Good morning. Let me tell you this, I feel dragged out. Do I look dragged out? I don't. I look energetic. Well, I've had my two grandsons with me. They're in the back there with Diana, 10 and 11. They've been with us now for 10 days. And we try to keep them engaged. So I have a renewed appreciation for parents with young children. So that's been going on. I'm on the positive side of having a cold. So I feel dragged out, and I thank you for your encouragement that I don't necessarily look all dragged out. I want to voice my appreciation to Michael. Michael preached last Sunday, and he did a great job bringing us to James, the book of James, the second chapter. This morning we're going back to Romans, so open your Bibles to Romans chapter 6. We're going to weigh passage by passage through Romans. My message is titled Slaves of Righteousness. It comes right out of our passage where Paul talks about we have this great change of allegiance. We used to be slaves of sin, and now we have been emancipated and are slaves of righteousness. And because of that, we should live lives that are pleasing to God. How many of us have ever eaten at the Golden Corral? Hands up. Oh, you decadent people. They promote themselves as having an endless buffet, and it indeed is. It kind of looks like this, and it goes on and on and on. These food bars, there's salads, vegetables, meats, desserts. The problem is having all that food available, it can lead to what? What did I hear? Gluttony. I've got here, it can lead to overeating and it can lead to waste, a lot of waste. You go to these places, right? And if you don't like the food, you try it and you just kind of push it off to the side and the waitress may come and clean your table a little bit and you're back at it. In our passage this morning, Paul addresses the concern that if we are saved by grace, through faith, apart from the law, it's going to lead to this idea of abuse. Paul addresses a concern that his emphasis on grace, and he's had this clear emphasis on grace, in particular, well, on our righteousness by grace, this emphasis on grace. And so the concern is that his emphasis on grace, apart from the law, is going to give people a license to sin, that there's going to be nothing to keep them in check. And so your emphasis, Paul, on grace is going to lead to all kinds of abuses. And Paul's answer is going to be, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God's grace is not to free us to sin, but to what? Free us from sin. That's the idea. That's where grace leads us. That's the right understanding of God's saving grace. Our passage today is so relevant because I believe you want to live a life pleasing to God. I won't ask for a show of hands, but I would hope the most would go up. I want to live a life pleasing to God. And I know, because I'm cut out of the same material you are, I'm flesh and blood, that we struggle at times saying no to sin and yes to God. You and I struggle, do we not, living lives pleasing to God? And our passage today will teach us how to live lives pleasing to God. How do I do that? Where does the ability come from? It teaches how, and not just how, but why. Where is the motivation? And is that ever a winning combination? How we're to do something, and then the motivation to do it. And the basic idea in our passage is God's grace frees us from sin, not to sin. And here's our outline. Paul is going to start with an expected objection to his teaching on grace. And he's going to answer it. That's the most of our passage. And he's going to tell them, you are a slave. Everybody's a slave. You are a slave. It just becomes a matter of to what or whom. And so he starts out saying, everybody's a slave. And then he says, well, you are a slave of God. Thank God. And then you need to live as a slave of God. And then finally he'll talk about the benefits of living as a slave of God. So there's our outline and you see it in your notes. You also see in your notes that I'm beginning with review. I almost always begin with review. And this is Jensen's chart. And we find ourselves now in Romans 6, there you go, right smack dab in the middle of the book, or at least the middle of the five sections. Paul starts out talking about sin, this need for salvation. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no not one. And then he talks about the way of salvation. That begins at the end of chapter three. We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, apart from works of the law. And who does Paul hold up as an example of that from the Old Testament to prove his point? Who? Abraham. And then he mentions David. And after that, he talks about the benefits. That's chapter five of our salvation. What a great chapter of scripture. All these benefits that we have in Christ. And then that brings us to this idea of sanctification. How do we live this out in our lives? Sanctification basically is the idea of being set apart. So this idea of how am I now? that I'm justified. I'm a child of God. How am I set apart for His purposes in my life? How do I live that out? That's your longing, isn't it? Is that what you desire to do? How do I live out the gospel? The big theological terms for all of this, the first one is condemnation, then justification, and then finally, sanctification. In chapter six Paul tells us why we should be sanctified. Why we should live lives that are pleasing to God. Why we should no longer live lives