All right, 2 Peter chapter three and verse 18. And again, praise God for this opportunity that we have to meet together online. I know it's a little bit of a throwback for us to the COVID lockdown time, but I'm glad that we could do this today and thankful for God's grace in providing the technology that we have. And we just came through Christmas and we got several different things for our kids We had fun opening those things as a family, but some of those things are growing. We got a terrarium for Logan, and it's just a glass jar, and you get to your soils and stuff, and it's kind of like a mini, own little climate type thing, and you put your plants in it, and they're miniature type plants, and it's fun to see them grow. And the other thing is growing in our kitchen, and that's a crystal, science experiment type thing where you put the liquid in and then it evaporates and it's colored crystals and things. It's fun to see growth because growth is exciting. Growth is something that gets better and better. At least that's the anticipation. You hope that's the way it's going to go down. If it's growth, it's certainly going to be that way. We enjoy that as families. It's a wonderful thing to see your family grow. You get that baby home from the hospital and then you just start counting the first, you know, the first tooth or the first real laugh, you know, or the first whatever, you know, the first words and the first steps and then the first classes that the child goes to. and just watching that child develop, and then you get to graduation, and then you get to marriage and family, and again, growth is just a wonderful thing to watch. And growth is often a choice. If we're going to grow or grow correctly, it's often a choice. Physically, it's a choice of our diet. Are we going to eat healthy and really develop physically like we could? Are we going to exercise? Are we going to be disciplined when it comes to sleep and habits like that? And so really, on a physical level, growth is often a choice and or academically. If you're thinking growing Academically, somebody has to apply themselves in their studies and be disciplined and get into their academics and apply themselves and they can really grow and academically be smarter because they applied themselves. And, you know, for our families, for our young people, we desire 2022 to be a great year of physical growth. I hope our kids apply themselves academically. I hope they apply themselves, you know, physically to really healthy growth. But obviously, the greatest thing that we can do in 2022 is grow spiritually and really seek to apply ourselves to spiritual growth. And again, It's a choice. It's not something that is just going to happen. If it happens, it's going to be because we decide, by the grace of God, we want to be somebody that in 2022 is going to be somebody that is growing spiritually. Our text to Peter chapter 3 verse 18. It's just one verse that I want to look at with us this morning But it's two vital areas of Christian growth two things that for 2022 we could keep in our back pocket, you know and look at and remit be reminded that these are two primary areas that are If we keep a focus on these areas of growth, that 2022 could be a great year of spiritual growth for us. And so it says in 2 Peter 3 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. All right. So I want to challenge us as a church. Let's make 2022 a great year. of Christian growth. And think about it from this past year. Did I grow this past year? Was I growing spiritually like I could have in 2021? 2021 is done. We can't go back and relive 2021, but we can definitely look at 2022 and say, you know what? I wanna grow dynamically in 2022. And so God help us to do that. Let's pray. Ask the spirit of God to help us as we come to the word of God. Father, we're grateful for the Bible. And Father, again, it's good to be able to share the word of God online this morning as a church. Thank you that we can meet together despite having to cancel at our location today. But Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would make our hearts tender to you. And Father, that we'd really look at 2022 with the eye of faith and consider that this could be a great year of spiritual growth. We pray for that individually, we pray for that as families, we pray for that, maybe for new believers, people that this year they'll get saved, this year their life will be transformed by the power of God, and that this would be an amazing year just to watch Christian growth in our church. And Father, I pray that you give us ears to hear this morning, give us grace, not to be distracted, but to let the Word of God impact our hearts and minds. I pray that you'd help me as I speak, that the Spirit of God would guide me as I share the Word of God. It's sure a privilege to share the Bible, having had a fortnight off from this privilege. Lord, may the Spirit of God give liberty to the truth of the Word of God. Now it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, so two areas that we're gonna look at as far as needing Christian growth, and the first is to grow in grace, okay, to grow in grace. Again, our verse 2 Peter 3, 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever, amen. Okay, so the Bible says grow in grace, so what is grace? Well, the Greek word is charis, and it means the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the light. It's God and His goodness reaching down and doing something in our lives and that being seen or made evident through us. Another definition is the unmerited favor of God. What grace is, is God's goodness reaching out and doing things in our life. In the Christmas story that we just looked at, Mary found grace in the eyes of the Lord, right? Thou that are highly favored. That was her existing in grace and receiving grace from God and the blessing of the reception of the Son of God into her womb and the blessing of God upon her as the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, when you find grace or God's favor, you need to stay in it. You need to exist in it. In Israel, when I went over there, we were kind of on a running tour and getting to different places. One of