Rick Warren - Set Free From Me - The Invisible War Pt.3

Good morning, Saddleback. My favorite time of the year, the summertime.

You guys all look pan, rested, ready for whatever. Take

out your message notes. This summer we're doing two major

series back to back. One of them is a case

doing a series on Choose Joy. And this week on Tuesday,

we literally had thousands of women involved in that in

the morning and the evening. And how many of you

were there at look at that. That's great and we

had a great, great study and actually a couple thousand

women watched online. Now, guys, you may say, well I

need joy too, Well, I'll tell you here's how you

can cheat and get into the women's study. Watch it online.

That's what I did. I watched Kay teach on Choose

Joy last Tuesday, and I was sitting there taking notes, going, man,

I wish I had said that. And now now you

understand my secret weapon where I get all my good

material is actually or my wife. So ladies, you can

join on Tuesdays Tuesday morning or Tuesday evening with thousands

of other women here at Saddleback and study Choose Joy.

And then on the weekend I'm doing a major series

on the Invisible War. And what I told you in

the first two sessions, is that the Bible teaches that

you have three enemies that are trying to mess up

your life. They want to defeat your family, They want

to defeat your life, They want to steal your soul.

They want to keep you from having joy and purpose

and meaning here in life. And these three enemies come

against you as kind of triple team and you know

tag team wrestling or you know double team take down

things like that. And the Bible calls these three enemies

that you have the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world comes around you, Satan comes against you, and

the battle with you is within you. And this summer

we're going to go in detail into each of these

three enemies, because if you don't know who the enemy is,

you can never win the battle, and you're going to

go through life defeated. Most of your life. Now we're

beginning with your biggest enemy. And your biggest enemy is

not Satan, it's not the world, it's you. You are

your biggest problem. And as I said last week, I said,

you know, when you want to run away from your problems,

you want to go to Cancun. The problem is you

take you with you, and all of that internal stuff

is inside you. Now. What we looked at last week

as we began studying the battle inside you, is that

you really do have two natures. If you are a believer,

you have your old nature. What's once to do, what's fun,

what's once to do, what's convenient, not necessarily the right thing,

the best thing, or even what's good for you. A

lot of things you want to do are actually self

destructive to you. And you know for a certain fact

that there are things you know you would be good

for you, be healthy for you, and you don't do them.

I know that there are things that are bad for you,

that are unhealthy for you, that mess up your life,

and you still do them anyway. And last week we

looked at this great Testimony of Romans, chapter seven, where

Paul says, you know what, I can't figure myself out.

All my best intentions aren't good enough. He says, I

want to do the right thing, but I don't. And

I don't want to do the wrong thing, but I do.

And that is the story of you, and it is

the story of me. You know far more than you're

actually doing. If you were actually able to practice all

the good things you know to do, you'd be a

lot more successful in life. But it's not just knowing it,

it's getting yourself to do it. And there's this battle

because we have a natural resistance inside of us that

wants to do what's easy, what's convenient, what's quick, rather

than what's right and what's best. In fact, our entire

nation is in a financial crisis because of this tendency

of human nature to have an inability to delay gratification.

We want it, and we want it now, whether we

can afford it or not. So we go out and

we charge it even though we can't ford it. And

the government's been doing that for years, and now we

have a financial crisis that teeters on the brink of

collapse because all because the ability of buying things we

don't need with money we don't have to impress people

we don't like, and thinking we can have it all.

Let me just tell you right now, you can't have

it all. That is a myth that advertisers will tell

you can't have it all. Life is about choices. You

have to make choices in life and go, Okay, what's

the best for me, what's right for me? What does

God want for me, and so best intentions are not

good enough. And the truth is the battle for you

inside you. Much of your unhappiness, in fact, I would

say it this way, most of your unhappiness in life,

Most of your unhappiness in life is because you listen

to you instead of God. And when you do that,

you tell your self stuff all the time that isn't true.

Just because you have a thought doesn't mean it's accurate,

doesn't mean it's true, doesn't mean it's correct. A lot

of things you think of are not right, they're not correct.

A lot of things I think of aren't right, aren't correct.

In fact, a lot of things I think are actually

lying to myself. Rationalizing where we tell rational lies to ourself. Now,

what I want us to do this weekend is look

at how to overcome the six weapons of self destruction.

Now you've heard of the weapons of mass destruction, but

I want to talk to you about what the Bible

teaches about the weapons of self destruction. There are things

that you do to yourself all the time that dammage you,

that hurts you, that cause you to self destruct, that

cause you enormous stress, enormous pain, enormous unhappiness and unneeded

pressure in your life. And then I'm going to show

you from God's word in Romans chapter eight, how the

Bible tells us that the spirit of God living within

you can give you the antidote to every one of

these weapons. Now, before we even get into the text,

I want you to write these seven things down. It's

not on your outline, so you're just gonna have to

write it somewhere, scribble it over on the side. These

are the seven weapons of self destruction. You can talk

to any psychologist and they'll tell you that these are

the seven things that mess up people's lives more than

anything else. And we're going to look at the cure

for these weapons of self destruction. The first weapon of

self destruction is shame. Shame. You cannot be happy and

feel ashamed at the same time. When you feel ashamed,

when you feel guilty, when you feel regrets, that just

robs all your happiness. God doesn't want you to walk

around feeling guilty. God doesn't want you walking around feeling exhamed.

God doesn't want you walking around with regrets. In fact,

that's why I send Jesus on the cross to die

for all of your sins, but shame is the first

number one destroyer of happiness. The second weapon of self

destruction is uncontrolled thoughts. If you don't learn how to

control your thoughts, your thoughts will ruin your life because

you say to stuff to yourself that causes unhappiness, causes grief,

causes pressure. You must learn how to control your thoughts.

The third weapon of self destruction is compulsions. Compulsions are

those inner drives, inner desires. You can call them less

you can call them habits, you can call them impulses,

but they are those things in your life you feel like,

I felt like I just had to do it, even

though you knew it was wrong. I just had to

do it. And those compulsions. You got to learn how

to deal with those and how to fight that weapon

of self destruction, because if you do things by your compulsions,

you'll mess up your life. The fourth weapon of self

destruction is fear, and fear is an enormous destroyer of happiness,

of potential, of God's purpose for your life. It will

limit your life. You got to learn how to master

your fears. The fifth weapon of self destruction is hopelessness.

