How Have We Grown Spiritually This Year?

I hope that we can think about the value of our support system. Because here, in our congregation, and in connection with the United Church of God, and with our understanding of God's calling, and actually placing us in the body where He sees fit, that we realize that we're a part of a body, we're a part, in this case, a part of the congregation here in Fulton. That is a support system. We need to be a support system for one another.

I don't know, perhaps some of you know very directly what it is to not have a support system. I don't know, I'm having to just guess about you. I certainly know what it is to me, because there have been times in my life, in the last fifteen years, where I knew that there was no support system. And as I tried to deal with some of the things that were scrambling my brain, I often sought help to try to figure out how to pull out of this depression, how to quit being so anxious, how to quit being so crazy, because that's the way I felt some of the time.

And even if you seek help for that, they say, well, go to your support. There is no support system. This support system is just blown up! It's gone! And that's certainly the way I felt, and the way that my wife and I felt for a number of years. And yet, it's been wonderful over the last several years to once again have a connection, to have a support system that is based on God working in us, helping us. People, as they live their lives, we go to work, we have our homes, we have our families, and again, depending on how close those families are, we may or may not get a certain level of support through a family system.

We may not at all. Maybe completely, some kind of a broken relationship at this point. And you may labor with health problems, and so you have to deal with those, but it helps to have support. It helps to have some encouragement. And then, of course, as we grow older, ultimately, we die. And whenever people, and we have a number of older members, not so much here, I'm not talking about any of you here, we have a very young congregation here. In Kansas City, we have a number of older members, many of them, many, and I'm saying several that I know that are in their 80s or beyond.

And, you know, at that point in your life, do you need a support system? Well, you clearly do. You know, there are a lot of people who need help, you know, just to try to function in their home, try to get to church. You've got some who help greatly in trying to get people to church. And not only that, you know, if anything is needed to try to provide assistance, well, you know, that comes from a support system.

Whenever someone does die. Being able to even have a support system where, you know, the arrangements of a funeral and then kind of the transition after that is shared with other people.

It is something that ultimately we have to go through individually, and yet it's easier. It's better. It's more significant if there's a shared support system. And so I hope we can think about that today. I want to go through several different sections here that I think are important to us. But I'd like for us to just all think about, you know, how am I closer to God? How am I closer to my brethren? How am I growing in the nature that God wants me to grow in? I'd like for us to look here to begin with in John 8, because in John 8 you find Jesus pointing out something.

See, this particular account actually explains what true disciples will do. See, and in a sense, this is something that we have to analyze ourselves. If we're a true disciple of Jesus Christ, then we have a belief in who He is. We have a belief in what He came to do. We have an understanding of how that it is through Him that we are a part of the Church of God.

And yet here in John 8, starting in verse 31, it says, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him. Now, He was talking to a number of Jews, and many of them didn't believe in Him. They didn't have anything to do with Him. They hated Him. They thought what He said was ridiculous. They really wanted to put down whatever He said, but there were some who had to think a little more deeply than perhaps the more pious of the religious Jews that He was talking to.

And they started to believe, maybe He is the Son of God. Maybe He is who He says He is. Maybe He has been sent from the Father. They started to believe, at least some of them, and there are several references here to different people at different times believing. And maybe it was a matter of the miracles. I mean, if you heal the sick, if you heal the blind, people who couldn't see, which chapter 9 is about, and we've covered here more recently, if you couldn't see and now you can, who is this?

Is He a prophet? Is He able to heal the sick? Is He the Lord from heaven? Is He the Son of God? They had to be thinking some of those things, but Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him, here's what He said. He said, belief is not enough. Believing in who I am, or even seeing who I am, is not enough. So, verse 31, if you continue in My words, then you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

So here you find that Jesus said, well, believing in who I am, coming to see who God has sent to the earth, and how it is that God has interjected an answer into the world. Back 2,000 years ago, He had sent Jesus Christ to this earth with a mission, with a purpose. And as the Lamb of God, He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin. But He told these Jews that He was talking to, and to those who had come to believe, who believed who He was, they believed what He said.

