Galatians five and keep your place back in Romans eight because we'll turn right back there Galatians five and beginning at verse thirteen please Galatians
five and verse thirteen for brethren ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another for all the law is fulfilled in one word even in this Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say, then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. And then verse twenty four. And they that are Christ, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. Shall we just look to the Lord? Our Father, we come to thee this morning, giving thanks for this lovely new day. We thank thee that we have the privilege to gather in a free land. We would pray again for those in authority over us that we may enjoy a measure of freedom. And Lord, grant that we may use that freedom. for the furtherance of thy name and thy glory we ask thy blessing on those various works going on this morning done in thy name different ones bringing the word of life and opening the scriptures in various places and we ask that thou bless them this morning we pray for those who are sick and not able to be with us just ask Lord that thy hand of healing and comfort might be upon them according to thy will we thank thee for those who serve us here at this place for the fellowship and friendship that we've enjoyed.
We would ask now thy blessing as we consider another portion of thy word. May thy spirit be free to work in our hearts. We pray that we may be open people for thy glory. So we give thee our thanks and ask thy help again as we study. In Jesus' worthy name, amen. I want to take a minute and... do a little review because some of you might not have been here yesterday and also it helps us all to come together to one starting point this morning I began with a question I'd like to repeat that question how can I be certain that my daily walk is a response to the spirits leading and that I am not pressing forward in a selfish dream you remember I said that selfish dream might be that I just kind of live for myself and do my own thing and seek my own ends in life And if anyone asks me, I just say, you know, I'm led by the Lord to do thus and so.
How can I be sure then that I'm not living that kind of an existence, but that I'm really seeking to be led by God's Spirit? And I suggested there would be four spiritual steps that we might take as Christians to make sure that we would be led of the Spirit in our walk. Let me mention the first two that we covered yesterday, and we'll try to do one more today. First of all, we said that it would be important to make up our minds firmly with resolve that we are willing to face some difficult things and we may need to make some difficult decisions secondly i suggested one of those decisions would be to expose our life to the light of god's word you remember i said that that would not just be for education but it would be for revealing and exposing anything that the light of scripture might show up to be needing to be dealt with then at the close of the hour we looked at a warning in Matthew chapter seven and we found there that religious activity per se was not a test of being led by the Spirit just because we were busy even busy in some kind of Christian service or activity and
at the close the last thing we did was I asked you a question after you have made up your mind and resolved to be willing with the help of God to face what is difficult if necessary, and after you have made the decision to expose your life on a regular basis to the teaching of the Word of God as a light that shines upon your life, suppose then the Word of God reveals something in your life that grieves the Holy Spirit, that is not right. What are we to do about that? Well, let's look at our text because we want to suggest the third step that we should take. In Romans eight and verse twelve, he says, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
You notice the word brethren there, lets us know that he's speaking to the Roman Christians. In other words, this is applicable to us as believers. And he says, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Now we said that living after the flesh really was selfish or self-centered living. And we're debtors. We're responsible as Christians not to live a self-centered existence. To live after the flesh means to follow it. In other words, self leads and I follow after. That's why Paul uses the word after. If you want to do a good little study sometime, we won't do it this morning, but something that will really turn the light on this part of Romans eight.
take a couple of colored pencils in your Bible and every place you find the little word in I in market and every time you find the word after market and you'll see that the whole passage turns on the difference between in and after if we are in Christ that means we are saved but if we are walking after Christ that means he is our example and he is leading but we as Christians may be walking after the flesh sometime therefore Paul says in verse twelve brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to walk after the flesh then verse thirteen for you if you live after the flesh in other words if you keep pursuing a self-centered existence if the flesh leads continually ye shall die now die there cannot refer to eternal spiritual death, in other words, the loss of salvation.