Hopelessness keeps you from keeping on. When you start to

feel hopeless about anything, you get discouraged and want to

give up. If you feel hopeless about your marriage, if

you feel hopeless about ever getting married, if you feel

hopeless about your finances, or you feel hopeless about your health.

Hopelessness is a self destructive weapon that you use on you,

and when you turn it inward, it robs you of

God's plan for your life. Number six. Bitterness is a

huge weapon of self destruction because life is unfair and

we don't all get the same thing, and life is

broken and we're stuck, and some people get better than you,

and you get jealous and you get envious, and some

people hurt you. You can either get better or bitter,

And bitterness is a cancer that will eat you alive

and will It's a poison that will eat you on

the inside. You never hurt other people with your bitterness

like you hurt yourself. You always hurt you the most.

It is a self destructive emotion. There is no value

to bitterness in your life. There's no value to holding

onto a grudge. All it does is make you miserable.

And the seventh weapon of self destruction is insecurity. You

gotta deal with this one because if you don't learn

how to deal with insecurity in your life, it's going

to cause you to do foolish things. When you're insecure

and you're trying to show everybody else as you're very confident,

you'll say stupid things, you'll do stupid things, you'll pose

And the only people impressed by posers are other posers. Okay,

everybody sees through it. The only people are impressed by

fakes are other fakes. So you know, when you're insecure,

you can't hide it. You have to deal with it. Now.

The classic passage on dealing with these weapons of self

destruction is Roman seven and Romans eight. If you miss

the last two weeks, you need to run, not walk,

out to the patio and buy the CDs from the

last two weeks so you'll be caught up, or you

need to watch them online on MP three's or on video.

But Roman seven explains what these seven things do in

your life, and Romans eight gives us the answer. Now.

At the end of Romans seven, Paul says, this look

up here on the screen. He's outlined the battle going

on inside himself, and he says What a miserable person

I am? Hecaes, I'm miserable. You know, as I said,

all those things I want to do that I know

are good, I end up not doing, and all those

things that I don't want to do, I end up doing,

and I'm really messing up my life. What a miserable

person I am. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I mean,

I've watched Oprah, I've been to Tony Robbins seminar, I've read

a Doctor phil book. You know, I've done all these

different things. He has. None of this stuff really works

and getting me into shape? He says, who will free

me from this life? Dominated by saying now, he doesn't

say what will free me? Because the answer to you,

the problem inside you, the mess ups in your life

that you'd like to change. The answer is not a pill.

It's not a program, it's not a book, it's not

a it's not a seminar, it's not hypnosis. The answer

is a person. It is Jesus Christ and his spirit

inside you. And Romans eight is the answer to Romans seven,

that the spirit of God inside you gives you the

antidote to all seven of these negative emotions. Now what

I want us to look at this weekend is how

can I be free from me? How can I be

set free from me? And the way we're gonna look

at this is the truths of Romans eight. I have

put them in a practical way of listing seven mental

habits that you need to do that will help you

apply the truth of Romans chapter eight. And so we're

gonna look at these seven mental habits that explain the

great truths of Romans eight. Romans eight is the greatest

chapter in the Bible. In my opinion, it's the greatest chapter.

They once stood to study of of Bible scholars and said,

if you could only have one chapter of the Bible

and on a desert island, which one would you take?

And about ninety percent of them said I'd take Romans eight.

So this is a very strong passage. You need to

take a lot of notes today. Number one. The first

step in being set free from me is this, I

must remind myself daily what Jesus did for me. That's

the starting point. I got to remind myself every day

of what Jesus did for me. What is salvation? What

are the benefits of it? You see, we have a

lot of people who saved you don't act like it.

They run around all the time filled with shame and

uncontrolled thoughts and compulsions and fear and bitterness and insecurity.

And they're believers, but they're not set free from me.

And the first step is you've got to remind yourself

what Jesus actually did for you. And this is how

the Holy Spirit sets me free from shame. Let's look

at these verses Romans eight one to four. First, he says,

so now there is no condemnation for those who belong

to Jesus Christ. And let me stop there before we

go any further. No condemnation means God doesn't judge you

for all the things you've done wrong, if you've trusted Christ,

because Jesus took all that judgment on the cross. He

doesn't have to judge you. Because Jesus was judged. He

doesn't have to condemn you. Because Jesus took your condemnation,

He took your wrap, he paid your penalty, he did

your time for you. Now, the Bible says that if

I'm a believer, I belong to Christ. Look at that verse.

There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ

Jesus circle the phrase belong to Christ Jesus. This old

passage is talking about people who've given their life to Jesus.

This doesn't apply to you if you haven't made that

decision yet. But if you've received Christ into your life,

the Bible says you're under no condemnation. I means God

doesn't get mad at you when you sin. Did you

hear that God does not get mad at you when

you sin if you belong to Jesus Christ, because he's

already taken the payment. Now, notice it doesn't say that

after I become a Christian, I won't sin, You're still

gonna sin. It doesn't say I'm not gonna make mistakes.

You're still gonna make mistakes. It doesn't say I'm not

gonna fail and look stupid. You're gonna fail and look stupid.

It just says you're under no condemnation. In other words,

you don't have to walk around with shame. You don't

have to walk around with guilt, because when Jesus Christ

died on the cross, he not only paid for all

of the sins you committed last week, last year, and

your entire life he committed. He's already paid for the

sins that you're gonna commit tomorrow, next week, and the

rest of your life. They're already paid for. That's good news.

That is good news. No condemnation means there is no

reason for a Christian to walk around in shame because

I stop and I remind myself Jesus paid for all

of my sins. He already knew before I was born,

every sin I was going to do, and he paid

for it. Now, the next part of that verse says,

for the power of the life giving spirit, that's the

Holy Spirit. God's Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus

from the power of sin that leads to death. And

what does that verse means? The second thing I remember

is that because I'm a believer and I have Jesus,

I have a new power in my life, greater than willpower.

You see, before you became a Christian, the only thing

you had to use against your bad habits was sheer willpower.

And how long does that work? Now? Very long, he says,

Now there's a new power in you. Unfortunately, a lot

of Christians are still simply relying on willpower to change.

