Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024) AI transcript and summary - episode of podcast The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

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Episode: Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)

Author: Ascension
Duration: 00:25:24

Episode Shownotes

Fr. Mike highlights the boldness of Peter and John in our reading from Acts as they stand before the council of church leaders and defend the name of Jesus. He also addresses Paul’s writings on God’s grace given to us in our sinfulness and the war between good and evil

present within ourselves. Today’s readings are Acts 4, Romans 6-7, and Proverbs 27:4-6. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Summary

In this episode, Fr. Mike Schmitz discusses the boldness of Peter and John as they defend their faith before the Jewish council in Acts 4. Despite being uneducated, they proclaim that the healing of a crippled man was done through Jesus Christ, showing the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. The early believers prayed for boldness amidst threats, committed to a shared community life. Fr. Schmitz emphasizes the importance of confronting challenges with courage and highlights Paul's teachings on grace and the internal struggle between good and evil, urging believers to live righteously.

Go to PodExtra AI's episode page (Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2024)) to play and view complete AI-processed content: summary, mindmap, topics, takeaways, transcript, keywords and highlights.

Full Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker_01
Hey everyone, before we get started today, I want to let you know the Bible in a Year has brought the Word of God to so many people. As you know, you're part of this community, changing lives in so many incredible ways.

00:00:09 Speaker_01
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00:00:21 Speaker_01
So far, Ascension has been able to add the podcast to YouTube. You might have found it that way. Maybe you're watching right now on YouTube.

00:00:27 Speaker_01
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00:00:34 Speaker_01
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00:00:40 Speaker_01
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00:00:45 Speaker_01
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00:00:54 Speaker_01
So if you would like to help support the Bible in a year mission, you can go to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support.

00:01:09 Speaker_01
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension.

00:01:18 Speaker_01
Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 325. 325. That's 3 to 5. If you add 3 and the 2, you get 5.

00:01:32 Speaker_01
That's today. And we're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, as well as Romans, chapters 6 and 7, and Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 4 through 6.

00:01:40 Speaker_01
As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension.

00:01:46 Speaker_01
If you want to download your own Bible in a year reading plan, finally, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates.

00:01:56 Speaker_01
And every single day, including day 325, you would know what to read. And it is day 325 reading Acts of the apostles chapter four, Romans chapter six and seven and Proverbs chapter 27 verses four through six.

00:02:09 Speaker_01
The Acts of the apostles chapter four, Peter and John before the council.

00:02:14 Speaker_01
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

00:02:24 Speaker_01
And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000.

00:02:34 Speaker_01
On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family.

00:02:44 Speaker_01
And when they had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?

00:02:51 Speaker_01
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed?

00:03:03 Speaker_01
Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well.

00:03:15 Speaker_01
This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.

00:03:28 Speaker_01
Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

00:03:38 Speaker_01
But seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred with one another, saying, what shall we do with these men?

00:03:49 Speaker_01
For that a notable sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.

00:04:03 Speaker_01
So they called them, and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

00:04:08 Speaker_01
But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

00:04:19 Speaker_01
And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people. For all men praised God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old.

00:04:32 Speaker_01
The believers pray for boldness. When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them.

00:04:39 Speaker_01
And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples imagine vain things?

00:04:56 Speaker_01
The kings of the earth set themselves in array and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

00:05:03 Speaker_01
For truly, in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

00:05:17 Speaker_01
And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

00:05:30 Speaker_01
And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. The believers share their possessions.

00:05:42 Speaker_01
Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common.

00:05:51 Speaker_01
And with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

00:05:58 Speaker_01
There was not anyone needy among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet. And distribution was made to each as any had need.

00:06:11 Speaker_01
Thus, Joseph, who was surnamed by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field which belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

00:06:27 Speaker_00
The letter of St. Paul to the Romans, chapter six, dying and rising with Christ.

00:06:33 Speaker_01
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

00:06:48 Speaker_01
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

00:06:58 Speaker_01
For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

00:07:05 Speaker_01
We know that our former man was crucified with Him, so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin.

