Holiness, all or nothing

If there is a word that exemplifies today's sermon and the reading is the word resounding, the language that the apostle Paul uses, the images, the illustrations that he uses, is something very radical, total, resounding, there is no way around this. I invite you to go to chapter 11 verse 6, Romans 11:6, it says there: "So reckon yourselves dead to sin." You see this about how emphatically when you die it's not like uh, you're half dead, you're already dead, right? If you're not dead you're alive, it's not like being half alive or half dead, it's like being pregnant , a woman is not half pregnant, she is pregnant or not pregnant, it says, "consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body."

Do you see the idea there again?, do not reign, when sin reigns, He is saying it is something total, that sin do not dominate you, do not reign, many people think well, I am half in sin, Paul says that it should not reign sin in your mortal body, so that you obey him in his lusts, if you do not present yourselves to God as alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments of justice. With this I will conclude although the rest of the chapter is something that I want to talk about but this serves as a starting point.

"For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace", may the Lord bless his holy Word. Verse 11, why does it say that too? Well, because the apostle Paul is making a connection with what is before that verse 11 that we just read, and what is it before? We have already dealt with it When I spoke about baptism about two weeks ago, when we had those beautiful baptisms here at the end of the service, I used that sermon to give a teaching about the nature of baptism, what baptism is, what baptism symbolizes, what happens spiritually when we enter the baptismal waters and we use part of this chapter, where Paul, but notice in what context Paul speaks of baptism, and it is concerning sin, because all this chapter 6 what Paul is interested in point out is, when we are in the gospel, we are in Christ Jesus we are not supposed to continue with the same way of life, the same behavior, the same fallen and sinful moral paradigms that people live in when When we do not know the Lord, when we are in Christ we are new creatures, we are called to a new style of living.

We cannot be Christians but live as we lived when we were in the world. And then when Paul says that, using an image, he appeals to baptism. Look at what it says, what happens when you are baptized, it is when you die, because when you go into the water you are submerged, and the people who read that in Corinth, in Rome wherever they were in the Greco-Roman world, especially if They were Jews, they understood that about baptism, as I told them about the Jewish ritual bath, it was a total immersion and it was a change of life, of identity that baptism exemplified.

So Paul says likewise when you enter the ways of the Lord, you are supposed to die and be plunged into the death of Jesus Christ who died to sin and to the flesh, and when you rise from those baptismal waters you rise to a new life. , a new identity, a new way of behaving, so that's why Paul uses this image, right?, of baptism as an illustration. Do you see why I tell you that the Christian life is immersion? It is a new way of thinking, being, acting and believing, it is a call to something radical, and that is why Paul uses the image of immersion. Many people do not understand this, and unfortunately the church makes it very easy for people to think nowadays, converting to Christ is simply changing your card, from Catholic to Evangelical, instead of going to the Catholic church, you go to the church that It's next door in the neighborhood, evangelical, and you do a few things over there as an evangelical, you sing and now you're an evangelical, and God is supposed to come then to be your provider, your defender, may God give you, may he heal you, but they do not understand something and that is that God also demands a complete surrender of your being, He demands that you give him your children, your property, your money, your business, your marriage, your appetites, your preferences, your priorities, everything is supposed that you give it to the Lord, it is a life of total surrender, of total immersion.

That's why baptism is so appropriate to describe that, there's supposed to be a total conversion, a total change. So Paul says that Christ, look at verse 10 before 11: "For when he died to sin, he died once for all, but as long as he lives, he lives for God." That is Jesus Christ, when he rose he rose for God, he died to the flesh, to the world, everything that was his human carnal nature never sinned, evidently in his human nature he rose to something new and different. He says: "You too", now he goes into the matter and uses that image that Christ died, was buried, rose again on the third day, he says: "So you too, consider yourselves dead to sin". I was struck by that word, consider yourselves, consider yourselves, because if you think, what does it mean to consider yourself? It means to think of yourself in a certain way, visualize yourself, it's like visualizing yourself as if you were dead to sin.