the places we got very quickly to and didn't stay that long at was the Jordan River. But as you go down to the Jordan River, you see a lot of pilgrims or that kind of idea, people that desire to get there, and they want to dip their feet into that holy You know, we understand as believers there's nothing significant about that, though there's that desire in the hearts of people just to put their feet there into that stream that they think there's some benefit to that. Well, that Jordan River isn't a stream like that, but grace is. Grace is a river that if we stay planted in it, in that place of the blessing of God, it's a place where there's great spiritual benefit. There is a hymn that compares grace with the idea of a river. Grace is flowing like a river from the Mount of Calvary. Look to Jesus Christ the giver. He from sin can set you free. Grace is flowing like a river. Millions there have been supplied. still it flows as fresh as ever from the Savior's wounded side. Heaven's fountain ever floweth, all our need has been supplied. Taste his love, receive his mercy, no one yet has been denied. And that's a great picture of grace, that favor of God, that goodness of God, that stream that flows from God. We ought to stay in that place of grace because that's where We grow in grace. And so, are you staying in grace? And so, I want to just look at three aspects of this idea of staying in a place of grace. And the first one is, grow in grace through humility. Alright? Grow in grace through humility. It says in James 4 verse 6, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Okay, so the stream is flowing there, but it's not flowing for the proud, it's flowing for those in humility. 1 Peter 5 verse 5, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace. unto the humble." God resists the proud. As boys growing up, one of the things that you learn to do is take things apart. Some boys learn to put things back together, others just take them apart. I was probably in the class of those that just took things apart. But one of the things my brother and I enjoyed taking apart were old speakers. And if you're a boy, you know what you're after when you get into a speaker. There's a magnet in there somewhere, you know, and you're going to get that magnet out. The bigger the speaker, the bigger the magnet. And, you know, I didn't really know much about speakers except that they had magnets in them. And you get those magnets out and the fun is that They resist each other. You try to push them together, and there's just this invisible force that's there that's pushing the other one away from that. And the Bible says about God's grace, God's grace is there, that stream is abundant, but if somebody has pride, that there's resistance. that it's pushing it away rather than receiving it. So somebody that's in pride is somebody that cannot receive the grace of God. It's not gonna get to them because God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. So let's think about some aspects of humility when it comes to God's gift. And the first thing is humility to value God's gift. Somebody has to have humility to value what God desires to give. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That grace that God desires to give is everlasting life and forgiveness of sins. I mean, God is just ready to give something amazing to somebody. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are ye saved through faith. and that not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Again, at Christmas time, we've thought a lot about gifts and we gave some nice things to those that we love, but nobody has begun to give anything as good as what God gave when he gave his son, Jesus begotten of God into the womb of Mary as the sinless savior that would die on the cross for sin and be the perfect sacrifice so that God judicially could punish him for our sin. so that he could take away our sin and his wrath against our sin and he could gift us everlasting life. You think about that gift that God gives, and again, there's people that God wants to see get saved. He wants to give them that gift, and it's precious, but they do not value that gift like they should. They look at it, and they think in their pride, they think, I can earn that. They think, I can somehow achieve that. They think that by their baptism, by their church membership, by their goodness, by the things that they can do, that they can earn this gift that is a priceless gift that costs the life of the Son of God. These people, you ask them, you know, if you died, you stood before God and He said to you, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? And they say what? I'm a good person. It's their pride that doesn't understand the value of what God did. They don't understand the significance of God's grace. And because of that, they can't receive God's gift. It sets them apart from that stream of grace that God desires to give in their pride. Their pride thinks, I can achieve this. I can get this on my own. They don't value it as it is. There's other people that in their pride, They might mock the idea of, you know, I didn't ask Jesus to die for me. I didn't, you know, and they just mock it in their pride. They think it's not true and all that. But in doing that, they set themselves apart from the grace of God. They can't receive the grace because the pride that's in their heart and their conceited unbelief against God. And so if somebody's gonna grow in grace, obviously it starts with salvation, and that is an understanding and humility. Wow, look at what God provided when his son died. He paid the price for my sin. He provided something that I cannot get on my own. It's something that God has done because of his goodness. And so humility to value God's gift. And then secondly, humility to understand your unworthiness. of God's goodness. Katie picked up a Hoover and was hoovering. And in our house, there's allowances that the kids have and different jobs and responsibilities that they've got. And so Mac comes to me and he says, Daddy, the boys need to be docked and paid, because whosever job that was, because mom's doing it and they're not doing it. And it's kind of funny that