 Yes. So before the break, we were looking at what the cross has done for us, the new legal status which is ours, because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross. So the finished work of the cross has given us a new legal status and we need to be very, very aware that we are no longer under the law. We are under a new master and our new master by his grace, he enables us to live in a new and holy way. We saw that the power of Satan over us is broken. He no longer has any legal power and authority over us. We also saw that we have been redeemed and brought out from that kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and so the old laws of the previous kingdom no longer have any control over us. We have a right to assert ourselves in Jesus Christ and declare that now we are citizens of a new kingdom and we can command Satan and his minions to leave in Jesus' name. They have no choice but to vacate our areas, those areas of our lives that they are trying to dominate. So this is what we have in Christ because of the finished work of the cross. We will also very briefly look at the things that are said in scripture about this new identity that we now have because we are in Christ. Because of our union with Christ, what is our new identity? Our new identity is that we are a blessed people. We have been blessed with spiritual blessings and those spiritual blessings will help us to live a victorious life. So we have a scripture which talks about that. If someone could read out for us, Ephesians chapter 1, 3 and 4. Ephesians 1 verses 3 and 4, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So over here, we have been blessed it says with every spiritual blessing and the NIV rather than using the word just, it uses the word for. So why have we been given these spiritual blessings? Because he has chosen us in him to be holy and blameless. Now all these spiritual blessings have been given to us not just to make us rich people in material ways, not just to see that we always get healed from sickness. Those are also vital important parts of our new Christian walk but these things, these spiritual blessings have been given us so that we can be holy and blameless so that we can live an overcoming life. What are some of the spiritual blessings that we have? The spiritual blessing of being able to stand over there in complete freedom and make a choice to be able to choose. Shall I sin or shall I not sin? Earlier when we were slaves of sin, we had no choice. We had no say in the matter. It was a struggle but now we are free. We can actually stand over there in complete freedom and choose whether we wish to sin or not. It is a spiritual blessing, this freedom that we have in Christ. We have the spiritual blessing of being able to hear from Jesus Christ so clearly because he says, my sheep will be able to hear my voice. So when the time of temptation comes, he will guide us. He will tell us how we can escape from that temptation because we have the scripture which says that when temptation comes, he will also show us the way of escape. So we have the spiritual blessing of being able to hear from him. So in our time of crisis, he will tell us what to do, what to say and he will show us the way of escape so that we can overcome that particular temptation. We have the spiritual blessing of using his word, the word of God as a sword and that can be a very powerful weapon. So we have all of these spiritual blessings that have been given to us. Why were they given to us? Because God has chosen us in Jesus Christ to be holy and blameless. So now we are blessed. We are spiritually rich in blessings which enable us, equip us to live an overcoming life. In the same way, we also have been enriched. Let us look at a passage which talks about that. If someone could read out for us, 1 Corinthians 1, 4 to 9. 1 Corinthians 1, 4 to 9. I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Jesus Christ that you were enriched in everything by him in all utterance and all knowledge. Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you so that you come short in no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord. So if we look in verse 5, 1 Corinthians 1 verse 5, the actual words used over there, the Greek words used over there are words that we are actually familiar with foreign him. You have been enriched in every way. How have we been enriched with all kinds of logos and with all gnosis that is G-N-O-S-I-S. So these are two things, these are two words that we are kind of familiar with already. It says we have been enriched with all kinds of logos and with all gnosis. Now the word ogos we know it is applied to words, it is applied to speech, it also talks about the word of God. So we have been given all kinds of logos, all kinds of words, all kinds of speech and in the translation that Rosalind read out it says utterances. So here it is talking about the spiritual gifts of word of prophecy, word of knowledge and word of wisdom. It is talking about that. It is also talking about the written word of God which is also another form of speech, another form of utterance. So we have been given all kinds of utterances, all kinds of words or speech. We have been given all kinds of logos and something else. We have also been given gnosis, g-n-o-s-i-s that is basically your knowledge. So he also gives us the ability to know how to handle each situation. So we have the spiritual gifts, we have the written word of God, we have the divine knowledge which is given to us on how to tackle each situation that we face. So it goes on to say in verse 7, therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift. So everything that you require to live a victorious life, it has been given to you. So we do not lack in any way and that is why it says in verse 8, he will also keep you firm to the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. So God will use these, if we choose to use these giftings that we have, if we choose to use these logos that we have, if we choose to use these things, then through them God will keep us firm to the end. If we choose that we do not want to