Living By God’s Gospel of Grace
Gospel 365

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Good morning, church! We’re concluding our series entitled, “Gospel 365.” Today, we are talking about the importance of living by God’s gospel of grace; it’s not just the entry point, the starting point to our faith, but it’s the sustaining grace of our faith. We need to hear the gospel every day. As some have said, it’s helpful to preach the gospel to yourself every day and to apply it to yourself every day.

You’re already preaching something to yourself every day, if you think about it. There’s always the “self talk” going on in your head all of the time. This “self talk” might not be helpful. You might be reminding yourself of past mistakes; it might have been years and years ago, but something will trigger that thought, it’ll pop in your head and you’ll immediately feel the shame and the guilt afresh as if it just happened.

It’s at times like that, that it’s very helpful to remind yourself of the gospel because we often have a “self talk” that is harmful to us. Sometimes we are stuck in a place and we feel unable to change. It’s important to be able to talk to ourselves about the gospel and to be able to say, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” To remind ourselves of the gospel every day is very helpful.

As we think about this word, “grace,” we’re going to look at it very closely today. To live in grace is less judgmental towards others, and especially less judgmental towards yourself. It is recognizing that God is the only true judge.

As we look at the book of Ephesians, the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus. He taught them the importance of living by God’s gospel of grace. We can see the importance of living by God’s gospel of grace. Why is it important? The text gives three reasons why it’s so important to live by God’s gospel of grace. So let’s dig in.

We will look at Ephesians 2, starting at verse four. It begins with one of my favorite two- word phrases: “But God.”

Ephesians 2:4-10 (ESV) 4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” This is God’s Word.

We are looking for three reasons why living by God’s gospel of grace is so important. Here is the first reason.

1. Comprehending our union with Christ gives us a new focus.

Comprehending our union with Christ gives us a new focus. Look at verses 5 and 6, you’ll notice that there are three times that you’ll see the word “with.” 5 “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It’s “with Christ,” you have a life “with Christ.” You’ve been raised “with Him,” speaking still of Christ. You have been raised “with Christ” and then it says you’ve been seated “with Him.” Those three words together, Paul is describing our union with Christ, that we have become one with Him and He with us.

Here’s how Jerry Bridges in his book, “The Discipline of Grace,” describes this union. He says, “To live by the gospel, then, means that we firmly grasp the fact that Christ’s life and death are ours by virtue of our union with Him. What He did, we did.” Here’s what’s happening by faith: we are saying that what God did in Christ, He has now done in us, that we share in this. We’ve been made alive, we’ve been raised up , we’ve been seated with.

Before I dig into this further, I have to deal with this, “But God.” I can’t move on without talking about this. How many of you need to have a “But God” experience in your life today? There’s something going on and you need God to come and change that situation.

There was a situation in Ephesus and around the world before we became Christians. It says in the first part of the same chapter that we were dead in trespasses and sins in which we once walked. He says, now we can be made alive. That’s what he says. We can be made alive with Christ.

Ephesians 2:1-3 (ESV) 1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” That’s the condition we were in. We were not that lovable, were we? We were in a bad situation; there was nothing redeemable about us and we couldn’t get ourselves out of it. We were stuck in that position.

“But God.” “But God” is so rich in mercy. See, it wasn’t about us. God doesn’t save us because of some virtue that He sees in us. He looks at His own character. He’s a merciful God. He is rich in mercy; He overflows with mercy.

And then, it says that He had great love for us because of His great love. He was moved. The Greek word is ἀγάπη, agapē. In the Greek language, they had many words for love. We only have one word for love. We say, I love chocolate, I love my dog, I love my wife… We use the same word all over again, but in Greek, love had different words like “eras,” meaning sensual love, “phileo,” meaning brotherly love or friendship love and then “agape” which is unconditional love. That’s the kind of love that comes from God. It’s not I love you because of; it’s I love you in spite of. I love you as a condition of my character because of God’s great love and mercy. He loved to make us alive together with Christ.

