Growth

Introduction

Well, good morning. We’re glad you’re with us this morning, especially our visitors. I have met a few of you this morning, but please stick around afterwards so we can meet you if we haven’t yet. We’ve got a one word sermon titled today. That’s the wrong way. It’s growth. That’s the title of our sermon. And one of the girls asked me, what’s the title of your sermon? I said, Growth. I mean, like they said, you mean like having a growth, like go see a doctor? I said, No, it’s not that kind of growth. It’s the growth where you’re growing internally and spiritually. And so when I saw the bulletin come out in the email yesterday, I saw that Mike sermon title for tonight is Growth and Wisdom, and then we got worried and tried to make sure we weren’t doing the same thing.

But as Jay pointed out this morning, he said, You’re going first, so you don’t have to worry. But we are talking about growth, and there are many parallels to growth, especially physical growth. This is my granddaughter. You knew I was going to find a way to work that in. She’s she is a week old in this picture. She’s now two weeks old, and we’re going to go up there and see her again pretty soon. but we’ve been thinking about this idea of growth and what it means physically and spiritually, and so it was a good way to work this in. But as young babies, you think about what can babies do? Well, there’s not much that they’re really good for except to be cute. They survive on cuteness, right?

And they’re building equity when they’re doing that because you know that later on they’re going to turn into those two year olds who are doing things like this. And so this has become a thing on the internet. People posting pictures called why my kid is crying. And this is one where he’s crying, and the reason he’s crying is he couldn’t reach the pennies. And you can see they’re just out of his reach. Why is he crying? Because he can’t reach the pennies. Because he’s a child. That really sums it up. It’s what young people do. here’s another one I thought was amusing for a couple of reasons. Why is he crying? He didn’t want to share his leg hole in the shopman car. Now we have a lot of young families, and I’m sure you with young children can really relate to these things.

And I’ve probably posted a few of them yourself because there’s so many. But we can, you know, I noticed how he’s crying about the leg hole, but also the look on his sister’s face. He’s in for a long growth. I just know he’s going to be in for something. This one kind of, why are they crying? Because they received new hats. I think, well, that’s kind of funny. I was looking at the kid on the left, and he kind of reminds me of our song leader, too. I don’t know, just something about his face. I thought, well, maybe you should be crying about bacon, you know. And actually, that’s what this girl’s doing. She’s crying because notice there’s bacon on her plate, but she was we said she couldn’t have more bacon, even though she has some right there.

1. Growth Is Really a Process

So it’s one of those things where children cry, children are immature, and we understand that. We don’t expect them to be well adjusted at this age. They’re brand new, they’re developing physically, they’re developing emotionally, and they just can’t handle things as well as grown-ups do. Now, if we have grown ups having meltdowns like this, we know that’s a problem. If you’re getting upset and writhing like this because the cat can’t say your the cat can’t say your name or something like that, well, that’s unacceptable. And so we know that we have to grow, and we expect that as adults to have grown up beyond that. And so that’s how we look at things. And so growth is really a process, and that’s what we really want to focus on this morning, the process of growth.

And you think about how humans grow and plants grow, that God designed us, you think about this. We start out with nine months in the womb. And during that nine month period, the baby is growing inside the mother’s womb. At the same time, the mother is preparing for childbirth. So there’s changes in her body as well. And as one person put it on a documentary I saw about, he said, really what happens is that child gets to that point where he finally, after nine months, or she finally after nine months is able to live outside of that host, that mother’s body. Where at the same time, that mother’s body is doing all that it can, but it reaches a point where it can’t do anymore. It can’t hold that baby anymore.

So it’s time for that process of birth. So for you engineers in the audience, just think of it that’s the intersection of two lines on a graph. That’s all it really is. It’s just these two points come together, and they’re your baby’s born. So it’s a process. In agriculture or gardening, the same kind of thing happens. We don’t get corn or rhubarb or whatever we’re planting right away. What do we have to do when we want to get those plants? We have to put a seed in the ground. What do we hope that seed is going to do? Well, we hope it’s going to germinate. We hope it’s going to sprout at some point and then become a plant. Even at that point, even after a child is first born, or even after a plant is first sprouts, it’s not ready to bear fruit.