How important it is when we delve into the gospel that we become aware of the new life that is in Jesus. How important it is that we think of ourselves as if we were already dead, I believe that most people do not go through that process when they enter the gospel, and as I say, the Church often makes things easy for people, that idea that no, now I am evangelical, and I come to Church and when I go out there I am the same person, but when you enter the ways of the Lord, when one takes sides, that means that there are a number of things for which we already died, and that is why something serious my brothers, entering the ways of the Lord is something serious, and one of the things is precisely sin, sin can be many things as I have said many times, No? But I want to get into that idea of holiness, the total consecration of our being to the Lord, we have to consider ourselves dead to sin, there is a way to live.

There are things that we did before that we can no longer do, there are things that we used to entertain ourselves thinking about, now we can no longer think about them, there were enjoyments and pleasures, and things that we allowed ourselves before that we cannot afford now, and that resignation to those things has to be so total and radical that it is as if we had died to them. I believe that one of the problems many times is that Christians do not think well, according to what happens in your mind your behavior will be, according to what you pay attention to mentally, what you think about, when you are driving going From one place to another, what do you think? When you're in front of the mirror if you're shaving, you're a man, if you're a woman, whatever, what are you thinking? When you go to bed in those last minutes before losing consciousness, what do you think about?

I believe that one of the things that we have to continually do is guard our mind, and submit our mind to the mind patterns of a Christian child. That word consider yourself speaks of mental life, of visualization, of conceiving, we have to continually reinforce the idea in our mind that we are already dead to the world. We still live, we love the world, the apostle John says that if one loves the world one becomes an enemy of God, if one loves the world, the things that are in the world, he says do not love the things that are in the world. I ask the Lord help me so that when I walk through the world and see how many things happen in the world that are contrary to Your Word, every day I can see myself as dead to those things, they are not for me, I am a dead in life, in a great life in passing, but in a sense it is so.

Consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Because the Christian life is not just death, as I have said many times, it is also life, they don't leave it in the water, they take it out, amen? And it is also the same, Paul plays with these two images of death and life, the Christian life is joy, it is peace with God, it is enjoyment, it is opening ourselves to other dimensions of human existence and of God. So if we die to sin but the benefit is that then the connection with God and with the world of the Spirit and eternity is lit, dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then he says: "Therefore let sin not reign in your mortal body." The word that says reign is basilegueto, which means that a literal kingdom, sin should not reign in our mortal body. Now again, Paul always uses the word body in the sense of everything that has to do with the world, time and space, it can be the mind too, it can be the physical body, it can be the heart, the emotions, all that belongs to the world, in those areas, our nervous system, our emotions, our thoughts, my body, my members, be my hands to sin, my sexual organs to sin, my whole body, that has to, the devil doesn't must reign in it, sin must not reign in it.

What does reign mean? Dominate, control, determine, then he says sin should not reign in those areas of your life, do not govern, sin should not determine what you do with your body, with the different elements of your body, do not control you, and that is good important, look at what it says below in verse 14, because sin will not have dominion, the word is the sister of Curios, Jesus Christ is Lord, and so here there is also a play on words, I think it says hey, that the sin is not your Lord, who is your Lord?, Jesus Christ. When someone dominates you, it means that they dominate you, control you and establish their control over your life.

And he knows that one of the hallmarks of God's children is that we are not slaves to anything. The apostle Paul says that he will not allow himself to be controlled by anything, not by food, not by sexual appetites, not by depression, anger, resentment, violence, fear, all these things that afflict us because they are not only the uglier addictions, drugs, alcohol, gambling, none of these things should rule over one. One of the arguments that are offered today in all sexual matters, for example in gender, homosexuality, lesbianism, all these things, is that I was born like this, I am like this, I have tried to change but I couldn't, therefore I accommodated myself and had to accept what I am, one hears that argument a lot, many times among the people I dealt with and I prayed to God for a long time, and I talked to my pastor and I fought for a long time against this appetite and I didn't change, and I finally decided that I am like this, and you have to accept me and love me just the way I am. But the Bible says here that for a believer sin cannot dominate him, and that means that whatever you are going through in your life, whatever it is, any dimension, anything that is contrary to the life of God in you, the purpose that God has in your life, again, it can be that, depression, anxiety, resentment, it can be a failure that marked you and that determines many of the things, the fear that you have, image, none of those things should dominate your life, you have to be perpetually in struggle, in prayer, crying out to God, adoring, reading the Word, conversing with your brothers, seeking liberation every day from more and more of those things that control you.

