Romans 8:12

Chapter 8, Romans Chapter 8, the Epistle, recall the letter to the Romans. I think it was to the brothers of the 12 that I was saying, for the benefit of those who are beginning in faith, beginning in the ways of the Lord, who sometimes do not know all the biblical language. When we talk about the letter to the Romans, we are talking about a treatise, a theological work that one of the Apostles did to enlighten and instruct a congregation or a group of Christians in a specific city.

In this case the Apostle Paul wrote a treatise, a writing to Rome, to the Christians in Rome, a great, great city evidently almost a nation, the capital of the Roman Empire. There were Christians there already by then and Paul writes them a letter to instruct them in the things of faith and matters of Christian belief.

Romans is a well-known letter for all its very deep, very theological, very fundamental elements of the Christian life. So we start reading in verse 12 of Romans Chapter 8, I love to see some pens and pencils. If you have a pen in your hand, please pick it up now. Incredible. Wow! Awesome. I didn't know that... listen to me, that's great. And are they going to use them?.... amen, ok. What a bless. That means they're paying attention, hopefully others...

I was thinking about that this morning, by the way. Bring your Bible to church. If you are beginning in the ways of the Lord, get used to bringing your Bible, even if it is for decoration, but bring it. I remember those Christians when I was a child, about 15 or so or 20 years ago, in the Dominican Republic, the... all right, don't give me a hard time. Those evangelicals who went with their tremendous bibles through the streets and were… actually shone for their exceptionality. There weren't that many but they weren't ashamed to say 'I'm an evangelical'. They called them Hallelujah, this and that, but they walked with their Bibles to go to church. In the streets they gave testimony. "Look, there goes one, he is an evangelical who believes in Jesus Christ."

And we testify in this way and it is also a way of getting used to bringing your Bible and studying the word, of not being a passive listener but rather being a listener who is interacting with the concepts and the lessons they are receiving. That is very beautiful, very important, so I encourage you. Buy your children a Bible too, get them used to coming to church with their Bible. That will stick in their minds when they are older.

Verse 12 says “...so, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh so that we may live according to the flesh, because if you live according to the flesh -what will happen?-. ...you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body - what will happen? - ... you will live.”

There is a contrast here, no, between dying and living, flesh and spirit. It is the contrast, the spirit gives life, the flesh leads to death.

"....for all, says verse 14, all who are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God, for you have not received the spirit of slavery to fear again , but you have received the spirit - of what? - ... of adoption.”

Look there is another contrast between slavery and adoption.

".... you have received the spirit of adoption for which we cry aba, which means 'daddy', 'daddy', 'father'. The spirit itself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God and if children we are also - what? - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer together with him so that together with him we may be glorified ".

So here begins a new line of thought that is related to the above. He says: burning of creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Because the creation was subjected to.... not by its own will but because of the one who subjected it in hope, because also the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption to the glorious freedom of the children of God.

For we know that all creation groans together and travails together until now. And not only she, but also ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, we also groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Because in hope we were saved, but the hope that is seen is not hope because what someone sees what to expect. But if we wait for what we do not see, we wait patiently for it. And in the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness, since we do not know what we have to ask for as it should be. But the spirit itself intercedes for us with unspeakable groans. But he who searches the hearts knows what the intention of the spirit is because according to the will of God he intercedes for the saints.”

The Lord bless his holy word. What a beautiful passage. We can't do it justice in thirty minutes, but at least we can isolate a few thoughts.

You will remember that last Sunday we talked about the Apostle Paul begins there in Romans, Chapter 8 saying “now then, none what? There is condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, those who walk, he says, according to the spirit, not according to the flesh.

And we stopped there, we meditated on that idea that now we who are in Christ Jesus, do not have to live condemnation, under guilt, under fear, under that sense that God will be angry with me, I am going to save myself or not, fearful of death and the afterlife. The convinced Christian who has been treated by the holy spirit and who has been introduced to the glories of the Christian life, no longer lives under that shadow, he does not have that dark cloud over his head. Now you have entered a luminous dimension, full of hope.

Now the Apostle Paul speaks of the fact that two things are important: first, that he be in Christ Jesus, and second, that he walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. And we dealt a little with that, what does it mean to live according to the spirit, right?