I wish we could all look at the Greek together but we don’t have time to do that. Paul works hard; he will make up a word in a minute. He will take a couple of words and snap them together with compound verbs. Verse 5, “Made us alive together with.” συζωοποιέω, syzōopoieō is the first of three Greek compound verbs using the prefix “σὺν” (“syn”), which means “together with.” We were dead in our sins, but now we have been “made alive” with Christ, resurrected with Christ. We’ll say synthesis or synergy and it means to work together Any time you put a “y” in the beginning work, it means “with together.” He’s describing our position in Christ, that we are in union with Him as believers.

Why is this significant? It puts attention to “already not yet” in our souls that there’s something that’s already true. That’s already completely true, but it’s not yet worked its way out in us all the way yet. And so, you’ve been made alive with Christ; you are a new creation.

We had a baptism at the first service today. At the end of this service, we will show you the media and video. The baptism shirts that the candidates were wearing said, “New Life.” We have been made aligned with Christ. When you receive Christ, you’ve been given a new life and then you’ve been raised with Him. This is not speaking of raised from the dead, but raised to heaven; you are with Him already . You’re seated with Him in the heavens.

You are maybe sitting here this morning, wondering, No, I’m sitting right here. I’m looking around and I’m sitting right here. That’s true. I’m not trying to trick you. Paul is saying that there’s a positional truth and there’s an experiential truth. It’s that which you experience and that which the bible says is a new position that you already have. One day, your experience will match your position, but not yet.

Here’s the thing about God; God is not trapped within time like we are. He stands outside of time. If we were on a timeline, on a piece of paper, we would be on a dot called, “September 12th 2021.” We can remember however far back our little minds can remember. We can’t think of anything that’s going to happen the next second because we don’t know the future. God is the piece of paper that the lines are drawn on. He looks at all of it. He looks at all of time in one glance and sees it as an incident. When He says to us, through His word, that we’re already made to live and raise, seated with Christ, it is true.

Preaching the gospel to yourself gives you a new focus because you start thinking this is temporary because every season here on earth has a beginning, a middle and an end. I don’t know where I’m at in it right now, it will come to an end, but there’s a future coming that will never end and I’m headed for it because I’m already there. I’m already there; my body just hasn’t caught up. I’m alreadythere.

Verse 4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,” In verse five, Paul gives a quick statement, “by grace you have been saved.” You have been saved by grace.

A good way to remember the word, “grace,” is His mercy, His love and His forgiveness. It all comes under the word, grace. G R A C E; look at it like an acronym. “God’s Redemption At Christ’s Expense. It’s a done event. Through Christ, we have received God’s redemption.. It’s unmerited favor. We didn’t deserve it, but He has shown us this great favor.

We’ve been raised up. We’ve been seated with Christ and we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Verse 7 says this, “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Verse 7 says, “so that;” here comes the purpose clause. We get all of this. He made us alive. He raised us. He’s already seated us with Christ. We are already there. “So that;” He is not finished. He’s got more grace to pour out. Did you know this? “so that God can show us the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

How long are “the coming ages?” The Greek word for ages is αἰών, aiōn. There’s eons in the coming; eons. He’s got a plan of blowing us away with immeasurable riches of His grace. He hadn’t shown us a fraction yet; that’s what He’s got in store for us. I don’t know what you think heaven is going to be like. Maybe you’ve got a “Charmin” commercial in your head of what is going to be like: We are all floating on a cloud. That’s a “Charmin” commercial. That’s not what the bible says. God is throughout eternity. He has a purpose to make you a recipient of His immeasurable grace, he immeasurable riches of His grace. He’s just getting started. It will never get old. Time after time, eon after eon, eternity. What, another sunrise! Another sunset like I’ve never seen before. It’s hard to describe what it will be like. No mind has received, no ear has heard. It’s beyond human understanding, but it’s coming your way. So get a new focus; a new eternal focus. God wants to let you know, He’s going to blow you away in the future.