The son of God is eminently free. The Lord said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. He who knows the Son knows freedom my brothers. Now, as I said last Sunday, many times God has made us free and then that freedom has to become an experiential freedom in our lives. When one discovers, for example, I am going to use myself as an example in this case, when I discover an area of my life that I find contrary to what God wants of me, and what I see in my self-image of a free man in dominion of himself, who serves the Lord, I immediately name him as a giant that I am going to decapitate, and then I believe that God has given me the power, and it may take me a year, two years, three years, but I know I'm going to cut off that giant's head.

And every day I come to the Lord again and again in prayer, and when the giant hits me on the head and knocks me down, I get up again and come back on top, but I do not submit to the giant, I do not become slave of the giant, I keep fighting and I see that God always gives me victory, and I speak like this in personal testimony because I want to inspire you to believe the same. No matter what area of your life you are in bondage or struggling in, believe that you are free in Christ Jesus. The Spirit of God has set you free, because the Bible says that sin will not have dominion over you, do not say I can't, this is too strong, this marked me too much, this is genetic, believe that God has set you free, for definition, if you are ready you are free, and you must say all I can do in Christ who strengthens me, there is no excuse, we cannot say this is a behavior that I have no control over, no, the Spirit of God that is in you It will give you power to overcome anything.

And many times there comes the part of visualizing oneself as free in Christ Jesus. One has to think thoughts of freedom and not of slavery. Do not focus so much on the problem, focus on Christ who wants to set you free, focus on your identity as a free person, consider yourself, see yourself, visualize yourself as dead before that which afflicts you, and alive for the justice of God . Consider yourself dead to depression and alive to God consciousness. Consider yourself free or dead let's say to a mental addiction and live for mental freedom and holiness that is in Christ Jesus. Consider yourself free from any emotional ties, from any past memory, and consider yourself alive to a healthy mind and good expectations for the future in Christ Jesus. It will not rule over you, it will not dominate you, it will not control you.

Returning then, neither present your members to sin as instruments of iniquity. Well, talk about considering yourself first, right? Your mental life always reinforces in your mind positive things about your life in Christ Jesus. Consider yourself dead to everything that hurts and alive to the positive. Think about this but there is something else too, another way of looking at it is, do not surrender, do not present the members of your body to sin so that the devil can use you. For example, do not allow your hands to steal, or to do improper things or to hit someone, no, ask the Lord for your hands to be clean hands, healthy hands, hands of love, hands of restoration, your feet to go to places where the Spirit of God feels comfortable dwelling, may you be a person always diligent to do good, to be where there is need.

Then Paul says, look then instead of you deliver, the word present is a word that later Paul uses in a very interesting way later in chapter 12, Romans, where he says: I beg you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God The word presentéis is a word passintemi, which is a word that is used in the Old Testament, in the New, to bring an animal before the priest and present it, offer it to be sacrificed to God. It is a consecration of those victims to be sacrificed in honor of God, it is a total surrender of that victim for God's proposals in his glory. So that is the language that Paul uses, he says not to give away the parts of his body, including his brain and his mind, to sin, so that they may be used for iniquity, for wickedness, right? Instead of that, instead of delivering it in that flat and complete way, look what we have to do, if not, present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead. So every day you have to come before the Lord and say Lord, I present my body and my mind, my emotions, my will, my memory, as an instrument for Your glory, I want to be an instrument of good in the world, I I want you to use the elements of my personality and my body as levers for You to operate in the world.

The devil wants to use the elements, the parts of your body to harm the world, to harm you, so that you harm your loved ones, and you know no, you are going to tell the devil I I am not going to give my body so that you use it for your evil purposes, instead I am going to give it to God so that He uses it for his holy purposes, my mind will think noble and good thoughts, my hands will to heal and caress, my feet will walk announcing the Word of the gospel and doing good where I can, my heart will be used for noble, good, and uplifting feelings.