00:07:17 Speaker_01
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

00:07:28 Speaker_01
The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

00:07:42 Speaker_01
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions.

00:07:46 Speaker_01
Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.

00:07:58 Speaker_01
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace, slaves of sin or of righteousness. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!

00:08:14 Speaker_01
Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

00:08:26 Speaker_01
But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

00:08:38 Speaker_01
I'm speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.

00:08:52 Speaker_01
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.

00:09:03 Speaker_01
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

00:09:20 Speaker_01
Chapter seven, the analogy with marriage. Do you not know, brethren, for I'm speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only during his life?

00:09:31 Speaker_01
Thus, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning her husband.

00:09:40 Speaker_01
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress.

00:09:52 Speaker_01
Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

00:10:03 Speaker_01
While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

00:10:09 Speaker_01
But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the spirit. the law and sin. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means.

00:10:28 Speaker_01
Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness.

00:10:44 Speaker_01
Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me.

00:10:57 Speaker_01
For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good. The interior conflict between good and evil. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means.

00:11:20 Speaker_01
It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

00:11:35 Speaker_01
I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

00:11:50 Speaker_01
For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

00:12:04 Speaker_01
Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.

00:12:16 Speaker_01
For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin, which dwells in my members.

00:12:28 Speaker_01
Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin.

00:12:50 Speaker_00
The book of Proverbs chapter 27, verses four through six.

00:12:54 Speaker_01
Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

00:13:04 Speaker_00
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much.

00:13:16 Speaker_01
Gosh, Lord, God, as we just keep hearing about your grace that is just poured out on us, your grace which comes to meet us in our brokenness, help us just to say yes. Help us to say yes to your grace. Help us to say yes to your gift.

00:13:30 Speaker_01
Lord God, right now, help us to say yes to you, that you may be glorified in everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do.

00:13:40 Speaker_01
that you may be known, and that more and more people may love you, and that you may be loved by more and more of our heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh.

00:13:54 Speaker_01
Let's go back to the Acts of the Apostles first. Oh, goodness gracious. Okay, so at the beginning, what do we have? The context, of course. Peter and John went into the temple. There was the man who was crippled, right? He couldn't walk.

00:14:05 Speaker_01
And in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord heals him through Peter. And this is incredible. Now, what happens is they're being brought before the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees.

00:14:15 Speaker_01
Now, I love that this says they're annoyed because they're annoyed. The Sadducees are annoyed, captain of the temple, priests, they're annoyed. All those people are annoyed. Why are they annoyed? This is the interesting thing.

00:14:24 Speaker_01
They're annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Remember the Sadducees?

00:14:31 Speaker_01
The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees, I mean, there's a lot of differences, but the Sadducees, they only believed in the first five books of Moses, right? The Sadducees didn't believe in angels.

00:14:40 Speaker_01
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.

00:14:43 Speaker_01
And one of the ways we can remember that, of course, is that the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees didn't, and that's why they were sad, you see? Old joke.

00:14:53 Speaker_01
Okay, but it says merely that they were annoyed, and I think that that is interesting. Anyways, here is Peter and John. They're brought before the council, that's St. Heathren.

00:15:04 Speaker_01
The same people that they were, both Peter and John, were in the presence of essentially during Jesus's trial, which is remarkable to remember because the first time, we don't hear anything about John.

00:15:15 Speaker_01
We know that John went all the way with Jesus to the crucifixion, but we did hear about Peter and we do know that Peter, he failed, right? In that moment, he was not bold. In that moment, he

00:15:24 Speaker_01
Cracked and he denied knowing Jesus at three times and yet now this is incredible verse 8 Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them rulers of the people and elders if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple by what means this man has been healed be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified whom God raised from the dead

00:15:45 Speaker_01
By Him, this man is standing before you well, and goes on to say, this is incredible, this is a cornerstone line, not only because it speaks about the cornerstone in verse 11, but in verse 12, the line is, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

00:16:03 Speaker_01
This is huge because Jesus himself had said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And here's Peter who's making it very clear. There is salvation in no one else.