Verse 30, as He was saying these things, He said, many believed in Him. They came to see who He was. And that's clearly the center point of our Christian life, is the fact that Christ has not only drawn us, or God has drawn us to Jesus Christ, but that through Him we understand that we are forgiven, and that we are led by the Spirit of God. But what Jesus said beyond that was that I want you to obey.

I want you to continue in my words. See, if we turn over to John 14, you find Jesus reiterating this, not only as He talked to those Jews, but as He talked to His disciples. In John 14, verse 21, it says, See, we desire to keep the commandments. We want to obey God. What Jesus tells us in John 8 is that you need to continue in that.

That needs to be a part of your way of life. That needs to be a part of your actions. Now does that earn you salvation? No, it doesn't. None of us could ever obey enough to earn salvation. That's going to come through Jesus Christ. He is the one who offers us and gives us that salvation. But see, here it tells us that if we're going to have the love of God, then we're going to be continuing. We're going to be obeying. And if we jump back to John 8 again, Jesus goes on to say, verse 32, you'll know the truth and the truth will make you free.

And they answered and said, well, we're the descendants of Abraham, and we've never been enslaved. We've never been slaves to anyone, which of course is a ridiculous statement because they obviously have been slaves in the past. They didn't want to think of themselves as being enslaved now, but they were surely slaves in Egypt. If you look back to the history of Israel, he says, we've not been slaves to anyone. What do you mean? You'll be free. And so Jesus answered and said, truly, I tell you, anyone who commits sin. And so here he was going to be very clear.

He was going to be very plain. If you can't define sin, then you don't have any idea what you are doing. And that, of course, is unfortunate that many people even who want to be religious can't define sin. They cannot determine what is sin, as I know all of you can.

But he says anyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. And so here he's going to make a contrast, a contrast between what it is to continue in my words. He says you're going to live a life of obedience. You're going to live a life turning from sin.

And so he goes ahead to say, the slave, verse 35, it does not have a permanent place in the household. The Son has that permanent place. If the Son makes you free, then you are free indeed. To hear he's talking about how that, you know, we actually, as we come to God, then we are enslaved to sin. We're enslaved to sin. That's where we were. That's not where we want to remain, but that's clearly where we were.

And God has helped pull us out of sin. He's caused us to hate sin. And here it tells us that the Son, in verse 36, is the one who makes you free. Because of Him, you are free indeed. I'd like for us to turn to Romans 6, because this is elaborated on in more detail in Romans 6. Romans 6, starting in verse 16. Romans 6, 16 says, you do not know, or do you not know, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient servants or slaves, then you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.

So our desire should be to seek obedience. It should be to move away from sin. But it goes on to explain it more in verse 17. But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching that you've been entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, you have become the servants, the slaves of righteousness. See, that's where we want to be. We don't want to remain the slaves of sin. Unfortunately, human nature gravitates toward sin. It gravitates toward disobedience. It gravitates toward disobeying the law.

And yet here He's describing a transition. Having been enslaved to sin, we then are freed through the mercy and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and we should become slaves of righteousness. He goes on to say, I'm speaking in human terms, for just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

See, that's the life that we want to live. And of course, how we do that is continuing in the Word of Jesus Christ. That's what He said there in John 8. It says in verse 20, When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. And whenever we were enslaved to sin, we really didn't even know what the righteousness of God was.

We didn't have any... We may have had our own ideas of what we thought was righteous, but we didn't know what the righteousness of God was. But we are certainly learning what the righteousness of God is about. And of course, ultimately, we come to see that we want to ask. We want to ask God to help us be enslaved to righteousness, to be a servant of righteousness.

And actually, the way we can do that is by asking Him to give us His righteousness. And that, of course, is what we're told to seek in Matthew 6. Verse 22, You now have been freed from sin, and you are enslaved to God. And the advantage you get is sanctification, and ultimately, the end is eternal life. See, brethren, that's a wonderful, wonderful blessing.

