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The River ChurchSermons

Righteousness

Righteousness Illustrated, Pt. 1

Justin Dean · Sunday, 8 June 2025 · Romans 4:1-12 · 41:09 · 5,773 words

Romans S7 · 4:1-12 Davison

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The sermon examines Paul's teaching that righteousness is received as a gift through faith, using Abraham from Romans 4 as a case study. It argues that even the most obedient actions do not earn God’s favor; faith in God’s promise is credited as righteousness, as Genesis 15:6 states. The speaker stresses that genuine faith changes how we live, freeing us from sin to pursue the Spirit and obey God’s Word. Listeners are challenged to trust God above their instincts, live out faith with tangible obedience, and rely on God’s grace.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

faith 80 abraham 36 trust 24 obey 23 count 18 stake 8 wage 13 gift 26 sacrifice 16 due 8 reality 16 instincts 4

Topics

Faith 20 Abraham 9 Righteousness 6 Sin 5 Salvation 5 Obedience 5 Atonement & Sacrifice 3 The Holy Spirit 3 The Law 2 Prayer 2 The Gospel 1 Grace 1 Hope 1 Sanctification 1 Justification 1

Scripture referenced 21

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 3 1:01 Romans 4 2:57 Romans 4 3:39 Romans 4 6:41 Romans 4:1 6:49 Romans 4:12 6:49 Romans 4:8 6:54 Romans 3 14:47 Romans 4 15:06 Romans 4:3-4 15:06 Romans 3 15:37 Romans 3:24 15:37 Romans 3:23 15:45 Genesis 15:6 16:39 Genesis 3 16:51 Genesis 15:3-6 17:01 Genesis 15 18:10 Genesis 15:3 18:10 Romans 3:6 18:44 Romans 3:2 20:46 Romans 3 31:59

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

a joke about how I didn't have a lot of, you know, texts that come around the message, right? How we

just really stayed in one text pretty much the whole time. And I made a joke about how dense it

was, right? How it was a very spiritually dense passage. There was a lot that we needed to work

through and talk about because there was a lot of implications. And I really, really like that Paul

consistently does that specifically here in Romans, is what he kind of does is, it makes sense for me

in this way because, you know, I like to eat, is he will take pieces of Romans and he'll drop them on

our plate like a steak, like a very thick, hearty steak. And then what he'll do is he'll spend the next

couple chapters or the next piece of Romans chewing through that steak together, right? Talking about

what are the implications, what are the different pieces of the truths that he really jumped on in

this one section. And so last week, as we reached the end of Romans 3, I talked about how there was

a tone shift in Paul's letter, right? His letter to the Romans. How he was moving from talking about

sin and the uniformed condemnation of humanity, right? How we are all under sin, how

sin means death for us, and according to our own works, there is no hope for us, right? And so it was

really this bleak outlook, right? If it's up to you guys, you are hopeless. And last week, he begins

to shift. He says, but that doesn't mean you are without hope. You are without hope according to

your own ways, according to your own works, according to yourselves, but God has given you the precious

gift of Jesus Christ, and he has supplied hope for you. And he begins to talk about the reality

of that and how that comes about being. And in that dense section that we talked about last week,

it's him laying the next steak in front of us. And so for these next couple weeks, we're going to

begin to chew through what he was talking about in that extremely dense,

dense passage. And so as we move from that tone shift, what Paul does to begin to help us chew

through the reality of what he's talking about is he begins a kind of a case study on one specific

character from the Old Testament, Abraham, and how Abraham was not saved according to his works,

but saved through his faith. The point that he made,

for us, that we are saved according to. And so we're going to dive into that at the beginning

of chapter four, but let's pray together before we jump into God's word. Lord, give us wisdom and

understanding. That is what we need so desperately. We need to understand your word. We need to

understand who you call us to be and why you call us to be that way. And then we need the wisdom

to live it out every day in our lives. Lord, I pray that your word would provide deep, rich

understanding and life change for us today. Lord, guide us, direct us, and illuminate to us

what we need. In your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen. So open with me to Romans

