Would you take God's word, please, and open to the book of 1 John, 1 John chapter two. You've been standing long enough, so I won't make you stand again for the reading of scripture. You don't have to do that. You may be seated, but we'll go to 1 John chapter two, and verse number 12 this morning. I want to talk about the stages of spiritual growth. As you know, we've been going through 1 John here on Sunday morning. I hope you are being blessed from God's word. But I want to talk about spiritual growth then here. Have you ever looked through an old family photo album? You see pictures of your children when they're young, and then they grow to adolescence, and then perhaps adulthood. You can trace their growth by those pictures. Their faces mature, the expressions change, but you know it's the same child. That's what John is doing with us here in this passage in 1 John 2, verses 12 to 14. He opens the family album of faith, as it were, and he shows us some growth. In fact, we'll see here three groups that he will mention in verses 12 down to verse number 14. Little children who've just discovered forgiveness in their life, then young men who grow strong in God's word, and then fathers who have walked with the Lord for years. Look at verse 12, I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven for his namesake. I write unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you young men because you have overcome the wicked ones. So we see three groups that he mentions here. Each picture represents a stage of spiritual growth, proof that where there's life, there is growth. Now, one of John's purposes for this epistle, in fact, it's the overall purpose, we could say, is to give assurance to believers. We have seen that. And so far, John has given us several tests of assurance that we need to take. In chapter 1, verse 4, we are confronted with the question, do you experience fellowship with Christ? And then in verses 8 to 10 of chapter 1, do you confess your sins? Is there a new sensitivity to sin in your life? In chapter 2 verses 3 to 4, do you have a deep desire to obey the commandments of Christ? And then in chapter two, verses nine and 10, we looked at this last week. Do you have a love for your brother and sister in Christ? Now remember, the whole theme, as I said about 1 John, is what I call the threefold court of assurance, where he hits on the doctrinal court of your belief in Christ, the moral court of your obedience and righteousness, and then the social court of love in the church, love in the body of Christ, loving others. Now, from verses 12 to 14, however, of chapter 2, this is a parenthetical section. John's not going to hit on any of these themes here per se. What is John trying to accomplish here? Well, I think the main goal here in this section is encouragement. I think John is trying to encourage these believers. And so these verses that we see here, verses 12 to 14, have a real pastoral tone to them. You know, John has set such high standards for true faith, for authentic salvation, for true assurance. He's been really strong in the first part of this letter. And so he gives us these strong tests. And in doing so, he calls some liars. If you say that you know him and you don't obey the truth, you're a liar. That's pretty strong. He calls, he says some of them are deceiving themselves. He says some are walking in darkness when they think that they're walking in light. And so John is really trying to tear down false ideas, but he's trying to uproot the tares. But in uprooting the tares, he doesn't want to uproot the wheat. He wants to expose false assurance, but he doesn't want to cause true believers to doubt. He wants to strengthen their assurance. And so as a result, he kind of interrupts the flow of what he's talking about. And what he does here is he's encouraging these believers He encourages the true believers. In essence, he's saying, you know what? I see spiritual growth in you. I see a true salvation in you. I can see God's grace working in your life. Now, I've told you before it's not my job to give you assurance. Ultimately, you have to get that from the Holy Spirit yourself. However, it is my job as a pastor to encourage you from my perspective, and I can say to you, you know what? I see grace in you. I see spiritual life in you. You know, if we're not careful in this thing of assurance, we can be so negative as a pastor. I can be so negative and say, well, you know, I don't know about you. I mean, I don't know about you, I just see some things there. Yeah, well, but while we all will fail, we all will struggle, my job is also to encourage you and say, you know what, I see the work of grace in your life. I see God doing some things. That's what John is doing here in this letter. He writes six times the word because. This is a perfect tense verb. Remember I taught you about perfect tense. Completed action with ongoing results. Notice where he says, I write unto you because your sins are forgiven. And then I write unto you because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write on you because you have overcome the wicked one. I write on you because you are strong and the Word of God abides with you. You see that over and over again. John says, I'm writing because, I'm writing because, I'm writing because. In a sense, what he's saying is I'm writing all this because I do see the work of God in you. Again, he's talking to those true believers there who have been shattered by these false Christians who said that there's Something lacking in their life. You don't have the elite spiritual knowledge that we have. You're not really like us. You're lacking something in your life. You're not real, we're real, you're not. That was this Gnostic group of Christians that left the church and