Sunday Morning Worship Service

get your bibles we're going to go to romans chapter number eight and as you're turning there allow me to give honor to all of our leadership our bishop our pastor pastor anthony won't you give our leadership a great big hand today we love and honor them this morning i love them i had the opportunity friday night i drove to mississippi on thursday and preached friday night it's been a while since i had preached myself horse and i did and so i'm just a little bit on the scratchy side and so i hope you'll bear with me a little bit this morning uh it's uh you can tell you're starting to get a little bit older can't do the things you think you used to be able to do get up without an ache or a pain i'm like what in the world has happened it's like you're just when you walk into 40s it's just like oh yeah it's all over yeah energy zapped yeah you want to take a nap go right ahead it's here you can just close your eyes and you're not here i'm a napper now i'm just and then you try to preach a little bit your voice goes out and you just kind of live on coffee and just to make it i didn't know why mom and dad just drink coffee all the time all day long bishop mccool drinks coffee all day long and was like i get it now i get it you know you can't preach without losing your voice and so i hope you'll bear with me but i do feel like the lord's given me something for us today and i i pray that you'll help me and hear the word of the lord romans chapter number eight beginning at verse number nine but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of god dwells in you now if any man have not the spirit of christ he is none of his if christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness but if the spirit of him that raised up jesus from the dead dwells in you he that raised up christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwells in you therefore brethren look at this we are debtors but not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if you live after the flesh you shall die but if through the spirit you do mortify the deeds of the fl of the body ye shall live here's my text this morning four as many as are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god look at this look what paul does here he's been using comparison and contrast he's contrasting two things the flesh and the spirit living after the flesh living after the spirit he does it again here in this text for we have not received the spirit of bondage again someone say the bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry abba father we have not received the spirit of bondage but have received the spirit of adoption this morning i want to preach to you with your help and the help of the holy ghost the spirits of bondage and adoption the spirits of bondage and adoption won't you help me pray one more time today father we thank you for your word we thank you for your spirit lord we thank you for the time that we have been able to be in your presence during worship but here now god we worship you in the word and i pray that the word of god would be a hammer it would be a sword it would be a light it would be a fire to whoever it needs to be god let your word meet them in the context of their situation but i pray that you would help us to leave here changed by your spirit in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen won't you clap your hands again unto the lord today the spirits of bondage and adoption romans the book of romans is a deep deep book and though weighty the apostle paul has a systematic argument from beginning to end paul's thesis is the gospel of jesus christ which is the power of god that brings salvation to everyone the righteousness of god has been revealed through jesus and therefore the righteous are to live by faith paul begins his his letter and his argument stating this that god's judgment is upon the gentiles whose ignorance of god has brought god's judgment next he levies accusation against jews who have rejected god through their disobedience gentiles have been ignorant of god's laws but have broken them through their rejection of their conscience warning and the jews on the other hand knew god's law but broke it anyway this makes all of humanity jew and gentile under the bondage of sin the law of god paul argues is perfect and good but the law of god cannot save it only reveals sins bondage to us paul said i loved the law but the law only revealed my sinfulness and so there's something better than the law actually there's someone better than the law and that is jesus christ and so he comes through the seed of abraham in chapter number four of romans he has come through the seat of abraham who precedes the law and so abraham is a figure of a life of faith and he was counted as righteous because of his faith and likewise brothers and sisters we are given the righteousness of christ through faith therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with god and through our lord jesus christ for while we were yet powerless in chapter 5 and hopeless jesus died for the ungodly we have been reconciled and we have been justified through faith in jesus christ and so paul asked this question in chapter six and i'm not gonna preach through all of romans today but i'm gonna show you where we're going when we bump into romans 8 15. so in chapter six paul asked a rhetorical question shall we continue in sin because grace abounds the answer is in the affirmative of no no we are not to continue in sin because we have grace because whoever yields himself to sin becomes a slave to sin you see what he's saying here he's saying if you yield yourself to something you become a servant or a slave to that thing and we have not been freed from sin to remain under the bondage of sin paul says we are not to yield ourselves as instruments to unrighteousness for sin shall not have dominion over you he says know you not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether to sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness and so he says christ didn't come to make you a slave or to keep you as a slave to sin he has freed you from sin to make you a slave to righteousness there's only one thing that we are to be enslaved to and that is god's righteousness we are to be enslaved to holiness we are to be enslaved to godliness we are to be enslaved to the high calling of god in christ jesus that's what he has called us out of sin to do we are to yield our ourselves we are to give ourselves unto righteousness that's what christ has done for us through his life death burial and resurrection it was for our purpose to be enslaved to righteousness everything or every decision we make is to be in subjection to righteousness everything that we do is to be into subjection to righteousness and godliness and holiness he came to set us free from sin he did not come to give us the freedom to sin there's a difference there's a difference he came to free us from sin not to give us freedom to sin that's what his argument is he says shall we just continue in sin because of grace god forbid grace is not our free ticket to worldliness or carnal living because you cannot serve two masters you cannot be a servant of righteousness and a servant to unrighteousness you cannot be a servant to holiness and a servant to sin you cannot be a servant to godliness and a servant to carnality for james writes a double-minded man is unstable so you can't be you can't be enslaved to holiness on sunday and be enslaved to unrighteousness on monday you can't be free while you're here for an hour and a half on sunday morning and then go and do whatever you want six days the rest of the week either you are a slave to righteousness or you are a slave to unrighteousness because a man cannot serve two masters oh jesus help me right now the issue at hand is that despite our freedom we are left with this body paul says in chapter seven we are sold under sin we are subject to this life of sin it is within us it is in us though we can be forgiven of our sins we are not freed from the sinful humanity the only day that you will be free from the sinful humanity is at death of this mortal body so we constantly wrestle between wanting to do righteous or to do unrighteous things listen to what paul says here it's a tongue twister in romans chapter number seven for that which i do i allow not for what i would that do i not but what i hate that do i if then i do that which i would not i consent unto the law that is it that is good now then it is no more i that do it but sin that dwells in me for i know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good i find not for the good that i would i do not but the evil which i would not that i do do you see what he's saying i want to live according to god's laws and righteousness but i'm left with this human body that says i don't think so let's just do whatever we want to do today and paul says it's a constant wrestling within us can i tell you right now the devil is not your number one enemy the devil is not your number one enemy your number one enemy and my number one enemy is the dude i look at every morning in the mirror it's me i know the enemy and it is me it is sin that dwells in me i know that i should do good and i desire to do good but i'm left with this weakness are you hearing me this morning there's something within us that wants to do the things contrary to righteousness and so we have to fight against him the devil is not going to give you a bad day we give the devil way too much credit for our bad decisions i didn't you did you didn't hear me over here we give the devil a lot of credit for our bad decisions i remember one time i got in trouble at daycare mom picked me up and uh i sat in the back and she said why did you do what you did i can't remember what i did why did i just remember the conversation why did you do that and i said it was like five i was like the devil made me do it and she said well the devil's not going to get the spanking today guess who did this joker who caused all the trouble it was me and can i tell you the devil's not your enemy it's us the thing that we want to do we don't do and the things that we don't want to do we end up doing because there is a and paul says who will deliver me from this body of death who will deliver me from this and here's what he says here let me just go back to romans 7. i didn't give this to brother derek and i apologize i find then a law that when i would do good evil is present with me for i delight in the law of god after the inward man but i see another law in my members warring against the law look at this of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members o wretched man that i am who shall deliver me from the body of this death i thank god through jesus christ our lord now look at this so then with the mind i myself serve the law of god and so he says it begins in my thinking it i want to do good my will wants to do good but the battle begins in my mind the issue is a lot of us succumb to the temptation of our bodies and our flesh is because we constantly fill our brains with junk we listen to the wrong people we watch the wrong stuff we read the wrong things and we fill our minds with carnality and worldliness and we wonder why we can't make the right decisions it's in our it begins there we need to be delivered from our stinking thinking if you're going to serve god you're going to have to put it listen he changes our hearts when we receive the holy ghost but paul says in the same book that we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds so while god changes our heart it is up to us to change our minds and you come in here and you go oh i feel it oh i feel it and you go out there and you're met with the same bad thoughts carnal thoughts worldly thoughts lustful thoughts you see your emotions feel him but your brain is still checked out i'm afraid of pentecost we have left