We said that the person who walks in the spirit, who lives in the spirit, is the person who places his or her priority on eternal things, spiritual things. There are two ways of living: focused on the material, on the now and here, on the world and its rewards and its pleasures and its priorities, or on eternity, living for God, for sublime things, for eternal values, for perpetual holiness, the values of the Kingdom of God, the improvement of our highest being.

There are people whose goal is to bring their body to the state of greatest perfection and effectiveness, and you see that since they leave work they immediately go to the gym and spend two hours there and take care of what they They eat so that their tummy doesn't bulge out even half an inch and everything has... it's the meat, right?

Others put their emphasis, and it's not bad to take care of yourself. Others put their emphasis on things of the spirit and their greatest pleasure is what? Well, study the word of the Lord, serve God, adore the Lord, have communion with your brothers, grow in faith, get rid of the imperfections of your personality and your temperament, and every day, as the word says, be more and More like Jesus Christ. That is his priority, that is what his life is focused on. And they do a number of other things: they work, they have their little bank account, they attend to their businesses, they go on vacation from time to time. None of that is bad, but the main thing in their life is things of the spirit and they have their mind set on eternity. And those are the people who truly benefit from being Christians, right?

So, all of that is what it says in the passage before the one we read today, it says that “.....if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the who raised Christ from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

You know, brothers, the greatest benefit that the child of God has of all the benefits that one can claim as a child of God, the greatest of all is eternal life, the salvation of our soul. Because here on earth God can give you many things, he can bless you with health, with a family blessing, money, all those very good things, but when you die there all that is over.

But, listen to me, the person who has Christ, death is simply a transfer to a perfect life. There is no death for the child of God. The Christian goes from an imperfect life to a totally perfect life. So, that is the idea that the one who is in Christ Jesus has life insurance, look, neither the Metropolitan, nor any, nor John Hancock, nor any insurance company can give you the insurance that Christ gives you.

The greatest hope of all is knowing that when I am there on my deathbed, I can trust that there will be a host of angels waiting to welcome me into eternity. That's why we don't have to be afraid of death.

To me the death of a child of God, I tell you the truth, causes me pain because they are going on a trip and I will not see them for a long time, but I know they are in a better place.

This week we went to the funeral of our beloved brother, William González and we saw him there in his coffin with his family around him, and I tell you the truth, brothers, even though I loved William so much through We have known him for so many years, and that happens to me over and over again, when I go to a funeral for a child of God, I sometimes go to see the body that is in the coffin out of courtesy, not because I am interested in seeing it, nor with my dad when he died many years ago, I actually made a resolution not to see his body, because in reality that's not the person anymore. The son of God has already left with the Lord, what remains there is the container. What remains there is simply a shell because his essence, his personality, his life is already with the Lord.

That is the reality that comforts us. That is the greatest consolation. So, it is the greatest treasure that a child of God has that is in Christ Jesus, who lives in the spirit, so that is why the Apostle Paul says in verse 12, "...so, brothers..."

In other words, as a consequence of that great benefit that having Christ as our savior and living in the spirit gives us, as a consequence of that, we are no longer debtors to the flesh, so that we live according to the meat. Because if we live according to the flesh we are going to die, but we are debtors to what? To the spirit.

In other words, what the Apostle Paul is saying, as a consequence of that great benefit and those other benefits that you obtain for being a child of God through Christ Jesus and you do not owe the meat, your commitment is not with the meat. Because what does meat give you? It says, death and it's true. We read there what are the works of the flesh: enmities, lawsuits, orgies, death, violence, the world lives. Look around you, look at human history, look at human politics today, look at how nations are doing, and you will see what meat leads to.

Then, the Apostle Paul says to each one of us 'Gentlemen, if you live in the flesh, if you live under the dictates of the flesh, if you live attending to the things of the flesh, and if they live focused on the things of the flesh, as if they owe something to the flesh, as if the flesh were its creditor, which has the right to demand something from you, you are condemned to death'.

That is, death is everything that is negative. It is not death in the only biological sense that they cut off your head and you stopped living. No, the death of which the Bible speaks is a spiritual death, it is the death of everything beautiful, everything good, everything healthy, everything noble, everything worthy of praise, that the devil likes to kill and destroy and ugly That is death. Because it kills all that, everything beautiful that is in human beings.