of sin. And he gives in chapter six two big ideas. The first one is because we're in Christ. And we're going to review that a little bit, but that's where we were two weeks ago. Why can I live a life pleasing to God? It's because you're in Christ. You have died with him and been raised to walk in newness of life. And in our passage today, he's going to say, and the second reason why you can live a life pleasing to God is because you are now a slave of God. That's what slaves do. They obey their masters. And so you have been, now this is a key idea, you have been emancipated from your slavery to sin. And that's a good thing. To walk in slavery to God. And that's a good thing. You're a slave of God. So, this first idea we looked at two weeks ago, we're in Christ. Notice in your Bible, it's chapter six, verse one. Paul says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too can walk in newness of life." The key term in those verses is what? It's the term baptism. It occurs three times. It's the Greek word baptizo. It's simply translated into the English baptized or baptism. And it means to be immersed into something, to be identified with something. Chapter six, verse five talks about being united with Christ. And so Paul here is speaking of water baptism. But much more than that, he's talking about the spiritual realities represented by water baptism. When we embrace Christ through faith, we were baptized into Christ, we were immersed into Christ, we were identified with Christ, we have been united with Christ. And Paul is telling us that Christ died to sin. He paid its penalty. And so in Christ, we have died to sin. Its penalty has been paid. Our relationship with God has now been restored. That's the idea. We have died with Christ to sin. And not only have we died to sin with him, the penalty being paid, but we have been raised with Christ. Christ was raised to newness of life and we too are raised to walk in newness of life. These are great positional truths. These are the realities behind our salvation, if you will. Two weeks ago, we looked at this statement by John Stott. It's worth reading again. For us then, it is like this. We deserve to die for our sins. And in fact, we did die, though not in our own person, but in the person of Jesus Christ, our substitute, who died in our place, and with whom we have been united by faith and baptism. And by union with the same Christ, we have risen again. So the old life of sin is finished because we died to it. And the new life of justified sinners has begun. Our death and resurrection with Christ render it inconceivable that we should go back. It is in this sense that our sinful self has been deprived of its power and we have been set free. Baptism as we practice it as a church pictures these great realities. It's this idea when somebody is baptized, they are placed down into the water, which speaks of what? Their death to the old. They're united with Christ, they have died to their sin, and they come up out of the water, what? To walk in newness of life. That's the idea, that's what baptism speaks to. And so there's this physical picture, now we need to get this, there's this physical picture of spiritual realities. I have died to sin. Christ paid the penalty. My relationship has been restored. And now I can walk in newness of life because I walk in the grace of God. He has all kinds of resources now available to me to walk in newness of life. So far, everything I've told you really is review. Why can we walk in newness of life? Because we've been identified with Christ. But the second reason is this, is because we are slaves of God. He's our new master. You have been emancipated from your slavery to sin. You were a slave of sin. And in Christ, you have been set free. And now you can live in obedience to a new master. May I ask you a question? Is God a good master? Yep. Yep. And you're nodding your head and saying yes is indicative of the transformation that's taken place in your heart. So let's start with verse 14. I said that we're going to work 15 to 23, but it starts back really in verse 14 where Paul says, for sin shall not be master over you. Doesn't have to be your master. You don't have to be enslaved to sin because you're not under law, but under grace. And the idea is that in Christ, one has died to sin, been raised to walk in newness of life. and one should and can walk in newness of life, because they are no longer under law, but under grace. What a great statement. In Christ, we are no longer under law, but under grace. Now, Paul is concerned about the objections to that statement, but it's a wonderful statement. We are no longer under law, but under grace. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, we looked at this last week. He said, run, John, run. The law commands but gives neither feet nor hands. So the law calls us to God's standard, calls us to run, whatever your name is, run. But it doesn't give us the ability. It simply produces condemnment and proclaims condemnation. But better news the gospel brings, the good news that's found in Christ. It bids me fly and gives me wings. That's the idea. But we're not under law. All law did was condemn you. But we're under grace, the grace that we have in Christ. And making that statement, Paul expects objections to it. And that's verse 15. That's where 15 picks up. Would you read Paul's response? May it never be. Paul raises here An expected objection to a statement, you're not under law, but you're under grace. And the objection would sound like this, Paul, if in Christ the person is no longer under the law, but under grace, then you are giving people a license to sin. Paul, don't you understand? that grace is gonna be abused. Your proclamation of grace in Christ is gonna encourage people to sin. People need the law. They need it in their lives to keep them in check. And to that idea, Paul shouts out what? May it never be. And here's the idea, may it never be. He's like, you've got to be kidding me. That's where you're going to go with my teaching, that you're no longer under law but under grace? That's not what I'm teaching. It's like, oh, do you not get it? And so in what follows, in verses 16 to 23, Paul teaches why grace does not give you a license to sin. That's important. All right, I'm saved by grace, so does it matter? Does sin matter? It certainly should, because grace sets you free to live a life that's pleasing to God. And his answer in summary, those verses is gonna be this, that grace sets a person free from their slavery of sin, and now you are a slave of God. The idea of slavery, is central to our passage. Maybe you've already read through it, and you will find the term there some eight times, and here's people slaves in a mine, but some eight times in our passage. Slavery was common in the Roman Empire. And in the city of Rome itself, there were probably much more than 30%, more than 30% of the people in the city of Rome, and that's Paul's audience as he writes this, would have been slaves. And so in our verses, Paul is going to use an analogy, something that they all would be very familiar with, to teach them why grace does not give a license to sin. So he's going to draw this analogy. That's the beauty. Here's spiritual truth. Paul's going to teach spiritual truth from a physical reality that they're all familiar with. Just like baptism is a physical reality that we can see spiritual truth. So slavery speaks of, and he used to speak of spiritual truth. And the truth is this, you are now a slave of God. And we're going to see in verse 19 that Paul is cautious in using the analogy of slavery because the tendency is for us to kind of jerk up a little bit. Slave, slaves, right? Right? Come on, to talk about that. And he says, I'm doing it because of the weakness of your flesh. I'm going to use this analogy, which can be so shocking in a sense, to teach you spiritual reality. And so his first point in verse 16 is this. You are a slave. Let's establish that. You are a slave. It's just a matter of to whom or to what. That's what Paul teaches them. Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? It's either going to be of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness. And so Paul's point is you are a slave of who or what you obey. And by your actions, you show who are what you're enslaved to. And what we cannot miss from these verses is that there are only two options. You are either a slave to your sin, resulting in death, or you are a slave to obedience our God, resulting in righteousness. You have two options as to your slavery. That's what so strongly motivates us in here. You are, before Christ, a slave to sin. But you have been emancipated. And now, in your emancipation, you commit yourself to being a slave of God. Because your only other choice is to live as a slave to sin. And the outcome of living as a slave to sin is death, is spiritual death. So you've got a choice. But in a sense, in being a Christian, you've chosen. You're going to be a slave. But to whom? Do you understand that? Oh, we don't like that sense of I'm a slave. No, I'm free. No, not if you understand the gospel. Because you're freed from sin doesn't mean, hey, I'm free and I can do whatever I want. No, you have by saying no to sin and embracing Christ that I will live as a slave of God. He's my Lord. He's my master. Right? Bob Dylan, if Jack White was here, he'd have perked all up now. Bob Dylan, that was Jack's era. Jack's an old man. We can talk about him. He's not here. Anybody else want to say something about Jack? He's teaching at a camp down in Florida. But Bob Dylan, that was my era too, back in the 60s and 70s. In fact, he just went on tour. He's back on tour. The guy's got to be in his 80s. Like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps going and going and going. He was a voice for the social movement back then. And in the 1970s, towards the end of the 70s, he had some sort of, I don't know what to call it, coming to Christ. Coming to Christ, but the discussion still now is, was it genuine? Was it just a phase in his life, or is he really born again? You can Google that in, you can research that. But back in the 70s, he wrote several albums and then different songs about spiritual realities. And one of them was this, you gotta serve somebody. How many of you are familiar with it? You gotta serve somebody. And this is how it goes. You may be an ambassador to England or France. You may like to gamble, you might like to dance. You may be the heavyweight champion of the world. You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls. And then the refrain, but you're going to have to serve somebody. Yes, indeed. You're going to have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord. He gives you the two choices. But you're going to have to serve somebody. And the song goes on