To realize that God has called us to be able to honor Him with our lives, and to forsake sin, and to get rid of sin that we see and that we find in our lives, but to embrace His righteousness. That's what we actually want to become the servant of. And that, of course, is what Jesus mentions, that His true disciples are going to be seeking that. They're going to be seeking that with their heart.

They're going to be praying for that. They're going to be yearning for that. And I think it's important. It's important that we maybe consider, well, how am I doing that? How well am I doing that? Because it's not a matter of simply putting in our time. It's not a matter of still waiting till Christ's return. I yearned for that day. I want Him to come back. I want Him to come back as soon as He can. But I want to be doing the right things in the meantime. And of course, this points out what it is to be a true disciple. I'd like for us to look in Hebrews 10, because the fact is, as we read here in Hebrews, we've been called to endure.

We've been called to persevere. In some ways, with the smaller group and with fewer people to be able to do the things that have to be done in order to function as a congregation, it can become a labor where it started out to be an exciting thing. And of course, what this tells us here in Hebrews 10 is we've been called to persevere. We've been called to endure.

And so we want to have that as an outlook. We want to have that as a way of life as well. But I want to start in Hebrews 10.23. He said, let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering for He who is promised is faithful. And we have every reason to believe and to know that as we live our lives in conformity to God's law and His will, He is faithful. He will perform. He will not only help us here and now, but He will give us eternal life. He will give us what He has promised.

And so, in verse 24, He says, let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds or good works. That's a significant statement because it actually tells us what we should be doing. What we should be doing toward one another. And of course, I know the word provoke is used here in the translation I'm using.

I'm sure it's in your King James or New King James, whichever one you may have. See, now provoke often, that could be misunderstood because provoke can actually be, you know, you can offend people by provoking them and you can irritate people by the manner or way that something is said or done. That's not what this is talking about. It says to provoke unto good works, to provoke unto love and good works. So the word provoke means more or less to kind of arouse excitement, to call to action, to prompt, to encourage, to uplift.

It's not the type of irritation that sometimes people might think it is. Let us consider how to provoke, to uplift, to call to action, to excite others, to love. To love me, to love you, to love others, and to do good works. You know, those good works, that's what he wants us to be doing. That's what the outcome of our Christianity involves doing good works. It involves doing things that are of service to one another and to the congregation and to others beyond ourselves.

He goes on in verse 25, not neglecting to meet together as the manner of some is, but exhorting, encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching. See, all the more as we see in our day, we're looking for the day of Christ's return. We're looking for the day of Christ's intervention in world affairs. But he says, you know, we need to come together and we need to do that.

We need to be here welcoming one another. We need to be here provoking one another to love and good works, encouraging and exhorting one another. If we drop down to verse 32, it says, recall the earlier days. You can see all of us would have to...

Would you like a pen? I saw you passing your pen back and forth. I thought, you know, you're having to share a pen. I can give you another pen if you'd like.

I saw him drawing that cartoon character. It's what I saw he was doing. Anyway, in verse 32, recall what it was like earlier. Recall what it was like in earlier days after you were enlightened. See, for some of you, that was 40 years ago or more. For me, that was more than 40 years ago. I remember what that was like. That was thrilling. That was exciting to be enlightened, to come to see something that I fully didn't understand at all.

But it was clearly an answer to my prayer. It was an answer to understanding what's the meaning of life. What's the purpose of just putting in time here on earth? And I know that that wasn't something that's 15 or 16 years old that normally the kids were thinking about. And yet, it says, recall those earlier days after you were enlightened. You endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion. For those who were in prison. You cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better, far better, and more lasting.

Here He's calling us or showing us to look at what God has done. Look at how God has worked in our lives. When He enlightened us initially, we in many ways were kind of willing to give up anything in order to pursue the way and the truth of God, which I know so many of you have gone through many of the things that would be described here. And so He says in verse 35, Do not therefore abandon that confidence of yours. Don't abandon the confident hope that God has given us.