our brains in our cars when we come in here we love to shout but we don't like to think but let this mind be in you that was also in christ jesus he comes to sanctify the whole man to change the whole man from your mind all the way to your feet if you're going to change the way you're walking change the way you're thinking you move in the direction of your of your strongest thoughts your feet your path follow your strongest thoughts wherever your thoughts are that's where you'll end up going it begins in your mind there's something inside of you that wants to serve christ under you want to bring your whole life under enslavement of righteousness but you feel like you just can't and so when we get to our text in chapter number eight paul contrasts the spirit of bondage with that of adoption he says for we have not received the spirit of bondage again all right that's a little word there we go we can overlook easily we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry abba father many are bound to things because you live in fear you're bound to bad relationships because you fear being alone ugly spirit girls and down and out dudes that's all you want to attract because you didn't matter as long as i'm not alone and you're bound to be bad relationships because you fear being alone too many are bound to lust and chemicals and alcohol and all kinds of things putting you in your body because they fear they'll never have pleasure in their life but in his presence there is fullness of joy and pleasures not just on sunday not just on wednesday not just a camp meeting but there's in his presence there's fullness of joy and pleasures forever more if you want some pleasure in your life get in his presence learn to give the word of god i wish somebody was hearing me right now [Applause] too many are bound to agree because they fear they'll never have what their parents didn't you didn't hear me too many are bound to greed because they fear they'll never have what their parents didn't and then there are those who are bound to sin and it is fear of missing eternal life it is f you can't sleep at night you can't get any rest in your spirit you're just you just know i'm not gonna make it i don't know where i'm gonna go but i know i'm not gonna make it it's fear of living in eternal darkness in eternal flames it's not that you don't want to be free it's that you've not completely given yourself over to christ and you're bound you're bound to things you are enslaved to things you want freedom you just don't know how to get completely free let me give you let me give you an example the book of ezra is a great great book in the old testament about 80 years after the first exiles israel and judah had been exiled from jerusalem and all the the country of israel taken into babylonian captivity and the babylonians were overthrown by the persians and so after a time about 80 years after the first exiles had returned to judah ezra the scribe secured permission from the persian king to lead a second and smaller band of exiles back to jerusalem it's about 485 bc and ezra's purpose for returning to jerusalem was to carry out spiritual and religious reforms he wants to stir up revival in god's people they're finally coming back but he's afraid that they're susceptible to going back to the old way to the very things that got them kicked out of the land of israel in the first place revival and reformation were desperately needed because of the people's wickedness and after coming back about five months after this ezra began to sense a deep need for a further revival he obviously had begun a teaching ministry among the people once they had arrived instructing them in the word of god and a spirit of conviction struck the hearts of some but there were those who were still living double lives they were going back to the behaviors that got them removed from the land of israel in the first place they were engaging in the detestable immoral and wicked behavior of unbelievers following their evil lifestyle going back to idolatry they become uh it began to enter marriage with the canaanites and hittites and persecites and jebusites and ammonites and moabites and so ezra begins to pray to the lord and he says this at the conclusion of his prayer and now for a little space grace hath been showed from the lord our god to leave us a remnant to escape and to give us a nail in his holy place that our god might lighten our eyes and look at this and give us a little reviving in our bondage just a little space for grace just a little it's a little space for grace the people of judah were sort of free but they weren't completely free they were kind of free sort of free they were back in jerusalem but they weren't free it was a short-lived freedom they're living in god's promised land but they're still under the authority of persian and then they bring themselves back under bondage to idolatry and rebellion and carnality and i always want you to hear me for a few moments i promise i'll end quick i believe there are some who have a little space for grace and too much space for worldliness [Applause] they have a little space for grace and too much space for lust they have a little space for grace and too much space for sports fishing hunting and entertainment they have a little space for grace and too much space for social media and all this leads to is just a little reviving in our bondage oh i'm coming on sunday they're gonna sing all in his hands and i'm gonna feel goose bumps but i'm gonna go right back out there and i'm gonna feel the chains back on my hands and my feet just a little reviving in my bondage are you hearing me they get a little reviving in their bondage at national youth convention and by the time november is over they're back in their bonds oh jesus help me right now they get a little reviving at strong tower youth camp and they're just backing their bonds by the time it gets to august they get a little reviving at tri-state camp