00:16:14 Speaker_01
There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And now the key word, I think, of chapter four is boldness, right? Key word of chapter four is it says multiple times that they're filled with boldness.

00:16:27 Speaker_01
And this is remarkable. observing them to be common, ordinary, uneducated men, and yet they have this new quality, and the quality is not theirs. It says they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

00:16:41 Speaker_01
Oh my gosh, you guys, chapter four, this is one of those chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. You want to have a pen. You want to have some kind of thing to mark this down.

00:16:49 Speaker_01
not only here is Peter's boldness, not only is this no other name given under heaven, which must he say, but even this, they were different and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. And there's something about that, that for all of us,

00:17:04 Speaker_01
That's the key. That's the core, which is if we've been with Jesus, we should look different. That if we've been with Jesus, we should look like him.

00:17:13 Speaker_01
And as Jeff noted a couple of days ago in that intro to this last age, the final time period of the church, you have Peter who looks a lot like Jesus. And later on after chapter eight, we're gonna see Paul who looks a lot like Jesus.

00:17:27 Speaker_01
And that's what we're called to be. We're called to look like Jesus. I just love this, it keeps going. I don't wanna say everything, just repeat the entire chapter again, gosh. But it says, they called on them, this is verse 18 in chapter four.

00:17:38 Speaker_01
They called on them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. Because why?

00:17:47 Speaker_01
Because you can't stop someone who's already dead. You can't threaten someone who's already dead. And Peter and John, they've already died to themselves out of love for Jesus Christ.

00:18:04 Speaker_01
Now, last couple things I want to highlight is that what happens from this in verse 23. They're released. They went to their friends, reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they all began to pray.

00:18:16 Speaker_01
And what did they pray for? This is incredible. They don't say, God, there's a lot of danger out there and a lot of opposition, so make it safe. Like, God, there's a lot of opposition out there, a lot of danger, so take away the danger.

00:18:31 Speaker_01
What they pray for is they say in verse 29, and now Lord look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

00:18:48 Speaker_01
You know, it's incredible. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to face life. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the courage to face life. Not pray for an easy way to follow Jesus. Pray for boldness to be able to do this.

00:19:02 Speaker_01
This is just the secret of the saints and this is the secret of Acts chapter 4. These people were already living in boldness. They were already speaking in boldness. And they said, instead of God take away the danger, they said, give us more boldness.

00:19:14 Speaker_01
And Lord Jesus, stretch out your hand and do miracles so that more and more people will know that you are the Messiah, that you are the one who conquered death and has restored life to all of us. How good is this? You guys, this is amazing.

00:19:28 Speaker_01
Romans chapter six and seven. There's too much to say. There's too much to say. But let's begin. Let's try to say something. In verse 6, I love this in 6 and 7, Paul has this pattern, maybe you've noticed it, maybe you didn't notice it.

00:19:42 Speaker_01
He will say something and then he'll kind of, not hedge his bets, he will qualify it. He'll say, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. And he says, what then?

00:19:51 Speaker_01
Are we to sin because we're not under the law but under grace? By no means. He'll ask those questions and say, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. Just anticipating.

00:19:58 Speaker_01
You know, it's a literary device and it's great because it clarifies some things because At the end of chapter 5, St. Paul had said that so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness.

00:20:09 Speaker_01
So then he asked the question, are we saying then continuing sin, grace may abound? Because here's what St. Paul was saying. The more sin, the more grace.

00:20:18 Speaker_01
That the more we need God's grace because of our sin, the more he gives his grace because of our need. And so then the question could be, well, shoot, in that case, how about I sin more and get more grace? And that's why St.

00:20:31 Speaker_01
Paul says, no, no, no, no, no, that's not the point. That's when you need the grace, grace is given, but don't go like injuring yourself in order to get more grace. But the reality of course, is that's the power of God's healing.

00:20:44 Speaker_01
The power of God's grace is we can be trucking along right at a certain level of relationship with the Lord, a certain level of holiness and just, you know, his, his divine life in us. And then we fall into sin.