We know that from many other scriptures. We said yesterday that death meant separation. And it is true. If you live after the flesh, if you live a self-centered existence, you will die. Your fellowship with God will be affected, and eventually it could lead to such discipline that God might remove you and take you home. But if you, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. I want to focus on that last little phrase in verse thirteen. Let's read it again. If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
So the third major step in our study this week then is we must, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body. I was a young man. I used to listen to some preachers. And I don't know if you've ever had the experience, but they would make certain statements and you would scratch your heads and think, that's really good. I wonder what it means. And they would go on to the next point. And I remember as a young man thinking, I don't really know any more than when I came in through the door. And I always resolved as a young person that if God ever granted me the blessing to speak to people and open his word, With his help I would try very hard never to do that.
I like to preach almost like the ladies use cookbooks. It doesn't just say take several items and mix them together and you'll have a cake. It's nice and specific. How many eggs? How much flour? And how much sugar or whatever else you put in a cake? And you must follow those directions exactly. So I like to be specific and practical. So we're going to ask some questions about this third step. and use the remainder of our time to seek to answer those questions. What does it mean mortify the deeds of the body? Who does it? Who's supposed to do it? And how? That's an important one, isn't it?
How are we going to do it? Well, let's work on those one by one. What does it mean mortify? If you have a newer translation, you see that's already fixed for you because they put it right in there, put to death. But maybe that isn't even clear because what does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body? We're going to study that in a few minutes. And then who does it? And how do we do it? I'd like to pause right now and answer a question that might be in some of your minds and should be in all of our minds. I said earlier that when the light of God's word exposes something in our life that is not pleasing to God or grieves his spirit, what are we to do?
And some of you might have instinctively said, First John one nine, confess it. And that's a good answer. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we've grown up knowing that verse. What does the believer do when he sins? well he is to confess his sin and we know that and that scripture teaches that but I would like to suggest to you that this scripture Romans eight thirteen maybe because it's a bit complicated is passed over and we rarely hear anyone tell us that the scripture says that we are to mortify the deeds of the body and I think we need to take just a moment here this morning and clarify the difference between what does it mean to confess my sin And what does it mean to mortify the deeds of the body?
Let me say a word to you about confession. The Greek word to confess really means to speak the same or to say the same thing. When you confess something, what you're really doing is agreeing. Did you ever stop to think that when you or I sin as a Christian and we confess the sin, we're always the second person to speak about the sin? no matter how quickly you confess your sin after you sin you're always second there's one who's ahead of you and that's God the Holy Spirit he always instantaneously recognizes sin even more quickly than we can and he says in effect that is wrong that is sin that dishonors God and when you and I confess our sin what we really do is we say the same thing we agree we say that's right Lord I agree, I confess.
You see, the difference is when we deny, the Spirit says that is sin and we say, no, it isn't. And we walk in darkness, don't we? And so how does the Christian then deal with his day-to-day sin or misdeeds or things in his life that are not pleasing to God? He confesses, means he agrees. And so God says that is a sin and if I agree or confess and say, yes, Lord, that is true, that's a true witness. Fellowship is restored and I go on in fellowship with the Lord. But now, what would we say to someone, let us say we had a friend and we noticed that they had a particular weakness in their life and they sinned in a certain manner constantly, maybe many times a day.
And because we live close to them, we noticed that sin. And suppose after we noticed that they, as a believer, were constantly falling into that sin, we felt constrained to go to them in a loving manner, brought to their attention and asked them, why? And suppose they were to answer you and say, well, you know, the scripture is very clear. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And I claim that scripture, and so each time I sin, I confess it. And therefore I'm restored to fellowship. And that's all that God requires. Would you accept an answer like that? Would you tell the person, well, I guess you're fine. You go right on ahead. That's a good answer.
Of course you wouldn't. You would say to the person, well, that's true. God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. But God doesn't want us to sin. And as a Christian who loves you, my desire is to see you have some victory in this area. in other words if you fall in this matter ten times today it'd be nice if it was only nine or eight yes tomorrow and by next week two or three and let's put it away let's let's stop sinning well now how is that going to happen right here in Romans eight thirteen is the key we're to mortify the deeds of the body put them to death The goal is not to sin and confess.