meeting and by the time school gets back they're back in their chains and their bondage but hey i had a little space for grace for a week all right we're just we're just looking forward to marriage retreat we're just looking for the events so i can feel a little space for grace and i can feel a little reviving in my bondage but i want to tell you something right now here today god doesn't want to give you a little reviving he wants to liberate you from your sin he wants to liberate you from the thing that keeps he wants to liberate you from guilt and shame and oppression and depression he wants to liberate you from that he doesn't want to give you a little reviving he wants to give you freedom with somebody who needed that would clap their hands lift up their voice come on he wants to give somebody deliverance today [Applause] perhaps you've heard of this before it's called learned helplessness in some circles it's called the elephant syndrome most of you probably seen this on television or movies or read about it in magazines or books how elephant trainers can control these monstrous wild animals how can some little human control this gigantic beast how can they even do it somewhere some measure seven and a half meters in length and six tons or more in weight and yet it's just a little man or a little woman who can control these monstrous beings how are they able to control them this way it begins when they're small when they're young they take a chain and wrap it around one of their legs and they tie it to a tree they can get a little bit of slack but then they start to realize i can't go anywhere else and so when they're little they begin to train them to come under the subjection of their master and they can't get any further than what the rope or the the chain allows and so when they get older and larger it's the same sized chain as it was when they were little all they have to do is exercise a little bit of force and they could free themselves but they've learned helplessness they have they have they have been so trained in their mind that you're going to live this way for the rest of your life you're bound to that addiction for the rest of your life because mommy and daddy have that addiction you're bound to having bad relationships and going through all this nonsense trying to find pleasure in this life but i want you to know the devil only has you on a short little chain and if you ever realize that you can break free you can break free from that through jesus [Applause] come on that little thing god can break right now that addiction that bondage he could break at one altar call all you've got to realize is that hey i'm free and i'm not going back i believe there are some in this room who have been trained and conditioned to remain in their bondage they have learned to be shackled to the chains of oppression and depression and lust and addiction because you've just become so used to a little reviving in your bondage so when paul gets to this he contrasts slavery to adoption when i read this a few weeks ago i had to go back and read it again i've preached this text i've alluded to this text many times over the years but i never seen what paul was doing why would he contrast slaves with sons because there's a difference between being a slave and being a son slaves don't inherit anything from their master if they get anything it's a wage that's why paul says the wages of sin oh your master oh your master over here and sin is going to give you something death he promises you freedom he promises you pleasure he promises you all these things but all you're going to get is a wage of death that's all you're getting a slave does not inherit anything from their master slaves very few they have very few if any rights they don't have any privileges the only thing a slave can get is toil labor oppression depression and demoralization many in this room feel this way sin has left you nothing but toil oppression depression shame and demoralization you want freedom but you just don't know how to get free but adoption on the other hand is different because there's a difference between slavery and sonship jeremy come here brother jeremy this is my man right here it's jeremy perez he's a he's a great young man do anything for the for the church and the lord but i'm gonna use him for a second you just stay right there all right paul is the only one in the new testament who uses the metaphor of adoption in reference to our salvation nobody else does he's the only one who does it he does it in romans three times and then in galatians and then in ephesians why is the theme or the metaphor of adoption important for our christian life what's the difference between slaves and sons how do you view yourself in your relationship with god because if you only see god as your master you're living at a very low level of relationship jesus said this when ye pray pray our master which art in heaven is that what he said he said our father because you don't go to prayer asking god as a master because a master doesn't give you anything but a father he said which one of you when your son or your daughter asked for anything you give them a scorpion or a serpent he said but your father which is in heaven will give you good gifts that's why when you come to him in prayer you don't come to him as master you come to him as a child because a child gets everything the father has so paul says you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear you've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry out abba master oh i love this book y'all and me it just blows my mind every time i read it i've read over and over and over again and i still see things i'm going oh my lord jesus help me right now because we don't you don't cry out abba father you are my master you cry out abba father because when you come to him you come to him as a child you come to him as a son or a daughter because you have privilege oh here i'm going somewhere