2. In Christianity There's Also a Process

And so there’s that can that process of growth has to continue. Well, in Christianity, one doesn’t start off as a Christian, there’s also a process. So let’s look at these. You know, we often call these the steps to salvation and the plan of salvation. And I think Tony’s mentioned before, he doesn’t like the word steps here, because when you think about steps like going up these steps or the steps in the back to the room in the back of the building, you leave one step to go on to the other, and that’s not what we’re doing in this case. We don’t leave one step, we’re adding on to. So think of it more as a process where we’re growing, we’re adding on to what we have and who we are.

But it still starts with hearing. And so we see here in Romans 10, 13 and 14, it says, For whoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? How will they believe on him who they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? So you see, even in this verse right here, it’s kind of conveying the idea of a process. Somebody must preach this word. They have to convey that word to somebody else. That other person has to hear that word and internalize it and think about it, meditate on it. Then they have to believe that word and continue with the process. Romans 10 17 says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And so we know that to get faith, we first have to get that source of faith, which is the word of God. That’s supposed to be believe. I don’t know why it looks like things look differently on the slide sometimes from my house to hear, but believe is the next step on that on that thing. so how does that work? So believing, we have to believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he died for your sins on the cross, and he was buried and resurrected the third day. Mark 16, 15 and 16 says, and he said unto them, He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelief shall be condemned. So again, you see how one thing is reliant on the other.

There’s still that growth going on, and so just as the baby grows in the womb, this is growing you towards that new birth of baptism. Hebrews 11:16 says, But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he has rewarded those who diligently seek him. So you see, it’s telling you’ve got to believe.

To repent, we have some verses about that. I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So repentance is a part of this process, it’s a part of that growth. Once you believe, once you’re assured that this is true, you understand that you have sinned. Romans 3 23 says, All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Acts 17 30 says, Truly these times of ignorance got overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because we have sins. And when we get to the point where we understand and believe the word of God, we understand that repenting from those previous sins in our lives is part of that process of becoming a Christian. Then confession is made.

Romans 10 verse 10 says, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confess confession is made unto salvation. And also 2 John 1 7, for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Now we’ve heard that term antichrist before, and usually it’s in some misunderstood way in the denominational world. Antichrist is what? It says here just someone who doesn’t believe in Christ. Yes, confessing that Christ is a part of that step or that process of growing to you reach that point of baptism. And so I’ve got baptism up here, and we see that I’ve drawn a line on top of that. So if I’ve been really good with PowerPoint and graphics, I had meant to have something that looks like this is all happening like a seed growing below ground.

You put that seed in, it starts to germinate. It starts to grow towards the surface. And at some point it breaks through that surface. That process of baptism is where that seed comes to fruition. It’s born. It’s like the nine months that the baby is in the womb. At some point it’s born. And so baptism is the culmination of this process. Acts 2 38. And Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. So to get those sins remitted, you have to do what? You have to be baptized. Acts 22 16 says, now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

One of our earlier verses this morning, we talked about calling on the name of the Lord. This is how we do it through baptism. And then finally, Romans 6 4 says, Therefore we have been buried with them through baptism into death, just like that seed is buried. So then, as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. So when we are baptized, we see that it’s washing away our sins. It’s a death, burial, and resurrection. So we’re rising to walk in newness of life after that burial. It’s also the point when, as we see in Acts, Christ adds you to the church when you’re baptized. So each of these steps depends on the previous thing being completed and that whole growth process.