Every day I have to say Lord use me for Your glory, use my mind, use my whole being so that You can have someone to use, the Lord needs to have instruments in the world, the devil also wants his instruments, and we have to choose For what and for whom will my being, my body, be used, and I have to say Lord, today I consecrate my body for the use of my purposes here on earth. Present our bodies not for iniquity if you do not present yourselves to God as alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments of justice, okay? There is this idea, consider yourself holy, set apart for God, dead to sin and present your life to the Lord every day, consecrate yourself and reconsecrate yourself every day to the Lord so that God makes you an instrument of justice in the world, kindness, goodness, beauty of God, the order of God have in you the instrument that God needs to operate.

So verse 14, why can we aspire to this life of being used by God and being given to God? Because sin God has already made a declaration that sin will not have dominion over a son, a daughter of God, because we are not under the law, the law is identified with sin, because through the law comes the knowledge of sin , the law is what clearly indicates sin, if there is no law then you do what you want, that is another very big issue to explain in the Pauline mentality, right? But he says you are not under the law but under grace, in what sense? The Christian life is a life of freedom, it is a life of joy, it is a life of blessing and God's goodwill upon us.

No one can be oppressed if they are in Christ Jesus, because we operate under the goodness, grace, good will, good intentions, mercy, and forgiveness of Papa God, so what is next? What follows is also very important for us to understand this. Pablo is the one who doesn't miss anything. He was one of those who said look when you went I was coming. So he was anticipating something, when he says that he thinks hmm, I think like a good lawyer, hmm, I know what is going to happen, there are going to be people who are going to say well Pablo, if we are under grace well hey, Why then do we have to be doing this and not doing it? Let's rejoice, because we have a God of grace, a God who forgives us! Even Pablo had struggled and in the Greco-Roman world there were philosophies that said no, that the body is an illusion anyway, so hey, if you sin that's an optical illusion, that doesn't do anything, because after all the body goes to be destroyed and what matters is the spirit, so don't give it so much importance whether you sin or not sin, the body is insignificant anyway, so use it for whatever.

So there were all those people who thought like that, and Paul anticipates that argument that was even among the Roman Corinthians it seems, remember that Paul is preaching to a corrupt society as it is today, Roman society was a pagan and total society, it was a world where sexuality and death all these things, where there is no God and Christ with his benevolent system there are all kinds of filth and evil, he was preaching to people who were steeped in sin as they are in our society today as well . And so these people looked for any excuse, any reason to justify their behavior. And these Christians who came into the church came with that sinful mindset and they were going to look for any way to continue doing what they did before, now in the gospel, and Paul wanted to convince them that no, that they had to behave in a radically different way than the patterns of the world. And one of the things was this tendency to behave the same way because God is love, God knows my condition, so they ask, well, will we sin if we are not under grace? Anticipating this argument, he says: "In no way, don't you know that if you submit to someone as slaves to obey him, you are slaves of the one you obey? Whether it is sin leading to death or obedience leading to justice?" How many people in the gospel today in the churches, this message about holiness and a change of life is not preached clearly for fear of alienating and upsetting many people who are there in the seats who even though they love to God and come to Church, they continue to live a shady life behind the scenes, behind the curtains, clandestine lives.

Businessmen who steal from people in very subtle and elegant ways, who change their books and use their knowledge of accounting to show that their corporation lost money to avoid paying taxes and not paying the poor, it is done, there are corporations that You don't pay a single penny in taxes, because they have a team of lawyers who take advantage of any little hole in the tax law to avoid paying taxes. The lawyer who uses the law to do a lot of things even today the law is used a lot to promote immoral, improper laws, to rob people, to release people who should be in jail paying for their crimes, and all those people he is in Church, he comes to Church on Sunday many times, the person who was there the night before who was doing all kinds of crap and scoundrels comes, and he comes to Church today because he loves God but is not willing to surrender to God that dark part of his life.

People who are oppressing their wives or their children, or wives who are not giving their husbands due respect, but do not want to give that area of their life to the Lord, because it is painful, then they live a schizophrenic life, they love God They serve the Church, but they have not given to God that part of their life that they do not know, that is not from God, their behavior is not appropriate, they know it, but they have not given it to him yet. So all those people who are sitting say good but God is merciful, God is good, God knows my situation, and they are not fighting against that sin, if they do not practice it, they practice it with a good conscience, and that is what Paul says that it is not possible, do not hide behind the things that say God is good and merciful, and He knows that you are weak, obey the Lord.