i promise i promise i'm going somewhere the word adoption in the greek comes from two greek words which means sun and placing so it means we are taken out of some place and placed somewhere else so you're here in this realm but then when you are adopted you are brought into another place and another setting let's go back over here because how do they get there jews didn't believe in adoption so paul's metaphor of adoption comes from the greco-roman world and in the greco-roman world there is something that they called the emancipation or adoption because the family's father the patriarch they it was called the patria potestus it means the father of power or the rule of the father so everybody in the family was under the authority and the power and was subject to the father so if you wanted to do anything you had to ask for permission if he wanted you to do something you had to do it because you are under the authority or the of the power of your biological father but in the greco-roman world if someone had been an outcast and they had been rejected or they had been orphaned or they didn't know who their biological father was another father come here another aunt yeah i'm sorry another father could another man perhaps who didn't have children could come and say i'd like to adopt him notice that he didn't choose jesus said in john 15 you have not chosen me but i have chosen you i chose you in all your trouble i chose you in all of your sin i chose you in all your bondage you didn't choose me but he chose you he chose me why because he loves and so there was two steps that would take place i'm going somewhere i promise if i i can hopefully i'll lose my voice before i get there but there were two steps in this adoptio process the first one was called the mancipatio and this is where we get our word emancipation so if this man wanted to buy this son he would have this transaction with the biological father if there was one if there was a biological father that they could find and he would say okay fine i'll let you adopt my son but there's a transaction that has to take place and so they would weigh out scales and say whatever he's worth i'll pay for it but they would not just hand over the money to the biological father he would hand over the money to the biological father the biological father would hand it back so that's one cell and then he would hand it back a second time and he would hand it back and then on the third time he was his how many days was jesus in the and so once the third time takes place he now can claim him as his own and he takes him from his biological father and he makes him his son stay right here [Applause] paul says that's why you glorify god in your body for we have been bought with a price jesus he chose you but he paid the price for you in his own blood then the second step stay with me now was called the vindication this is when the adopting father would go to the roman magistrate and present his legal case for becoming the new patria protesters the father of authority the father of power over this young man and he would do that in front of the governor the magistrate and then there would be seven witnesses seven witnesses there and i read in my bible in roman i'm sorry in revelation oh in revelation five and six and i beheld and low in the midst of the throne another four beasts in the midst of the elders to the lamb as it had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of god sent forth into all the world and this is what paul says for ye have not been see the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry of a father the spirit beareth witness with our spirit so there were seven witnesses in case the magistrate would die there was a witness who would say oh no that that that boy right there is this man he paid the price for him and if that witness died there were six more and he would say oh no i was there when he was bought and if he would die there's five more who would say oh no he's his i was there you know what you need to do right now you need to say devil i'm not yours any longer i've been barked i've been adopted i've got a witness his spirit bears i was there when i got the holy ghost you were there when you got the holy ghost and if you were there and jesus was there that's two witnesses [Applause] stand with me jesus have mercy his spirit bears witness with my spirit that i am when you don't feel like it you need to call on the witness i was there when i got baptized i was there when i got the holy ghost i was there the devil you have no longer have any claim over me so when if the biological father would ever come and say you don't belong to him i remember where you were i remember what you used to do i remember you used to be an adulterer and a fornicator i remember you used just be a drug addict an alcoholic you need to look around and say that's what i used to do but i have been bought with a price and i'm no longer yours i've come out of bondage and into adoption drawn to a close let me give you this i took a class several years ago on romans in school so i'm not making this up i'm not preaching evangelistically right now i can give you the bibliography of this when i read it i had a holy ghost fit behind my keyboard i think i talked in tongues on my keyboard and all those sanctified people in my class were like what's he saying i'm like i just need an interpreter right now if you could do that i probably did but i couldn't believe what i read because it was so amazing to me that the adopted son lost all rights in his original family but he gained all of the rights of his new family so what's yours is his you have not because you ask not and if you knew what your father had if you knew what your father could do listen i know i'm let you stand by listen when that little blonde hair six-year-old little girl says daddy can i have this like no you can how much is it don't you already have one yeah but this one's got green hair and this one's got