Confession is a provision of God in case we sin. But God wants us not to sin. Now we know John also teaches us that we should sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. But my point is that there's a difference between confession and mortifying, and it's this. Confession restores fellowship, mortifying or put to death, give victory and as Christians we ought to know that difference let me say it again confession restores fellowship but putting to death or mortifying the deeds of the body grants victory over the sin so we won't sin in the first place it's very important that we know that by the way one of the reasons why the whole matter of confession is important for believers is because if the Holy Spirit is leading us or encouraging us or in any way helping us and we sin he must lay aside those ministries that we enjoy and he takes up a ministry of conviction and he convicts the believer until we
agree and confess and say yes Lord that's true I have sinned and so we don't want the Holy Spirit to lay aside his ministries in our life of leading and comforting and guiding and have to be all the day convicting us because he'll go on until we either dull our consciences or until we confess one other thing I'll notice and then we'll pass on quickly this probably is not so important a word to speak to older Christians here this morning but I'm going to say it anyway just in the chance that there may be some young Christians among us I have this I have a need to speak to our young people up home very frequently about this matter when we sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts let's remember that the Holy Spirit speaks very specifically about sin it is that particular specific thing that you did or word that you spoke or attitude that you manifested the Holy Spirit when he convicts is very specific and I mention that because some people have the idea that You know, all is wrong.
Everything is bad. I'm just an evil person. I can't do anything right. Now, the Holy Spirit never speaks that way to the believer. And when you hear that, that's the voice of the adversary. That's the way he speaks to us. What kind of a Christian are you? God isn't happy with you and you can't do anything right. That's always the voice of the adversary. The Holy Spirit doesn't speak that way. The Holy Spirit is, well, think of yourself as a parent. You would never walk into a room and say to your child after he has sinned, you just have no value in this family. You always bungle everything and you're just useless.
You'd never say that to your child. You say to him, that specific thing that I asked you to do, you did not do. That was wrong. And so we need to be able to distinguish between the convicting word of the Spirit of God who isolates one thing that we may confess and be restored to fellowship. And the voice of the adversaries is plain doom and gloom. Everything is wrong. Let's go on. We've spoken enough about confession. I want to say a word before we go over to Galatians about who is to do it. Some time ago I was preaching on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And I list it as one of his works that he does for the believer mortifying or putting to death the deeds of the body.
And as I went over the list of the things that the Holy Spirit did for the believer, when I got to that one, it troubled me. And I went back and I read and I read this passage and finally it stood out at me. It doesn't say here if the Holy Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body, does it? Who does it say in verse thirteen? is to do it if you do it now it's true that the Holy Spirit provides the power see he says if you through the Spirit and I mentioned that because let's don't get the idea that we just keep on sinning and kind of say well when the Spirit wants to mortify that or put it away I won't sin anymore that isn't what the text says it's you are responsible and the Spirit will give the power to do it so that answers the question who is to do it we as Christians are responsible God holds us responsible there's an exercise of human will there I will deal with this thing in my life now the last question how are we to do this and
of course in answering the question how we're to do it we're going to go back and answer the question What does it mean, put to death? How are we to do it? Let's turn to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five, let me suggest that the answer to that question, that how we are to do it, how we are to mortify the deeds of the flesh, can be answered very simply in two words. Two words. The first word is identify. We must identify the deeds of the flesh.
How are we going to know what has to be put to death if we don't know what the deeds of the old nature or the self person is? And Scripture doesn't leave us to guess what it is that grieves the Spirit. God gives us in Galatians five a very nice list. It's not so nice. It's very uncomfortable if we read it. But he tells us, he helps us identify, and if we will read carefully and pray over this list, every Christian should know it. You know, I meet a lot of people. You ask them the fruit of the Spirit in verse twenty-two and twenty-three, and they can say them like that. And that's good. We should be able to say those nine fruit of the Spirit. But I've yet to meet anybody who could rattle off the list of the works of the flesh.