chapter four. One of the statements that I made last week was as we were talking about that faith,

the faith that we have been given justification through Jesus Christ by, or according to,

one of the things that we talked about was the idea of sacrifices. And how in the Old Testament,

under the law, the Jewish people were told that when they sinned, they would have to perform

certain sacrifices to seek forgiveness, right? As a means for atonement, right? Making

themselves right. And I talked about how Paul, he begins to talk about Jesus in the same way,

how he has been the propitiation, which means he is the substitute. He is the one that the wrath

of God is poured on. He is the sacrifice, our perfect sacrifice. And how all those other

sacrifices of animals, they were not truly absolving the people of their sins because they

were not sufficient. They were not enough to atone for the sins of humanity. But Jesus is. And how all

sacrifices were a means of pointing to the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. How those sacrifices

were an act of faith that God would provide atonement for their sins. And so as we talk

about that, one of the questions that I think kind of naturally comes up is, so if everything

is based off of faith, if everything is based off of what I trust and what I believe, why do anything

differently, right? If you're a Jew and you're reading this and you have followed the law your

whole life and you look and you see, well, none of the obedience matters, none of those works matter,

it's about your faith, I could imagine there would be some frustrated people saying, okay, so why

follow the law?

Why make those sacrifices? Why obey God if that, those works, if that is not credited to me as

righteousness? If it's all about faith, why do anything differently? Why not just proclaim that

I have faith? And so what Paul does is he begins to talk about the depth of faith. He talks about

the way in which we're justified. He talks about the way in which we're justified. He talks about

the way in which we're justified, which is according to our faith. And then he begins here,

as like, like I said, as we begin to chew through what that reality looks like, he begins to talk

about what faith is and how faith is demonstrated. So join with me in Romans chapter four, starting

in verse one, we're going to go through to verse 12 and then we're going to, or sorry, we're going

to go through to verse eight and then we're going to kind of chunk it up into pieces. So it says

this,

And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will not count his sin.

And so here, like I said,

Paul begins to use

the character of Abraham

as a case study.

by the Jewish people

of the day, by the religious people.

Because he was known

as the father of their faith.

He was the one that God

showed up to and he

called to follow him.

And kind of every one of them can trace

both their physical lineage

and their spiritual lineage

Right? He is the forefather, the forerunner.

And so we did a series

on Abraham earlier this year, but I wanted

to recap some of the things

that Abraham did

as he followed God. Because

this guy was

devoted guy to the Lord.

He followed God

and he did so with

incredible obedience.

So one of the first things is

he followed him in obedience,

to leave his homeland.

When God showed up to Abraham,

he said, hey, I need you

to leave Ur, the place

where your family has always been.

I need you to get up and I need

you to leave. He didn't give him a direction.

He didn't say, I need you to go over

here. He just said, I need you

to leave and just head off

and I will kind of direct you

from there. That's craziness.

Right? If that was said to me,

I'm like, okay,

are you going to pull up the Google Maps for

me? God, are you

going to provide a U-Haul

so that I can get where I

need to go? I had some serious questions

after that. But Abraham simply

gets up and goes. He does

exactly what God says. He doesn't hesitate

in the moment. He just

goes. Second thing, he

worshiped God instead of the false

gods of other nations. Sometimes

to his own danger. He was one that when God showed up to him, he said, you know what? I'm about you.

I'm all about you. He made altars to the Lord. He made sacrifices to the Lord. He would not bow to

any other God. He would only follow God alone, even when it put his safety on the line. Second

thing, or the third thing, is his willingness to consistently do what God says. And there are tons

of instances throughout his journey, like specifically from when he was called to leave

his homeland until he was brought to the land that God had for him. But specifically, I think that

obedience is seen in really two major ways. The first one is circumcision. We've talked a lot

about circumcision over the last couple weeks, so I'm not going to go into it again. But that takes

some major obedience, right? That takes some major obedience. And then the other one is the willingness

to sacrifice his son, Isaac. He was willing because he believed God so much that God would

provide for him. He was willing to sacrifice his own son because God told him to do it. And then