So, you owe him nothing. If the benefits you get as a child of God come from living in the spirit, and living in Jesus Christ then there is a contradiction. There are many Christians who, having benefited so much from the spirit, still live captive to the dictates of the flesh. So, we live a schizophrenic, divided life. We go to church for a while, we worship the Lord, we handle the concepts of the Bible and we are there in glory, but we leave the church and again to splash the mud of meat.

We live as if we did not know God. We turn to the eagerness of life, to the vanity of the eyes, says the vanity of the mind. Many of us are like this, prisoners and captives to what they will say, to friends, and to culture.

There is a passage in Ephesians, Chapter 2, says that when we are without Christ we lived as slaves of the world, prisoners of the spirit that reigns over the powers of the air. It says "... captives to our delights and passions."

This is how many Christians live even. It's a contradiction. Paul says 'no, my brothers, you cannot live like this, you no longer owe the flesh nor does the flesh have any hold on your lives. You shouldn't have it, because the only thing that meat leads to is death.

Verse 14 says "...for all who are led by the spirit of God, these are sons of God"

There is something, that leads the Apostle Paul to all a series of ideas that he develops later.

What does it mean to be children of God? Well, many say, well, we are all children of God. And it is true, in a general sense every human being, well, has his life because God exists. But you know what? in the real sense of the expression not all men, not all human beings are children of God. Perhaps all human beings are God's creatures like fish, animals, birds, but not all are God's children.

Says the word of the Lord, in John I believe that in the book of John, it says that to those who received it, it says "to those who believed in his name was given the power to become children of God ”.

Only those who have recognized Jesus as their Lord and savior can be changed to the status of children of God. Again, in that passage from Ephesians, Chapter 2, it says that when we were in Christ we were children of wrath. I looked up the word anger in Spanish, I looked it up in the original Greek and it is the same word that is used for orgy. The idea refers to a strong passion, a strong feeling. The wrath of God is so great that it is like an orgy, it is orgiastic. That is, when you are without Christ, you are under the wrath of God, you are a child of wrath.

The man or woman who does not have Christ in their heart is reserved, he says, for the day of wrath. Now God contains his wrath on humanity because his mercy pushes him to be patient with this rebellious humanity, but one day he will unleash his wrath against this world and all those who are not covered by the blood of Jesus will feel the wrath of God. They will feel it either here on earth or in the final judgment, but they will feel it.

The only thing that guarantees you to have peace with God is to have Christ as your savior and Lord. Thank God that you know Jesus Christ. Thank God that you have given your soul and life to the Lord Jesus. And if you haven't, be afraid and make sure you don't leave this place without having made your peace with God, because the only one who can be called a child of God is one who has Christ in his heart.

And what does that mean too? It means that we have been adopted. The Apostle Paul handles that idea in verse 15, that is another very important concept that we must understand, to fully understand the concept of being children of God, being made children of God.

Verse 15 says here, "....for you have not received the spirit of slavery to fear again"

Do you see what we say about there being no condemnation? That is the spirit of fear. There is no condemnation.

Then he says, “...you have not received the spirit of slavery to fear again, but you have received the spirit of what? for which we cry, aba, 'daddy', 'daddy'....”

What does that mean? Again, when you receive Jesus into your heart there is a spirit that enters your life and it is not the spirit of fear. Many Christians live under that spirit of fear, they have not learned freedom in Christ Jesus. We always live in fear that the devil is going to do this to me, the devil is going to do that to me, and that people are bad, and that something will happen to me in the street when I go out, and that God is upset with me and we live in that spirit of how a kind of paranoia. The good news of the Gospel of salvation has not penetrated into us. And Paul says 'no, my brothers, what you have now received is a spirit of adoption.'

Look, there is a play on words between slavery and adoption. Being a slave and being an adopted son. There are a wealth of images there that remind us, the Apostle Paul speaks of the slave and the son. A slave has no right to anything, a slave is simply property. And a son has all the rights of his family, and of his paternity.

Now, there have been slaves throughout history who have been adopted and who have become children. I don't know how many have seen the novel, or the movie Ben Hur, right? That was many years ago, it's still on video. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you look it up. It's a beautiful, beautiful movie. Ben Hur and I think it should be in Spanish too.

And there's an interesting episode of what it's like to be adopted according to the Roman code. Remember that Paul is writing to Romans who understood all these legal concepts that prevailed in the Roman Empire. And the adoption process in Rome was something tremendously complex and very solemn.