3. Babes in Christ Are in a Fragile State

So a babe in Christ, I’m not gonna refer to this one, but in Luke 8, we won’t show slides on it. But in Luke 8, you have the parable of the soils. And in the parable of the soils, most of you remember this, you have four kinds of soil, and that seed is the word of God being sown in those hearts of men. And so one type of soil didn’t even get to germinate at all. What happened? Well, the heart, the heart was so hard that it skipped right off, and birds ate it. So just the idea is there is the idea with that is that the person who heard this word didn’t have any desire to learn it, didn’t have any desire to believe it, and it had no way to go.

That happens to a lot of people. We talk to them about the gospel, but they don’t care. It really doesn’t affect them at all. So it bounces off and doesn’t germinate. You have two more soils that did sprout. They did hit that point where they were a baby in Christ, but then things happened to them on the way. In that immature, that vulnerable stage, what happened? Well, one died out because the soil or the conditions got so harsh that it died. The sun beat down on it just didn’t have the right conditions for growth. Maybe it wasn’t watered. the other condition is what? Well, the weeds took over and choked it out. You know, this person got so wrapped up in the cares of the world that things just got in the way, and they failed as a Christian.

And you think of it that way as a plant that dies. It’s sprouted, but it just can’t make it and dies out. so sprouts like babies are very fragile. and if you try to raise vegetables, you know what this is like. You try to raise these things. Some of the seeds even sprout and some don’t, and you just kind of have to deal with what you have. but you’re these babes in Christ are in a fragile state. Human babies are unable to face the world around us on their own. They need someone to care for them. Similarly, babes in Christ also need special attention. They need care. And others don’t often or they don’t often really realize what’s being done on their behalf.

How many people are talking about them and praying for them and checking up on them? Just like babies, they just think you know that’s the way things are. But at Decca Prairie, we do a good job with this. I think when I see a babe in Christ, somebody who’s just been baptized, I see so many people are checking up on them, asking about their status, going to them personally without waiting for the preacher or the elders to do it. Excuse me. And seeing if they need anything, if they want to study.

4. You're Not Intended to Remain a Babe in Christ

So even our Lord, when he was young, grew in a physical sense and in stature. And notice in favor with God and man, he was growing as well. Excuse me. so it’s you’re not intended to remain a babe in Christ. And that’s what we really want to focus on throughout the rest of this lesson. Your path doesn’t end with baptism. Now, for some people, they do very well with this. We see 1 Peter 2, it says, like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. A lot of people do this. They’re baptized and they just shoot right off. And it’s sometimes to the embarrassment of older or longer lasting Christians because you’ve got somebody who’s a babe in Christ, but they already convey and display a measure of maturity long past some people who’ve been in the church a long time.

So that happens very well. And it’s promising to see, and it’s good to see somebody with such enthusiasm. But others seem to level off just outside the baptistry, like they stay dripping wet. they stay at that same level of spiritual growth. Now we have something in society these days called millennials. And the big complaint about millennials is what? Well, they’re grown-ups in body, but they’re still children on the inside. They need to be coddled and pampered and require praise for the smallest thing. Now, not everybody who’s of that age bracket can be called a millennial in that sense because we now use it as a derogatory term because it’s meant to be a term for somebody who you know just can’t handle things like they should be able to, and they don’t understand that everybody else who was their same age handled it in a lot more mature way.

So a lot of people are hardworking and selfless and all at that age, and they’re fine. But we had a series last summer, this 33 series that some of the men put together, and they used a term in that book in that series called extended adolescence. I think some of y’all remember that. Extended adolescence meaning what? Well, these people just never wanted to grow up. They’re Peter Pan. You know, they want to live their life like a beer commercial and just, oh, everything’s fine. We’re gonna go climb a mountain and pull beer out of a stream and drink it up there, and then we’re great. So people see that and think, oh yeah, that’s what I want. That’s what I want to be.

I want to be an adrenaline junkie and just serve myself and look for the next pleasure and everything that I do. And life is not really about serving yourself and that. So this kind of mentality can convey or can leak into the church. We can have people in the church with that same type of attitude where they’re not maturing like they should. Paul addresses this in his first letter to the Corinthians, where he says, in 1 Corinthians 3, verses 1 through 3, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as the spiritual men, but as the men of flesh, that’s the infants in Christ. So this is where we get the idea of bathed in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you are not yet able to receive it.

