Let's turn our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 again. We're getting close to the end of this epistle, and I hope it's been encouragement to you because the circumstances that we face really are very small and less difficult compared to the circumstances that the Thessalonian Christians faced when Paul was writing this letter to them. And through this letter, he is teaching them, and after hundreds and thousands of years, are teaching us that no matter what circumstances that we face, because of our relationship to God through Jesus Christ, if you're a Christian, we have certain responsibilities. No matter what circumstances. There really is no excuse. They were undergoing there in the city of Thessalonica quite a bit of persecution and opposition, especially by the Jews. Those that were looking for a Messiah and then those that believed in the Messiah of Jesus Christ, then they were being opposed and persecuted by them. And the Jews would even take these Christians to the public officials, the Roman officials, and say, look at what they're doing and look at what they're saying and how they're trying to discredit Caesar, the Roman emperor. And so, of course, they were going through a lot of difficult circumstances. Like I mentioned, some of the circumstances that we face are nothing compared to that. We're not being persecuted or taken before a judge because of our Christian faith at this point. But no matter what circumstances we face, when it's health related or financial related or family related, we have certain responsibilities and we've looked at these over the last several weeks. When we came to verse 16, and these are these short, very terse statements that we have from verse 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, these reveal to us not only our responsibilities, but also how we ought to respond to the goodness of God. In verses 16-18 we saw that no matter what circumstances we face, like the Thessalonians, we have a responsibility to pursue after the goodness of God. We have a responsibility to chase after it. with all our heart and with all our soul. And we do this by, verse 16, rejoicing in God. By verse 17, praying to God. And in verse 18, giving thanks to God. These are specific responsibilities that we have, in verse 16, evermore. In verse 17, without ceasing. And in verse 18, in everything. It covers everything that we're facing in life. No matter what, we have this responsibility as a child of God. But as we looked at last Sunday morning, we also have a responsibility to respond to the goodness of God in a proper manner. And we do this by applying ourselves and letting God do His work through, in verse 19, His Spirit, His witness. In verse 20, His Word. Don't despise the prophesying. Don't despise the preaching and the teaching of God's Word. We need to respond by applying to ourselves the wisdom of God as we are expected to be diligent and to prove all things. This is one of the reasons why our adult Sunday school lessons are so important is because we have to know how to study the Bible in order to obey our responsibility of diligently inquiring in the Bible so that we have the capacity and the ability by God's grace and through His Spirit to discern, to prove all things. through the wisdom of God, but also we have to respond in our walk by abstaining even from the very appearance of evil in verse 22. So from verse 16 through verse 22, we have some great responsibilities that you and I have as children of God, no matter what our circumstance. But have you ever come to the point in your life where you said, especially these last two weeks, looking at each of these things, rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. Don't quench the Spirit in verse 19. Don't despise the prophesying of the Word of God, the preaching, the proclamation of His Word. Prove all things and then abstain from all appearance of evil. Have you ever said, I can't? I just can't. I've tried. And I've tried. And I've tried again. And yet I've fallen. And I've failed. Well, I know I've said this many times. It's happened to me many times. And if we are truly honest with ourselves and humble before God, every single one of us will recognize the fact that we have fallen far short in our responsibilities toward God, haven't we? Far short. I don't rejoice over everything. I don't rejoice over every circumstance in my life. I don't pray in a continual way. There are some days that I get up and I'm just a basic grump. And I don't want to pray. And I don't want to get before God because I know as I pray that I'm going to have to submit my will to His will. And we don't want to do that sometimes. And we fail, don't we? We fail when we look at the huge list of responsibilities and we realize, I can't measure up to that. That happens. when we try to perform our responsibilities, but we fail to recognize and rely upon God's role in all this. We need to realize that yes, God has given you and me personal responsibilities as a child of God. But if we pursue those responsibilities without recognizing that God has a role in all this, and that God has a role in His grace to enable us to do these things, we will fall short every single time we try to do it on our own. There's a great balance between