For a man, for example, or a woman to be adopted into another family, you had to go through a very elaborate process. The first thing to understand is this, that in the Roman Empire there was a concept called 'patria potestas', or paternal power, that a father had absolute power over his children, absolute control even when they came of age.

And for a person to be adopted by another father, the patria potestas had to be broken first, that is, the paternal authority of the first parent, in order to pass to the patria potestas of the second parent. There had to be a whole legal process for that to happen.

So, this person when he went through the process of coming under his new dad, he got all the rights of his new dad. He became an heir even to his property, as any other son had the legal right to inherit part of his father. Even if other natural children came to that father, that adopted child had all the rights of one more child. His right to inherit could not be taken away.

Another thing too, when that son passed to the patria potestas of his adoptive father, his old life ceased to exist. If he had debts, for example, in his old life, all that was completely nullified because he ceased to exist in the old life and now moved on to a new life, as the adopted son of this new father and this new family. And it also passed under the control and domain and lordship of his new dad.

Look, you see the parallels with this idea that we're adopted children. We have received, he says, the spirit of adoption, not of slaves. In this Ben Hur movie, Ben Hur practically goes from being a slave and this Roman potentate, a nobleman, a great Roman nobleman, adopts him as his son. Then Ben Hur happens to have all the rights of a Roman citizen of the noble class, of the upper class. Now his status as a Jewish slave, all that is put aside, and he becomes a Roman with all the rights and all the dignity of a Roman. A nice story, see it. The story is beautiful. A history of the time of Christ.

So when Paul is talking about us being adopted children, and no longer being slaves, he's playing with these images, right? When we were without Christ we were slaves to sin, he says, we were governed and slaves to the demonic spirit that governs the cosmos, the universe. We were slaves, we were children of the devil, children of wrath, condemned to death. We had no relationship with God. We were slaves to the passions of our flesh. There was no hope for us.

That's why I don't believe, brothers, how a Christian, a Christian person can say 'I can't break that habit, I can't break that addiction.'

If Paul says here that the spirit of slavery has been broken. Yes, maybe we are going to have to fight and fight against something in our mind or in our life, but a Christian can't say 'oh, I'm going to get used to this habit because I can't, I'm not able to break it. I was born that way and that's how I'm going to die.

That is a lie from the devil. The Christian is not a slave to anything, brother, believe it in the name of Jesus. Pablo says 'I will not let myself be dominated by anything'. What's more, don't let yourself be dominated by even something good, I tell you, brothers, because sometimes there are things that one does by compulsion and not by choice. There are people, for example, who are generous with others, not because they have gone through a process of understanding why it is good to be generous with others, but because they need to serve and to be approved and to say that they are good and they are under a psychological compulsion, and that is not good.

When you do something, do it lucidly. Do it because you chose having understood why you do things. Do it smart. Don't be a slave to any impulse in your life. Make sure that in everything you try as much as possible to subdue your flesh, subdue your passions. We have to do that, brothers, because meat is always a trap. Those areas of our life that we have not surrendered to the Lord are areas of danger and we are not going to be governed by anything.

Our life must always be a total emancipation from all slavery. Any area of your life that binds you and leads you to do things you don't want, declare yourself against it and declare revolution in the name of Jesus. I'm going to fight you until I beat you, tell any situation in your life. Because God has broken your spirit of slavery and has given you a spirit of freedom in Christ Jesus.

So, we are adopted. Go? We went from being slaves of the flesh, slaves of the devil, slaves of the world, we now pass to the patria potestas of our heavenly God. Now, he is the one in charge, he is the one who governs our life. We pass from the demonic government to the divine government. Our old life ended, as the adopted son ended in Rome and our new life begins in Christ Jesus.

Second Corinthians says, I think 7:14, says “... if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." The adopted son passes from a life of death and addiction to meat to freedom. All debts are also cancelled.

The word of the Lord says that on the cross Christ defeated principalities and powers and neutralized all accusations of the devil against us. He nailed all our sins to the cross of Calvary. All debts were forgiven. And now we enter our free condition.

And another thing is that we can inherit according to our heavenly father. There are many passages that speak of the inheritance we have received as adopted children. As a son of God, a daughter of God, you now have rights, you know? To inherit like Christ Jesus.