They've never figured out how to connect into spiritual power,

into the power of the Holy Spirit, into the power

of Jesus inside you. He says, there's a new power

in you. There's a new sheriff in town. And when

you want to change things in your life, it's not

just if it's to be, it's up to me. It's

not just my own willpower. It is God's power in me.

I have been given a power greater than willpower. We're

going to look at this more in the next versus.

Then the next thing. It says, the law of Moses

could not save us because of our sinful nature. Now laws,

keeping God's laws cannot save you. Guy says, well, I

know I'm going to heaven. You say, how do you know?

It's because I keep the Ten Commandments. I say, name them.

You don't not only not keep the ten commandments. You

couldn't even name all of them. If I ask you

to stand up right now, you couldn't even How can

you keep them if you don't even know them all?

By the way, keeping laws never works, why, it says,

because of our sinful nature. Laws simply work on outside behavior.

They don't work on inside change. They don't change you

on the inside. For instance, if I were to bring

a pig out here, a big sow that had been

rolling around in the mud and the dirt and eating garbage,

and it stinks to high heaven, and say what is this?

You'd say, it's a pig. Now, I take that pig

backstage and I run it through a couple of car washes,

and then I put it in a bathtub, and I

have bath salts and perfumed soap SuDS, and I get

it all cleaned up, and I brushed the you know,

their teeth, the pig's teeth. And then I sprinkle some

food food juice on it, you know, some corral number five,

you know that would be appropriate for a pig. Okay,

And I rub it down with oil of olet so

its skin is just silky, silk soft. And then I

tie a ribbon around its neck, and I put a

bonnet on it. And I put some eyeshadow and fake

eyelashes on this pig. And I put a dress on it.

And then I put some lipstick on this pig. And

I bring this pig out and I say, now, what

is it? Still a pig? Okay? You may have spiffed

up the outside, but the nature has remained unchanged. And

this is what happens with self help programs is that

we spiff up the outside and we my sheer will

powers say I'm gonna take a bath, I'm gonna get

on some new clothes, I'm gonna change my behavior, and

all the outside looks different, but inside it's still the

same nature. If you're gonna have radical change, transforming change

in your life, it's got to change your nature, and

only God can do that. No self help program can

change your heart, which, by the way, is why I'm

not a politician. I have zero faith in politics or

laws to change human behavior. Why because it's just fixing

the outside. You can pass a law that says nobody

will be a bigot or a racist. Is that going

to change anybody's heart. No, Only Jesus can change that heart.

And I have seen people come to Christ and they

change from a racist into a compassionate person, and from

a bigot into a loving person. Only Jesus can change that.

If I thought you could change human behavior by laws,

I'd be a politician, but there's no track record that

it actually changes people. Only God can change the inside, which,

by the way, is why we don't spend so much

time promoting all political laws. You know, there are some

Christians who think they're going to make the world a

better place just by creating a law. Will people just

break it? I mean they want a law against this

and a law against this sin, and the law against

this sin, and the law against this sin and the

law against this sin. And they think that's going to

change people. No, people just going to break the law.

You do. God has given all kinds of laws in

his word, and you don't obey those, and you break

them all the time. See. One of the things we

know here at Saddleback is you don't expect somebody to

act like a believer until he is one, because he

doesn't have the power to change. He doesn't have the

ability to change. So passing a law that says everybody

is going to be moral or everybody's going to do this,

that doesn't change. That's fit, that's cleaning up the pig.

It doesn't change our nature. God put into effect notice here,

so God knew that laws couldn't save us. But God

put into effect a different plan to save us. He

sent his own son in a human body like ours,

except that ours are sinful. God destroyed sins control over

us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.

In other words, he gave us the power to make

those changes, to forgive us and the changes. And then

it said he did this, Jesus died on the cross

so that the requirement of the law would be fully

accomplished for us. Circle the phrase for us. What is

he saying there? That Jesus not only paid for all

your sins, he did all the right things for you,

those of us who no longer follow our sinful nature

but instead follow the spirit. Now, if you really are

serious about changing your life for the better, you got

to start where God tells you to start. And God

says you don't start with your behavior, your actions, and

you don't start with your feelings your emotions. You start

with your mind. The battle for you to be set

free from me starts in changing your mind. Be renewed,

be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Bible

teaches very clearly that the way we act is determined

by the way we feel, and the way we feel

is determined by the way we think. For instance, if

I'm acting depressed, it's because I feel depressed. And if

I'm feeling depressed. It's because I'm thinking depressed thoughts. And

if I want to get over my depression, I don't

force myself to change my behavior. That doesn't work. And

I don't force myself to change my feelings. You can't

change a feeling. You cannot force a feeling. A guy says,

you know, I don't love my wife anymore. So I said, well, okay,

what are you going to do about it? Well, I'm

just going to force myself to feel that I love her.

How will that work? It doesn't work. You can't force

a feeling. It's like telling the crying kid, Now I

command you to be happy. I try it, daddy, you

try it. You cannot force a feeling. In fact, when

you try to force a feeling, everybody knows you're faking it.

You can't force a feeling. You can't fight that feeling anymore.

If you laughed at that, you're really old. Okay, you

are really really old. Okay. Now, what you do is

you change the way you think. And if you change

the way you think, that's going to change the way

you feel and it will change the way you act.

So if you do, you know, I don't have any

feelings for my wife anymore. You can act your way

into a feeling, and you can think your way into feeling,

but you can't feel your way into feeling. If you

start acting loving towards your wife and you start thinking

loving thoughts toward you, right, I'm gonna tell you what,

the feelings will come back. They will return. You act

your way into a feeling and you think your way

into feeling, but you don't feel your way into feeling. Now,

the good thing about this is that now that you're

a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit inside of you,

and so you can ask him to help you put

good thoughts in your mind. So now you're not just

on your own. You're not just out here trying to

think up stuff by yourself. And what would be a

good thing for me to think about? You can say,

Holy Spirit, put good thoughts in my mind. That's the

second thing we learned from Romans eight. Write this down

number two. The second mental habit to defeat the weapons

of self destruction is I ask the Holy Spirit to

give me better thoughts. I ask the Holy Spirit to

give me better thoughts. And if you ask him to

give you better thoughts, do you think he will? Of course,

he will. Of course, he's going to give you better thoughts.