Indeed, even now you’re not able to, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and are you not walking like mere men? So, what he’s saying is that I’m trying to dress you as Christians, but you’re so in the world that you’re just like anybody else. You’re not special, you’re not acting like a Christian, and I have to treat you like a babe in Christ, like a child, because you’ve chosen not to grow beyond that. You’ve chosen to remain an infant. And so it’s a bad condition. So, what do we do in these cases? Well, we can admonish them, we can we can try to say, you know, let’s work on this, let’s get better.

But why do some people fail to grow? Well, a lot of times it is because we get that attitude that once we get them baptized, then they’re good, you’re on your own. And we addressed that earlier, but it’s something that we really need to watch out for. You know, make sure that we don’t just say, Oh, good, it’s done. It’s not done because there’s a continual growth process after that. We need to be mindful of it. Maybe they are having hard times after baptism. We have to understand that Satan wants them back. And he’s going to do what he can to make it as hard for them. Like those two soils we talked about, the thorny ground and the stony ground, where they just didn’t have enough depth.

5. Growth Needs to Be Emphasized

Well, we can work on that. We can help them. Also, I don’t think we stress growth enough sometimes. We often hear the term baby steps. When somebody is taking a long time to mature and develop, we say, Oh, baby steps. Now, baby steps are fine as long as there’s still steps. But if baby steps, that term is used in substitution for no steps at all, then we have a problem because a lot of people will say, Oh, baby steps, and somebody’s not really even taking baby steps. So be careful when you use that. You know, make sure that we’re we’re still encouraging people to mature and grow like they should. Yes, baby steps are fine as long as there’s still steps. So growth needs to be emphasized to become that mature Christian.

So we see this emphasized in the Old Testament. one verse in Proverbs 8 or 4 18. I don’t have that before you on a slide. It says, but the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. You get this idea of increasing light, increasing brightness as they go on. then you may remember this recently. Tony put this out Wednesday. Proverbs 17 3. Refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold. But the Lord tests the hearts. What is happening in a refining pot? What is happening in a furnace to gold? It’s purifying, it’s becoming better. It’s getting rid of the stuff that’s impurities and making it a pure precious metal.

And so, what is God doing when He when it says the Lord tests the hearts? Well, He’s doing that same thing to us. And the purpose behind all of that is He’s trying to have change happen in you. He’s trying to change you, He’s trying to grow you. That’s His goal for you. Not that you can just go get baptized and level off. He wants a growth out of you, and He’s doing what He can to make that happen. I have one other slide, excuse me. I don’t have a slide for this verse, but it still pertains. James 1, 2 through 4. I left this one out accidentally. James 1, verses 2 through 4 said, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

So you see how this fits in here. And let endurance have its perfect results so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So think about those terms, perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. You think about somebody, we were talking about jobs in the adult Bible class here in the previous hour. But what did we say about that? Oh, we all had a complaint or seem to have a complaint about co-workers who weren’t doing their job or weren’t skilled enough. When you think about being on the job, you know, you want people around you who are trained, who are skilled, who have the maturity to handle the job set before them and will do their work. You know, it’s most frustrating.

Because what happens? You are dedicated to the task and you get put in with a bunch of other kids who are just going to wait for you to do it and want to sign off on the paper at the end. So that’s not the way we ought to be. So perfect and complete, lacking in nothing means that you are at a mature level. You are skilled enough that you’re now what? You’re a useful servant to Christ. You think about if you’re in that state where you’re still immature or a babe in Christ, you still got to develop. You still need to grow. You still need to put yourself to the task of growing. And you see how in this passage, you know, it’s another one of those one thing leads to another type of passages.