It's not such a comfortable section. But it wouldn't be a bad idea once in a while to read that and think about it because remember the first step to dealing with it is to identify well let's go back and begin at our where we read verse thirteen and let's look briefly at the verses that lead up to this list of the deeds of the self or the flesh in verse thirteen now by the way some of you who were here yesterday or all of you who were here yesterday are going to immediately notice a parallel kind of thought that Paul is bringing out here between Romans eight you'll notice very much of the same kind of things we studied yesterday in Romans eight being spoken about here by Paul in Galatians five and so just keep that in the back of your mind Galatians five and verse thirteen for brethren ye have been called into liberty remember yesterday we spoke about freedom being made free You have been called into liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love, serve one another. See, there's the two voices or the two options we spoke about. The liberty that God has brought us into is not for self, a self-centered existence, but for others. And how do we serve others? By love. Love means meeting the need of another through personal sacrifice. So we are to serve others in love. Verse fourteen says, All the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is the revelation of God's will.
We talked about that yesterday. Verse fifteen, a warning, if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one another. I think Paul was giving the Galatians a little word that if they keep on backbiting, they'd eventually devour one another. and it's a good word to pay attention to verse sixteen this I say then walk in the spirit and he shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh if you are led by God's spirit you will not be surrendering to the desires of your selfish self now notice it says in verse sixteen the lust of the flesh.
Lust is a kind of a desire that's out of control, a strong desire, almost like an uncontrollable desire. And you know, our old nature lusts, doesn't it? And some people have the idea that as we grow in the Lord and as we're Christians, the flesh will kind of give up. You know, it'll just get tired of bothering us and it'll quit and go to sleep. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't know if you have the problem down here, but up home we have certain groups that teach that when you become a Christian, the flesh is removed from the Christian. The old nature disappears. I see some of you smiling. That tells me that you've known the Lord long enough to see how silly that argument is.
And it certainly is ridiculous. As long as we're in this body, the old nature, the flesh, does not give up and quit. Nor does it get any weaker. it will continue to lust it will continue to cry out and say what about me what about serving me what about making my needs and desires first priority in your life it will go on and do that all your life but it says here walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill you will not surrender to that flesh I think it's a great step of maturity and victory in the life of any Christian when they face the fact that the flesh is not going to give up it's not going to get weaker it's not going to run out of gas it's going to keep on crying out for the desires of self well verse seventeen the flesh or the life of the self self-centeredness lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and they're contrary one to another so that you cannot do the things that you would That's a great verse to describe spiritual warfare, isn't it?
Great verse on spiritual warfare. The inner spiritual conflict that rages within the believer. The flesh says, do your own thing. And the new man says, do what God wants. And that little battle goes on in the believer continually. Verse eight, or verse eighteen. if you might be led by the spirit and there's our word led by the spirit you are not under the works of the law the works of the law of course is the merit system what I do for God and you know one of the marks of a spirit-led person is that they're not under the merit system do you know anybody like that possible you may live sometime in your life like that what is a person who is living under the merit system life.
They may be very, very busy. Very busy. You look at them in the church and they're flying from here to there and they're working and they've got a full schedule. It could be very busy. But, you know, we have to be busy for the right reason, don't we? God wants us to be busy because we are led by His Spirit and all of our works are a loving response to His leading. But if we're off doing our own agenda, doing what we want to do, that's the merit system. Oh, look at all that I do for God. If we're led by the Spirit, we're not under the merit system. Now, beginning in verse nineteen through twenty-one, we had that list I spoke to you about about the works of the flesh.
We're going to take a brief look at it, but let me suggest the reason why we want to take a look at it. Of course, we not only want to answer the question, identify. How can we identify what it is that grieves God? Let me suggest that our goal in studying this kind of a list in the Bible is that we want to identify strongholds of the old nature in our daily walk. Now please don't miss that point because it is of the very most importance that we grasp and hold on to that point. By the help of God, through Scripture we want to identify strongholds of the old nature in our daily walk.
