Finding Purpose-Romans with Russ Andrews episode 13

Hi, I'm Joanne Vickner, Memaw with It's Storytime Memaw, an answered prayer for stories that point children to God on the Truth Network for kids. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. Do you feel like Christianity is just a system of rules and regulations?

I can do this, but I can't do that. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. Good evening. It's great to see so many of you here tonight. And I'm just thankful to be here myself. And I'm looking forward to looking at Romans eight with you. But before we do that, let's open our heads to pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just come before tonight thankful for this evening. Thank you for Stefan and his leading us in worship. And Lord, we thank you for giving us the word. Thank you, Lord, for the incredible words that are written in Romans chapter eight and how much joy and hope they give us. And Lord, it's my prayer tonight that if there are some men here tonight who still are struggling with some of these sins that we get entangled with, these besetting sins, that they will learn tonight that they have a power within them that can set them free. We all have this power in us if we believe in you, Lord, and we thank you for this power. And so, Lord, now I pray that I would decrease, that you might increase, that the men might see you, not me, and Lord, that you would be glorified through this word.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, so tonight we're in Romans chapter eight. We're going to look at the first 17 verses, and so I invite you to turn your Bible to Romans eight. In John MacArthur's commentary on this very chapter, Romans chapter eight, he writes, listen carefully, although the Bible is a book offering the good news of salvation from sin, it is also a book that presents the bad news of condemnation for sin.

No single book or collection of writings on earth proclaims so completely and vividly the total desperate situation of a man apart from God. In John 3.18, Jesus says, whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. So here's the question, what does it mean to be under God's condemnation?

Well, I want you to understand what this word means. The word condemnation, which by the way is this word, the Greek word, is only found here in Romans chapter eight, no other place in the Bible. It's mentioned twice in Romans eight, and it means it refers to the punishment that follows judgment. It's the judgment, but it's also the punishment. Condemnation means, number one, to declare a man guilty and then to inflict a penalty or punishment upon that man. And so it's important that we all understand that this word condemnation here in Romans chapter eight refers to eternal condemnation, and this is what is at stake for every human being, every one of our friends who are not in Christ, who refuse God's grace and mercy, who reject the gospel. They are under God's condemnation. MacArthur says the unbeliever's destiny is the second death, the lake of fire, judgment without mercy, pain without remission. The lost will be in a place of outer darkness, Jesus said, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is what is meant by this word condemnation. John was on the island of Patmos, which is in the GNC, and I've had the privilege of going there.

It's a real island. Let's not pretend. He was actually given a vision by the Lord himself of the coming great white throne judgment that we read about in Revelation chapter 20. You see, one day, perhaps in the very near future, every single unbeliever, those who are not in Christ, will stand before this throne and face who?

Jesus Christ. God has appointed all judgment to his Son. Jesus will be the judge. And so every unbeliever one day is going to bow before Jesus in their just waiting condemnation. And here's how John describes his view of this coming great white throne judgment. Revelation 20 verse 11. John says, then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.

There's no place to hide. And I saw the dead. Who were the dead? Unbelievers.

Christians are what? Alive. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead, that is, unbelievers, were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them.

And each person was judged according to what they had done. Then it says death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

Anyone's name who is now not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. Now I want to tell you why I'm sharing this with you. I'm not sharing this with you to make you afraid unless you need to be afraid. If you need to be afraid, then this is the best thing I can do, is tell you what's coming.

So that you can do something about it while you still have time. But I want to share this with you because I want you to be aware of what awaits many of our friends. They're one day going to have to stand who have rejected Christ.

They're one day going to have to stand before this great white throne judgment to be condemned. And so what should we be doing for our friends? Pray for them, and what else? Share the gospel with them.

Are you doing this? If you had the cure for cancer, would you share it? We have something greater than the cure for cancer. We have the cure for the soul. It's called the gospel.

Last week, and by the night we're going to look at Romans 8 tonight, the first 17 verses. I've entitled this message, The Power Within. The Power Within. Now last week we looked at Romans 7, and we learned about Paul's ongoing struggle with sin, which caused him to cry out, What a wretched man am I.

Who will rescue me from this body of death? And then he gave the answer. He says, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So who gives us the victory?

Jesus. We can have victory over sin then because of the power that resides within each one of us if we're in Christ. And that's the subject of Romans 8. Romans 8 is all about the power that resides within the believer.

And so tonight I want to answer three questions. Number one, what is the believer's legal status before God? Number two, what or who is the believer's source of power?