Mac's thinking like that a little bit. It would be better if it was his job and he came to me and said, Dad, I need to be docked in my pay. And I've had my kids do this at different times. When it's time to get paid, they might say, well, I didn't really do that job like I should have done. And there's a sense a sense in their heart of their unworthiness of the goodness of Dad to pay them their complete wages because they really don't deserve it. You know that really ought to be us before God. It's us understanding, you know what, I am so unworthy, God of your goodness. I'm so unworthy of what you desire to give to me. In Luke 18 verse 9 Jesus tells a story about this. He speaks a parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and they despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess." And basically the Pharisee looks up to God and says, God, I'm so thankful that I don't need you. I'm so thankful that I'm fine on my own because he just saw himself full of worthiness. But there is another man in the story, that publican, and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but he smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The man that benefited from the stream of grace that God was sending out was the man that looked at himself and said, I am so unworthy of the goodness of God. So if we want to be somebody that is in that stream of grace, we got to recognize that there's nothing about us that merits any favor with God, that we have anything of ourself that we can lift up to God and say, God, you ought to bless me because anything having to do with ourselves. It's what the hymn writer wrote when he wrote that hymn, Only a Sinner Saved by Grace. It says, not have I gotten, but what I received. Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed, boasting excluded, Pride I abase, I am only a sinner saved by grace. There is nothing of myself that merits your favor. 3. Humility to accept your need for assistance from God. Humility to understand, you know, I need I need God's help In my life, you know, it's humbling to allow someone to help you My wife's father my father-in-law just turned 70 this past week and we called him we were talking with him and He laughs, you know, he knows he's getting older. He can't believe you know, he hit 70 and and he said You know, when he goes up to Alaska on his fishing trips that he does every now and then, he said the last time he's there, he's standing on the dock, and he's looking at the boat, and he's thinking about stepping into the boat. Well, that's something he's done his whole life. They've got the Muskegon River there in Michigan, and he had a boat, and he would take it down. He would put it in himself. He would step into it all the time. But he said as he stood on the dock and he looked at the boat, you know, some of these last times that he's been up there in Alaska, he's thinking really hard about the step that he's about to make into the boat. And then the guide looks at him, and the guide doesn't even ask. He just reaches out and takes his hand. and helps him into the boat. And humility is my father-in-law looking at that and thinking, you know, I could either do a one-legger down between the boat and the dock, or I can accept the gracious help that somebody desires to give me and understand my need for assistance. You know, it's a good thing for us to look at God and say, you know what, I need God's help. Humility understands that you know that stream of grace is coming and God desires to help us and God wants to give it But we got to recognize our need that we need the grace of God in our life John 7 37 in the last day the great day of the feast Jesus stood and he cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink thirst is acknowledging your need and Thirst is understanding. The stream of grace was there. Jesus cried, hey, if you need this, it's here, it's available. Humility looks at it and goes, that's what I need. I need the grace of God. I need God to do something here in my life that only God can do. Remember that woman at the well? The Bible tells us the story about Jesus meeting that Samaritan woman at the well, and she says that she's not married, and she kind of tells the truth. She had been married five times and divorced, and now she's living with a man, and she's living in fornication. And Jesus says to her, you know what? I can meet your need if you let me meet your need. John 4, verse 10, it says, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. If she just understood who was there, the stream of grace was there, but she had to recognize who he was, and understand that he had everything that she needed, and if she'd do that, that stream of grace would flow. Today, again, as we think about, we wanna grow in grace. Well, we gotta take it with humility. Humility to accept our need for assistance from God. Humility to understand our unworthiness of God's goodness. Humility to recognize how precious the gift is that God desires to give. And so grow in grace through humility. But then secondly, grow in grace through discipline. Another place that we can stay in this idea of growing in grace is through discipline. It says in Titus 2.11, it says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. And so when saving grace came, saving grace came teaching, and what it taught is, okay, now that you've accepted Jesus Christ as your savior, live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Live a disciplined life. There was a drug campaign when I was in my youth that would be on, you know, on the commercials and things. And there were commercials such as, this is your brain. Okay. And I don't know if you've seen this commercial, but it's a, it's a skillet and that's there and you've got an egg and this is your brain is the egg. And then they crack it and they put it into, the pan and it says this is your brain on drugs right and the idea is stay away from drugs be clean another statement that they would use was the slogan and the slogan was just say no, right? Stay away from that. Stay away from drugs and protect yourself and be clean. Again, to be somebody like that takes discipline. It takes a young person that is gonna say