That's a prayer he's going to answer. I ask the

Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts. This is the

second key to permanent change your life. Now, this is

what it says in the next two verses, Verses five

and six of Romans eight. Those who live according to

the sinful nature have their mindset on what the nature

that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with

the Spirit have their mindset on what the Spirit desires. Now,

there's two kinds of mindsets circle the mindsets. There's the

mindset of your old nature, and there's the mindset of

the Holy Spirit. There's the mindset of the way I

normally think about my life, and there's the mindset of

how the Spirit sees my life. Which one's gonna be

true the one that the Spirit says. So I have

to choose between these mindsets. Am I gonna set my

mind on the way I normally think about my life?

Am I gonna set my mind on the way God

thinks about my life? Now there's a big difference in

choosing these mindsets, because if you choose one, you're gonna

get one response and if you choose the other, that

you're going to get another. And the next part of

the verse tells us what that is. The mind of

sinful man is what that means. It's self destructive. Thoughts

that you come up with yourself are going to tend

to be self destructive. The mind of sinful man is death.

But the mind controlled by the spirit is what life

and peace. Okay, I don't normally do this, but how

many of you would like to have life and peace

this summer? Yeah, me too, I would like to have

life and peace of summer. And it's all about the

mindset you choose. The economy may not change, it probably won't.

Your problems probably won't change those ones that are persistent,

but your mindset can change. And that's the difference between

a life of self destruction or a life of life

and peace. Now, this is the Holy Spirit's answer to

uncontrolled thoughts. What I do is I ask the Holy

Spirit to give me better thoughts. And this is the

principle of replacement. I want you to write this word down, replacement.

The principle of replacement is anytime you want to change

something in your life and you're serious about changing it,

you don't resist it, you replace it. When you got

something negative in your life, you don't resist it, you

replace it. You say, I want to stop smoking, you

don't smoke. I don't want to stop smoking. I want

to stop smoking. I want to stop smoking. It's like

the frog and towd together, that story we read last week.

I don't want to eat a cookie and I just

ate one. I don't want to eat a cookie and

I just ate one. I don't want to eat a cooking. No,

because the whole time you're focusing on what you don't

want and whatever if you focus on, gets your attention.

Whatever gets your attention gets you. That's why, if you

want to break any bad habit in your life, the

key is not to resist it, but to refocus. Whatever

you resist persists because you keep focusing on it. Now.

It's it's like if I'm flipping TV channels and all

of a sudden there's something on TV that I don't

really want to watch or I shouldn't watch. I don't

sit there and go I don't want to watch it.

I don't want to watch it. I don't want to

watch I just flip the channel, I replace it, and

the moment I replace it. It's gone. It has no

grip on me anymore. So. I mean, if you're standing

in an airport bookstore and they've got all these girly magazines,

and you're standing in front of you saying, I don't

want to look at them. I don't want to look

at them. Up, what do you do? Well, you don't

stand there. You walk away, Okay, you slam the door

if you want, don't want to get stung by the bees.

You just get away from them and you replace it

with something else. Now, let's say I had a big, fat,

juicy doughnut sitting right here, Okay, I mean, and it's

hot and the glaze is just kind of dripping off

the side. Now I'm on the Daniel Plan, okay. And

as I told you last week, our church has lost

over two hundred thousand pounds together, which is amazing. And

it's not too late to join us. We still got

half a year more. It's a one year program, and

you could go to Danielplan dot com and join up

and get your numbers and get all the doctor's help

and stuff like that. Now, if it's sitting here, I

don't go. I don't want that donut. I really really,

I'm just smelling it. Oh baby, old baby, that yeasty smell.

Oh wow, No, what do I do? I just look

over it down to you guys, And the moment I

see you guys, I've lost. It's lost its grip on

me because my tension has changed. Now. As long as

I resist the donut, it hadn't work. But the moment

I refocus on something else, I don't even think about

it anymore. Does that make sense? Okay? So I ask

the Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts to replace

the negative ones in my mind. Now, you choose what

you dwell on. Satan gives you ideas. As are called temptations.

Holy Spirit gives you ideas. Those are called inspiration. You

get ideas. But the truth is you choose what you

focus on. But now now that you're a believer, you

have a helper and you can say, Holy Spirit, I

invite you to give me your ideas. And a lot

of times the Holy Spirit, the God's Spirit will say

to me, hey, Rick, why don't you think about this instead?

Good idea and I just change my thoughts. Now I

would encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit to have

free access to your mind. You say, God, you have

put your spirit in side of me. I give you

free access to my mind twenty four hours a day.

I invite you to suggest good thoughts. Why Because they'll

always be the truth, They'll always be right, they'll always

be helpful, they'll always be pure. Those are the things

we are to think on. So you invite the Holy

Spirit to put thoughts in your mind? Why? Because those

who live according to sinful nature have their mindset on

one thing, but those who live according to the Spirit

have their mindset on another. And the mindset that I

normally have leads to self destruction, and the mindset that

God's Spirit gives me leads to peace. And I want

peace in my life. So, and that's why I said,

you know earlier, we don't expect unbelievers to act like

believers until they are. They don't have the power. Look

at the next verse. The sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it

do so. It can't even do it. Those controlled by

sinful nature cannot please God. So why do you work

on passing the law when they don't have the ability

to change it? To change Only God can change it.

Change comes from the inside out. Third principle, Third mental

habit You're going to need to develop to apply the

truths of Roman's aid in your life, and that is this,

I realize I have a new ability to say no.

I need to remind myself. I need to remember on

a daily basis. I need to realize that now that

I'm a believer, I have a new ability to say

no to the things that are self destructive in my life.

Now this is very important because before you became a believer,

all you had was will power, and you lost most

of those bad habits because lost to most of them

because you don't willpower wears out. It's not enough. But now,

with the Spirit in your life, you have a new

ability to say no, a new power, and you need

to learn how to tap into that power. I don't

know about you, but I could admit pretty honestly that

before I had the Holy Spirit in my life, there

were some things I just couldn't say no to. I

didn't have the ability to say no to them. And

you can call them compulsions, you can call them habits.

You can call them urges, you can call them lusts,

you can call them impulses. You can call them your

old nature. But the truth is there were some things

in my life I just couldn't say no to. I

had no ability to say no because I didn't have.