And see, that's what we want as we look into this past year and the place where we are right now, the work that we are striving to do as effectively as we can. All of us pulling together in the same direction. He says, don't abandon the confidence of yours because it brings a great reward. For you need endurance. So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what's promised. See, we want to do the will of God. We want to pray that God will show us and help us understand the will of God and then help us do the will of God. That's what He's asking us to do.

For He says in verse 37, Yet in a very little while the one who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous ones will live by faith, and just shall live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back, but we are not among those who shrink back and are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.

Our faith in Jesus Christ should cause us to have a great deal of security. It should cause us to have a great deal of stability and a great deal of settling and peace in our lives. Whenever we find that that isn't the case, we need to ask ourselves, well, am I really focusing on the answer? Am I focusing on the one who has everything to give? And am I putting my trust in God like I should?

Those are questions that we can ask ourselves. And yet, this is really an interesting section because in Hebrews, you find two or three different situations like this that are described, how we can think back and see what God has done for us and then be excited. Be excited and thrilled that God is working with our lives in an extraordinary way. He's preparing us for a responsibility, for an opportunity and a responsibility in the world tomorrow.

In the kingdom of God, that again, in most cases, people have no clue about. They don't even recognize that that's going to happen. And yet, we do. We celebrate that every year. We go to the feast. We think about the Feast of Tabernacles and the Millennium and the kingdom of God. We teach and preach and act out certain of the things that we believe and know are going to be a part of the process at that time. And we don't know all of it. We're yet to learn much of it, I'm sure.

But we know some of it, at least part of what's revealed, we understand. And so, you know, it's interesting to see how it is. In Galatians 6, verse 9, it says, don't grow weary in well-doing. That's another admonition. You know, we can get bogged down. We can get, you know, to feeling like we're not appreciated. We can get to feeling like, you know, what's the use? But I hope that isn't the case. I hope it isn't the case for you.

And I hope that isn't for me. I mean, I might feel that way sometimes. But I don't want to stay there. I want to understand, well, you know, that clearly is not where I want to be. I want to be uplifted. I want to be encouraged. I want to be grateful. And I want to certainly persevere. Because that's what God's expecting me to do, however long, you know, He allows me to live. Or until Christ returns and our change comes.

That's what He's telling us. The third thing I want to mention is just in our own personal growth. Do we allow unseen obstacles to hold back our growth? Now, you're the only one that can answer this for you. I'm the only one to answer it for me. And yet I can identify at least a few obstacles, maybe habits, maybe attitudes that I can get into that I know are hurting me.

I mean, when I see that, what do I do with it? How do I change it? Well, here in Mark 9, you've got Jesus Christ telling us what to do. He's not so distinctly or directly telling us what to do, but He gives us the principle of what to do whenever we find ourselves laboring with things that we'd like to change. Here in Mark 9, and you find Jesus talking about this earlier in Matthew 5, but in Mark 9, in verse 42, it says, if any of you put a stumbling block before one of the little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you to be a great millstone hung around your neck when you're thrown into the sea.

To hear He's talking about causing others to stumble by our actions, by our attitudes, by what we do or say. But He goes on, and actually He is directing this more specifically to us individually.

He says in verse 43, if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life maim than to have two hands and go to hell, to go to the unquenchable fire.

And He goes ahead, of course, reiterating this, if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It's better for you to enter life lame. Again, He repeats the same in verse 47.

If your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It's better for you to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. See, what's Jesus talking about here? He's clearly not talking about amputations. He's not talking about cutting off a foot or hand or eye.

You know, that's not what He's talking about, but He is talking about, you know, if we see things in our lives that are leading us to sin, and we would know what those patterns are, then those things are causing us to stumble.

And that's what He's talking about. He's talking about causing others to stumble, but it also is directed at us. If we see patterns in our lives that lead us to sin, actually where we ultimately just tolerate sin, then He says, break the pattern. Break the pattern. Do whatever it takes. Of course, He's describing it in a pretty extreme way. Cut off your hand. Cut off. Pluck out your eye.