Look at what it says right there in verse 16, it says “... the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God and if children also, what? heirs of God and what? joint-heirs with Christ.” Hallelujah!

There is something very, very nice there. Returning, following the image of the Roman-style adoption. You know that the Roman adoption process was so complex, so serious that it required 7 witnesses present to testify that the adoption was legitimate and permanent. Because? Because if one day there was a question about the capacity of that adoptive son to inherit, or that it had not been done well, or that it was a lie because the father had died and there are no longer people who can or there are no documents that can prove that this person was actually adopted, there were witnesses who could go to court and say, 'yes, I was present when this person was adopted through valid legal proceedings.'

So look at what it says. , says that “....the spirit gives what? witness that we are children of God.

Do you know who the witness is in that adoption process? The holy spirit that is in you. When the devil comes to tell you, 'ah, you are close, you were not truly converted, you were not saved, this and that', tell him 'lie in the name of Jesus, I was adopted by God when I received Christ as my Lord and savior, and the spirit of God testifies that I am a daughter, a son of God.'

That's why it's important to have fellowship with that holy spirit, to stay tender. Do not let anything harden your heart and dull it so that you have difficulty feeling the emanations that come from the spirit of God, that you are tender and can listen when the spirit says 'no, you are well, God loves you. Perhaps you sinned, perhaps you offended, but the Lord has already forgiven you because you repented. You are right with God.

Don't let the devil ever testify to you that no, you were not truly regenerated. The holy spirit that is within you as a result of being a child of God must always bear witness that you are truly a child of God.

By the way, we cannot escape that beautiful word that says that “....the spirit of adoption for which we cry aba, father”.

When I was in Israel this last time I could hear children saying 'aba' to their dad in Hebrew. That word I did realize that they were saying it. Aba, because at least that little word I already knew from Biblical Hebrew and aba literally means 'daddy'.

Actually, you guys don't feel it, the word aba is a word like sweet, so it's a cute word. Notice that for the Jews it must have been very strange because the Jew had an idea of Jehovah as the sublime God, sacred, 7 times holy, sitting on his throne of majesty, inaccessible, pure, who had to be approached through everything. type of sacrifices, to enter the most holy place you had to... only one man could enter there once a year under terrible fear.

Do you know that when the high priests entered the most holy place once a year, which was the most remote place of the Hebrew temple, they had to enter with some little bells in the lower part of their clothing and those little bells... .. and they also put a rope in his leg. I'll tell you why. While the priests heard the bells, that meant that everything was fine, the high priest was moving inside the most holy place. No one could enter there. Now, if the bells stopped ringing, you know that this man had some impurity and God had struck him down and killed him. That was the fear they had of entering that place where the 'shekinah', the glory of God, was supposedly. And then what happened? If he left, they would pull him, the body would be pulled because no one dared to enter the most holy place. That was the conception that the Hebrews had of the God they worshipped.

Now, look at what it says here that says that we have received the spirit of adoption for which we cry out and say 'daddy', 'daddy'. A Hebrew saying to that God is terrible, daddy, that was a complete thing, what's more, there are Christians who are offended when they hear other Christians say to God 'daddy', they believe that this is irreverent but the Apostle Paul says that our closeness with God is so big in Christ Jesus that we can say to God 'daddy', we can get closer. The writer of Hebrews says that we enter confidently before the throne of grace through that precious and wide path that God opened through Christ Jesus.

Do not approach God with fear, with fear, approach with reverence, yes, but approach with confidence, because Christ has already made you acceptable before God through his blood shed on the cross of Calvary .

So that's what I'm going to stop there. We are going to finish, I am going to ask the musicians to come over here quickly, but I want us to realize, brothers, all these beautiful ideas that are involved here.

It says that if we are children, we are also heirs and joint-heirs with Christ. Now, there is something here, he says that it is, if we suffer together with him so that together with him we may be, what? glorified.