How do we get a new focus? We reset our hearts and minds from temporal things to eternal things. Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV) 1 “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died , and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

So,set your hearts, set your mind on the “place that you already are.” You’re just passing through. This gives relief from anxiety or worry about momentary troubles of this day. Set your hearts and your minds on where you’re headed. Oh, glory is coming our way, believer. How in the world am I supposed to do this? You do it by faith, you choose and you do it at least twice a year already.

We’ve been talking about that “time” word. Every Spring, it’s time to “Spring forward, ” and we all do. We “Spring forward;” for a week or so, our bodies can’t catch up. Our bodies are still sleepy. Why am I getting up before the sun? But, we all convince ourselves that it’s a new time. Why? Because somebody told us to believe that and so we do. And then, as soon as we get used to it, we “Fall back” in the Fall. We convince ourselves that we get to sleep an extra hour. We told ourselves to believe that time has changed. Was there a time war in the universe? No, we just reset our clock and then, by faith, we believed it was a different time. We acted on it and then it took our bodies a little while to catch up.

Let’s start thinking about eternity and start living our life in the view of where our head is, we are just passing through. It gives you a new focus. You have been united with Christ and this life is not some sort of self improvement course. It’s an invitation to come and die and to be born again in Christ Jesus. We are united with christ. We can set your minds and our hearts on eternity. We have to focus.

2. Understanding our salvation in Christ gives us a new freedom.

The second reason why applying the gospel everyday, preaching the gospel to yourself every day, is so helpful is because understanding our salvation in Christ gives us a new freedom. It gives us a new freedom. If you look at versus 8 and 9, that’s where we’re at now. We’ve covered verses four through seven. Verses 8 and 9 contain the triad of the christian faith. Three words that really make up the triad, the foundation of christian faith and salvation. Grace, salvation and faith are really important words. First is “by grace;” He’s repeating it; he says it in verse five, and now, he says it a little longer in verse eight. It’s like he’s returning to the refrain, like he’s singing the song and this is the chorus he had to come back around one more time. “By grace you have been saved” in verse five and then in verse eight, “by grace, you’re saved.”

Grace is the objective basis for our salvation. It’s the foundation, the immovable foundation, the rock that we stand on. It’s the objective basis for our salvation. Faith is the subjective means of our salvation. What do I mean by that? If this (the bible) is the gospel, God wrote it, God told them what to say, then faith is my hand that reaches for it. I say, I believe it, so now it’s mine. That is grace. He already did it. God’s redemption at Christ’s expense.

Faith. It’s not mine until I take it; then, it’s mine. Here’s the thing, I didn’t make my hand; God made my hand. But he also made my faith, 8 “ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It is the grace of the gospel and the faith to believe are all a gift. You can’t claim it; it’s not like you have had to have a lot of faith to get it. You just have to have enough to believe it.

Now, I noticed that all of you are sitting down. Somehow, by faith, you decided that the chair would hold you up. Some were broken and we had to fix them. So we did the work before you ever showed up. We’ve cleaned these chairs and we’ve repaired the ones that were broken. By faith, you could see the chair and it would hold you up. Now, please listen to me. It’s not your faith that’s holding you up. It was your faith that you placed in the chair that it would hold you up. You can come in here, you can have like a ton of faith. I believe that I believe that I believe this chair will hold me up. If that chair is broken, your behind is going to hit the floor. It’s not your faith holding you up; the chair is the object which you placed your faith in, as you sat down. In the gospel, the grace of what God has done through Christ Jesus is the objective basis and we place our faith in that and we stand on that.