You’re going to build upwards. You’re going to grow in your faith and your skills. So now we can get to this next. Whoops. First Peter 4, 1 through 8 is kind of the best verse about this kind of thing. 1 Peter 1 verses 4 through 8. Excuse me. He says, For by these he has granted unto us precious and magnificent promises, so that by then you may become partakers of the divine nature. So we’ll stop right there. What’s the divine nature? I think it’s that same sense that you’re reached, you have reached the maturity level where you are useful to the Lord. You understand things, you see things the way God sees them. So you’re you’ve reached that spiritual maturity. So having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust, now for this very reason also, and again, it’s not stepping from one to another and leaving the previous behind, but adding to.

So he says, now for this very reason, also applying all diligence, all diligence, in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are in you and increase, what’s gonna happen if you’ve got all these good qualities? They render you, render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, we’re talking about being at that mature Christian level so that you’re useful. Look at that. You’re not useless. You’re not unfruitful. Or you’re you’re yeah. And so, you know, if you want to see useless and unfruitful, look at Carrie’s cucumber plants.

We have cucumber plants, they’re pretty, they’re blooming, but we’re not getting a lot of cucumbers out of those things. They’re useless and unfruitful. They’re a plant that grew, they’re a plant that should be doing something, but they’re not. And it frustrates us, doesn’t it? Yeah, it does. The tomatoes are doing well. but mature Christians embody these qualities that we see here, and we’ve been talking about. So you’re encouraged to add or work on these characteristics throughout the Bible. Like we said, God intends you for you to grow here continuously from your first day to the last. You get this same sense when you look at 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. some of the things we see there, love does not brag and it’s not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, and does not seek its own.

So there’s more of those same qualities that you can say, you know, if I do this and I do the things found here in 2 Peter, those are the attributes of a mature Christian that I need to be growing towards and learning from and trying to be in, you know, could they describe me in these terms? That’s what we need to look for. if you’re looking for more Reasons, more resources, look at the book of Titus. Book of Titus from beginning to end, it’s full of examples and attributes of a mature Christian that’s useful to God. how do you get there? Second Timothy 3, 16 and 17 says, All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, so that what?

The man of God. That’s what we want to be, the man of God. Maybe what? Adequately or adequate, equipped for every good work? Are you trained up? Do you have the skills necessary? Are you useful? Can God look at you and say, That’s one of mine? I can trust him to do what I need done. Do you feel inside your heart that he can say that about you right now? Or do you need to keep growing? Do you need to mature and reach that Christian maturity stage? So maturity as a Christian also means that God can speak to you basically as spiritual man. He can talk to you man to man. And just like when God said, Behold my servant Job, what do we see happen to Job?

Well, Satan attacked him. And then when Job had some complaints about that, what does God do with Job? Does he coddle him? Does he treat him like a spiritual millennial? No. He goes to him and look in Job. Oh, I’m sorry, this is the wrong reference. It’s not 30, it’s chapter 38. Job chapter 38, if you’re taking notes. 38 verses 1 through 4. Then God answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man, and I will ask of you, and you instruct me. Can you imagine being dressed down by God like that? What’s the first question God asks him? Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world?

You want to be in that position? No. But God can talk to Job man to man like this, because he knows Job is a mature follower of his. And he addressed him as such. And he dressed him down and he said, Look, you stand up like a man. We’re going to talk, and you’re going to take it. Do you see yourself in that same position? Do you see yourself being able to be addressed in that manner? How about Jesus and the fig tree? What happened with that fig tree? In Matthew 21, verse 19 says, Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only, and he said to it, No longer shall there be any fruit from you.

And at once the fig tree withered. A lot of people read that and they feel sorry for the fig tree. it’s not about feeling sorry for the fig tree. Why did Jesus curse the fig tree? Because the fig tree had leaves on it already. And what they tell me about fig trees is they bear their fruit first and then they put leaves on. So, what did Jesus expect from this tree? He expected some results. There should have been figs on this tree, and there weren’t. He cursed it and it died. Jesus expects things from us. He has expectations for us. Here’s another one the parable of the talents. It starts in chapter verse 14 of Matthew 25. We won’t read the whole thing.