use them, then of course we will not be able to walk in victory. But if we are making use of all the giftings and logos which is given to us, if we make use of the knowledge which God imparts to us when we cry out to him and say, Lord help me, show me how to overcome this stronghold, how to overcome this area of weakness in my life. When we reach out to him and ask him actively for these things, it says he will keep us firm to the end. Why? Because it says in verse 9, God is faithful who has called you into fellowship with his Son. So the Lord will be faithful. He will enable us to live victoriously. This is something that we can have in him because he is very, very faithful to his word. He will enable us and that is why in 2 Corinthians 3-5, it says something very nice over there. If someone could read out, 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Alright, so look at the immediate context of this particular verse. It's actually talking about, you know, Apostleship. It's talking about how Paul and his leaders have been enabled by God to be good leaders. So they're saying, you know, we're not saying that we're good leaders on our own. God has enabled us. So that is why we have what we have. So that is, of course, the immediate context of the verse. But then if you were to take that verse more broadly, all the sufficiency, all the competence, that's the word that NIV uses. The competence that we have to be able to handle things is because God has given that to us. So, you know, in that sense, NIV says not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has given us all competency. So this is something that we need to remember. We have been made competent to overcome every single kind of temptation. So we don't have to say, I lack competency in this particular area. No, no, all competency comes from God. And when we reach out to him and we ask him, he is faithful. He will grant us what we require to overcome, you know, even those areas of sin and temptation. Another thing that we need to remember regarding our identity in Christ is that we are victorious. Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14. Second Corinthians 2, 14, if someone could read out. Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. Yeah, you know, NIV brings out the meaning of that, you know, what does it mean he's leading us, you know, in his procession. So it kind of tries to make the meaning of that sentence clear by putting it in this way. This is what NIV says. But thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. Because you see in those times, in those ancient times, when you would have a procession being held by a king, that's actually a procession of victory. Where the king is, you know, walking ahead is come back from a battle and now is, you know, walking in a royal procession towards his palace. Okay, so he walks through the city to show off what he has achieved in that battle. So behind him are all these captives whom he has captured. You know, the powerful king of the other nation whom he has defeated, that man is being dragged along, you know, with all shackles and chains around his hands and feet. And all his nobles and commanders and officers, they're all, you know, now in chains. And this royal king was walking in the front, he's saying, see, I have won the victory. These guys, they're my captives. This is how powerful I am. So it's that kind of a procession. And so it says, thanks be to God who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal possession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. So originally, when Paul used this imagery, it would have sounded a little funny to his listeners, because, you know, we generally think of captives as pathetic being someone to be pitied. But over here, you know, because generally speaking, in a triumphal procession, the people who are getting led, I have nothing to be happy about. They are now captives. They are now slaves, not a very nice place to be. Because, you know, especially if you look, you know, in our Old Testament times, you know, 2 Chronicles, chapter 33 was 11, where Manasseh gets led away, you know, as a prisoner. I mean, the condition that he is in, they actually put a hook, a metal hook in his nose. Like, you know, the way they do with cattle, with oxen, you know, it's like as if, you know, they're saying, you are no better than an animal. So in 2 Chronicles, chapter 33 was 11, we see that he is a hook is put through his nose and he is bound in shackles of bronze. And in that condition, he is not taken away. So basically, in the natural sense, being a captive is something very horrible, very terrible. But here, in Christ's triumphal procession, we are captives who were in a very, very pathetic condition. We were like this Manasseh, but now we are captives who have been set free by our new master, Jesus Christ. So yes, we are still now slaves, we are slaves of our new master. But our new master, why did he set us free? Not to throw us in some dungeon and make our lives miserable, but so that he could restore our lives, so that he could rebuild us. So it's a whole different kind of a procession. It's like a king who has gone into battle and conquered all these people and they all were enslaved by slavery and misery. Now he's bringing them out, he has set them free. So yes, now he is their new master, but he's not brought them out to make them miserable, he's brought them out to build their lives. And so that is why in this procession, when these captives are being led in victory, they're not following Christ as defeated people who are now helpless. What to do now? They're under this new king. No, they're in fact walking with great joy, like royalty. And they're saying, look, we were in that horrible kingdom of darkness. But now Christ has led us out and we are walking in this triumphal procession as conquerors, as people who have been set free. So that is why when this procession is going along, you don't smell defeat. You don't smell shame and humiliation. Rather, it says over here, the aroma of the knowledge of him is spread everywhere. So we go around, we go