no, in that case, to drugs. When grace saved us, grace came and it came teaching and it said stay away from sin. Stay in that place of obedience. Stay in that place of holy living, and again, that's a place of discipline. We've got a funny video from our travels raising our support to come over here, and Benson and Logan were about two and three years old, and they'd been playing out in the car park between church services, and their church closed, And it was a very dusty car park. And it's a fun video to watch because you can see them trying to be serious as we scold them for their disobedience. I mean, they're just covered in dirt, and Logan's eyes especially. You can tell he's trying not to smile because of all the dirt that he's covered in and the fact that he's in trouble even though he feels a bit silly about it. But they got out of the favor of mom and dad because they allowed themselves to get into filthiness and get into dirt. Somebody can be walking in the favor of God, living a life that is in obedience to God, but what takes them out of the place of God's favor is that they stop denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and they stop living a life that is a life that is clean. 1 Corinthians 9.27 says, And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. And if somebody's going to be running in a race, and my wife has challenged us and asked us about, should we go for the 5K in May? And if we're going to do that, we're going to have to discipline ourselves and really seek to get ourselves in a place of physical fitness to be able to do that. And again, as we think about Grace, if we want to dwell in a place that is a place where we're going to grow in grace, it's a place of discipline. It's a place of looking at our life and saying, you know what? Denying ungodliness and worldly lust, grace came teaching that. And then the third aspect of grace, or place to grow in grace, is to grow in grace through trials. Growing grace through trials. 1 Peter 5, verse 10, Says, but the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Sometimes God puts us in a place of grace. It's not a place that we choose, but it's a place of trial. It's a place of testing. It's the God of grace putting us there. After we've suffered a while, he'll establish us, strengthen us, and settle us in that. You know, Paul experienced this in his life. As God blessed Paul, and as Paul was growing, part of that was God putting Paul in a position of trial. It says in 2 Corinthians verse 12, said, And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong." And God says, you know what? I'm not going to take it away, but I'll give you all the grace that you need in that place. And again, it's not something that we choose. It's not something that we look at our life and say, you know what? I'd really like my life to be difficult so that I can grow in grace. But the thing is, when God allows trials to come, he has automatically put us in a place where his grace is going to be flowing to meet our need in that time of trial. There's a hymn writer, Annie Johnson Flint, that I had a very difficult life from a human standpoint. She was orphaned at the age of eight. She was crippled in her 20s. She had crippling arthritis. And in fact, they say that she would write her poetry on a chalkboard that was hung over her bed. And she would just put her hand around that chalk and write her poetry. But she had a love for poetry. She had an eye for detail. And she wrote the hymn, He Giveth More Grace. And it says, he giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. To added affliction he addeth his mercy. To multiplied trials his multiplied peace. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed, ere the day is half done, when we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father's full giving is only begun. Fear not that your need shall exceed his provision. Our God ever yearns his resources to share. Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing. The Father both you and your Lord will upbear. His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power no boundary, nor unto men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. And the thing is, God's grace is sufficient. God's grace is super abundant, and it's often our easiest, maybe, to find. in a place of trial or a place of testing. 2 Corinthians 9, 8 says, And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. And so Peter says to us, he says, okay, grow in grace, grow in grace. Where do we do that? Well, we do that through humility. We do that through discipline. We do that through times of testing and trial. Okay, so we put ourselves there, we abide there, we grow in grace. And then lastly, the second point here is grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Okay, those two things we think about this year, God, help me to grow in grace, and then help me to grow in the knowledge of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know, the Locksleys and Glenda know Dan Hassman. My family knows Dan Hassman. And Dan and I grew up together, and we're different. We're not the same, but there's a lot of similarities about us. There's a lot of things that we enjoy that are the same, and there's a lot of ways that God's worked in our life in similar ways. And you know, the more you know somebody, kind of the more you're like them. And so as we think about Jesus Christ and the desire that Peter says of growing in our knowledge of Jesus Christ, the thing about that is that's gonna make us more like the Lord Jesus Christ as we get to know him. And so briefly, let me just speak about ways that we could get to know the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, grow in knowledge through his teaching. growing knowledge through his teaching. you know, Paul Chappell preached, and you listen to the man, and you get to know pretty quickly that he's a gracious, kind, and compassionate man, a man that has a desire to see God's work go forward. And I've got this book that I'm reading as well, and I've listened to numerous messages that Paul Chappell has preached. And the thing is, I don't know Paul Chappell personally. But I feel like I know him. I feel like