even more so throughout his time, he was known as a person who would constantly give. Constantly

give more than even he had at times, thinking about he was willing to give land to Lot because

he was called to by God. He would tithe to Melchizedek, who was a priest or a prophet in the

name of God, who God told him to bless. And then he specifically provided hospitality to

angels when he had basically nothing. And he gave all that to the angels who arrived on the scene

out of an act of hospitality. So here, if you're writing like a spiritual resume, right? This is

scoff at, right? This would be the resume that you would think would come across God's desk and he'd

be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we got a winner, right? This guy is righteous, right? He's done some

really incredible things in obedience to me. And to the Jews, it makes sense that Abraham received

these covenants, received these promises out of the things that he did for God. He seemed like he

earned them because he was willing to give. And so he gave all that to the angels who arrived on the scene

because he was a dude who always obeyed God. And so God would call him to do something, he'd obey God,

and then kind of out of that, God would bless him. God would make a covenant with him. And people

would kind of point to these things as an explanation for his godliness and his righteousness.

Because at the time, Abraham did not have the law. The law came with Moses, right? The Ten Commandments

and then more and more and more. And so he was given specific instructions to do that. And so he

was given specific instructions by God, but he did not have the law of the Old Testament that the Jews

would obey to. And so they would point to these things and say, look, yes, he may not have to do

all these specific sacrifices. He may not have had all these specific laws. But time and time again,

when God instructed him, he was obedient. And so that is the way by which he was saved, that he

would do the things that he was supposed to do. That these things credited to him the righteousness.

That he was in need of. Paul would not say those things. Why? Because one, that's the truth. But

specifically, Paul, as he's explaining this truth, is he's building his entire argument against that

mentality, right? That we can do certain things that will earn for us righteousness. And so what Paul does is, as the Holy

Spirit is instructing him on what to write, both Paul and the Holy Spirit know that using Abraham

as an example would be controversial, thought-provoking, and understood by the mass of people.

Because he begins to point out that Abraham was not credited his righteousness as something he earned by his

obedience by what he did. But instead, he received his righteousness as a gift. That's exactly what Paul was saying at the end of chapter 3. That

We were given grace through Jesus Christ as a gift.

And he makes this claim very apparent again in chapter 4, verse 3 and 4.

Go back there.

Now, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,

his faith is counted as righteousness.

If you go back to chapter 3, verse 24, it's not going to be on the screen,

but it says, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

and are justified by his grace as a gift.

Right?

And so what he's saying here is if we are receiving a gift,

if we all fall short and we need this gift of salvation, of grace,

and of mercy,

that means no one has earned it.

Even the guy that you hold in the highest regard,

even as the one who you look and you point to all these things that he did,

and you say, but he did this thing, and he did this thing,

and he obeyed God here, and he obeyed God here, and he obeyed God here.

Those things do not credit him righteousness.

Instead, it's his faith.

His faith is how he received that righteousness,

how he was given that grace.

And specifically, Paul is quoting Genesis chapter 15, verse 6.

Turn with me there.

Specifically here in this chapter 3, right, where he says,

for what does scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

He's referencing Genesis chapter 15, verse 3 through 6.

So what's happening here is Abraham is kind of on the brink of hopelessness.

He's kind of given up.

And he's kind of on the brink of hopelessness.

He goes to God or God shows up, and they begin to have a conversation.

And what Abraham says is, is he looks at God and he's like,

hey, am I going to have to pass on all my inheritance to someone random,

like in my family or in my clan?

And he names a specific guy.

But he says, like, because I don't have any offspring.

I don't have a child.

And so he was, he was like kind of feeling hopeless.

He's like, there's no one for me to pass on these things to,

these covenants to, these blessings to within my family.

I'm going to have to basically pawn it off to one of my servants.

And God shows up and God gives him a covenant.

And here we see a very insightful note from the narrator,

one given to us by the Holy Spirit.

It says this, Genesis chapter 15, starting in verse 3.

And Abraham said,

Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him,

This man shall not be your heir, your very own son shall be your heir.