That's not what He's wanting us to do. He's wanting us to break any pattern, break any habit that may lead us to sin. And again, this could apply in many, many different ways.

And yet, in some ways, it's a matter of realizing, well, I want to intercept along the way, I want to intercept where I'm heading here and change that. Get on a different path. Focus on something else. And of course, He's talking about stumbling or being ensnared.

And it's funny about being ensnared because a snare is usually a kind of a trap that is either set up for a bird or an animal. Try to catch them. And see, if they walk into the right lane and into the net, then all of a sudden, then the trap snaps and they're ensnared.

See, that same thing happens to us. And we can, of course, read about that in other parts of the Bible. We're talking about sin. But I bring this up just because if there are obstacles that are holding back our growth, well, then we want to address those things. We want to address them in significant ways. We want to analyze them, acknowledge them. We want to repent of them. We want to address them, figure out how to keep from going this direction again, and then, of course, eliminate it. And that, of course, Christ is still pointing people to, you want to be a part of the kingdom of God. That's what you want to be. That is what is important.

That is far more significant than anything else. And of course, being an overcomer is a part of a Christian's life. We do want to have faith in God and faith in His power, but He tells us to overcome. He tells us to be intelligent enough to realize what it is we could do to help ourselves. And in so doing, we also help others because we're encouraging. We can be more encouraging to others when we're more settled and more stable ourselves. The last thing I want to mention here is over in Matthew 25.

Matthew 25 gives an account in the latter part of the chapter of Matthew 25.

It talks about in verse 31, the Son of Man coming in His glory and sitting on the throne of His glory and all the nations gathered before Him. And He has judgment to pronounce.

Separating the sheep from the goats. Verse 33, He put the sheep on His right hand and goats on the left. And the King will say to those on my right hand, Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. See, obviously that's clearly a statement of delight, a statement of joy, a statement of encouragement. And yet you also find when He's addressing the goats, we drop down further.

Verse 41, then He will say to those on His left hand, You that are accursed, depart from Me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Those are the contrasts. The contrasts that He makes here in this explanation of judgment is being blessed by God, being encouraged by God, being given the eternal life that God is offering as opposed to being accursed, as opposed to being cast aside, as opposed to not inherit an eternal life. And of course, the contrast that's being made is described here in what type of action? What type of action were people motivated to do? What type of response were people motivated to do toward their fellow man? Because it says, verse 35, regarding those who received the kingdom, for He says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.

Are you doing that? See, that's what I think we have to think about.

Am I really doing that? Do I actually do that? Because you see, the contrast, and of course, Christ is saying, you're doing it to me when you're doing it to my brethren.

When you're doing it to other people, and the brethren are the closest ones that we should have, and yet this doesn't just limit itself to brethren. It could be given and done to anyone.

But I think it's significant that we think about, well, this is what Jesus Christ says He wants. This is what He says He expects of His sons, or from the standpoint of the Father, His sons and daughters, from the standpoint of the Son, His brothers and sisters. How are we doing what He says in verse 35? I was hungry, and you gave me food. Are we doing that? Do we do that?

I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.

I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you took care of me.

I was in prison, and you visited me.

Brethren, those should be actions that become automatic to a true Christian.

Those are actions that Jesus said, well, when you're doing these to other people, you're doing this to me. I think each one of us perhaps could think about each of those, and we could say, well, I did this or I did that. And yet, I would think, and certainly I could say for myself, I could do that a lot better. I could do that a lot more. I could do that in a much more excited way than I tried to do that.

And of course, in verse 37, the righteous say, Lord, well, when is it that we saw you hungry and need a drink and were a stranger? And of course, he says, verse 40, truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who were members of my family, just as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.