left the ones behind devastated and hurting and wounded as if there was something that's not real in their life. And John comes along and he encourages them. He says, oh no. I'm writing this to you. I want you to know what real salvation is. I want you to know the real thing from the false thing. I want you to have a real biblical assurance, and I want you to know I'm writing this because I have seen God's work of grace in your life, because your sins are forgiven, because you are strong, because you do know him that is from the beginning. He wants them to have authentic faith. This is, he does this at other places as well. Look in chapter two, look in verse number 19, and look what he says here. We saw this, they went out from us where they were not of us, for had they been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But notice the contrast, he says to these believers here, but you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. Verse 21, I've not written unto you because you know not the truth. I'm not writing to you because I think that you're false. You're talking about to the true believers here that have been left shocked and shattered. I'm not writing to you because I think that you're not real. I'm writing to you because, he says, because you know it. and that no lie is of the truth. John says, look, I see you have the Holy Spirit. I can see the Spirit of God working in your life. I see God's work. I see his grace. So he's writing to encourage, and I hope that this will be an encourage to some of you here who may be struggling over this issue of assurance. But on the other hand, we could also say, yet at the same time, he is still encouraging believers to examine their spiritual standing. In other words, the next question you need to ask yourself here is, are you growing spiritually in your life? Spiritual growth and the signs of spiritual growth in your life are a great means of assurance of salvation. Do you sense the spiritual growth? Do you see it? And what John does is he mentions to us three levels of spiritual growth here. Little children, and young men, and fathers. Now let me just say that there are commentators and scholars that have, as you can imagine, all kind of different interpretations about what these three groups are. Let me just give you some of them. view is, is that this is a literal age view. Some say, well, John's pointing out literal ages in the church. He's referring to their literal physical age. Well, the problem with this is it leaves a lot out. I mean, and also, does he wish to encourage only the men? Because he mentions them all with the male gender here. So that's a problem there. Another view is, is that this is just three ways of looking at all Christians. This is really referring to all Christians and it's three different titles for all Christians. That's all that this is. Another view is, is that this is referring to elders and deacons. The little children refers to all believers, young men and fathers, that's referring to deacons and elders in the church. And again, there's nothing, I don't know where you get that from. There's nothing in view here about that. Another view is that John is really just dividing Christians into mature and immature. Again, little children refers to all Christians, and young men refers to the immature, and fathers refer to the mature. And then another scholar said that we need to avoid making any decision because John is being deliberately ambivalent, so we don't know. So we really can't know here. I don't like that, but anyway. And then there is, I think, the right view, which is this is speaking about three levels of spiritual maturity. John is speaking figuratively here about three groups in the church, not literal ages, but rather levels of spiritual growth. And he's not speaking to men only. In this day, they use the masculine gender to refer to people in general, like we use the word mankind. So I think this is the best explanation for this. This is three levels. of spiritual maturity in your life. Just like there are levels of physical maturity, even so there are levels of spiritual maturity. And what he's calling upon us to do is really to look at our own life to find out where are we? Is there spiritual growth in your life? Because where there is growth, there is life. And where there's life, there is growth. That's a means of assurance in your own spiritual life. Or another way to say this, wherever God has done his work of justification, he is doing his work of sanctification in our life. You can't separate the two. If you're truly justified, you will see the work of sanctification. There will be spiritual growth in your life. And so that's what we see here. The question you have to ask yourself is, am I growing spiritually? And we have to ask, really to examine ourself, we have to ask the question, what is spiritual growth? So let me just talk to you a little bit about this quickly. First of all, what is spiritual growth? Well, it's not a matter of time. Some people think, well, I've been saved a long time, so I must be really grown spiritually. You know, time is not a factor. There have been people that have been saved a relatively short period of time that have grown a lot. There are some people that have been saved a long time and haven't grown very much at all. It's really not a matter of time, and it's not a matter of knowledge only. Someone says, well, I have a lot of knowledge about the Bible, so therefore, I must really grow spiritually. Just because you know a lot about scripture doesn't mean that you're growing spiritually. Because it's not just knowing what the Bible says, it's applying it to your life. And then there's also, it's not a matter of activity. Someone says, well, I'm so busy doing all these things around