Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome back to another mornings with the Masters.

We're devot ourselves to the Lord daily with you.

We are picking back up with New Morning Mercy, so I'm just going to take from here.

It says this, obedience is an act of thankful worship, not a fearful means of trying to gain favor with God.

Okay, we're starting out strong. I'm going to read that one more time.

Obedience is an act of thankful worship.

Obedience is not a fearful means of trying to gain favor or manipulate

God. The devotional says this. There is simply nothing you can do to gain God's favor. You have to

accept this and remember it. You will never be righteous enough for long enough to satisfy God's holy requirements.

Your thoughts will never be pure enough.

Your desires will never be holy enough.

Your words will never be clean enough.

Your choices and actions will never be God honoring enough.

The bar is too high for you and me to ever reach. There are no exceptions.

We all live under the same weight of the law and the same inability of sin. We are all better

rebels than submissives. We are all more naturally proud than humble. We're all more given to idolatry than to the worship of God. We do better at making war with our neighbors than loving them. We all find envy more natural than contentment. We're all thieves in one way or another. We all covet what others have. We more naturally bend the truth than protect it. We condemn with our words

rather than giving grace. We lay down evidence every day that we will never independently reach God's

standard. Here is your, that says it all statement. Romans 320, for by the works of the law,

no human being will be justified in his sight.

And why is this true? It's true because Romans 323 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

The language is all-inclusive. It leaves no room whatsoever for exceptions. It is the devastatingly humbling news

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