to our neighbors, we go to our office place, we go to our social circles. We go over there as Christ's captive, but we are not shamed and defeated or humiliated. We say, once upon a time we were slaves of sin, but now we are slaves of our new master Christ. And what is he doing? He's causing us to walk in victory. He's causing us to walk in spiritual blessings. We have been enriched with all kinds of utterances and knowledge. And so we, in fact, use our giftings among the people to help them, to be a blessing to them. So we are spreading the aroma of being a slave of Christ. Being a slave of Christ has a very pleasant aroma. It smells very good. It's not the smell of defeat. It's not the smell of humiliation or shame. It's a very different aroma. So we need to remember that we are not following Christ as defeated, helpless people. But rather we are following Him as victors, as victorious people who are now, who now can live in a new and different way. And as we pass by, everyone smells this new life that we have and they think, wow. So this is what it is like to be living under Jesus Christ. This is the kind of life that He gives His slaves. So it's what they learn about us. So we have to understand that our identity is one of victory, of our heads being lifted up rather than being defeated and being shamed. If we can also look at Romans chapter 5 verse 17, if someone could read out for us, Romans 5 verse 17. For if by the one man's offence, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. Here it says that now that we are under Jesus Christ, you know, earlier of course we were under death and we were in a terrible condition. But now we are under Jesus Christ. And this is what we have received. It says who receive God's abundant provision of grace. Okay. So an abundant provision of grace has been given to us. Why? To reign in life. We are meant to be rulers, ruling in life. We are no longer defeated. We are no longer helpless. So our identity is that in our hands we are holding an abundance of provision of grace for every situation, for every circumstance, for every area of weakness. An abundant provision of grace has been given so that that area of weakness no longer needs to be an area of weakness. It can become an area of strength. Why? Because we are holding in our hands an abundant provision of grace. Okay. So these are all things, the realities that we need to understand and we need to start teaching our minds these things. Because our mind is not aware of these things automatically. It's something that we would have to teach our mind. And we renew our mind by telling it these things. And slowly the mind begins to see itself as being a victorious person. Your perspective starts changing. You start seeing yourself the way Christ sees you. And that makes a huge difference. So I have an example in mind but then I think maybe we could talk about that in another class. Just moving on to Hebrews 4, 15. Yeah, if someone could read out for us Hebrews 4, 15. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Yeah. So our new representative Jesus Christ who is very different from Adam our old representative. So this new representative of our Jesus Christ, it says over here who was tempted in every way. So all the temptations that we face, he too has faced all of those temptations but of course he was without sin. So he knows the strategy. He knows how every kind of temptation can be overcome. This is something that he knows and so he can reveal that to us when we go to him in the next verse. In fact, that's what it says. It says because he's that kind of a high priest. Go to his throne with confidence to receive grace and mercy in your time of need is what it says in the next verse. So this is a high priest who has gained victory over every kind of temptation and he knows the strategy how you can overcome all types of temptation. So when we go to him and we learn to live under him, abide in him to hear from him every day because as we spend time with him we begin to hear his voice more clearly. We become more comfortable in hearing from him. We won't be as spiritually deaf as we used to be in our early days as a believer. Now we can hear him better because he gives instructions. He gives important instructions on a moment by moment basis. So he is able to equip us. He is able to guide us and show us how to live in victory because he has already been through the process. And so he knows what methods we can use in our own situations to live in victory. And that is why in Psalm 1834, you know, this is what it says if someone could read out Psalm 1834. Psalm 1834, he teaches my hands to make war so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. A bow made of bronze is not an easy thing to bend. See if your bow is made of wood and you pull back on the string and this bronze bow which is there, the frame of that has to get stretched that way and then this string gets stretched this way. So you would need to have a certain amount of strength to be able to handle a wooden bow. But when it comes to a bow of bronze, how much greater would your strength need to be? So it says, he trains my hands for battle. My arms can bend a bow of bronze. So you gain victory over your enemy. You take their bow and you're able to bend it. You're able to maybe even break it. So it's talking about victory over here. So sometimes when I'm facing situations which I'm finding very difficult to handle, I say, Lord, this is what you promised in your word. You said you would train my hands for battle. You said that I would be strong enough to take Satan's bow and break it in two. This is what you have promised me. So Lord, you help me now in my situation. So these are promises that we can claim for ourselves. Something very similar even in Psalm 144 verse 1. If someone could read out, Psalm 144 verse 1. Psalm 144 verse 1. Praise be to the Lord my rock who trains my hand for war, my fingers for battle. Okay, so almost the same thing is mentioned in Psalm 18 and Psalm 144. God is the one who trains our hands for war. He is the one who trains our fingers for battle. Of course, it's