I believe that one of the great problems of the Church at this time is that, that we think that the Gospel is purely therapeutic. It is for God to heal this depression that is killing me, for God to fix my children who are behaving badly, for God to fix my marriage, for God to bless my business, for God to give me the house that I love so much. I have wanted, and people come to Church and expect the preacher to simply give them an emotional massage, but they do not understand that many times God wants to make you uncomfortable so that you can then have the peace that you are looking for in your life, and that the The pastor's role is first to open your wound, put a little vinegar or wine that stings you, and then put the oil of God's blessing, but people just want no, don't put the wine on me, put the oil on me. And then we have churches and people who are like that, they only want that upper part, but God calls us to a life of total surrender, to let the Word sink deep into our being and change us, transform us, that is the most important part. hard part of the Gospel, and many people want, as I say, that easy part of the Gospel, the God who loves you and understands you but they do not know the God who is holy, and the God who demands absolute subjection to his Word and his truth, both they have to go together, so that's why Paul takes his time on this argument.

Today we cannot understand the precise language that Paul used at that time but we have to convey it, what was the human condition? And it is this thing that God is a God of grace only, but God is not only a God of grace. grace, God is a God of holiness, of justice as well, and of integrity to his Word, and of expectation that you will submit to Him in all areas of your life, He is both, and that is why he says, Don't they know that they submit to someone as slaves?

And look at the thing with sin is that, you can't play with sin. There are people who say well this is a little sin, and then they have little sins, sins, sinners, very sinful, and they have divided sins into a number of categories that God does not have those categories, for God there is only one thing, sin with or at end, and He says sin is something that if you give it a little inch it will take the whole foot, don't play with it, don't say no, fine if I practice, but I'm not a slave to sin, he says, if you let Sin taking place in your life is going to become controlling.

When you start with a marijuana cigarette, to feel more relaxed, to converse better and to feel happier at parties, but later you are going to need two cigarettes to have the same effect, and then you are going to have to spend every day buying from that sinister guy and giving him your money, and it becomes a slavery, and that's how it is with everything, with sex, with pornography, with anger, with the abuse of people, with the greed for money. If you start with a little bit and give it free rein, food becomes your ruler and your king, and God says don't give a little bit of entry into your life to any of those things. Don't say well, I'm going to allow this because God knows that I work too hard and I have so many stresses that I have to allow myself this little escape from time to time. Do not do it because in God there is not a little, or a lot or a lot, in God it is all yes and amen, if you commit, don't do it, then if you practice sin you are a slave to sin, sin goes to you to dominate you, therefore emancipate yourself from him and do not give him even a small entrance. If you practice sin, you are a slave to sin.

Verse 17 says, "But thank God that though you were slaves to sin you have obeyed that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." He is speaking in the past tense, although you were slaves to sin, now you are free, whenever the Bible speaks of sin among the children of God it speaks in the past tense, something that has already happened, and that is how it should be, how sad that among many of us there are still Talk about the present, we are still fighting, it is something else, it is a process, but you are fighting for your emancipation, you are no longer a slave, you have weapons now, you are free to act. Here this must be pointed out, that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, you have obeyed from the heart. Brother, the Christian life is a life of obedience to this word that is here, this is the doctrine of God.

This is your collection of responsibilities and rights, you have to know this word, we have to study the doctrine of God, what I am teaching you is doctrine and you have to receive it from the heart and surrender to it, it is not just something emotional , it is not introducing yourself, but I also believe that it is a thing to consciously believe these teachings that you have received the Word and commit yourself from the heart. I believe that Paul is still using the figure of baptism here, in that before being baptized he still had to know the teaching, to what he was saying yes when he was baptized, he was saying yes Jesus is the Son of God, that he is God himself, that incarnated as a man, who died and was crucified, who rose again on the third day, who reigns in heaven, who comes again, that God is holy, that God demands complete subjection from us, all those aspects of Christian doctrine, you have what to know

You have to accept them from the heart, you have to surrender to them, you have to live them every day, and that is what Paul is saying. But thank God that although you were slaves to sin, you have obeyed God in that form of doctrine to which you were delivered, note again that resounding language, you were delivered, you believed with your heart and you received with your heart, slavery or freedom, death or life . The Christian life is something of yes or no, of total surrender or secret rebellion but rebellion, and then he says: "I speak as a human because of your human weakness that just as you presented your members for filth and iniquity, so now for sanctification present your members to serve justice." Again the same idea, when you were without Christ you gave up your body, your emotions so that the devil could use them as he wanted, but now it says give up those same things and present your members to be a servant of justice and for sanctification , because when you were slaves to sin you were free about justice.