00:20:55 Speaker_01
What happens when we repent and turn back to the Lord, we go to confession, God doesn't just raise us back up to the same level we were.

00:21:00 Speaker_01
He raises us up and elevates even further because where grace abounds, sorry, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. But that's why he clarifies, don't go looking for sin so you get more grace.

00:21:10 Speaker_01
But if you happen to need the grace you can trust in. the love of God for you to give you even more.

00:21:15 Speaker_01
Hopefully that makes sense because he goes on to talk about those of us who were baptized into Christ, baptized into his death, we were buried therefore.

00:21:23 Speaker_01
And so this reality of course is that the old man, the former man he calls it, the old man being our fallen flesh, is meant to have been crucified with Christ in our baptism.

00:21:35 Speaker_01
that when we actually repented, right, we turned away, not just from sin, not just from vice, not just from old habits, but we turned away from that person. I was someone different before I encountered Christ.

00:21:45 Speaker_01
I was someone different before he saved me. He's made me into a new creation. And so I turned from that and let that person die.

00:21:52 Speaker_01
I remember going to confession to a priest and at one point he said, you know what, I think sometimes we would rather just kind of torture the old man, or what St. Paul says here is the former man, rather than actually let him die.

00:22:04 Speaker_01
Because he was kind of highlighting how sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that former way of life. Sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that sin.

00:22:12 Speaker_01
And so he used that turn of phrase to be able to say, sometimes I think we just torture the old man rather than actually let him die. Keep him alive a little bit and maybe he'll have some power in our lives. But, as St.

00:22:26 Speaker_01
Paul says, we know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and that we might no longer be slaves of sin. That's verse 6 in chapter 6. For he who has died is freed from sin.

00:22:39 Speaker_01
So, if we've died with Christ, we believe we should also live with him because that's the whole, this incredible mystery. Gosh, there's so much to say.

00:22:46 Speaker_01
I'm gonna just jump to the end in chapter seven because there's so much good, but there's also this sense of, oh my gosh, Paul understands me.

00:22:56 Speaker_01
In chapter seven, this is another place we might wanna just have that highlighter out there, that pen, that pencil, whatever it is, to be able to write your notes, to underline these.

00:23:05 Speaker_01
We recognize, he says, the interior conflict between good and evil. And this is one of those passages of scripture that you might say, oh my gosh, this is me. If it's not, that's great. Praise the Lord for that.

00:23:17 Speaker_01
But I read it and think, oh God, at least you understand me. So does Paul. He says, I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. He ever felt like that, that we're at war within ourselves?

00:23:32 Speaker_01
He even says that. He says, now, if I do what I do not want, I agree the law is good. Yeah, because I don't want this. I want the right. I don't want the wrong. So then it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.

00:23:46 Speaker_01
And that recognition that, yes, there's this brokenness. And when St. Paul uses the terms the flesh, he's not condemning our bodies. The flesh means the fallen human nature, our fallen human nature. So keep that in mind.

00:23:58 Speaker_01
Whenever you hear the term that St. Paul uses, the flesh, I don't know if there's any exceptions, St. Paul refers to the flesh. That means our fallen human nature. It doesn't mean that bodies are bad.

00:24:08 Speaker_01
It's just that part of us that doesn't want to do the right thing, essentially. But I love this, he says, so I find it to be a law when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. This is chapter 7, verse 21.

00:24:20 Speaker_01
I see in my members another law, a war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Then he cries out in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

00:24:30 Speaker_01
And the very next verse, he just like inserts this praise and he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Just like, I'm still, I'm still a mess.

00:24:39 Speaker_01
I'm just, here I am, a puddle of messiness, but thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's just, that's the key, in the middle of the mess, to be able to praise God for his presence, for what he's doing in the midst of that mess.

00:24:56 Speaker_01
You guys, I don't mean to take any more of your time today. It has been an incredible gift to, man, be in what, day four, I guess now, of the age of the church. and just be trucking along here. I think I've used that term twice today.

00:25:07 Speaker_01
Oh, well, here we are. I'm telling you, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.