What did he say? Oh, there. I understand. You just had one talent. He didn’t say that at all. He says, You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gathered where I scattered no seed. What did that mean? He says, You knew that I expect you to work for me. I expect you to do what you’re told to do. And you didn’t do it, really. Verse 27, then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. So, what is he saying to this guy? You didn’t even do the minimum that you could have done. At least, you know, even if you’re not going to get industrious with it, at least put the thing in the bank, and I’d get some interest back.

6. How Do We Get Mature?

You didn’t even do the bare minimum, is what he’s telling him. So, again, as a Christian, there’s expectations. Yes, we need to mature. We need to grow, we need to be skillful and useful, but understand that there’s an expectation placed on us. So Jesus expects a return on his investment. Servants did not even do the minimum. So, how do we get mature? Well, personal study. Oh, I’m going to get to this one in a minute. personal study is one step. What converted you to Christ in the first place? Your study of the Bible. It shouldn’t have been somebody’s charisma or friends or oh, they sing well there or anything like that. It should have been the word, and that’s what still is going to help you grow and mature.

I think most people who fail to mature also leave prayer out of their lives. It’s an essential part. You must be doing it every day. Attendance, make it a fact, not a question. You know, not oh, should we go or not today? Have that be a part of your life. We go every time. There’s no question about it. We’re disappointed when we can’t. Also make associations. Your associations with the children of God, you know, have friends in church, do stuff with them, let them influence you and rub off on you, like so many do. Have the attitude of a servant, be about your father’s work, like Jesus said. What happened with that fourth soil that we didn’t mention? Well, it was good soil and it bore fruit.

So remember that lesson. It was good soil that grew, but it also bore fruit. be disciplined, have a good attitude, and also know your enemy. Know that Satan is trying to stop you and everything you do for Christ. And so don’t think that. Well, this is a natural part of life. Understand that when things come up that are trying to get in the way of your service to God, know that’s Satan at work. Okay? Don’t let that do. Don’t let that get in the way and do what it wants to do. So one final passage, and this I think this one really sums up what we’re talking about this morning. Ephesians 4, 11 through 15. So, based on all the stuff about human growth and plant growth and maturity in Christ, notice this it says, and he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.

Why? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, the building up of the body of Christ. What are you supposed to do? We’re supposed to work together in service to build up the body of Christ. That’s each other. Until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. Do you see this? There’s a stature we’re supposed to measure up to. There’s a fullness of Christ that we have as our goal. And continuing, as a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceit, scheming, deceitful scheming.

So yeah, we’re not supposed to be babes in Christ anymore. We’re supposed to be wiser and smarter and knowledgeable. Verse 15, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplieth, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So it’s not just personal growth we’re talking about here. We’re talking about the body of Christ as well. But how can you contribute to the body of Christ if you yourself are not putting yourself in a position to be able to do that? So remember the Air Force ad from days gone by.

Conclusion

They used to say have a slogan called Aim High. And aim high meant shoot for something higher than what you’re at. You know, I’m afraid that when we look at something like Isaiah 40, where it talks about fly on wings of eagles and run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. I think a lot of us go, well, yeah, I’m good. I don’t need to do that. Have a higher goal in mind. Don’t go for a low grade in class, shoot for an A. So we’ve talked about the plan of salvation this morning. We’ve talked about what it takes to get to that point where you’re at least just starting off as a Christian. We’ve seen that happen recently with a lot of our young folk.

But don’t stop there. If you haven’t put on Christ in baptism, you’ve seen the steps. We don’t often go through these things, but you’ve seen the things that we need to not just step from one to the other, but to keep adding on to ourselves. So we see that we’re meant to grow, we’re meant to mature, and we want everyone to keep doing that. We’ll help you with that. But if you haven’t reached that point where you put on your Lord in baptism, we can help you with that this morning. If you haven’t grown beyond that, want the prayers of the church to help you with that or to study with somebody, we can do that as well. Whatever you need, please come as we stand and sing.