Paul puts this powerful verb in the middle of this; for by grace you have been saved. It’s in the Greek σεσῳσμένοι, sesosmenoi The Greek perfect tense is like a ray in math. We don’t have an English equivalent to this word. Therefore we need a chart:



It’s like a ray in mathematics. It’s a dot with the line and an arrow on the end. It happens sometime in the past, has continuous effects and it goes on into the future. So we could say this, you have been saved like this and it would all be true in this one Greek perfect term. You have been saved from sin’s penalty. In other words, God has made you just. A way to remember “justification” is “just as if I’ve never sinned.” God has taken your record of sin and He’s expunged it. He’s paid for it through Jesus.You have been justified. That already happened. When you receive Christ, your record becomes clear. You have been saved from sin’s penalty.

Here’s the other thing that’s going on; you are being saved from sin’s power. In other words, day by day, as you surrender and yield to the power of the Holy Spirit within you, you are getting overcoming power to help free you from sin. You’re experiencing this in the present. This is the gospel at work in you today; it’s called sanctification, which is another way of saying you are being made holy. It’s a process that’s happening; God is at work in you.

Ultimately, you will be saved from sin’s presence, There’s a day coming when you will be with the Lord, you’ll receive a glorified body and you’ll live in glory with Him and you’ll experience the unlimited inexpressible riches of God’s grace for eternity. But not yet, it’s coming, but that’s all in that one verb “you have been, you are being, you will be saved.”

The gospel never gets old. It’s not only the foundation of our faith, it is the substance of our faith, to keep “hanging their hats” on it every day. Paul is so concerned that we don’t get confused about trying to earn it because the human default is always performance. We always think the way to get somebody to love us is to perform well and the way to lose their love is to not perform well. That’s the human default. But God comes and says, I love you. I love you and here’s how much I love you. I sent Jesus. There’s nothing for us to finish or work for, which is why Paul has to say, “this is not of your own doing. It’s a gift of God.” It’s not as a result of your works. You span class=”messageTimecode” title=”Play the video starting here” data-timecode=”1365.62″>can’t brag about it. No one can boast. He gets the glory. This is the work He’s doing. Understanding this gives us a new freedom because it sets us free from guilt and condemnation. That is the function of conscience. Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of conscience into line with the verdict of heaven.”

Romans 8:1-2 (ESV) 1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Jerry Bridges , in his book, The Discipline of Grace, says this, “There are two “courts” we must deal with: the court of God in heaven and the court of conscience in our souls. When we trust in Christ for salvation, God’s court is forever satisfied. Never again will a charge of guilt be brought against us in heaven. Our consciences, however, are continually pronouncing us guilty. That is the function of conscience. Therefore, we must by faith bring the verdict of our conscience into line with the verdict of heaven.” Here’s what we do when we apply the gospel afresh.

Do you remember that thing you did? Maybe it was in the past, maybe it was in the moment that day and you could just walk around and beat yourself up, especially if it’s a “besetting sin.” A “besetting sin” is one that gets you over and over again. You feel so ashamed that it keeps getting you. Let’s say, it’s an addiction and you stumble back into your addiction. Let’s say, it’s an anger management problem and you, you lost your temper again and you hurt somebody again. This is your tendency because you will default to performance. You do. I’m not worthy to even talk to God right now. So you’ll beat yourself up for a little while. I deserve to feel the way I feel. But you’re not applying the gospel yourself, you’re applying that human default of thinking it’s about my work and it’s not.

It’s about your relationship. It’s not about religion; it’s not about rituals or rules. It’s about your relationship. Jesus says, I love you. I died for you. I have paid everything. The court of heaven is clear. Now bring the court of your conscience into alignment and say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for me in Christ Jesus.” Besides, the gospel forces us to stop judging others and to stop judging ourselves because there’s only one true judge. The Father has given that to the Son. Let it go and say, I’m free. I need to bring my faith into alignment, that I’m free in God’s court. That’s the only court that really matters.

How do you do? By faith, you remind yourself of what God’s word says. You’ll experience freedom from guilt and shame like never before. That’s the second reason. So we can get a new focus, a new freedom.