Notice the word stronghold. That's a big difference, you know, from the kind of sin that Paul speaks about in Galatians six one. If any man is overtaken. or surprised in a fault. Now, I'm sure that we sin that way as Christians from time to time. We didn't realize that we were going to suddenly get angry. We were going to make, say, an unkind word to someone, or we were going to do something that hurt someone. And we think about it and we say, boy, you know, that wasn't really right. I really shouldn't have done that. I really shouldn't have said that. And it's almost like a surprise. It was a sudden fall.
We hadn't planned it. We didn't premeditate it. We just slipped. And we do it, don't we? And we need to confess to God and confess and say, Lord, I did that and it's not right and I confess it. But I'm not talking about that kind of a thing here. I'm talking about strongholds in the believer's life, a specific area of our life where it seems like the old nature has a grip on us. See, I'm not talking about the occasional slip and fall. I'm talking about a stronghold. Now, it's right here that we may have some real difficulty and I call you to remember the first step that I gave you facing difficult matters.
Because, you know, it's very easy at this point to say, well, there's certainly no strongholds of the enemy in my life. As a Christian, there's no strongholds of evil in my life. Once in a while I might sin, but there's no strongholds of the adversary in my life. Well, if that's true, thank God. Just relax. But let's not just assume it's true. Let's allow the light of the Scripture to search our lives and let's see if that's really true. And that's why we need to look at this list and identify what it is that grieves the Spirit.
So let's look quickly, verse nineteen through twenty-one. I am not going to dwell on these, at least right at this time. I just want to give a little idea of the kinds of things that can be a stronghold in the life of a person. And this list breaks down into four groups. The first one, sexual evil. Verse nineteen, there's three or four of them there. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness. I said three or four because if you have the new translations, it won't break down adultery and fornication. It will just say immorality, kind of a general word that describes both of those.
But either one is fine. Immorality, uncleanness, lasciviousness, sexual evil I suppose for older Christians it's not necessary to dwell on something like that but I could tell you up where I work that would be one that we would have to spend some time on I work among young people and young married people and we can't make assumptions can we there's a great danger in those few words there especially when you remember the words of the Lord Jesus that anyone who looks with lust is guilty of the deed, right?
So it's more than just something we may do with our physical body, it's something that can take place in the mind. Now that may make us perhaps a little more uncomfortable, but our Lord is very clear on that point. So the first part of that list, sexual evil. And then next we have a couple of items that I would call spiritual evil. Let's look at them. Verse twenty, idolatry and sorcery, spiritual evil. Idolatry means having anything in one's life that has a higher place on our heart than God.
That is a big danger in twentieth century America. We get the idea that if we're not bowing down to some stick or stone in the backyard, we're not an idol worshiper. Many people worship what they drive or where they live, don't they? Or their reputation or their fame or fortune or something else. What do you lie awake at night and meditate on? That's a good test, isn't it? Idolatry. And then the other one, sorcery. The word in Greek is pharmakia, from which we get our English word, pharmacy.
And I've heard people say that this covers the matter of drug abuse. And you know, that's true. That's true. Scripture does speak to the matter of what we call drug abuse, pharmakia. Someone might ask, how do you get sorcery and drug abuse out of the same word? Listen to the definition of pharmakia, sorcery. Magical arts, which include potions to amaze and control. Isn't that interesting? Magical arts, that's what they did back then, the sorcerers.
They indulged in magical arts and they used chemical potions which were calculated to amaze people and control them. Now, you know what happens when people take drugs. They go under the control of something other than the spirit. They're controlled by some chemical substance. You know, we have a great national calamity today in this matter of drug abuse. And can it extend to Christians? certainly can you have to be very very careful spiritual evil thirdly evil attitudes now there are eight of these altogether and may I just suggest here because I see our time is about gone but may I just suggest that attitudes are the area where perhaps we as Christians today, here at a place like Park of the Palms, might be most vulnerable to grieve the Spirit in our attitudes.