All I had was willpower. Now now I have God's power,

and he gives me the ability to say no. Look

at this verse up here on the screen. Galatians five

point sixteen says this, let the Spirit direct your lives,

and you will not satisfy the desires of the old

human nature. Now, if I let the Spirit live through me,

does it say I won't have those desires? Is that

what it said? No, it says I won't what I

won't satisfy those desires? I won't satisfy those desires. In

other words, do I still have the same desires I

had before as a Christian? Yes? Do I still have

the same temptations? Yes? Do I still have the same

urges and compulsions? Yes? Do I fulfill them? No? Why?

Because I have a new power inside of me, and

it's not just will power anymore. Now I've heard people say,

but why should I limit any desire in my life

that seems natural? Why should I rein it in if

it seems if it's a natural desire. Friends, Not everything

natural is good for you. I mean, I might naturally

want to punch you in the nose. That doesn't mean

I should do it. I have a lot of natural

desires that I need to not fulfill. For instance, sometimes

I have a natural desire to cuss people out on

the freeway. Does it mean I should just do it? No.

Just because it's natural doesn't mean it's good. Arsenic is natural,

but you drink it and it'll kill you. A lot

of natural things are poison. So just because it says

natural doesn't mean it's good. There are things in my

old nature that are very natural for me to do,

but they're self destructive. I mean, people say, well, if

I feel this way, why shouldn't I give into it?

Because that's called maturity. Maturity is when you do the

right thing, not what you feel like doing, because what

you feel like doing isn't always the best for you,

the best for somebody else, God's will or whatever. If

everybody just did what they naturally feel like doing, nobody

go to work tomorrow morning. Nobody would go to work.

If everybody did what they naturally feel like doing, you know,

you know, every girl would be pregnant. Long before she

got married. You got to realize that I have a

new ability to say no. Now this is the good

news of Romans chapter eight. Look at the next verse,

verse nine. But he says, you are not controlled by

your sinful nature. You are now controlled by the spirit

if you have the spirit of God living in you.

Anybody who does not have the Spirit of God living

in them does not belong to Christ. And let me

stop here and explain this. Some people mistakenly think that

you get God kind of piece meal, that Jesus comes

into your life at one point in your life, and

then maybe a little bit later, the Holy Spirit comes

into your life, and then maybe a little bit later,

you get the Father into your life. No, God is

a trinity three and one. When you got Jesus, you

got all of God. God doesn't come into your life

piece meal. When Jesus comes into your life, the Spirit

comes into your life. When Jesus comes in your life,

the Father comes into your life. When the Father comes

into your life, the Spirit in Jesus come into your life.

You can't separate him. You can't divide them up like

a piece of pie. So the moment you gave your

life to Christ, Jesus. Christ put his self in your life,

in his spirit, the spirit of God, the spirit of

the Father, the spirit of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit.

So you don't get God a little bit at a time.

Does that make sense? Okay, God, the Holy Spirit doesn't

come in in the later point. He comes in and

you get all of God when you give your life

to Christ. Now the question is does he have all

of you and the rest of your life. You're going

to be given more and more of your life life

to him, and then the more you give, the more

power you have. But he says, because I have this,

I now have a new ability to say no. Look

at the next verse. So, dear brothers, you have no

obligation anymore to your old sinful nature to do what

it begs you to do. This is how God sets

me free from my compulsions. Before, when I have felt

compulsed to do something, compelled to do something, I didn't

have anything except willpower to stop myself. Now I've got

a new power inside me, and I don't have any

obligation anymore to listen to my old nature. Now I've

heard people tell me, oh, I can't tell me. People

who have had an affair, committed adultery. Who told me

I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't help myself. I just

had to do it. I just felt compelled to do it. Well,

now you have a new help to stop you. And

when somebody says I'm a Christian, but I couldn't stop myself,

they're lying. They're lying because they si the fleet didn't

call on the power that was there available to them,

and they didn't rely on the Holy Spirit in that

moment of temptation compulsions. You know you can ruin an

entire life with one second of compulsion. Just go ask

a bunch of the politicians had scandals this last year,

spent decades building a reputation, and in a moment of compulsion,

lost it all. Stupid, stupid, stupid. But I have a

new power, a new ability to say no. Number four,

the fourth mental habit I need to develop if I

want to change my life is I need to turn

my thoughts to God. Whenever I'm afraid. That's the fourth

antidote to these weapons of self destruction. I remind myself

every day what Jesus did for me. I asked the

Holy Spirit to give me better thoughts. I realize I

now have a new ability to say no. And then

I turned my thoughts to God whenever I'm afraid. Whenever

I'm afraid, And this is how God spirit sets me

free from me with the attitude of fear. Romans eight.

Look at the next verses, verses fourteen to sixteen. For

the spirit God gives you does not make you slaves

and cause you to be afraid. Instead, the spirit makes

you God's children. And by the Spirit's power, we cry

out to God Father, my father. This is actually the

Aramaic word abba. Abba is not the group. It means daddy, papa.

You know, it's dad dad. It's the most basic intimate

form of father, Daddy, Daddy, my daddy. We cry out

to God Daddy, my daddy, Papa, my papa. Ahba my Abba.

God's spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that

we are God's children. Now, when I was a kid,

I wasn't very fearful at all. I really had almost

no fears as a child and was pretty reckless and

had a lot of fun growing up. But sometimes as

a young child at night, if I heard something that

was kind of scary and I was afraid, I would

always cry out to my father. I'd say Daddy, Daddy,

and he could hear me from my room in our house,

and my dad would come and see me. Now, when

I was afraid, I never called out for my mom.

And the reason why is I knew my dad was stronger. Now,

my dad wasn't a big guy, but he was very

strong because he was a hard worker, and I knew

he could take on anybody. And so I'd say Daddy.

Whenever I was afraid, I would cry out to Daddy.

This is exactly what God tells you to do when

you're afraid. Stop focusing on fear. Start focusing on your father.

That's the antidote. Stop focusing on your fear. Start focusing

on your father. Now, he says, the antidote to fear

is two things. First, he says, the spirit that God

has given you doesn't make you slaves, make you afraid,

but he makes you God's children. Whenever you are afraid,

the first thing you need to do is remember this

whose family you're a part of. I'm a son of God.

I'm a daughter of God. I'm a child of God.

I'm in the family, and families take care of each other,

and there's family protection. Now, Let's say you grew up

in Chicago or New York City and your family was

a part of the family okay, the mafia family. Okay.