And number three, what is the believer's relationship with God? So let's look at verses 1 through 4. Paul begins with the word therefore, and what's he pointing back to?

The first seven chapters. So when you come to Romans 8 verse 1, he says, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he, that is the Father, condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to who?

The Spirit. So what is the believer's legal status before God? Well Paul tells us right here in verse 1. And by the way, Romans 8, 1 is considered the most hopeful verse in the entire Bible. Why? Because it says that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Did you hear that? No condemnation. In other words, believers do not have to fear death. The sting of death is removed. We don't have to fear the coming judgment. We don't have to fear the great white throne judgment.

Why? Because believers never stand there. We might be observers but we will not be in that line waiting to be condemned.

Why is this? Because our sins have already been judged. We've already faced judgment through Jesus' death on the cross and therefore God has declared us righteous.

Thus our legal status before God is simply this, not guilty. Now you would think that if people really understood the gospel, that they could come to Christ and be declared not guilty for all their sins, that they would come rushing to Jesus. But they don't. They refuse to come to Jesus.

Why is this? Well there are several reasons but I think the most important reason or the most significant reason is because they are spiritually blind. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. You see when they hear the gospel, they are totally blind to what it promises and the more believers reject the gospel, the more they hear it and refuse to accept God's grace, the more hard their hearts become, the more they continue in sin and the more blind they become. Men, verse 1, should give every man in here tonight who is in Christ great hope and joy and peace.

Why is that? Because we will never face condemnation. Someone said that God sent His Son to save us from our sins but He also sent us to save us from Himself, His wrath. Now look at verse 2. Those who are in Christ, that is who have been united to Him in His death and resurrection, have been, to catch this, set free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life. So what does Paul mean by the law of sin and death? Well he's pointing back to Romans 6 23 which kind of gives you what the law of sin and death is and that is the wages of sin is what? Death. So here is the definition of the law of sin. Sin always leads to death.

What kind of death? Well for the unbeliever it leads to spiritual death in the here and now but it also leads to eternal death after the judgment. In verse 3, Paul reminds us again that the law cannot save a man because no man can keep it perfectly and yet men, this is what religious people cling to. They actually see themselves as good people.

Why is that? Because they compare themselves to others and not to Jesus Christ and His perfect righteousness. They see themselves as good people because they actually believe that they are obedient. They remain blind. Do you know why? Because one of the characteristics of sin is that it blinds a man.

So let me ask something to men. Who sets us free from sin and death? The Holy Spirit. That's what Paul mentioned when he says the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit actually gives life to the believer.

Life now, Jesus referred to it as the abundant life and eternal life to come. The believer has been set free from sin's control and from sin's ultimate penalty which is eternal death and hell. And guys, I want you to understand this because I know that some of you are still struggling with certain sins like pornography or alcohol or drugs or something else. God can set you free from it.

Do you believe that? Well, that's what these first 17 verses are about and I'm going to get more into that later. So how was all this freedom from sin and sin's control accomplished?

Well, it was accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross. You see, God knew before he created the world that when he gave us the Ten Commandments, the law, we would never be to keep them. And so he had another plan in mind. It was always plan A.

It wasn't plan B. Plan A was that he was going to send his only son into the world in the appearance of a man to be a what? A sin offering. The sacrifice of atonement in Romans 3.25. Jesus came and he lived a perfect life among us and then he was, as you know, arrested.

He was tried. He was sentenced to death by crucifixion. And then he was led outside the city up a hill where he was nailed to a cross and on that cross he took upon himself, man, your sins and my sins. He became sin in our place.

Can you believe that? Well, don't think about it, but all the vile things that we have done in this room and the whole world were dumped on him. That's the moment that Jesus dreaded most. Not the physical torture, but what was going to happen to him as this perfect sacrifice that his holiness would be tarnished by our imputed sinfulness upon him. 2 Corinthians 5.21 puts it clearly.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Do you know what Jesus dreaded so much? He dreaded the moment when he would take upon himself the filthy sins of the world and his heavenly Father would pour his wrath out on him. And this is why Paul writes right here in Romans 8. And so he, that is God, condemned sin in the flesh.

The Father condemned his Son. This is what the gospel is all about. Jesus died in our place and absorbing God's wrath for us. You've got to love Isaiah 53.

I wish I had time to read all of it too, but I'm just going to read verse 5. You see, the prophet Isaiah was looking into the future at this coming anointed one who would die for the sins of the world. And he said, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

Do you know what really happened at the cross? A great exchange took place. Our filthy sins were transferred to him and his pure righteousness was transferred to us. Isaiah puts it like this, I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.