using Old Testament imagery over here of the bow and arrow and all of that. But today, when we are facing our trials and temptations, when we need to overcome and live victoriously, he is the one who trains us. So we can go to him and say, Lord, this is what you promised. You said that you will train my fingers for battle. Now, Lord, you show me how to overcome this thing where I, you know, this area of my life where I keep failing again and again. How Lord can I be victorious and the Lord, you know, the Holy Spirit, he will teach us. He will train us. He will show us how to live in victory. So this is a personalized training that goes on, you know, from the pulpit, when the preacher preaches, he gives a certain guidelines on how to, you know, live a victorious life. You know, for instance, you know, the preacher would say, you know, you must learn to read the word of God daily and meditate upon it. You must avoid bad company because bad company would suck you back into those old ways. So some general principles are given to us from the pulpit on how to live an overcoming life. But God, who is with you, indwelling you on a daily basis, he is able to take those general principles and apply them to you, to your personal life in a very customized manner. So that is why it is so vital to remain and abide in the wine because then the wine teaches you, you know, Jesus Christ teaches you through his Holy Spirit. How to be victorious in individual situations. So this is not something that you can do if you are, if your connection with the wine is weak. So it is very important for us to build our connection with him, to be strong in him. You know, the stronger the connection, the more we are able to hear, the more our hands get trained for war and the more victories we will enjoy. And now we will be able to break what both made of bronze, we'll be able to break them into two, you know, so we will have that kind of power and authority. Which is why it says in Ephesians. Yeah, right. Yeah. Okay. If you can read out Ephesians chapter two verse six, someone could read out Ephesians two, six. Ephesians chapter two verse six. And, and he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Okay, so we are familiar with this, right? So we're in the spiritual realm. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, you know, which is very, very nice. But what should you be doing because you're seated over there in the heavenly realm? What should be your attitude if that gets explained to us in Colossians three, one to three. Colossians three, one to three. Colossians chapter three verse one to three. Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things about where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things about not on earthly things for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. So it's all very well to say, yes, I'm now seated in the heavenly realm with Christ. But then in your thinking, you still have the unrenewed thinking, you're still chasing after the things of the world. You're still, you know, longing and desiring for sinful things. Then it's pointless. It really doesn't matter where you're sitting because in your mind you are still very much here on this earth. So it's not enough that you are that your spirit is seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. Maybe you should also take your mind over there and ask it to join the spirit. So in our thinking, we need to start desiring the things of God. We need to set our affections on divine eternal things rather than this temporary things, you know, after which the world runs. So rather than focusing on just temporal pleasures, we choose to set our desires and our hopes and our ambitions on eternal things. So if this basic fundamental change doesn't happen in our thinking, it's going to be very, very difficult to live a victorious life because your unrenewed mind and your flesh will continue to crave and long for the things which the world, you know, longs for. And so even though your spirit is seated in the heavenly realm with Christ, it will be of no use. You got to start taking your mind also to that level and say, you know, tell your mind, you know, you are now a new creation. And this is what the Bible says about you begin to start understanding this and begin to start living it. So you who are seated in your spirit in the spiritual realm with Jesus Christ need to drag your mind off from this earthly level and tell it kindly start aligning yourself with scripture, with what scripture says about you. Then it will become easier for you to, you know, live a victorious life. And that is why look at the kind of wording that is used in Romans 16, 19 and 20. Romans 16, 19 and 20, please. Romans chapter 16 verse 19 and 20. Everyone has heard about your obedience. So I'm full of joy over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Saturn under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. All right. So here there's something very practical that, you know, Paul is saying to the Roman believers is saying, be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil. So, you know, you're now sitting in this, seated in the heavenly realm. Start focusing on the things of the heavenly realm. Start focusing on the things of God. You know, become wise in those things. Get more and more knowledgeable and, you know, get more and more wisdom regarding those things. Don't keep chasing after the earthly things. Rather, when it comes to the earthly things, be innocent about them where you're, you know, ignorant. Where you don't, where you almost don't even know about those things. No, because there are people, you know, who are living with the Lord in such a wonderful way. You talk to them about certain sinful things. They don't, they didn't even realize that such things existed on the earth. They're like, oh my goodness, such things are also going on. Is it? They're so innocent about what is evil. And they have been growing in their wisdom regarding the godly things of the heavenly realm. And that is the way we should be, you know, rather than setting our affections on the