And you're walking down the street as a kid, okay,

and somebody starts to assault you and you stop me.

He says, oh, wait, just a minute. Do you know

who I am? Do you know who I am? My

father is Guido, and Guido works for Bruno, and Bruno

is the Copo de capo de Capo de capo. He

will make you an offer you can't refuse. Are you

sure you want to touch me? Because I'm in the family.

And Guy says, well, on second thought, you can have

your money back because the family protects you. Now, when

you start to be afraid, God says the first thing.

He says, wait a minute, do you know who my

father is? My father is the creator of the universe.

My father is God. I'm a child of God. I'm

in the family. God takes care of you kids. And

then I cry out to Father, Father, would you take

care of this fear for me? Will you handle this

one for me and my heaven? The Father says, of course,

I'll handle it. For me, go back to sleep. You

don't have to worry about it. I'll take care of you.

When you were afraid, you remember whose family you're in.

You're a child of God. You're not a slave. You're

a child of God and he's going to take care

of you. And second you call out to your father. Now,

what are you most afraid of? What are you most

afraid of? These days? You know the number one fear

people have. I know all the studies people say it's

the fear of speaking in front of others, It's the

fear of heights, or you know, the fear of new

social situations. Actually, what I've found is a pastor talking

to people for thirty years. The number one fear people

have is the fear of being out of control. And

when you feel your life is out of control, it

creates enormous fear in your life. And the longer you

feel it's out of control, you start thinking I'm out

of control, and then you start thinking maybe I'm losing

my mind, and you start feary, maybe I'm going crazy,

maybe I'm going insane. You've all felt this at different

times in your life, so don't act like so self righteous.

Everybody I think I'm losing my mind. I think I'm

going crazy. I'm afraid I'm going nuts. Now, let me

just put you at ease. You're not going crazy because

crazy people don't fear that. Crazy people are very happy

to be crazy and don't care. The very fact that

you are afraid you're going crazy means you're rational, so

you're not You're not going crazy. The fear that you're

going crazy shows that you're very very rational. Crazy people

aren't afraid of being crazy. So I want everybody to

say this. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy. Okay, let's

say it a lout together. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy.

Let's say it again. I'm broken, but I'm not crazy. Now,

some of you are afraid to say it, so let's

say it again. Okay, ready, I'm broken, but I'm not crazy.

Everybody's broken. I'm broken, you're broken. The person sitting next

to you is broken. We're all. Nothing is perfect in

this world. But you're not crazy. Now. The Bible says

that we should not be afraid, but we turned to God.

I remember one time in northern California. It's the year

I got married. At the end of the year, that

I got married thirty six years ago, my health broke

and I began to develop a fear that it's never

going to go away, that my life is over shoot.

My life hadn't even started. I hadn't even started, but

I was afraid, this is the end of my life.

I'm never going to mount anything. Nothing's going to happen

in my life. God isn't going to use me. I'm

going to be an invalid my entire life, and on

and on and on. And I was filled with these fears,

and so we took a month off from work and

Kay and I went to northern California, where my parents

lived out in the country in the redwoods. And while

we were there, one day, I got up in the

morning and I was so depressed because these fears were

just clawing at my mind all the time. And the

phone rang and my mom picked it up and she

handed it to Kay and the man said, is this

where Rick Warren is staying? And they said, yes, Can

I talk to him? She said yes, She hands me

the phone. This guy says, Rick, we've never met. I

don't know you, you don't know me. I'm calling from

San Diego. But I heard that you were going through

a tough time, and I just want to give you

a verse, and it is this, God is two Timothy

one seven. God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but a spirit of power and love and self control.

And he hung up that verse changed my life. Here

it is on the screen. For the spirit that God

has given us does not make us fearful or timid. Instead,

his spirit fills us with power, love and self control.

Now get this, The more controlled you are by the

Holy Spirit, the more self control you've got to have,

you're going to have, you're going to have. Now get this.

A lot of people are afraid of the Holy Spirit.

It's like, I don't want to be filled with the spirit.

Fill the spirit. That'll turn me into some nut. I'm

gonna be some religious fanatic. I'm gonna be like some

of those people on TV saying, babe, you know, out

foul spirit a nicotine, you know, and I'm gonna be

falling over backwards and I'm gonna be you know, I'm

gonna lose control. Actually it's the exact opposite. The more

you have of the Holy Spirit, the more self controlled

you are. In fact, God does not give us it says,

a spirit of fear. So if you are afraid, that's

not from God. That fear is not from God. When

God's Spirit comes into your life, you're filled with love.

I want that you're filled with power. I want that

you're filled with self control. I want that. Okay, Holy Spirit,

I want all you got film me. It doesn't make

me some nut case. It makes me more human, It

makes me more natural, It makes me more loving, It

makes me more in self controlled, mastered by the Master.

I can master anything. Throw it at me, handle it.

Why because I can do all things through Christ, who

strengthens me. So the spirit in me doesn't make me

a lunatic or religious nut. To be filled with the

spirit makes me more self controlled. And believe me, brother,

you need more self control. The more spirit controlled I am,

the more self controlled I am. Number five, the three more.

Let's move these real quickly. The fifth thing we learned

from Romans eight is about the antidote the hopelessness, and

that's verses seventeen and eighteen. And the habit I want

you to learn to develop is to focus on the

long term, not the short term. Focus on the long term,

not the short term. You know, there's a very famous

study done by Harvard University, very very famous study that

found out that figured out that the more long term

you're thinking is the more successful you're going to be

in life. The shorter term you're thinking is the more

failure you're going to be in life. People who fail

at life have short term thinking. They're only thinking about today.

They're only thing about here and now, the only thing

about what feels good to me right now. But the

longer term you think, the more successful you'll be in life.

In fact, the longest term thinkers are those who are

most successful in life. Now, as a Christian, we can

win this one hands down because when we think in

terms of long term thinking, we call it eternity, because

we're not just thinking about life here on this earth.

We're not thinking about forty fifty years ahead. We're thinking

about trillions and trillions and trillions of years ahead. And

living in light of eternity is the key to being

the most successful you could possibly be thinking in long term. Now,

when you think in long term, you're able to handle

short term pain a whole lot better. You're able to

handle short term losses, short term failures, short term hindrances

because you're thinking long term. Here at Saddleback, we went

fifteen years without a building. A lot of pastors would

have given up not having a building for fifteen years.