And he brought him outside and said,

Look toward the heaven and the number of stars.

If you are able to number them, then he said to him,

So shall your offspring be.

Verse 6, here's this note from the narrator the Holy Spirit gives us.

And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.

It's very interesting here because the tendency could be to believe that Paul

is providing this new spiritual perspective and then he's going back through the Old Testament

and kind of nitpicking the things that apply to what he's saying.

But here very specifically, we see the Old Testament before Paul is even a thought about

saying it was not what he was saying.

He did what Abraham did.

It was his belief that the Lord counted to him as righteousness, his faith.

You see, there is this reality, right?

This was not something that Paul made up.

This was God's plan all along and how God operates in regard to the faith of those who obey him.

That obedience does not earn salvation, but instead,

Faith in God, God's character, God's word, and God's promises is what brings about grace and

mercy, which is counted to us as righteousness. And so once again, Paul paints out what we

sometimes often misunderstand. He uses kind of an obvious situation where he says he uses this idea

of the gift versus the wage. And so he goes, if you look at all these things that Abraham did,

and you could say, well, because of these things, he was a man who brought about righteousness,

who had this righteousness. And in verse 2, he says, then he would have something to boast about.

Abraham would have the ability to go to God and say, God, I have done what you have said time and

time again.

Show up. I don't want to give my offspring to some, or my blessings. I don't want to give

my inheritance to some random dude in my clan. Give me. I've earned an heir. He would have

something to boast about. Paul says he doesn't before God. And then he paints this picture,

right? Now the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due, right?

It's kind of a no-duh situation, right? If you got to the end of your work week,

and you're working, and you're working, and you're working, and you're working,

and your boss came into your office, or sat down next to you, came up to you at your workspace,

and he said, just want to let you know, I got a wonderful gift for you this week. Here's your

paycheck, right? You would look and be like, okay, stop being dumb, right? Like, I worked hard for

that. Actually, this gift should be a lot more, right, than what you're giving me right now,

because I've earned it. I worked and did it. It's not a gift if I had to put in the time and effort,

and we hadn't agreed.

Upon wage, and I did all that, and then you show up and give me these things. That is no gift.

That's a wage. And Paul says, so too is the gift of salvation. So too is the gift

of the sacrifice of Jesus. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him,

who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Because Paul is continually

pointing out this truth, specifically, that if we're talking about wages, Abraham had not earned

righteousness, but had earned death. Abraham had done many things wrong, right? As we walked

through that series on Abraham, there were pieces of that series, and pieces of Abraham's life,

that looked more like a reality TV show, or like the Jerry Springer show,

than it did following God, right? He had plenty of baby mama drama, right? If you look at his life.

And so we look, he said, he had many shortcomings, and he really fell under the category of Romans

3.23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is no exceptions. It doesn't say all,

but Abraham. It says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so,

as great as the things that you look at Abraham and be like, oh,

he did this thing, and he did this thing, and he did this thing. Man, doesn't that make him a

righteous person? Guess what? He still falls short. The bar is not Abraham. It's not low enough so

that Abraham can get over it. The bar is the holiness of God. If you cannot match the holiness

of God, you are in need of the gift of salvation. If you cannot reach the perfect,

holiness of God, perfection, you are in need of salvation. And anything you try and do to raise

yourself on that bar, you will always fall short, because guess what? You have always fallen short

in your sin. And so Paul says, he was not deserving. He was not owed these covenants.

They were given to him as a blessing by God, as a gift from God. God gave them to Abraham as a gift,

Because God saw his face.

faith and counted it to him as righteousness. And you see that this is true because if you

go through Abraham's story, you will see Abraham does not one time use his actions as an appeal

to the Lord. God, do this because I did this. God, I did these things, now show up this way.