I understand him a little bit because I've spent time listening to his teaching. and his preaching. Obviously, a great way for us to get to know our Savior, we're not gonna be able to sit physically as the disciples did under his preaching and teaching, but we do when we come to the word of God. Every time we pick up the Bible and we begin to read the word of God, that tells us the teaching and the preaching of Jesus, it's what helps us to know and to understand him. 2 Corinthians 3 18 says, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord. As we pick up that, the Bible, the Bible reflects Jesus Christ into our life and his truth. And we begin again to know him. You know, we just completed as a church, our Bible reading schedule from last year. And I trust that Many in our church completed that and finished reading the Bible in a year, but it's a great thing To start over. I picked up my Bible and I I decided I'm gonna sneeze here. Oh, I decided to start reading through the Bible again this year. You know, I think I'm in Genesis chapter 15 or chapter 16 and just enjoying going through those stories. But you know, that's what's gonna help us to get to know God, isn't it? To get to know Jesus Christ is to spend that time in the word of God. 2 Timothy 3.15 says, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So growing grace, the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How do I do that? Well, one way is to get into the Bible and get to know the teaching and the preaching of Jesus. And then growing knowledge, secondly, through his biography. Another great way to get to know someone is to get to know their story. It's great to read stories. Somebody, if they're interested in politics, they might like to pick up a biography of a former prime minister, Tony Blair or David Cameron. If they're interested in business, it might be good to pick up a book by, you know, about Steve Jobs or something, the founder of Apple or something like that. It's inspiring to look at their life and to see how they made decisions as they faced different difficulties in their life, how they responded. Again, as we look at the biography of Jesus, we need to learn to walk like him, walk like him. It says in 1 John 2, verse six, He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. He was praying and spending that time with God. Jesus walked in obedience. He always did the will of the Father. Jesus walked in love. He had time for everybody. If somebody needed something, Jesus had the time to meet with them. There was a bracelet that came out when I was in high school, and it was WWJD, and it kind of went probably internationally as well. It's what would Jesus do, you know, and I was never a big fan of WWJD, but the thing is, you know, WWJD bracelet doesn't change my life, but looking at the life of Christ and saying, you know what, that's how he responded. That's how I need to respond. Learning to walk like him, that does change somebody's life. And so learn to walk like him. Learn to purify yourself to be like him, to purify yourself. Hebrews 4.15 about Jesus that tells us that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Jesus knows the weakness of human flesh without the failure of his flesh. And so the Bible says in 1 John 3 verse 3, every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure. Again, as we're looking at Jesus and saying, you know, I wanna be like Jesus and get to know Jesus, it's to look at his life and say he was absolutely pure. He had complete victory and mastery over sin and say, by the grace of God, again, I'm gonna walk in that place where he walked of obedience to God. And so God help us to, grow in knowledge through his story, through his teaching, and then lastly, this morning, grow in knowledge through his presence, through his presence. It says in 1 John 3 verse 2, beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And it's that constant communion with God, that sticking close to the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing him in a personal way, through personal devotion. It's what the hymn writer wrote when he wrote the hymn, every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love him more and more. Jesus saves and keeps me and he's the one I'm waiting for. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. be a great thing this year to say, you know what, I just wanna cultivate a real relationship with my savior through prayer and spend time in his presence. And so two things for 2022 that we can look at and say, you know, God helped me to let 2022 be a year of spiritual growth. First of all, growing grace. And to grow in grace, I've gotta have humility, and discipline, and let God use those trials and stay in the place of grace and say, okay, I'm just gonna get all the benefit I can from this, and then get to know Jesus. Spend that time in his word, getting his teaching and his preaching, understanding who he is and his story, and then cultivating that relationship with him. And if we'll do that, it's just gonna get better and better, right? 2022 could be a great year of spiritual growth. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the word of God and thank you for the brief time we've been able to spend considering your word this morning. And Father, we pray that this would be a great year of growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And Father, would you bless your word to hearts this morning. It might be that somebody is not saved. Lord, there's certainly many people that we're praying about in our community that need to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Father, we pray that they would get saved and that they'd understand what it is to receive God's wonderful gift of salvation. And Father, as believers, I pray that you'd give us a tender heart to say, you know what, let's be in that place of humility and that place of discipline. in that place of enduring trials so that we can have the benefit from the trials. And then Father, I pray that we just get to know our Savior better and better in 2022. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, praise the Lord for our time together this morning. Let me just end this.