That's the greatest news in the world. You see, when God looks down through the cross and the fact that you stand, this is what we sing about, you know, come thy fount. What's the name of him? He's gone.

What's the name of him we're just saying? There's a fountain filled with blood that washes all of our stains away. When God looks down at the cross and sees that we've come underneath the blood of Christ by faith, he sees you and me, if we're in Christ, as pure and holy and righteous.

In spite of all the things you've done, all the things you've looked at, he wipes it all away. And this is why we should rejoice. Therefore, men, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Let me ask you a very important question. Do you know beyond a shadow of doubt that you are in Christ and that Christ is in you?

I hope the answer is yes. Now let's look at the second question. What or who is the believer's source of power? Well, look at verses 5 through 11. Paul continues, Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind controlled by the flesh is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind controlled by the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are controlled by the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not controlled by the flesh but by the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your Spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives where?

In you. I don't know if you all noticed this, but I counted. The words mind and control are mentioned five times in the first five verses.

Why do you think that is? Because they're so crucial to the point Paul's trying to make. The Greek word for the word mind is proneo, which, by the way, it can just as easily be translated heart. And so when you see the words mind and heart in the Bible, typically they can be interchanged.

And I want you to remember this always. The heart includes your mind, your will, and your emotions. It is there in your inner being, in your heart, where your values are formed.

And it's your values that determine how you're going to act. And so here's the question that we all need to answer. And I want you to think about this tonight for yourself. Who or what is in control of your mind? Have you ever thought about that?

You see, the mind is where the battle rages. And as believers, men, we have a choice. Remember Moses said before the Israelites, life or death, blessings or curses. And then he said, now choose life. Well, this is the choice we have. Every day when we get up, we can either choose life or death. Non-believers don't have that choice.

Do you know why? Because they don't have the spirit in them. All they have is their sinful nature. The only choice they have is how are they going to sin. Because they are going to sin. But we have a choice. We have a choice as to what or who has control of our minds. The flesh or the spirit. In verses 5 through 8, Paul gives, I want you to see this, but a warning and a promise.

And here's the warning. He says if your heart is controlled by your sinful desires, that is your flesh, then your heart will be hostile towards God because you're not submitting to his laws and you're not pleasing God in the way you live. Moreover, you will feel spiritually dead. Now right here, I believe he's primarily talking to unbelievers. They are hostile to God. They can't submit to God. And they don't please God. And they're going to face eternal death. But if a Christian is being controlled by the flesh and not his spirit, he's not yielding to the spirit, he's yielding to the flesh, his actions are going to be hostile to God because he's not submitting to God's laws and what he's doing is not pleasing to God, and he's going to feel like he's dead even though he can never lose his salvation.

Are you with me? But here's the promise. If on the other hand, you surrender your heart to the Holy Spirit, every day when you get up in the morning, you say, Lord, I want to surrender my heart to you, my mind and my thoughts, then guess what? The Holy Spirit is going to help you with your thought life. And he's going to give you the power, men, to resist temptation. And you will be alive spiritually.

And men, this is the greatest news, you'll experience what everybody in the world is searching for. Peace and joy and hope. I want you to understand, men, that living a holy life begins with your thought life.

The great battle taking place for the control of your mind. It will be won only to the degree that you are yielded to the Holy Spirit. But men, you first must have the Holy Spirit in you. If you don't have the Holy Spirit in you, then guess what? You don't belong to Christ. That means you're not a Christian. You see, a Christian is simply a man who's indwelt by who? The Holy Spirit.

It's really that simple. The technical definition of a Christian is a man or woman who's indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I want you to notice this little word in.

I am. This really should be a big word. It's used four times in verses 9 through 11. And by the way, Paul uses it over 30 times in the book of Ephesians. He says either in him or in Christ.

Why is this little word so important? Because the Holy Spirit has got to be in you in order for you to belong to God. If God doesn't see His Spirit in you, then when you stand before the Lord one day, He's going to say, depart from me. You see, it doesn't matter how many times you attend church. It doesn't matter if you claim to be a Christian. It doesn't matter how many times you recited the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. I mean, it doesn't matter how moral your life is.

The only thing that matters is this. Does the Holy Spirit live in you? If He does, by the way, notice I said it's not an it, it's a He. He is a person. He's a Spirit.

He's also a person. If He indwells you, then you are a child of God and your eternal destiny in heaven is safe and secure in God's hands. Isn't that great news?