Saddleback groot over ten thousand people before we built this building.

But it didn't bother me because I was thinking long

term of in spending my entire life as a pastor

of one church. So fifteen years, so what that's just

fifteen years. I was thinking long term. And while you're

thinking about today and this week for your life as

your pastor who loves you, I'm always thinking ahead for

your life. I'm thinking about what are you going to

be at the end of the year, What are you

going to be at the end of five years, What

are you going to be at the end of ten years.

It's called decade of destiny, and that's why I'm thinking

about how to help you become all God wants you

to be. I'm doing some long term thinking for your

life and going where do I need to take you

so that you'll be what you want to be and

what God wants you to be in ten years. Most

people aren't thinking that. The whole society teaches you to

think short term, and we'll look at that when we

get to the world. Now. Romans Chapter eight, verses seventeen

and eighteen talks about focusing on the long term, and

it talks about the promises of God the next few verses.

Since we are his children, we will possess circle the

word will. That's a promise that's in the future. It's

not now. Doesn't say we do possess, we will. It's

long term. Since we are his children, we will possess

the blessings He keeps for his family, and we will

also possess this is really cool. We will also possess

with Christ what God has kept for him. Did you

know that The Bible says that when you get to heaven,

you're going to get rewarded. You will be rewarded for

how well you did with what you were given. What

did you do with your time? What did you do

with your money? What did you do with your influence?

What did you do with your talents, your time, your talents,

your treasure. This is called the stewardship of life. And

God has put stuff in your hands, and your steward

of you're going to be evaluated on that in heaven

and your rewards will be based on that, and you're

going to be rewarded. But not only that. The Bible

says you're going to be rewarded not just for how

well a steward you were. You're going to be rewarded

for what Jesus did. Did you know that? Look at

that verse again, it says, and also we will possess

with Christ what God has kept for him. Did you

know that? The Bible says that in heaven we are

going to co reign with Christ. We're going to be

heirs with Christ from the Father. We're going to co

reign with Christ. The easiest way for me to explain

that is, imagine in heaven this giant theater sign, like

a big Vegas sign that's flashing that says, now starring

for eternity Jesus Christ, co starring your name. That's what

it means to share in Christ's glory. You're going to

do that in heaven. So you need to focus not

on your little pity, petty pain right now, but on

the long term benefits of doing the right thing and

sharing in glory forever. Notice it says the rest of

that verse, for if we share Christ's suffering, we will

also share his glory. I consider that what we suffer

at this present time cannot be compared, in other words,

of small potatoes, with all the glory that is going

to be revealed in us. To us, he said, Yeah,

you know what, it's not always easy living for Christ.

It's not always easy doing the right thing. It's not

always easy making the moral decision. But the benefit long

term is going to far outlast the pain. You need

to focus long term, not short term. Now practical example,

Daniel plan. Daniel Plan means you put up with short

term pain and exercise and eating and things like that

for long term benefits, and you don't give up. Same

thing with Bible study, same thing with witnessing, same thing

with tithing giving of your money. You put up with

short term pain for long term benefit. Focus on the

long term. Not sure if you're focusing all in short term.

There's a one word for it. It's foolish. It's foolish.

If you're a college student, I beg you to not

focus on the here and now, the parties and the

fund and all that stuff, but focus on the long

term where you want to be. Number six. The sixth

habit is to remind myself that God is good and

in control. This is an application of what the Bible

teaches in Romans chapter eight. This is how God sets

us free from the self destructive weapon of bitterness. Remind

myself that God is good and in control, and you

are mean to remind yourself of that over and over

and over and over and over every single day. Now,

I don't have time to get into this, but in

verses nineteen to twenty five of Romans chapter eight, Paul

describes how sin has damaged the world. If I got

into this, the sermon would be twice as long. We

don't have time to get into it, so let me

just summarize. In verses nineteen to twenty five, Paul says,

everything in the world is broken. Everything in the world

has lost its original purpose. Everything in the world is suffering.

Everything in the world is in pain, and everything in

the world is frustrated because Sin broke it all down.

Everything is frustrated. The fact, look at this verse on

the screen, verse twenty. Everything created is subject to frustration,

waiting to be liberated, set free from me, waiting to

be liberated from its bondage to decay. All of creation

groans in pain, like childbirth, and we groan inwardly. We're going,

oh man, this is tough. This is hard, this is difficult.

Why is life so hard? Says the environment is groaning.

I think earthquakes, and I think you know, hurricanes, and

I think all the wacky weathers. There is the environment

groaning because it's broken. And we grown in pain because

relationships are broken. And later you're going to find out

that this Holy Spirit groans in pain for you. There

are three growns in this chapter. Now. He says that

the result of living in a broken world is pain,

and the result of pain is bitterness. And that's a

self destructive weapon. When I look out and I go,

he's got a nicer house than I do, she's got

a better job than I do. How come her kids

are like that? How come my? And you start comparing

and you start getting envious and you start getting jealous,

and then people hurt you and you get bitter and

you get grudges and you get resentful. That's a pain

that's going to eat you up. You got to learn

how to deal with that weapon of self destruction. And

the way you do it is remind yourself that God

is good and in control that God is good, is

in control. The result of living in a broken world

is pain, and the result of pain is bitterness. And

as a result, we get bitter inside and we start

getting resentful and lea fair life is unfair? Well, yeah,

what else is new? Life is unfair? It's because it's broken.

But the Bible says in Romans eight that there are

four things you need to remember to get over bitterness.

Now listen, pain in your life is not optional. But

misery is pain in your life is You're going to

have pain in your life. It's called life. Suffering in

your life is not optional. You're going to suffer. Misery is.

Moaning is optional. Bitterness is optional, and you overcome bitterness

by remembering four magnificent truths. In Romans eight, Verse twenty

six and twenty seven says this, the Holy Spirit is

praying for me. You write write that down. The Holy

Spirit is praying for me. That helps me overcome bitterness

because no matter what I'm going through, I know God's

on my side. He's praying for me. It says here

the Spirit helps us with our weakness. And we don't

know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit

himself speaks to God for us. God's praying to himself.

He's talking to himself about you. He said, how does

God talk to himself? Oh, you don't ever do that.

You talk to yourself all the time. When God talks

to himself about you, that's called prayer. Okay. The Spirit

of God, it says, prays for us and even begs

God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain.