please i'm like don't tell your mom all right we'll go daddy can i have some ice cream or can i have some too yeah and then i eat mine and she comes in my little room where i have my little reading nook and she comes in she goes i'd like to have a bite of yours like you got your own she's like but yours tastes good here just take it i do that don't i houston you know why because when your child comes to you you'll give them anything what are you afraid to ask for this year oh what are you afraid to ask for this year your father's just saying come on come on ask me come on ask me son come on ask me daughter he became a new person old things were passed away he got everything and even if the adopted father would have biological children after the adoption he still got everything too it doesn't make him less of a child of his adopted father brothers and sisters when somebody comes in here and gets the holy ghost jesus doesn't love you any less he loves you he doesn't love us equally he loves us uniquely and when he sees you come somebody comes and he fills them with the holy ghost he's not leaving you out he's saying they get everything you get everything you know why because i'm a father who owns a cat on a thousand years he's not running out of blessings because there's somebody new here [Music] the old life was completely abolished or raised if he had debt of any sort it was put on the adopting father's account what do you owe in your past life let me get my checkbook out i got a pen filled with the blood of god i'll write that check because i want you and i want you and i'll erase it all [Music] he got everything when i read this this is when i started speaking in tongues on my keyboard that that new son got his father's name that name that you used to have adulterer alcoholic drug addict no longer because when you are buried in the name of jesus christ you take on the name of your heavenly father that's why we don't baptize in titles you get a name because when you've got the name you've got access to the father who can give you anything that's why we don't pray in the titles we pray in the name of jesus christ one last thing you can start coming out i'm done now i preached on this theme years ago in the old building i preached on a theology of adoption kind of talked about the theme of this this metaphor i love it's one of my favorite things in the bible i got done preaching bishop mccool can make you feel like a million dollars after you're done preaching the best sermon i've ever heard in my entire life he said i can't tell you one thing i don't know if you know this or not but i want i want to tell you something because i don't know how it is anywhere else he said but in the state of tennessee [Music] once you've been adopted you can't be unadopted because you can't face rejection more than once so when he buys you he he keeps you just because that's why it's not the prodigal slave it's the prodigal son that's why when he seen his son come back he said get the fatted calf give me the robe give me the ring my son my son my son [Music] he's not gonna get rid of you he's not going to cast you out when christ adopts you into his family that's why you've got to be born again of the water of the spirit so you come into a family and the old life is passed away and i get everything that includes his grace and his mercy and all that he has would you lift up your hands right now for the holy ghost in this room today there's a difference between the spirits of bondage and adoption and maybe you've been fighting some things maybe you've been struggling with some things you've been bound to some things can i tell you your heavenly father wants you to come on is there anybody who step out of their seat now they're pew today maybe everyone wield right now maybe you don't feel that way but you just want to worship him as your father maybe you got a prayer request you got a big prayer to ask can i tell your father is just waiting on you to pray it your father's just waiting on you to pray right now come on he wants to give you good gifts he wants to give you good things if it's deliverance he'll give it to you if it's forgiveness he'll give it to you come on it's his love it's his love it's his love it's his love before i took a breath you breathe your life in me [Music] you have been so so kind [Music] oh [Music] and i don't deserve it still [Music] [Music] reckless [Music] the overwhelming love of god [Music] when i was your foe still your love fought for me you have been so good so so good to me when i felt nowhere i felt no way you paid it all for me you have been so kind so so kind to me overwhelming never ending breathless love of god and oh it chases me down fights till i'm found and i couldn't earn it and i don't deserve it just do you give yourself away never-ending reckless [Applause] the overwhelming love of god [Music] there's no shadow you don't light up a mountain you won't climb up coming after me [Music] there's no wall you won't kick down and lie you won't tear down coming after me there's no shadow you won't line up the mountain you won't climb i'm coming after me there's no one you won't kick down lie you won't tear down coming after me there's no shadow where you won't light up and mountain you won't climb up coming [Applause] [Music] [Applause] coming after [Music] [Applause] oh it chases me now and i couldn't earn it and i don't deserve it still you give yourself away and all the overwhelming never ending reckless love of god could you love jesus right now could you thank him for his word that's ministered to us today savior i thank you for your word i thank you for enlightenment mighty god i pray that i would receive and act upon your word lord i thank you for your spirit of adoption lord that has adopted every one of us lord i thank you that you have chosen us and lord we want to be your children we love you we worship you we praise you this day in jesus name we do pray amen and amen and amen