The only thing that Abraham ever appeals to is God's character. Why? Because Abraham has faith

in God's character. He believes in God's character. He stakes his life on God's character, on who God

is and how God works. And so there is this tension where we look and see Abraham, this guy who's done

these great things, but Paul and really the whole of scripture looking and saying, but those great

things weren't enough. It was actually his faith. It was actually his reliance on God. We see this

tension. So why then do any of it? If it's all about Abraham's faith, then why not have faith

and also stay back in Ur, right, where he originally lived. Have faith and not take your son to be

sacrificed. Have faith and not show hospitality, not give, not do all these things, not build altars

to the Lord. Because why are those altars important?

If I have faith. Here's the question I have to counter those objections. Can you have faith

in something that you don't embrace by the way you live? Can you have real faith in something

that you don't embrace by the way you live? If Abraham said he had all this faith in God,

but anytime God showed up and told him to do something, he was like, nah, I'm good. That's a

great suggestion.

God, but I'll stay here. Thanks for the input. But I trust that you're good. I trust that you know

best. I trust that you are wise. I trust that you lead me into good things. I trust that you are God

and you are perfect and you are holy. But that suggestion, nah. The reality is faith produces

a life of obedience. And so those acts of obedience were not merited.

As credit of righteousness, they were depictions of the faith that he had. They were depictions that

he did in fact trust God as holy. That he did in fact have faith that God would show up. That God

would provide for his needs. That God would fulfill his promises. That God would do the

things that he said that he did. That God knew what was best. And so when God told him to go places,

that he had faith, that that was the best thing for him to do. And so was his faith that which

saved him? No. But the reality, or sorry, was his works that which saved him? No. But the reality of

his faith was he had faith in God and that was so exemplified by the way that he lived. And I have

to be careful here because we're going to actually talk about this in more detail, what that actually

means the next week. So I don't want to step on my toes too much. But that's really what Paul is

continually building. Abraham was not credited righteousness because of his actions. But in

Abraham's obedience, you see the depth of his faith in God. Here is where it crosses over to us.

Here's where the application comes through. We talked about the reality of Paul's argument,

how he is building this case that it's faith and not actions. But what Paul is getting at here is

it darts with faith.

The same is true for us. We have the option to obey God or pursue a sinful life.

Those are our pathways, right?

Elsewhere in Scripture, it talks about feeding two trees.

One is the tree of the Spirit.

One is the tree of the flesh.

This is what I want, where I want to go, what I want to do, apart from what God tells me.

This is that sinful part of me.

And then here's the tree of the Spirit, the way that God leads us, the way that God's

Word calls us to live, the things that we should and shouldn't be doing as people looking

to live holy lives.

And what it says in Scripture is you are feeding one of these two trees in every action, thought,

motivation, you are feeding one of the two trees.

And that's the reality.

Anything contrary to God is sinful.

Anything that goes against His call, His command, His character is sinful.

And so you have this call or this reality.

You are feeding one of two trees.

So if you have faith in God, what tree should you be feeding?

That's really where the faith in the gospel has to come in.

As we talk about what we've been saved from and faith in this work of salvation that Jesus

has provided for us, it should come down to a reality of how we live out that faith.

Is it based off of how we live out that faith?

No, it's based off of our faith.

But our faith.

Our faith has to begin to produce something different in our lives.

Why?

Because that's simply the reality of true belief.

When we look at the gospel, right, and we look at what God's word had to say about the

gospel just back in Romans chapter 3, Paul describes it as a ransom, as a ransom.

We, in our sin, in our flesh, feeding this tree, have become chained.

To this tree, enslaved to our sin.

God, in his deep love for us, paid the ransom with Jesus Christ's life.

Jesus went to the cross.

He died on the cross and he rose again, showing that the ransom had been paid.

That the sacrifice was sufficient.

And so what Paul says is how you receive that salvation through faith is you confess with

your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And you believe in your heart.

That Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

And you are unshackled, unbound from that tree.

And you are now free to pursue a life in the spirit.

And so what Paul says is, guess what?

As you have faith, you have faith that God is good, that God is perfect, that God is,

that God knows all things, that God has the best intentions for you.

If you truly have faith in that, and then you truly have faith,

that you've been freed from the flesh,

can you make any other decision than to pursue the spirit?

Any decision that is choosing flesh is not congruent with your faith.