this church and serving and all this, I must be growing spiritually. Activity doesn't equal spiritual maturity. but also it's not a matter of prosperity. Some people say, well, look how prosperous I am. I must be really spiritual. I must be really growing spiritually because look, God is prospering me in so many ways and I'm glad that he is, but your material economic prosperity is not a measure of your spiritual growth. The quality of your life and character cannot be determined by your economic circumstances. Because if that's true, Paul lacked a lot. Because you read about Paul in the New Testament, you don't get the sense that he had a lot. He was constantly going through times of poverty. But also, it's not a matter of God's love. Some people think that if I, God will love me more when I perform better. But that's not true spiritually. You see, God loves you perfectly already. He cannot love you more, he will not love you less. God's love for you is not determined on your performance. He already loves you unconditionally, perfectly as his child. So it's not a matter of God loving you more. And it's not a matter of giftedness. Some people think, well, I have a lot of spiritual gifts, therefore I must be spiritually mature. No, spiritual giftedness is not a measure of your spiritual maturity. Paul said to the Corinthians that they lacked no spiritual gift. They came behind them, and no spiritual gift, and yet at the same time, they were very immature, very gifted, and yet very immature spiritually. And it's not a matter of your position. What I mean by that is that when you were saved, you were placed into Christ, you are now complete in Christ. God the Father, when he looks upon you, he looks at you through Christ, and he sees you perfect in Christ. He sees you complete in Christ. That's your position, but that's not necessarily your practice. So what is spiritual growth? Spiritual growth is matching your practice with your position. God's declared you righteous, now you need to live a righteous life. God sees you through Christ, now you need to live a Christ-like life. God has given you grace, all the grace that comes with salvation. Now you need to understand that grace and utilize all of the gift and the blessings that come with grace. All of it. Did you know when you got saved, God downloaded you with all the blessings of God's grace? And you know what spiritual growth is? It is discovering all of those blessings and applying that grace to your life. That's why the Bible calls it growing in grace. You're growing in grace because you're learning about all the spiritual resources and blessings that have been given to you in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Peter says, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You are putting into practice all of the things that God's given you spiritually, and as you're doing so, you're bringing your practice commensurate with your position in Christ, and you're exhibiting more Christ-likeness in your life all the time. That's spiritual growth. That's spiritual maturity. And here John gives us three levels of it. So let's look at them and see where you are. First of all, there's little children. I call this spiritual discovery. Again, verse 12, I run into you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. John starts out describing the basic level. Little children, and by the way, he'll use the word in verse 12 and in verse 13, both speak of a small child. Two words in the Greek, I should say, technon and pedion, both speak of a small child that ranges from infancy to seven years old. And again, this is figurative. Speaking about those who are newly saved as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you might grow. So what is a little child in Christ? This is someone who is really just discovering the Christian life. They know the reality of forgiveness. Again in verse 12, I run in you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake. This is one of the first things you learn when you get saved. The depth of God's forgiveness. Some think, well, this is a given, right? All Christians know that they have been forgiven. Well, you would think, but it's not. I had a dear Christian woman come to me one time and she asked me this question. She said, if I die, what happens if I die with unconfessed sin? And she was thinking if she died with unconfessed sin that she may not be able to go to heaven. Listen, a Christian is not a person who's seeking forgiveness. A Christian is someone who is completely, totally forgiven for all their sins. All their sins. It's not a person who's uncertain about this area of forgiveness, who prays for it, who tries to merit it. A Christian is someone who knows that all of their sins have been taken care of. All of their sins were placed upon Christ, past, present, and future. All of your sins were future sins when Jesus died because you weren't even born yet. All of those sins were placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So many times you ask someone who claims to be a Christian, are you forgiven? Well, I hope I am. I'm really praying that I am. No. A Christian is someone who knows that their sins are forgiven. Why? What's the basis of it? Look at verse 12, where it says, for his name's sake. It's the basis of that forgiveness. It is the perfect work of Christ. It is what Jesus did on the cross, not because of your goodness, your merit, or your performance. God doesn't forgive you for any of that, because on that basis, for any of your sins, the basis of the Father's forgiveness is because of His Son, Jesus Christ. He looks at the perfect sacrifice of Christ. That and that alone, nothing else. That's why I love to repeat the quote from Martin Luther, who said, you know, when I look at