and on and on. Some seven or eight stanzas. And here's the final one. You may call me Terry, or you may call me Timmy. You may call me Bobby, or you may call me Zimmy. You may call me RJ, you may call me Ray, you may call me anything, but no matter what you say, you're still gonna have to serve somebody. Yes, you're gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil, and it may be the Lord, but you're gonna have to serve somebody. Now, I put that final stanza up just to say that there are really goofy lyrics in this song. There really are. Go look it up. It's kind of like, wow, this is goofy. But his theology is right on. He has very good theology. And it says, you're going to have to serve somebody. Away with this nonsense that I'm free and I can do whatever I want and I'm my own God. That's nonsense. You serve somebody. And in Romans 6, Paul tells us we're slaves, and there are ultimately only two masters. Your actions reveal who your master is. You're either a slave of sin on the path to death, or you're a slave of God unto righteousness and eternal life. Your choice. But in a sense, I say that, no, not your choice. You've already, you're here because you made that choice. Right? Are you not here because you say, I want to serve Jesus Christ? He's my Lord. He's my master. And so Paul starts out, that's how he starts out, drawing an analogy from their culture. They would all understand slavery. And he says, you're a slave. And then he says, you are a slave of God. That's the choice you've made. But thanks be to God. Would you say those first five words with me? But thanks be to God. that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. And so Paul here speaks of their new master. He says, you were, you were slaves of sin. That's in the past. But now, present tense, you have become slaves of righteousness. Thank God you have been emancipated to serve a new master. Can I hear an amen? You've been emancipated. You've been set free in Christ to serve a new master. And in between those two statements, Paul gives us two reasons why that they become slaves of righteousness. Two reasons he gives, and the first one is this, is because you have a new heart. You were slaves of sin, but now you're slaves of righteousness. And that's because one reason is you have a new heart. But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, now notice this, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. This is certainly talking about regeneration, having a new heart, In Jesus Christ, we are given a new heart. Our heart of stone has been turned into a heart of flesh. Our heart has been turned into the desires to obey the gospel and please God and desire righteousness. So that's why we live as slaves to righteousness and to God, because we have a new heart. We know what it is to be born again. to be given a new heart, new desires. And in fact, if we don't have a new heart with new desires, then you haven't been born again. So that's why we now live as slaves to righteousness. And Paul gives a second reason. Because you have a new standing. Thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you have now become obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you are committed. So you've got a new heart. And having been freed from sin, you become slaves of righteousness. In Christ, and I think he's referencing back to the first part of this chapter, we have been freed from sin. We have died to sin. Its penalty has been paid, our relationship with God restored, and we are now freed from sin to walk in newness of life. And so I'm becoming redundant, but everybody is a slave. It is either gonna be of sin or of righteousness. And Paul is saying that because of our faith in Christ, we now are slaves of righteousness. And that's because we now have a new heart. that desires to please Him. So there's the emotional, motivational side. I have a new heart. And not just a new heart, I have a new standing. I have been set free from sin to live in newness of life. So my heart motivates what is the reality of my standing. Glory! I've been set free. I'm no longer a slave to sin. I'm a slave to God. I have a new heart desiring to obey Him. A new standing that set me free to obey Him. And that's why we should glory. How does he start verse 17? Thanks be to God. Praise God. Paul is rejoicing. He's saying to them, you were slaves of sin. But thanks be to God, you have now become a slave of righteousness. And the Spirit of God who indwells you right now should be welling up with inside you to these great spiritual realities. Oh, what glorious truth. Thanks be to God. I've been set free. I've been emancipated. And I no longer have to serve sin. which I ultimately am ashamed of anyways and leads me in the path of death. And now I'm set free to walk in newness of life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I could live a life that pleases God and the ultimate in his eternal life. I don't know if we'll sing it soon or we've sung it in the past, but it's a, the hymn, it's not a hymn, it's a song. Death was arrested. Let me say, I've got in my notes here, and I'm always working on my sermon. So I'm over there at Sunday morning adding things in. I've got Juneteenth, June 19th. We just made it a federal holiday. What does it commemorate? The end of slavery. So those especially who are blacks in our society, they look back to that and they celebrate. Why? Because we were set