There is a big not equal sign.

Now, once again, we're given grace by God because we still mess up.

Not all of us have a perfect faith where we only choose the spirit and we never again sin.

But the reality is our lives.

We should begin to shift in accordance with our faith.

Hey, guess what?

I do believe in God's promises.

I do trust what God's word has to say.

I do see the goodness of God constantly in my life.

I do believe that he hears me.

And so I'm beginning to pray more.

I do believe that God's word is true and right

and is the best way to live.

So I am reading it more.

I am memorizing it.

I am realizing it more.

I am trying to figure out what it tells me to do more and more and more.

Because guess what?

I do have faith that that is how I'm supposed to live.

Man, I come to this passage of scripture and it's hard.

It doesn't make sense or it doesn't feel right.

I've grown up, and this is how I've been taught, or this is what culture tells me is right and wrong,

and this seems to contradict that. Well, I trust that God is true. I trust that God's word is

always right, and so I will conform to his word. You see how those actions are not what give us

merit, but those actions begin to show a faith that God has produced in us. So we have this faith

that answers the question of why then obey God's word? Why then pursue holiness? Why then exemplify

Christ? Because we trust that those are the best things. Because we have faith that that is the

best way. Contrary to what I sometimes want. Contrary to what feels natural. In our growth

community this week, that was one of the questions is like, when is one time when following God

has contradicted how we are?

What your natural feeling is, or what your instincts are pulling you. So our instincts are

sinful, because we have sinful flesh. And so it was a hard question to ask. We were going around

talking about it, and I think that that really is the call of faith. Do we have faith in God

greater than faith in our self, in our flesh? That's one of the things that I think Abraham

had down-packed. He had

faith in God many times, far more than he had faith in himself. Where I want to know the

directions when I'm leaving, or where I want to know where we're going, and I want to know how

we're going. Abraham looked and said, I don't need to know any of that, because I'm just going to

screw it up to begin with. God, I'm trusting you. We need to begin to implement that kind of faith

in our lives. God, I trust you. I lean on your word more than my own understanding. I trust you

even when my instincts want to pull me away. I trust you even when my instincts want to pull me

to worry and anxiety and fear. God, I trust you with my kids. I trust you with my parents. I trust

you with my boss. I trust you with my work, because guess what? You can do so much more than I could

on my own. It's faith. It's faith in what the gospel has done. One of the things that I think

distinguishes faith, and we'll really talk, I'm going to talk about this more in these coming

weeks, is faith is trust with stakes.

Trust with stakes. It's the reality of staking your life on that which you trust. And if we trust

that Christ has freed us from our sinfulness, have freed us from the flesh, then we stake our lives

on the Spirit. We stake our lives on God's word. We stake our lives on holiness. So I want to ask

you that same question that we wrestled through in our growth community, which is, this week,

how are you going to live in faith, even when...

your heart, when your mind want to pull you away? How are you going to live in faith this week when

you have the tendency to want to go back to control, when you have the tendency to want to

run back to worry or fear, when you have the tendency to want to do things your way? How are

you going to have faith in God this week? It's a hard, hard reality to live, and that's why God

gives us grace, because we're not always perfect at it. But that is no excuse not to pursue that.

To pursue that kind of faith. Let's pray together. Lord, I thank you that you don't

give me what I deserve, because what I deserve is death. The wage that I earn

is eternity in hell separated from you. Lord, I thank you that you...

have given me the gift of salvation.

Lord, I thank you that you have provided

that gift of salvation to anyone

who turns to you in faith.

Lord, I pray for my friends in this room.

I pray that you would help each and every one of them

in this room either turn in thankfulness

for the grace that you have given them

or that they would turn to you

in need of salvation right now.

Lord, I pray that you would stir hearts,

you would help us to, in our faith, pursue you

and know that you love us and you care for us

and you guide us according to what is best.

Lord, we look to trust in you.

Help us as we seek deeper and deeper faith,

faith that is lived out and that we stake our lives on.

In your precious and holy name, Jesus' name, amen.