myself, I can't believe that I'm saved, but when I look at the cross, I can't see how I can be lost. because God the Father delights in the sacrifice of his son. And that is the basis for all of our forgiveness. The Bible says there's no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus. In chapter two, verse one, look at it again in 1 John here. My little children, these things are on you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with a father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You fall, you sin, you feel guilt about it, good. Confess it to God, but remember that those sins were already taken care of because of Jesus Christ. He's your advocate. So they know their sins are forgiven. And there's a blessing that comes with that. Do you ever notice that a new believer who understands that the full weight of their sins have been forgiven, there's a new joy, there's a new freedom, their conscience has been cleansed by the blood of Christ, there's such a happiness and a peace that comes about because they have discovered that their sins have been forgiven. And what an incredible blessing that is, to know that, the blessing of forgiveness. But then also, they had this new relationship with the father. Look again at verse number 13, where he says, I wrote in you fathers because you've known him from the beginning. I wrote in you young men because you've overcome the wicked one. I wrote in you little children because you have known the father. And again, the idea here is that a discovery where they understand this new relationship with the father. Because you've known the Father, that's a salvation expression. Just like a little child delights in their father. What does the Bible say? The glory of children are their fathers. A little child will delight in their father. They will smile when they see their father. There's a natural love and closeness that a child feels with their father. That's true spiritually. There's a sense in which when you're saved, you know now that you have this new relationship with your heavenly Father. You've been given the spirit of adoption whereby we cry out, what? Abba, Father. That's all part of being a new believer. And it's a wonder, it's a joy to have this. And John is saying, look, I'm writing to you because I see that in you. I see this new discovery that you know that your sins are forgiven, that you have this new joy of knowing the Father. Now, there's a danger, however, at this stage, and that is that at this level, a person can be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine. They don't have a lot of discernment. A new believer needs to learn discernment, and that's part of your spiritual growth, and that's why God gives to the church pastors so that you will be taught the word of God so that you're no longer driven about with every wind of doctrine that comes along. But that's something that you develop as you go along in the Christian life. Here's the second stage. Young men, I call this spiritual discernment. Here's another level. Look again at verse 13. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. And in verse 14, drop down there. I've written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I've written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. Here's the next level. What is characteristic of this level of strength? There's a spiritual strength here because you are strong. President indicative, you are becoming strong. You're growing stronger and stronger in your spiritual life. And why, how? Well, notice their source. Because the word of God abideth in you. And again, abideth, present indicative, continually abides in you. You will be as strong spiritually as in relation to how God's word is in your heart. how you're studying scripture, how you're learning the word of God. God's word is our source of strength. What food is to the body, God's word is to the soul. You can't be strong physically if you don't eat, and you can't be strong spiritually if you don't eat. You need to be in the word of God. You need to desire God's word. You need to be sanctified through the truth. Jesus said, sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. That's why we major on the word of God here at Grace, without apology. In our country, it's sad, but there are many ministries that major on the non-essentials in church ministry. They try to give people what they want or to meet their felt needs with ever not really dealing with the deeper things that the Word of God gives us, and so they keep people kind of at an immature level, and people are left struggling with no ability to discern between real truth and what is wrong, what is erroneous. These ministries, they major on music, and they major on trying to connect with the culture, they major on entertainment, and all those other things, and the Christians are left lacking spiritual discernment because they never really learn the word of God. They never really learn to be strong in the truth. And John's very concerned with this issue. Look in chapter two, look at verse 18. Little children, it's the last time, and as you have heard, that Antichrist shall come. Even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know it's the last time. If it was the last time in John's day, it's really the last time today. We're in the last time, and there are many false doctrines around, many Antichrists. Look at verse 26, chapter two. Again, he says, and these things have I written unto you concerning them that, what, seduce you, or try to pull you out. Look in chapter four, verse one. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. John is very concerned about believers being led astray or seduced away from the truth. But these young men, they're strong. and they've learned to overcome. Notice their success. Again, in verse number 13, where it says, because you have overcome the wicked one. And again, we see it in verse number 14. Because you're strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the wicked one. The word overcome, it's a verb form of the word Nike, which means victory or to prevail. At this stage of spiritual maturity, a believer learns how to overcome Satan. They learn how to overcome sin. They learn to get victory in their life. They're learning to discern. They're no longer victimized by error. The last stage was more of an emotional attachment to God as they're discovering all these things, but in this next stage, it's more of a rational, thoughtful understanding of spiritual truth, understanding the truth and applying that truth. They know that God, through his word, has given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and so therefore, in this stage, you're digging into God's word, you're learning what that is, and you're anxious to apply it. Why? Because by doing that, you're able to overcome the wicked one. You're able to overcome error. a young man was saved and he was so filled with joy and excitement and love and gratitude and every day was such a wonderful day and he came to my office every day just bubbling over with all the things that God was doing. One day he came to my office and he was in despair and he was depressed and he had lost the joy of salvation, he had lost that excitement and he asked me, he said, you know, what happened to me? What happened? I mean everything was going great all of a sudden, now I'm depressed. Why do I feel like this? Well, you know what, Satan was waiting. He knew how to get at him. He knew what he could do, he knew how to tempt him. Satan tempted him, he sinned, he lost his joy, stolen from him, and he learned something new about the Christian life. You know what he learned? It's a warfare. It's a fight. It's a daily fight. If you get victory today, that's wonderful. Watch out tomorrow, because he's coming back. I encourage this young man, look, pick up your sword and fight. It's a fight. And you need to enter into the battle. You think Satan's gonna leave you alone? It's time for you to grow strong. It's time to learn how to do battle against the devil and against sin. It's time for you to learn to overcome. And when you do this, you reach a new level of spiritual maturity. And you know what else comes with that? A new level of joy. Because the greater the battle, the greater the victory, the greater the joy. The more intense the struggle, the more intense the joy when you're able to overcome. You enter into a new level of joy and freedom. And by the way, God will allow you to go through the battle. He will allow you to be hammered by the kingdom of darkness. He will allow you to feel the depravity of your own soul so that you'll learn how to overcome these things. You think that God's just gonna take a ball of sanctification from heaven and just throw it over heaven and hit you with it, and all of a sudden, boom. I'm ready to go. I've just reached new level. God hammered me with a ball of sanctification. Wow, I've been zapped. Doesn't work that way. What did the poet say? I ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might more of his salvation know and earnestly seek his face. T'was he who taught me thus to pray and he I trust will answer prayer. But it has been undone in such a way as almost drove me to despair. I thought that at some favored hour, at once, he would answer my request. And by love's constraining power, subdue my sin and give me rest. Instead of this, he made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and allow the angry powers of hell to assault my soul at every part. And that's what God will do. He will allow you to go through the struggle. He'll allow you to enter into spiritual warfare. Why? So you can learn to pick up your spiritual armor. So you can learn what it is to do battle. so that you can grow strong, so that you'll develop a warrior mentality. I love it when people go through this stage. I see it. They become serious students of the word of God, but there's a danger too, and I'll be honest with you, sometimes they become overbearing. Everything is a battle now. Now I gotta calm down. You know, they've learned how to fight. Everything's a battle now. Every issue is a hill worth dying on. They're valiant for truth. I'm like, go be valiant somewhere else. No, I'm teasing. It's a wonderful stage and it's great when you reach that level. But then there's a third level real quickly. Little children, that spiritual discovery. Young men, that spiritual discernment. Fathers, that spiritual depth. And again we see in verse 13, I've written unto you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. And from the beginning, notice it's known him, and John also adds from the beginning. We see this again in verse number 14, dropped down to verse 14. I've written on you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning. The word know here, perfect tense, meaning you have come to know him and you still know him. You know him by experience, and this is referring to someone who has a deep walk with God. They have learned a depth of walking with the Lord, and this comes through time. This comes through just walking with the Lord year after year. They've fought many battles. They have gone through many trials and tests. They've walked with God through valleys. They have borne incredible burdens and been through times of darkness. And they've won many victories, hard fought victories, but they've won them. They've carried many crosses. And it's almost like they're in a stage now where they're kind of exchanging their sword for a harp. They're more concerned about worshiping him. Now it doesn't mean they won't fight a battle when it's necessary, of course they will. But they're more consumed with him. They're more focused on him. They have eternity in their view. That's why John says, you've known him, that is from the beginning. That's an eternal perspective. You have more of this eternal perspective. Why? Because the older you grow, the more you know that that's what's important. And we think less about the temporal daily things. We have more of that eternal focus. We wanna know God more. We have that eternal perspective. And really what John is preparing is for the next verse. Look at verse 17. He's kind of preparing us for what he's gonna walk into in verse 17. Notice verse 17 of chapter two. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God, what? Abides forever. That's what a father wants to do. He focuses on God. He focuses on doing the will of God. And the temporary worldly things are passing away. Because he knows that it won't be long until he's there in heaven. He's there with the Lord. As you grow older, you see more clearly that all the things that people strive to attain, the riches, the recognition, the pleasures, the adventure, all that fades away in the face of death and eternity. And you'll live for that eternal perspective. And you'll have a joy and a contentment and a depth by just knowing the Father, by just knowing God. That's another level of spiritual maturity. So the question is, where are you on this level? Where are you on these? Three, little children, spiritual discovery, young men, spiritual discernment, fathers, spiritual depth. And again, how does all this relate to the assurance of salvation? The believers to whom John was writing were wrestling with doubt because of the false teachers that left the church, as we said. because his false teachers had told them a bill of goods, they were peddling things that were not true. And John's saying, don't believe all that. I see this in you. What you need to do is you need to measure yourself and find out where you are in your spiritual maturity, where you are on your spiritual growth chart. I heard about a pastor who once entered into a greasy spoon restaurant for breakfast, and when the waitress came to get his order, she was kind of groggy and disinterested in him and taking the order. So he just said, would you please bring me some ham and eggs and a kind word? So she returned a few minutes later and she just kind of threw the plates down and said, there. And he said, what about the kind word? And she thought about it for a minute. She thought, all right, here's the kind word. If I were you, I wouldn't eat those eggs. John is basically saying here to these believers, look, don't eat what these false teachers are serving. I'm telling you, I see grace in you, and I'm writing to you because your sins are forgiven, and you know it, and I can see it, because you have this new experience with the Father, and I write into you, young men, because I see the word of God is strong in you, and I know that you're learning to overcome, And I run into you fathers because I can see that you've known him that is from the beginning. And you have a depth of a walk with the Lord. So the question is for you, are you growing spiritually? Because spiritual growth is a great means of assurance. And in fact, I would say that a lot of people wrestle with assurance because they're not growing spiritually as they should. And Peter said this. After listing all these things that you should be a part of your life as you're growing virtue and faith and knowledge and temperance and patience, Peter said, you know, if you do these things, if you add these things to your life, if there's spiritual growth, then you'll not be blind, you'll not be bewildered, you'll make your calling and election sure, you'll have that real knowledge of salvation when you are growing spiritually. That's the whole point. Let's bow for prayer together. Father, thank you again for the riches of your word and how it is our source of truth and knowledge and understanding. And I pray, Lord, for every person hearing the sound of my voice, that they would have a true biblical assurance of their salvation, that they would know that they know, and that the Marks of grace are evident through their spiritual growth. They have a true understanding of the forgiveness of sins and a joy in knowing the Father, this relationship with the Father. And they're growing strong and they're learning to pick up the sword and to overcome the evil one and to overcome sin. And they learn a depth of a relationship with the Father, so much so that it causes them to focus on the eternal, where they're committed to doing the will of God and worshiping and knowing their Father. Father, speak to hearts, minister to hearts. If there's someone here today that doesn't have a real genuine assurance of salvation, Lord, begin to do that work in them as they examine their own heart. And for those who have never been to the cross, may today be the day of salvation. And with heads bowed and eyes closed, friend, could I ask you, would you be willing right now, if you've never put your faith in Christ, would you be willing to turn from your sin and put your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, who bore your sins, that salvation would be a gift. And we're saved by faith. We're saved by believing, repenting and believing on Jesus Christ, on His work and His work alone. Just say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me. And the Bible says, him that comes to me, I want no eyes cast out. I will in the wise cast out. Pray that. Let us know we want to help you along in your spiritual journey. Father, bless your word to hearing hearts. For your glory, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.