It's a game changer. Look at verse 11. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, notice how many times He says in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit who lives where? In you. So let me ask you men, who raised Jesus from the dead?

Bingo. The Holy Spirit. Did you know that the Holy Spirit was also involved in creation?

The spirits hovered above the waters. So how much power does it take to create the world? And how much power does it take to raise a man from the dead?

It's like dynamite. That's the power that lives in you. The same power that created the world. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That power lives in you because the Holy Spirit is in you if you place your trust in Jesus. In Acts chapter 1 verse 8 Jesus said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. This is why these disciples went from being afraid of the soldiers and ran and fled to being willing to die for Jesus. Because they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And now they had this power in them who gave them courage and the will to stand up against the world. You see men, the only way that we can live the Christian life is by God's power. And I wish I had understood this when I was in college.

I lived totally different. You see the men, it's the Spirit who will help you to obey God's laws. And then as you obey God's laws you will become more and more holy. Holy doesn't mean you go live in a cave like a monk. Holy simply means that you've been set apart from God.

He needs to work in your life to transform you into the man that he created you to be. A holy man. A righteous man. And guys it's holiness that brings, I hate to say this word, happiness. But by happiness I mean joy. A holy life is a life of joy. So men remember every day when you get up that God puts before you life and death. We can live according to the flesh and experience death or we can live according to the Spirit and experience life.

Such is life. Now let's look at the third question. And this is the best part. What is the believer's relationship with God? We'll look at verses 12 through 17. Therefore brothers, we have an obligation but it is not to the flesh to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live. Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption as sons. And by Him we cry what? Abba Father.

Don't you love that? And then it says in verse 16, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we're God's children. Now if we are children then we are heirs.

Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in what? His sufferings in order that we may one day share in His what?

Glory. Now I want you to understand this. As believers we no longer have an obligation to live according to the flesh. Now why is this? Well one reason is think about all that the flesh did for you.

It didn't do many good things did it? Well the second reason is because the flesh is no longer our master. Remember we've learned in Romans 6 and 7 that we died to sin and that we're no longer under law. We have a new master. Who is the new master? Yeah, the Holy Spirit who lives in you.

He's your new master. And think of what the Holy Spirit has done for us. He convicted of our sin which drove us where?

To the cross. And He now lives in us and He gives us the power to resist sin and also He gives us the power to put our sinful habits to death, to kill them. He comforts us during our difficulties. He reveals the truth of God's Word to us so that we may live for God and please Christ. He's our counselor and gives us wisdom. He's our God and He leads us in our pursuit of holiness. And finally He's our seal and He is our deposit in us who is guaranteeing our salvation and our coming inheritance. And this is why we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit. We owe God. We're in debt to Him.

It's a debt we can never repay. But we have an obligation to live according to the Spirit. In His book, The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I recommend everybody read it.

It's a classic. In there He writes, be killing sin or sin will what? Be killing you. Be killing sin, men, or sin is going to kill you. He goes on to say we need to employ the Holy Spirit and our new nature. It's not all up to the Holy Spirit. We've got to be willing. We need to employ the Holy Spirit and our new nature in this battle for our souls. Now unfortunately I don't have a lot of time tonight to go into all the things that we could do, practical things that we could do to kill sin.

But let me just share a few practical habits that we all need to have in place. And now remember the battle is taking place where? In your mind, your thought life. And so with the Spirit's help, we need to change how we think.

I've talked to a number of mature Christian friends of mine that I'm close to. We share things that we struggle with. And we have shared with each other that we, I'll never say never, but we have this, the problem with our eyes hopefully licked. Never say never, okay? Because you don't want to think you're there.

Paul said I'm not there, but I'm pressing on. But it's the mind where we still struggle. Sometimes we just cannot keep those thoughts from entering our mind.

I mean you could be praying, Lord, help me not to remember certain things, and all of a sudden those things come to mind, just like that. You ever dealt with that? So how do we deal with that? Well Colossians 3, 1 and 2 gives us some great advice. Paul says since we have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So here are three practical actions that I've personally taken, and you need to take them.

Number one, you ready? Don't let anything sinful enter your mind. If that's hard to do in our culture, is it not? You can walk by a magazine rack at the grocery store checking out, and there's something there you probably shouldn't be looking at. So men, we need to protect our minds from what we look at. Don't view anything on television, on your computer, or your cell phone that causes your mind to be filled with lustful images and lingering thoughts.