See, now, I know we have explained in many ways this can be applied spiritually, that we're feeding and providing nourishment and water, sustenance and clothing to people spiritually. That is correct. That is true. But I don't think we can discount that this is what Jesus said, that people who have the love of God, people who exude the love of God are going to be doing toward others of their brethren. And then they're going to be sharing in that love of God, love and concern. I think it's important as we read Matthew 25 that we think about how am I doing that? How am I achieving that? And in so doing, then we can ensure our growth. And that's what Peter says back here in 2 Peter as we conclude here. I want to read the first part of 2 Peter. Because here Peter is talking to people in general. He's talking to church members in general. He's writing a general epistle that's not directed at anyone specific, but to those who have been recipients of the Holy Spirit says this is what you ought to do. And of course, he gives a lot of good instruction.

But this first section here in chapter 1 regards making your calling and making your election sure.

And brethren, I think that's what God wants us to be thinking about right now. He wants us to be considering just how is it that I'm growing? How is it that I'm applying what he says?

Or am I caught up in my own ideas of what I think I ought to do, which we'll find tends to be more focused on us than anyone else. But here in verse 3, this is one of the most beautiful sections, I think, in the Bible. Because it talks about the ultimate destiny. It talks about what God is doing today. It talks about how the divine family is being developed. It says in verse 3, His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. And thus He has given us through these things His precious and very great promises. Jesus Christ promises us eternity. He promises eternal life as we go forward, as we were talking about last week. Promises life everlasting.

And it says, Thus He has given us His precious and great promises so that through them we may escape from the corruption that is in this world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.

See, brethren, that's what I want more than anything on earth. I think that's what you want. It should be what every one of us desire more than anything else on earth to participate in the divine nature. And it goes on in verse 5 for this very reason. You must make every effort to support your faith. And clearly it does begin with faith. It begins with our faith in God and our faith in Jesus Christ. But He says you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness. And that goodness with knowledge, and that knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. See, there's a description of the divine nature. You know, it's also in Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23. They say the same thing. They use different words, a little different, slightly different, but they say the same thing. This is talking about the divine nature He wants us to grow in. And so He describes it there, and of course you could go through and perhaps maybe talk about each and every one of those qualities. Qualities that we seek, the qualities that we should ask that God will filter through our hearts and minds so that we are exuding that love that comes from Him, because He says in verse 8, for if these things are yours, and if these things are increasing among you, and so it would appear that at least the way Peter's describing it, these can be given to you. They are gifts that come from God, but they need to be expanding. They need to be growing. They're not constant. We're not there yet. We still have room to grow. For if these things are yours, and are increasing among you, then they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it appears that we can be ineffective. We can be unfruitful. I hope we don't want to be. I'm sure none of us would intention that, but just through distraction, just through a lack of focus, we can be sidelined to where we are ineffectual and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For He says in verse 9, anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind and is forgetting, is forgetful of the cleansing of their sins. That's what we read earlier. When God started working with us and started changing our lives, started transforming our hearts and minds, He wanted us to pursue that with all of our heart. And we don't ever want to forget that, but He says anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind and forgets the cleansing of past sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more eager to confirm your calling and your election, for if you do these things, you will never stumble.

But He gives absolute assurance. If we're focused on the things of God, if we're focused on growing in the divine nature, if we're focused on Christ living in us, then we will not stumble. We will be successful. We will be growing and developing. And in verse 11, for in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Peter said maybe everything he needed to say in the first chapter. He says a lot of other things, and of course, he had a great deal of insight to be able to offer from God. And it's exciting to see what he has to say, but in many ways, he's encouraging us.

He's encouraging us to make our calling and our election sure. And so I encourage all of us as we look back over this past year, as we look into this next year, that we see the call to a wonderful calling. He's called us and elected us to be a part of a divine family that needs to acquire and develop the divine nature that comes from him. It comes from God. But I think we want to be able to understand how that as we do focus on these things, that we certainly will never stumble.

That we can be assured eternal life, because we're simply doing, we're continuing in the words that Jesus gave and that he continued to inspire throughout the writings of the apostles and for all of us today.