3. Recognizing our new creation in Christ gives us a new fulfillment.

Here’s the third reason that we can find helpful to put the gospel before us on a daily basis. We are to recognize our new creation in Christ gives us a new fulfillment. It gives us a new fulfillment. Let’s look at verse 10 now; we’ve covered all verses through verse 10. 10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” If you’re taking notes in your bulletin, you are a new creation, you were made for a new purpose. Let’s deal with that first word; we are God’s “workmanship.” Ok, I need to give you one more Greek word. It’s ποίημα, poiēma; We are God’s masterpiece. His work of art. God’s poem. It’s where we got the word “poem;” the origin of that English word, “poem, originated in the Greek. Another way of saying this is: if you’ve received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He’s made you a new creation. You are now God’s masterpiece, God’s work of art and God’s poem. God is now doing a new thing. It was never there before; you would never have been able to do it, although there was something inside you that longed for fulfillment. No matter what you tried to put inside of yourself, it wouldn’t fulfill you, but now, if you let God do the work in you, you will find your purpose. You’ll find that which fulfills you most deeply because God is the one doing that. He’s making you a new creation. He wants you to be His masterpiece, created in Christ, born again. The old life has died.

We had a baptism earlier, which is a picture of the old life that was buried. The water shows this; the old life goes under and the new life has risen. In Galatians, Paul writes this; he says, Galatians 2:20 (NLT) “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul says Man, my old life is so far gone, that is it died. It was crucified with Christ. But my new life. I live by the power of Christ.

In verse 10, Paul says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Remember, before, he said, “this is not your doing, itis the gift of God, not a result of works.” So, it’s not by works, it’s for works. So don’t get the “cart ahead of the horse” here. You can’t earn your way to salvation, but when you’ve been saved, God starts doing a new work in you. Now, you start walking out the good work that He always meant for you to do and be. This comes after salvation and it comes out of dependence on the Holy Spirit. There should be evidence of life change after you receive Jesus. There should be a new way you speak. A new way that you act, a new way that you think and a new way that you walk.

We are His workmanship created in Christ, Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. In other words, he always had this plan for You. He’s been waiting for you to say “yes,” so that he could work it out in you.

We should “walk in them.” Walking in them, in the good plan to good works, is to be the masterpiece that He wants us to be. “Walk” is a Hebrew idiom for “live.” Live in God’s gospel of grace and fulfill His purpose for your life. You can put the word, “live,” in there and it would be very accurate.

God said, from the very beginning, “Let us make man in our own image that is male and female .” He made them. And so, from the very beginning we were to reflect God’s glory. That was the purpose. But then because of sin, the image of God was marred and fallen. We still see a semblance of it, but it’s broken. But now, God wants to make us new so that we can be what God had always planned.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Our baptism t-shirts have this scripture on them. Today, our candidates were baptized into the new life. Colossians 1:6 (NLT) “This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace. “ If you’ll think about it, the gospel is like diving into the deep end of the pool. You will continually discover more things as you drink it in, as you dive in and swim. You learn more ways to apply it to yourself as you understand the truth of the gospel.

You have a new freedom. You have freedom from guilt and shame to live truly for a price. Have you ever visited a museum or a place that had works of art? You’ll go through and you’ll see paintings and statues or other works of art that may have been made out of clay. You’ll see all kinds of art. Especially in a museum of art, you will see, either underneath it or beside it, there is usually a plaque to tell you some facts about the piece of art. The plaque will usually tell you the name of the work. It might tell you what it was constructed from where it was made from. Maybe it was made from clay or marble; it was an oil painting or canvas painting. It will tell you the year that it was produced. I will tell you the artist that made it. So, if you walk into a museum, you’ll hear people whispering. You will rarely hear someone say, Oh, that is an oil painting. Here’s what you will hear, especially if these names are under the artwork. They will whisper, That’s a Rembrandt. Oh my goodness! That’s a Picasso. That’s a Davinci. The masterpiece points to the master.