Why is that? Well first of all, it causes lust, which is what? A sin. Jesus compared it to adultery. But also because what you put into your minds, it lingers there, and you will continue to think about what you saw, and at some point you will act out on it, and you will be accompanied by guilt and shame. And so don't let anything sinful enter your mind. If you have trouble with your cell phone, get you a flip top.

Do they still make those? Jesus said, cut your eye out if it causes you to sin. In other words, take drastic measures with sin. Use your mind. Put up defenses. Secondly, that's sort of the negative thing to do.

Here's the positive. Fill your mind with holy things. So how do we do this? Well, it begins by reading God's Word every day, and don't miss a single day.

You guys don't miss it. This is a treasure trove. This is God's mind. It tells you what to do and what not to do. And the more you read God's Word, the more you're impressing into your mind and your heart the things of God so that you actually begin to think like God, and you'll begin to change the way you think. Third, pray always.

All throughout the day. I think I've told you I've got this prayer journal. I've got two parts of my office. In the outer office, I've got a couch, and I've just placed that prayer journal on the couch.

Why do you think I put it there? What do I have to walk by every day to get to my desk? That couch. What's sitting on that desk?

I mean, that couch. My prayer journal. What's it reminding me to do? Pray. And I've made a vow as long as I'm in Raleigh, I'm going to go to my office every day, and I'm going to kneel not before the journal, but I'm going to kneel down in front of that journal before the Lord, and I'm going to pray. You know what the Bible says about the prayer of a righteous man?

It's powerful and effective. The most powerful thing you can do in this life is pray. Remember, the Holy Spirit is your source of power. So ask the Holy Spirit every morning to help you with your thought life. And the last, and most importantly, I'm almost done, those who are led by the Spirit are adopted sons of God, and this is the greatest title, man, that can ever be conferred upon you, that you actually become God's son.

Think about that. He's your Heavenly Father, and He calls you His son. Jesus becomes your older brother. Sinclair Ferguson said, Our sonship to God is the apex of creation and the goal of redemption. He redeemed us men so that we could be His sons.

When does this happen? When you're first indwelt by the Holy Spirit, you're adopted into God's family, and at that moment you become a son of God. And then as God's sons, we can crowd Abba Father. That word Abba is a very intimate term, which I'm not sure Daddy's the right word, but it's very intimate. It implies a very intimate relationship with God, very personal. Abba, Father.

In Roman culture, I don't know if you know this, but Paul had the Roman culture in mind when he wrote this. An adopted son had the same privileges as a natural born son. In fact, many times greater privileges, because if the father didn't like his older son or one of his sons, he'd go and adopt one, and he'd give him the biggest share of the estate. John MacArthur says that because of its obvious great importance, the process of Roman adoption involved several carefully prescribed legal procedures. The first step, and think about your spiritual life, the first step totally severed the boy's legal and social relationship to his natural family.

It was just severed. And the second step placed him permanently into his new family. In addition to all that, all of his previous debts and obligations were totally eradicated, as if they'd never existed. Is that what God did for us? He said if you're in Christ, you're God's son. You belong to God's family. All your sins have been forgiven, past, present, and future. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who will give you the power to live a more holy life. The Holy Spirit will confirm in your heart that you truly belong to him, and then you can sing that to him, blessed assurance, because once you're God's son, he can never disown you.

Those the father's placing in my hand, no one can snatch them away. It's called the assurance of salvation. And as God's son, man, we have continual access to the father. We can come to him with any need, any concern, any problem, any time of day. And as a son of God, if you walk closely with Christ, you're going to share in his sufferings, which means one day you're going to share in what? His glory. Finally, as a son of God, you are an heir of God and a co-heir with Christ. And what does this mean?

I don't really know, but it sounds pretty good. Pretty much everything that Christ is heir to, we are also heir to. And one day we will understand it. Man, God has put before us life or death. If by the spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body, we will live. And we will begin to experience, man, what it means by the abundant life, joy, peace, and contentment.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the way it changes us. And, Lord, thank you for fulfilling us with your Holy Spirit, that we might have this power source within us so that we can put to death the misdeeds of the body and turn away from temptation. And, Lord, pray for these men that you will set them free from any besetting sins. In the name of Jesus, I pray this. Amen.

Okay, God, see you next week. Being a Christian is not about being religious, but about having a dynamic, alive relationship with Jesus Christ. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Pastor Russ Andrews, glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living. You can discover more about finding your purpose in life by checking out the resources at findingpurpose.net or connect to Finding Purpose on Facebook. Pastor Russ would also like to extend a special invitation for you to join him and over 300 other local men to study God's Word together every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in downtown Raleigh. Find out more at findingpurpose.net.