It is already the final point of the apostle Paul, he says when you were in sin you were slaves of sin, but just as you were slaves of sin, justice could not manifest itself in you, the holiness of God, is what I say. A man, a woman, if he lives like a lawless goat, he enjoys life very much, he enjoys life very much, many things, but God has no connection with him, he is dead to God, the blessings of the kingdom of God do not come to his life, communion with God, the right, eternity to spend it with God, he is dead to all those things, he is alive to a very imperfect system but he is dead to divine influence, and what happens when you die then to that lifestyle?, the light turns on in the aspect of the relationship with God. And Paul says either you accept the dominance of sin and death in your life or you accept the dominance of goodness and holiness, or you accept the control that the devil wants to kill, steal and destroy in your life, or you accept the control of Jesus Christ who He has come so that you may have life and have it abundantly. I could ask you, which lord do you want to serve? Because you have to serve someone, you have to serve someone. Paul uses it in terms of slavery, it is a total and real service, he is using the images of a slave, and Paul says everyone is a slave to someone or something, the question is who is going to be his owner, if the devil that he is going to use you for his own benefit, or if God your Father is going to use you to bless you or bless your loved ones and give you eternal life?

Because God has nothing to get from you, He loves you freely and generously, which of these two gentlemen do you want to serve? your life, that life that when you think about it now you are ashamed of it, we are ashamed of our sins in the previous life, you know what one has to say, Lord, teach me to be ashamed of what I did, many of us did not make it to that point of being ashamed of the things we did before, we have them there and we say those were the follies of youth, and we say that they were good, but now we, I am already an adult, I am already married and I am formal, so now I have to , but the Bible wants us to feel ashamed of what we did, that our transformation be total, that when we see ourselves doing certain things in the past we say, wow, that's ugly, I'm ashamed of it. This must be how radical the conversion of a child of God is, because after all the result of that was death, and now we have been free, and the fruit of that must be sanctification, and the end of all that, eternal life.

And Paul concludes with the most beautiful verse of all, one of the most beautiful verses in all of Scripture, verse 23: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Glory to the Lord, and hopefully that is our feeling brothers.

Let's stand up for a moment and make a confession in our hearts. Sin, the only thing that can give you and me is death, failure, troubles, bad conscience, bad thoughts, insomnia, but the gift of God, the gift of God, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, death or eternal life, what do you want, let's see if they gave you a choice, you don't have to think about it too much, embrace eternal life, holiness, peace with God, justification through God in Christ. We are going to ask the Lord this morning, we want to live in Your light, we want to do Your Will, we want to do only what You want us to do, transform and change us, we give our members of our bodies exclusively to You, we present them before You, we refuse be instruments of evil and injustice, You reign only in our minds, You reign in our emotions, You reign in our memories, You reign over our money, You reign over our social relationships, You reign over our professions and jobs, reign You in our homes, You reign in our family life.

We refuse, we refuse to submit to the dominion of Satan and his hell, his darkness and his darkness, and we open our lives to Your holy government, Your holy control in our hearts, this Church more and more Your care, Your protection, the help of Your Holy Spirit to be the community that You want us to be, help us and work in us more every day to be what You want us to be. We submit, we surrender to you, we submit under your dominion and we see ourselves as dead to sin and raised to a pure, healthy, holy, clean Christ, to the Kingdom of God and the values of that Kingdom, to the doctrine of the Word of God, bathe us now, immerse us in Your waters, and take us out of here committed to this truth from the heart Lord, thank you, in the name of Jesus we pray, amen and amen God bless you my brothers.

How good it is to know that we are not alone in this fight for holiness, that God is our strength and that He fights for us, thank you Lord.