Well, a little bit more of that later on. Number four, evil conduct, three very gross manifestations of sin, murder, drunkenness, orgies or wild carousing and parties and so forth. Now, those categories, those areas, are a good guideline of what it is in the life of a person that can grieve the Holy Spirit. And that helps us identify what it is that we not only need to confess, but that may need to be mortified if it's a stronghold in our life.
So the first step is identify, and then very quickly, the second step, and there's only two steps. One is identify, the other is, given to us in verse twenty four, crucify. Let's look at it. They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. What does it mean to crucify the flesh? How are we going to do that? What is it that God wants us to do? to crucify the flesh now theologians will tell us there's a sense in which that's already been done we just reckon it to be true the flesh was crucified but you and I are ordinary regular everyday kind of people and we want some instructions what does God expect of me in this well remember in Romans eight where where Paul said through the spirit that we are to mortify the deeds of the body first thing we have to do is of course the first thing we have to identify what is the sin what is their stronghold in my life I have to name it I have to bring it to God and say Lord through the scripture I have identified the fact that this particular sin is a stronghold in my life if I could get victory in this sin I could be a more effective Christian I
could live a better life and fellowship with God day to day so we have to identify but then we have to be willing to admit we cannot mortify anything in our own strength can we that's why he says through the spirit I must understand that it is only as I rely on the power of God the Holy Spirit of my life I'm going to have victory in that matter good but then you notice Paul's use of the word crucify let me close with that little word back in the days of the Romans when our Lord was crucified, crucifixion was not so much a form of execution as it was a form of torture.
Now eventually the person died hanging there on a cross. Eventually death occurred. But if all they had wanted to effect was to just have the person die, they could have cut their head off, had it over very quickly. You see, the goal was to take a person who was a thief or a robber or a murderer or some kind of other crime and put them on a cross and drive in the nails and have them there in a place where they were alive but inactive, unable to commit any crime, there for public spectacle. And Paul uses that word and he says, that's what we're to do with the deeds of the body.
Now, will it mean suffering? absolutely the flesh will cry and squeal and complain it will mean suffering we will only follow through with it if we depend upon the Holy Spirit's power to give us the strength to do it but if I can make a mental picture for you just picture that cross and there we're going to place that deed of the body whatever it is that unkind word that keeps cropping up that unkind attitude whatever it is that we know and scripture has shined the light on it it dishonors God and it hinders our witness we're going to put it there and put those nails in it and crucify it now we're not going to be able to put it to death in other words in the sense of get rid of it because as long as we live the flesh will be alive but we're going to put it in a place of inactivity and that's the point we're going to put it there on the cross through the power of the Holy Spirit and it's not going to be able to come down and trouble us.
Isn't that great? Now we need to understand that that's why the word crucify is used there. So let me summarize. How do we put to death the deeds of the body? First of all, identify them. Know what they are. Secondly, through the Holy Spirit's power, crucify. Lord, with your help, I am going to put that or you're going to put that in a place of inactivity. We're going to put the nails in that, even though it cries out, even though it causes me to suffer, I'm not going to yield. And God, on the authority of Scripture, I'm calling upon you to help me and give me the strength. So I'm going to have victory over that in my life.
That's the heritage of the child of God. And oh, I think it pleases God when he sees victory over sin in the life of his people. Not only the evil, gross things that we read about in the newspaper, but the attitudes, the little words of unkindness that trouble our relationships so. Victory in those areas. God loves that. Let's pray. Father, again we thank thee for thy marvelous grace to us. In giving us the Holy Spirit who comes and takes up residence within our bodies. We ask this morning that wherever in our congregation here this morning, any one of thy saints through honesty and truthfulness confronts an area of stronghold of the adversary in their life, we ask that through the Holy Spirit they may be willing through His power to have victory in their life over that sin or whatever it is that might grieve thee and hinder their witness.
Lord, we thank thee for thy power in our lives, and we ask that our lives might reflect our Lord Jesus Christ and bring glory to him as all men shall see that we have truly been with him. We commit ourselves to thee for this day now in his most worthy name. Amen.