God sees what's in our hearts, and the spirit speaks

to God for his people in the way that God wants.

So when you're no matter what you're going through, the

first thing, he goes, you know what, right now, the

Holy Spirit is praying for me. That's cool. Second thing,

God is using it all for good. That second thing,

I remember, God is using everything in my life for good.

It's not all good good, but he's using it all

for good. The next verse says this, and we know

that in all things God works for the good of

those who love Him who've been called according to his purpose.

It's not all good, but God is using it all

for good. God is greater than my problems. God is

greater than my enemies. God is greater than my critics

and God is using it all for good in my life.

Number three, God wants me to succeed. Did you know that?

Did you know that God wants you to succeed. He

doesn't want you to fail in your life. He wants

you to succeed in your life. God is not against

you if you're a Christian, if you're a believer, God

is for you. The Bible says in verse thirty one,

So what can we say against such wonderful things, about

such wonderful things, all the stuff we've talked about, What

do we say about all these wonderful things? If God

is for us, who can be against us? Remember, I'm

in the family. My father is God, and so God

wants me to succeed. And finally, number four, God will

give me what I need. When I'm feeling blue and

when I'm feeling bitter, I need to rememb mind myself

that God is good, He's in control, his spirit is

praying for me. He's using everything for good in my life.

He wants me to succeed, and He's going to give

me what I need Verse thirty two. Since God did

not spare even his own son, but gave him up

for us, all won't God give us. Won't God who

gave us Christ give us everything else? Wow? He said,

If God loves you enough to let Jesus die on

the cross for you, don't you think he loves you

enough to help you with your debt? Don't you think

he cares enough to help you with your health? Elth

don't you think he cares about you when your face

breaks out? There is nothing in your life that God

doesn't care about. I threw that one in because it

seems so ridiculous. There is nothing in your life that

God doesn't care about. You got set upset tummy. God

cares about it. He knows every hair on your head.

God will give me what I need. If God didn't

spare his sun to solve my biggest problem, everything else

is small potatoes. It's all minor to him. There is

no big problem in your life. They're all small problems

to God. Now, finally we come to the last habit

you need to develop. These are all mental habits. You

need to take this home, write it down, put it

on your windshield, of that windshield so you can't see

it right, Put it on your mirror and you in

your bathroom. Put it on your refrigerator. Put it on

your visor in your car. So every day you can

remind yourself to practice these habits that defeat the habits

of self destruction. And the seventh habit destroys the seventh enemy,

which is insecurity. Now, the fact is, when you feel insecure,

it really messes up your life. And the worst fear

that we have in insecurity is the rejection. Many of

you have experienced rejection. You felt it from your parents.

Why can't you be like your sister or your brother?

You felt rejected by kids on the playground and they

made fun of you and they made up names. You

felt rejected by a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Maybe you've

been rejected by a spouse. And nothing hurts more than rejection.

But one thing I can tell you this is God's

never going to reject you. And the seventh habit is

this trust that God will never stop loving me. Trust

that God will never never stop loving me. I'm in

the family. He cannot not love his family. He will

never stop loving me Romans eight thirty eight and thirty

nine in the chapter Now, I'm convinced that nothing ever

can ever separate us from His love. Death can't life can't.

The angels can't, demons can't. Satan can't separate you from God.

Our fears for today are worries about tomorrow. Even the

powers of hell can't keep God's love away. Whether we're

high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing

in all creation will ever be able to separate us

from the love of God that is revealed in Christ.

Jesus our Lord. I may lose a lot of things

in life, but I'll never lose my salvation. You can't

lose it because nothing. Once you're in God's hand. He's

not letting go of you. You may want to let go,

but He's not letting go of you. You cannot lose

your salvation. Now, my question is this, do you belong

to Christ? Because none of these things are true in

your life unless you belong to Christ. Do you have

the Holy Spirit in your life? You say, well, I

don't know. Well let's make certain of it right now.

That's bow our heads and I'm going to pray a

prayer as we close, and I'm going to ask you

to pray it. Say this in your heart, Dear Jesus Christ,

thank you for all that you did for me. Thank

you that there's no condemnation in my life. For all

the sin I've done, you took that condemnation. Thank you

that you did what the law couldn't do. Thank you

that you destroyed sins control. Thank you that you accomplished

the law in my life. And my righteousness is nothing,

but your righteousness is what ticket I get into heaven on.

Help me to never forget what you did for me.

And when I feel ashamed me, remember what you did

on the cross for me, Holy Spirit, I ask you

to give me better thoughts. I want to switch mindsets.

I don't want the mindset of self destruction. I want

the mindset of life and peace. I don't want to

think my old ways. I want to think your new ways.

I invite you to put thoughts in my mind all

the time, for they are the truth. And help me

to remember and realize that I have a new ability

to say no. Lord. I used to just have willpower,

but now I've got spirit power. I'm not obligated to

give into those compulsions anymore. That if I ask you

for help, you'll help me and give me the strength

to say no. Thank you, that no temptation is too strong,

and when I'm afraid. Help me to turn my thoughts

to you. Help me to reme remember that I'm your child,

and help me to cry out to you, Father, Daddy,

I'm afraid to focus on my father, not my fears.

And help me to focus on the long term, not

the short term. You know the pain in my life,

you know the suffering. I want you to use it

for good and I want you to use it for

your glory. And I want to look and focus long

term on eternity, not just to hearing now. I want

to do the right thing, not the easy thing. And

when I start to get bitter and I feel life

is unfair, and when I feel hurt, help me to

remember that you God are good and you're in control,

that you are praying for me. Thank you for doing that,

that you are working all things for good. Thank you

for doing that. That you are for me, not against me.

Thank you for that, And that you didn't spare Jesus

and so you'll give us whatever we need. Thank you

for that. Most of all, I thank you that you

will never let go of me, You'll never stop loving me,

you'll never reject me. Thank you that I cannot lose

my salvation, No matter what else I lose on this planet,

that you will never stop loving me. If you've never

invited Jesus Christ in your heart, Jesus say, I want

you to be my lord, my savior. I want you

to be the manager of my life. I don't understand

it all, but I want to trust in you completely.

Thank you for your grace to me. I want to

love you for the rest of my life, and I

ask you to accept me into your family by faith.

In your name, I pray Amen.