free. And that's the idea for us. Why do we say praise God, thanks to God? It's because we have set free. And if you don't have that joy, that maybe not in the excitement I'm expressing, but in some sense wells up within you, you didn't understand your slavery. You didn't understand where you were going. You didn't understand what it meant to be set free. Oh, glory. I'm gonna pop. But we should get this excited. in your own way, but I hope you have some sense of excitement. Death was arrested. I was alone in my sorrow and dead in my sin, lost without hope with no place to begin. Your love made a way to let mercy come in when death was arrested and my life began. Ash was redeemed, only beauty remains. My orphan heart was given a name. My morning grew quiet, my feet rose to dance, when death was arrested and my life began. Oh, your grace so free washes over me. You have made me new, now life begins with you. In your endless love pouring down on us, you have made us new, now life begins with you. Oh, life begins. If you understand the gospel, if you really understand the gospel, if we understand the gospel, It's not like, oh, no, I'm a slave of God, drudgery. No. What's real drudgery and leads to death is slavery to sin. We have been emancipated to walk in newness of life. Slavery to God. And so here, once again, pictures of baptism. This is the idea. Bryant, Marshall, and in her own way, Anna. You know, it's got, oh, joy, but that's what it is. Oh, joy. And that's baptism. I've died to the old, been raised to walk in newness of life, and I serve a new master, and I am excited about the master I serve. What do we find in the Old Testament? When a slave, delighted in living under his master's authority, his master would take him to a door and poke a hole in his ear. And he was by that saying, I want to live under that master. He's a good master. I want to be his slave. And so the progression, and maybe I need to hurry up here, but Paul says you are a slave. None of this nonsense. No, I'm not. Then he says you're a slave of God. And then his next point is you need to live as a slave of God. Notice verse 19. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Paul honestly seems here concerned about using this analogy of slavery. Maybe it's a bit harsh, but he wants to use it. He wants to aid their understanding, the weakness of their flesh, maybe to help them in their understanding. This very vivid analogy, or maybe in a sense to, by using this analogy, shock them out of their complacency as they didn't grapple properly with what it means to be a slave of God. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present." That's an imperative. I believe it's the first imperative in our verses today. Command, present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. And so Paul here speaks of their past and their present. He says, you were slaves of sin. You are presenting your members to impurity and lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness. And so there's that idea you're a slave to sin, impurity and lawlessness, and it just takes you down a bad path. You know, people start stuff when it comes to the use of their members, and they think, hey, I got this. And one bad decision, a small decision, leads to something much bigger, and something much bigger, and something much bigger. And maybe in some time, they're living as an addict to some drug. And they look back and wonder, how did I ever get here? How did I ever get here? You're a slave. It didn't look like slavery. But that's what it was, and that's where it led you. Here, this statement, sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than what you want to pay. So he says you were slaves of sin, but now, now present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification. And that's our imperative, but now. Now present yourselves as members, as slaves to Christ, to sanctification. And I believe what we see here in this verse, these ideas, is a progressive sanctification. What is being talked about here is a daily presenting of oneself to walk in righteousness, which results in sanctification and a life pleasing to God. So you used to present your members to sin, leading to death, but now you are presenting your members as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. I know it's warm in here. It's warm in here. I feel this tendency, boy, I need to try to wrap things up to keep you with me, but will you hang with me for another 10 minutes, I'll say? Because I want to talk about how do I present my members as slaves to righteousness? How do I do that? And here let me give you one verse. This is in Romans 13. Let us behave properly Paul says is in the day not in carousing and drunkenness not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality not in strife and jealousy but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to its lust. The idea here Although not necessarily so clearly declared by Paul, but the idea here is clearly this of put off and put on. Put off, Paul is saying, making provision to the flesh and its lust. Don't present your members to unrighteousness. And this is so practical. And this is where we want to live. This is so practical in this idea of not presenting our members to unrighteousness. The idea is when it comes to different places where we may go, our people we may associate with, our music we may listen to, our social media we may give our time