things of the world and being so knowledgeable about all the sinful things of the world. Rather, we should be people who have become more and more, you know, heavenly minded in the sense that now our interest lies over there. Our ambitions are, you know, in reaching those heights. And, you know, all of our thinking, our hobbies, our desires, everything is now, you know, heaven oriented. So we are very, very wise in those things. And we are like almost innocent about evil things. We don't even know about these sinful things, you know, let alone indulge in them. So that is the kind of attitude that we should begin to develop. Because when we do that, verse 20, very important, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Because you see, you're someone who has been focusing on the Lord. You have set your affections on the heavenly realm. You are getting wiser and wiser about things which are good. And it comes to evil, you're innocent. You almost know nothing about these things, about these things which the world does and the world is running after. You're so, you know, innocent in those areas that God will personally crush Satan under your feet. I mean, you don't, you know, you just have to walk in him. He will, you know, because we already saw that, right? Satan has no power over us. So Satan, so God will have Satan crushed under our feet. You know, he will give us the strategy on how to overcome sin. We looked at all of that in the previous verses. So even as we are using our spiritual giftings, even as we are depending on him, even as we are abiding in him, he will show us what to do. He will see to it that Satan gets crushed under our feet because we are wise in the things of God and we have chosen to stay innocent regarding evil things. So we are in a position of power. On the other hand, if we are very knowledgeable about the world and the evil in it and all the different kinds of sins and, you know, that is our speciality, that's our specialization, then we are in a position of weakness because we know very little about the heavenly things. We know so less about the things of God. So our hearts have not got excited about the things of God because we don't even know about those things. How are we going to get excited about them? And when we are living in that way, it is so easy to get swayed by Satan. Forget about Satan getting crushed under our feet. He will crush us, you see? So it is so important for us to be in a position of strength. That is, we choose to be very wise about the things of God and when it comes to the things of the world, we have such little contact with the world that we are in fact not even aware of certain of the things which are going on. As far as the evil deeds and the evil sinful actions of the world is concerned, we stay innocent regarding such things. I'm not saying that we should be ignorant about current affairs. We need to be very aware of what's going on in the world because only then we can pray and intercede. We can use the word of God against the things which Satan is doing in the world and break those things. So yes, we should be very aware of current affairs and what's going on in the world around us. But when it comes to sinful deeds, sinful actions, the things that people of the world indulge in, we should maybe stay very innocent about such things and not even be aware of them. So that is the good place of strength to be in because then this is what happens for us. John 14.30 where Jesus is talking about himself. What does he say? John 14.30. John chapter 14 verse 30. I will not speak with you much longer for the Prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me. So the Prince of this world Satan had no hold over Jesus. Why? Because Jesus was wise in the things of God. He was innocent when it came to evil and because he was in that position of strength and he never gave into temptation and sin, the evil one had no hold over him. So when we start living like Christ, we are not only seated in the heavenly realm in our spirit, but even we are renewing our mind and causing our mind to dwell on spiritual things when we are in that position of strength. Satan starts losing his hold over us. He can't control us like he used to earlier and then he will find himself getting crushed under our feet on a daily basis because God will do that for us. He will enable us. He will help us. So these are things that we need to remember regarding our identity in Christ. Now moving into this next section, using the word of God, we all are very familiar with this. We know that we are supposed to use the word of God as a spiritual sword to fight Satan and we also always refer to Jesus Christ, how Jesus Christ when he was tempted, he overcame temptation with the word of God. But just to kind of dwell upon aspects of this which we generally don't seem to be talking about, so we will try to focus more on those areas which are kind of neglected regarding this usage of God's word. So let's get started off. We don't have much time, so let's kind of rush a little bit. 1 John chapter 2 verse 14, if someone could read out. 1 John 2, 14. 1 John chapter 2 verse 14, I write to you, Father, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young man, because you are strong and the word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil. Okay, so here it's talking about spiritual maturity. Okay, so when it says fathers, it's not talking about people who are older in age. It's just talking about people who have been in God so long that now they have reached a level of spiritual maturity where they are mentoring other people. They are being spiritual fathers towards other people. So it's talking about those who have kind of arrived in spiritual life. They've reached a very high level of maturity. But the beautiful thing is what he says about these youngsters, the ones who are still growing in the Lord, and he says something so, I mean the highest compliment that you could possibly give a person who's still growing in God. He says, I have written to you young men because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one. Wow, what