So when I was nine, I came to Christ when I was seven years old. I shared my testimony many times at Antioch. The Lord brought me under conviction on a playground in my school, Clay School in North St. Louis. The word had been planted in my heart. As Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, 14, 15, 16, as the word of God was planted in my heart, that seed of the word of God was planted in my heart. I came under conviction of my own sin. The Holy Spirit brought me under that conviction. conviction, and I was in many ways terrified to be sinful before Holy God. As much as I can understand as a seven-year-old boy, I knew enough of John 3.16, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish. Even as a seven-year-old, I understood that if I failed to believe in Jesus and trust in Jesus, I was going to perish. As we talked about last week, one of our motivations of seeking to live holy lives and to be holy in all of our conduct, which Peter says there at the last half of verse 15, but as he called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, verse 16, you shall be holy for I am holy. And then the next verse, 17, goes into because we're gonna stand before God and give an account of our life, we ought to have a godly fear to motivate us to obey God. Well, I had a godly fear of dying and going to hell. I heard John MacArthur tell an account of a man he knew was a businessman, very successful businessman, but had no time for God or the word of God or for church and just just thought it was nonsense, thought it was foolishness. And then one day, John MacArthur said he looked back at the back of his church and he saw this successful businessman sitting in the back of the church. And he came repeatedly several weeks in a row. And finally, John asked him what he was doing there. And I think he either saw something or read a book. I think he read a book about hell. Some guy supposedly went to hell for 30 minutes and wrote a book. But that caused that successful businessman who had no time for God most of his life to begin thinking. And then he had a godly fear of dying and going to hell. And that's what he told John MacArthur. He said, I'm coming because I'm afraid I'm going to die and go to hell. God gave him that fear. The Holy Spirit gave him that fear and brought conviction of his sin. And so John MacArthur was able to lead him to the Lord and baptize him. And he became a follower of Jesus Christ. And so I came to Jesus as a seven-year-old boy, but when I was nine years old on Wednesday night, I came forward on a Sunday morning, which in Baptist life, that's kind of typical. But I really think thinking through this recently, I would say before I even looked up, I looked up to my mom. I was sitting with her on Sunday morning. I could take you almost to the pew there at Water Tower if we were able to get back in the church. And I said, mom, I want to go forward and be saved. But as I reflect upon that, the Holy Spirit already brought me to Christ. I'd already trusted in Jesus Christ. I was just kind of following the protocol of a Southern Baptist church. And I went forward and talked to my pastor. and said I wanted to be saved. But in all reality, I think I was saved as I was walking down that aisle. And I said the sinner's prayer, but it's not the words of the sinner's prayer, it's the cry of your heart, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was subsequently, two weeks later, baptized. I remember that like it was yesterday. As I stood there at the top of the steps, I saw all that water there. I had this great urge of just diving in to that water. My pastor, because I was only seven years old, he kind of floated me over to the cinder block that was in the Baptist streets so I could stand on it because I was too short for people to see me. And, uh, and he baptized me in January of 1961. I came to Christ in December of 1960. So this January I'll celebrate my 50th anniversary of my public profession of Christ. But on a Wednesday night when I was nine years old, um, I had this real sense that God was calling me to the ministry. And I didn't talk to anybody about that, except I went forward after everybody, after we dismissed and my pastor, Kerry Miller, was standing at the front of the church. And I just walked up to him and grabbed his coat tail and kind of yanked on it. And I told him, I said, I believe God's calling me to the ministry. Now he didn't discourage me. He said, that's nice. And he said, I'll be praying for you. And, um, but I never forgot that moment. I really never departed from that moment. And then when I was 15 years old at Rivery Gardens Baptist church, um, I just felt God was refining that call as a 15 year old young man to the preaching and teaching ministry. And so on a Sunday night, I went forward on a Sunday morning to profess Christ. I told my pastor on a Wednesday night that I felt God was calling me to ministry full time. And then on Sunday night, when I was 15 years old, I went forward and shared with my pastor, Ron Fisher, that I believe God was calling me to the preaching and teaching ministry of God's word. And so I made that public and I became one of the preacher boys at Riverview Gardens Baptist Church. But as I began to work through that in my mind, I said, well, if I'm going to start preaching sermons, I better know what the Bible says. I better know what the gospel is. And so I made a commitment as a 15 year old young man that I was always wanting to be a serious student of God's word. And so some 53 years later, I'm still trying to be a serious student of God's word. And, um, We all can be serious students of God's word. We don't have to be called to the ministry. Now I've, I've trained. I went to college, got my degree in Bible. I minored in Greek language in college. I went to seminary and got a master's degree and have prepared. But what I told my, what I've told my youngest son, and I think the biggest asset of my life has been, I have tried to know the word of God and I gained all these tools. My youngest son's going to seminary right now in Philadelphia, but I told him, son, the most important thing is for you to know the word of God. And that's the most important thing for all of us to know the word of God, to be serious students of the word of God, to get it into our heart and into our mind by reading it and meditating upon it and memorizing the word of God. And so, um, because our text here, and I've kind of filibustered there a little bit to run that commercial, but we really need to be students of the Word of God, not just academically, not just intellectually, but letting the Word of God transform us. Jesus prayed for us in John 17, and in verse 17 of John 17, Jesus prayed this prayer, Father, sanctify them by truth. Thy Word is truth. And it is the Word of God that brings us to Christ. It is the Word of God that grows us up in Christ. The Word of God is the tool that the Holy Spirit uses to transform our life.