There’s nothing for us to boast about here. He wants to make us so that we reflect His glory. It’s His purpose, that we would begin to do the works that Jesus did, What kind of good works? Not just good works, but the kind of works that Jesus did. He’s making us like Jesus. Do you want to know what He’s up to? He’s making you like Jesus.

Are you cooperating with Him? If not, why not? You can learn to apply the gospel afresh every day. You can focus on where you are headed. Walk in grace; stop being so judgmental towards others. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those of us that are in Christ Jesus.”

You know what, I feel more fulfilled than I ever have because I’ve stopped kicking against what God wants to do with me. I’m cooperating. I want to do what He made me do and I want Him to get all the credit. I’m not worried about what other people think any more. I want to see and hear the applause of the Father, when He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant;” that’s the most fulfilling thing of all.

Are you ready to start preaching the gospel to yourself every day so that you will get this new focus, this new freedom, this new fulfillment that God promises? For some of you, you don’t even know what I’m talking about yet because you’ve yet to say “yes” to Jesus. You’ve yet to say “yes” to the grace of the gospel. It’s really kind of a tripartite decision. It involves the intellect.

There are some facts to believe. Here they are: Christ died. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day. There were many witnesses that saw Him. Those are the four facts of the gospel. It’s a historical event that really happened. That’s what makes it good news. When you hear good news, you have to decide if you believe it or not. It’s an intellectual decision.

Then, there’s a motive decision; a decision that connects to the heart. The Holy Spirit is in the room right now and He’s stirring your heart. What does that feel like? Well, I don’t know. All of us are unique. All of us have a different motive and how we respond to things . Some of you might feel like crying. Some of you might feel like somebody’s pressing down on you. I hesitate to describe further because the Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself. You have a heart response; your heart is feeling something.

The third fact part is the act of the will, that says, I do, I will,l I want you. My wife and I were married 42 years ago. If I could show you this ring on the inside, inscribed, is “RDC to GWC, 6/2/79.” I put this on my finger on June 2, 1979. Here’s what happened; here’s how it went intellectually. I was studying this girl; I asked her out. She started checking all the boxes, meaning everything I was looking for. Intellectually, the facts started lining up. It wasn’t long after a couple of facts lined up that the heart started getting stirred up. There was a response: I loved her and she loved me. Did that make us married because I thought she was the right one and I loved her in my heart? No. I asked her, Will you marry me? And she said, Yes. And then, we stood in front of the church, in front of God and all the people and we both said, “I do.” Then we put our rings on, which is kind of like baptism. Baptism is like this; it doesn’t save you. It just shows everybody else that you are taken.

Have you said, “I do” to Jesus? Have you been baptized, as a step of obedience that shows the world that you belong to Jesus? Have you ever done that? You will get a chance to do that right now ; you will be given an opportunity to do that right now.

Let’s pray. Many of you are going to say, I believe I feel Him drawing me and I’ve been putting it off. I’m going to say, “I do,” to Jesus today. Let’s pray right now, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe You died on the cross for my sins and that You were raised from the grave. Would you come and forgive me of my sins? Make me a child of God like You promised. I receive You as my Savior and my Lord. If you are praying that prayer right now, believing, the scripture says He will save you. Would you do that right now? “I do.” Others are here and you’ve done that. You’ve accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you thought afterwards you had to somehow live up to something. So you fell back into that human default of performance. You started thinking that it’s about being good; you were earning God’s pleasure. Faith alone places God. Right now, would you say, Father, those places that I still feel guilt or I still feel prideful, would You apply the gospel afresh right now? Would you help me to feel cleansed? The bible says, “If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.” He will clean you up. I believe in You. Lord, I give You all the glory. We’re doing business with God. He is talking to each of us right now. We need a fresh application of the gospel in our lives. Thank you, Jesus. Amen