a bunch of people they must have been. The word of God is abiding in them and because the word of God is abiding in them, they are strong and they are able to overcome the wicked one. These are the kind of believers that we should be imitating that we should be emulating. So what does it mean over here when it says that the word of God is abiding in them? It's like the word of God has taken permanent residence in them. These are people who are really renewing their minds on a daily basis. The scripture is like it's there in their hearts. It's there in their system. So whenever there's a situation that needs to be handled, it's the word of God which comes to their minds first. They approach the situation in a biblical manner, in a word manner, in accordance with the word of God. So because these people are literally having the word of God abiding in them, dwelling in them on a permanent basis, these people are strong and they are able to overcome the evil one. So there are three simple things that we too can do so that the word of God abides in us in this powerful manner. The first one obviously is that we would have to feed ourselves with the word of God. And this is something that's taken for granted and so we all know that we need to spend time in God's presence reading His word. And even as we are feeding our inner man with the word of God, our inner man becomes stronger. This is something that we are aware of. But let's look at this in slightly greater detail. If someone could read out 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 2 and 3. 1 Peter 2, 2 and 3. 1 Peter chapter 2 was 2 and 3. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious versus 2 and 3. As newborn babies desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So it says like newborn babies crave the pure spiritual milk. That's the wording that is used in our NIV. So we look at this in slightly greater detail. I think all the things that I wanted to say for this particular chapter are not going to happen this class. So yeah, no props. We'll just continue next class. But at least this first one bit. Let's kind of grasp that in the little time that we have left. It's talking about newborn babies. The way they crave. The way they desire the spiritual milk. The way they desire physical milk. We should also be craving for spiritual milk. A newborn baby when it first comes out of the womb. It doesn't know anything about milk. Because you see when it was inside the womb it was not having milk. So a newborn baby when it first comes out. It's not even aware of such a thing as milk. But then gradually as the days go by it kind of begins to realize that there's a direct connection between milk and that uncomfortable feeling inside going away. So whenever that feeling of that hunger comes it realizes oh if I open my mouth and cry loudly then they give me milk and when they give me milk that empty feeling inside goes away and I feel satisfied. The baby begins to understand this slowly. Once the baby gets the hang of this idea you know what happens right? Then day out the kid screams to the top of its lungs. And you see this is not just a desiring the milk. It's literally that's the actual word used in your Greek. It's that word epipotheo which means a deep craving. So a baby the way it craves for the milk the way it screams for the milk you know when it wants the milk. That is the way we are supposed to crave the spiritual milk the word of God. Why do we crave in that way? Because we have tasted that the Lord is good. This baby which knew nothing about milk kind of got the hang of it. You thought ah this is good stuff. Whenever I have this stuff I feel satisfied. And so now that the baby has understood that milk is a nice thing it craves it. I mean it doesn't get it just screams. And we are supposed to be like that. Once we get a taste of the Lord and how his word feels what his word can do for us. You know how it draws us closer to him into his presence. Once we have tasted that we will begin to crave it. We will long for it. And that is something that we would have to consciously cultivate in us. There are some very very important practical things that I wanted to say regarding this matter. But then with two minutes let's not even go there. We will talk about that next class. But there are some things that we are neglecting to do regarding this whole thing about feeding our inner person with the word of God. And I see this a lot of people doing that and it kind of affects their being able to live a victorious life. So we will talk about that next class. So please do log in next class. For today we will just end with this that at least we should be having a craving the deep craving for the word of God and that craving starts once we taste and see that the Lord is good. If that has not happened for us we will not even feel any craving first of all. So yeah. So we kind of will just end on that incomplete note but we will of course resume next class once again. So yeah. Let's just close with the word of prayer. Thank you a lot for all the things that we could see from your word today. We pray a lot that we will always remember the finished work of the cross. Just like those believers in Revelation who were able to overcome the evil one by the blood of Christ and the word of their testimony we pray that we too will be people who will always remember the blood of Christ the finished work of the cross and how that has placed us in a place of victory how we now have a new legal status in you we pray that we will always remember that and we pray a lot that we would declare that as our testimony and by declaring it we pray that we will overcome Satan and we will overcome temptation and that Lord we will be able to live in a way which honors you. You enable us a lot. You a lot turn these lessons and this theory into practice on a day to day basis for us so that we can really be people who are honoring you. You do that for us a lot. Thank you a lot. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. And yes, we'll meet again next week. Thank you Pastor. Thank you Ma'am so much. Thank you.