to. We're not to present ourselves to those things, our members to those things, because of where they can lead. And I think we know exactly what I'm talking about. Those kinds of things we're presenting our members to, and they may seem somewhat innocence, but we realize in time, they are taking me down a bad path. And Paul is saying, don't present yourself as members to unrighteousness. And sometimes that means radical amputation. This idea of, I've said no to my past, and I may have to radically cut off some of the things from my past. And in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus talks about adultery, and what does he speak of? He says, you may need to pluck your eye out, or cut your right hand off. And is he actually saying physically, do that? No. But he's speaking of this idea, if we're going to be set free from these things that enslave us, at times we may have to deal with them rather radically. And that is a challenge. They can seem attractive. But no, I need to put those things off, and I need to put on the things that lead to righteousness and sanctification. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. living in light of who He is and God's abundant grace given to us in Him. We are a church, and let me end with this. I've got a lot more in my message, but I realize it's warm, and I'm warm, and so let me just try to wrap things up. But in Christ, we have so many means of grace, so many means of grace. We're an Acts 242 church, and so we emphasize the Word of God. and the priority of the Word of God. because we go to the word of God and it teaches us about the person of Christ and through him who our God is. It teaches us God's precepts. It gives us God's promises. And those are the very things that as we give ourselves to them, they result in our righteousness and our sanctification. Those are the kind of involvements that lead to the transformation of my life, to me living as a slave of God. So it's the word of God, prayer. Jesus said, you ought to always pray and never faint. If we're going to live lives under the, with Jesus as our master and our Lord, we're going to be people of the word. We're going to be people of prayer. And let me tell you, and you can look around at the people here, but they are one of the most important means of God's grace in your life. Because as you put off the old and you said no to sin and its mastery in your life, and so you're doing away with those kind of things, the people here are the means of God's grace by which your life will be transformed. You should look at the people here and every day writing two or three thank you notes and saying, Danny, I appreciate you and your marriage and what I see in your marriage, and it's an encouragement for me to honor God in my marriage. Charlie, I appreciate your faithfulness in your marriage. You've been married 75 years. How long have you been married, Charlie? 55. Anyway, it's a long time. And you look at the people maybe in your marriage are raising kids. And it's like these people around here, I know sometimes they can be hard to live with, but they are one of the major means of God's grace. And then worship. Oh, I so appreciate our worship. And we give a good part of our morning service to worship, don't we? And it's because worship stirs our hearts, and it presents to us the glory of who our Master is, and it lays hold of us, and it stirs these new desires that we have been given because we have a new heart to please Him. And so worship is so important. And so, yes, Paul says here, and we'll conclude with this, that you are a slave. It's just a matter of to who. And you are a slave to God. You were a slave to sin, but now you're a slave to him. And he says, present yourself. You need to do this. You need to actively enter into this idea of him as your master, which means you put off the old. You start to do away with those things, and you put on these means of God's grace. which more and more, week after week and year after year, result in the transformation of our lives. Can I say something to you? Holiness and righteousness is a beautiful thing. Moses, when he left Egypt, It says he gave up these riches, these seemingly pleasures of Egypt to participate with the people of God. Some of these things that are part of slavery to sin can look so good, but in the end, the end is death. Holiness is a beautiful thing. I'm 70 years old. I'm an old man. I used to walk in sin as each and every one of us here did. But by God's grace, thanks be to God, when I was at Michigan State University, 21 years old, God got a hold of my life and changed it. And it hasn't been an easy progression, this idea of holiness and sanctification. It's not like, hey, that's an easy path. But it is the right path and is the path of those who have said, I've turned from sin. I made Christ my master and I'll walk in it. Father, we give you praise. There's so much here. We pray for the activity of your spirit to further clarify this passage. We need your help. And so we ask for that. May we rejoice. Glory in what you have done. Thanks be to God, Paul says. Oh, I was a slave to sin, but now I've been set free to walk in righteousness. I have been emancipated. So Father we praise you, help us to understand that your grace that has brought about our emancipation was to bring about the wonderful transformation of our lives under our slavery to Jesus Christ. May we glory in our master.