Again, another pair of contrasting words there: suffer and be glorified. You know what? There are many people who only think about oh, to be glorified. They only think about the benefits of the Christian life, but you know what? There are also costs there, there are responsibilities, you have certain privileges but you also have to suffer together with Christ. You have to pay the price of being a Christian. Not all of the Christian life is just glory and joy and enjoyment. No, there are also tests that we are going to pass. There are difficulties that we are going to pass. There are privations, you have to hold on. You have to not do many things that you want and would like to do, you have to make an effort in the Lord. You have to sow in the Lord. You have to purify yourself and sanctify yourself. You have to cry many times too. You have to pay the price. I always say that to people who want to enter fully into the enjoyment of the Christian life. I tell them 'brother, pay the price.' Especially when we come from the world and we have to free ourselves from a lot of things, there is a price to pay. It's difficult, you have to work hard.

It says that the kingdom of heaven grows strong and the mighty take it by force. We must also suffer for Christ Jesus. Don't think it's all just glory, glory, glory. There are many preachers and many churches that only present people with the bright side of the Christian life, right?

God is going to give you a Cadillac. Don't worry, God is going to give you three cars in the marquee. God is going to give you a house and he is going to give you a husband with blue eyes and blond hair. And all this, right? and ask, ask, ask that you will receive. Don't worry, whatever you cry out for, God will give it to you, etc.

It's not that easy. The Christian life also has its struggles, brothers, it has its hardships, it has its price, but you know what? In that fight, God is going to build a man, a powerful woman in the Lord. In struggles and difficulties, God will make you better. Everything that happens in your life, and we are going to see that later, everything that happens in your life God is using to build a precious human being like Christ Jesus, to form the image of Jesus in your life. Whatever happens in your life, that is what Paul is going to say in the next few texts, it has a meaning and it will include suffering.

Look, if everything were good and joy and blessing in the Christian life, we would be spoiled children. We would be used to the fact that God gives me everything I want and that if he doesn't give it to me, I'll throw a dog, as we say many times, right? And we would be superficial because you know what? what creates depth in the human being is suffering many times.

It is so, if we did not suffer we would not reach the depths of human nobility, because pain has something that opens the chest and opens the feelings and makes us tender and the man who is too confident in himself makes tender To the woman who is too timid it makes her strong and firm and confident. So the Lord uses the whip many times and uses discipline to train his warriors as well and to strengthen and temper them in faith.

So we have to accept everything: glory and suffering as well. Now, the Bible says that if we suffer with Christ, we will be raised with him, we will reign with him, we will also be glorified.

Pay the price of being a child of God. Don't worry, here on earth whatever you get, receive it with joy, receive it with resignation, receive it with obedience. Kiss your dad's hand that from time to time slaps you, bless it, hold on there in the name of the Lord. Ask the Lord to give you grace and strength and one day you will also reign with Christ Jesus and receive the reward of all your sufferings. Because the Lord is faithful to fulfill what he has promised.

So, brothers, how beautiful is the Lord, we are not debtors to the flesh, we are debtors to the spirit. We live in the spirit because through that spirit we have been adopted, we have been made children of God, we can inherit all the rewards, all the blessings, all the riches of a child of God.

Here on earth we have reason to live with hope because Christ is with us. We are going to lower our heads for a moment and I would like to invite all of us who are here this morning to make an examination of conscience and ask ourselves: how am I in my relationship with Christ Jesus?

Can I truly say that I am a son, a daughter of God? Am I sure that I have been adopted to this new condition of being a child of God?

If you have doubts about that, because you are not sure if you have given your life to Jesus Christ, I want to invite you this morning to rectify that condition, that situation and make sure you leave here sure that you are, you have been made a daughter or a son of God receiving Jesus as your savior, declaring him as your Lord and opening your heart to Christ Jesus and publicly receiving him as your Lord.

And I want to ask if there is anyone who wants to open their heart to Jesus this morning. Raise your hand to pray for you. It can be on the balconies, wherever it is, I would like to invite you to make sure you have Christ in your heart if you have not done so before.

Is there anyone who wants to accept Jesus as their Lord and savior this morning? God bless that brother back there. God bless that hand too that's raised back there in the same area. Glory to God. Is there someone else who wants to invite Jesus as their Lord and savior? Raise your hand, bless the Lord, another sister here raising your hand.

We are adopted. Glory to God. Here in front of me too. We are made children of God, adopted into the Kingdom of God under patria potestas, the parental authority of God through that pact that we make with Christ Jesus, all our condemnations are cast aside, our sins are put aside and we are adopted to a legitimate condition of son of God. Will there be someone else who invites Christ into his heart?

The Lord says I will enter, if you open the door I will enter and have dinner with you and you with me.