your personal responsibility from God to grow, and that's what we have in verses 16-22. He's saying you need to take responsibility for your growth as a spiritual being, as a Christian. You need to be responsible for these things. But then, on the other side, you also have to display a personal reliance upon God for growth. We have a responsibility. This is our role. And then we have a reliance upon God, and that is His role. And this is an incredible tension sometimes in our Christian life. You are to respond to God's goodness by being holy, but then God says that you can only be holy by relying on His goodness and on His grace. He calls you to be holy for I am holy, but then you can't do that on your own. You have to be holy for He is holy because He is the One that makes you holy. He calls you to be sanctified, but He's the One that does the sanctifying. And this is a tremendous tension. that will last our entire Christian life. And sometimes we will focus on the one side and we will forget the other side. Or sometimes we'll focus on our responsibility and then we'll forget about relying upon God's grace and God's strength and God's help in order to enable us to do our responsibility. And when we do so, we will fall every single time. But this is what makes up the Christian life. This is something that will happen from the very beginning to the very finish. We need to recognize the responsibility from God to grow, but also a personal reliance upon God for growth, and that is what is displayed in our text this morning. Years ago, I had the privilege of learning how to ride a bike from my dad. And I was scared to ride a bike because I saw my friends, and I saw their kids in the neighborhood, coming back bloodied and bruised because they had learned how to ride a bike and I was scared. So I learned how to ride a bike when I was a little older. I think I was probably nine or ten. Most kids were riding their bikes at five and six. And so I was a little embarrassed, of course, trying to learn how to ride a bike at that older age as well. But I had a personal responsibility in learning how to ride a bike, didn't I? I had to get on the seat of that bike, and then I had to actually pedal, and I had to steer away from the trees and away from the buildings in order to be able to ride that bike. I had a personal responsibility in that thing. But in order for me to learn how to ride a bike, I needed some help. I needed also to learn to rely upon my dad to get me going. And I remember, instead of going on the concrete or on the road, because I was scared of getting scuffed up, he took me to the park, Highland Hills Recreational Park in Westminster, Colorado. And I remember we went to this large green area, open space area, where there were no trees, because I didn't want to hit any trees. And I remember my dad said, okay, I'm going to stand here behind you and I'm going to hold your seat. And I want you to pedal and I want you to steer and I want you to try to control yourself and get your balance while I hold on to your bike and you're going to ride. And what happened? As I was getting on there, he balanced me up and he started pushing me along. And I remember for the first several times when he would try to let go, he let go and I fell flat on my face. And of course, Kids don't like that. Kids say, well, I don't want to learn how to ride a bike. And then for a while, my dad said, OK, I will hold it the entire time. And he did. And there was a period of time where I was so excited that I was finally being able to ride my bike. I was finally taking that responsibility for myself. But the fact was, there was my dad all along behind me holding the seat. Was I riding the bike? Yes. Was I riding my bike? No. I was riding my bike because I was pedaling, I was steering, but God, or my dad, in illustration here, He was the one that was controlling and pushing and keeping me up. Now this analogy breaks down when it comes to our Christian life, because there was a point where my dad let go, and I was able to keep riding. Now that's a thrill for a father to look at, right? That is an absolute thrill to see your son or your daughter just take off! And they're looking back, Dad, Dad, are you still holding on? Of course not. Look, son, look, daughter, you're finally riding your bike. That's where this analogy breaks down, because you know what? We have a role and a responsibility to pursue God's goodness. But God has a role, and His role is by constantly giving us His grace to enable us to do our responsibilities. And the fact is, He never lets go of the bike. Because if he did, or if we tried to break away from his grip, you know what's going to happen? We will fall every single time. There is no doubt about it. Christian life is not a bicycle ride where we can go independently. Because when we do, when we try to rejoice evermore, when we try in our own might and our own strength to pray without ceasing, to give thanks for everything, and all these down the line, going through these responsibilities, if we do this in our own strength and our own might, we will fall every time. So after showing our responsibility in verses 16-20, Paul now turns to God's role in verses 23-24. He says this, in the form of a prayer, he says, and the very God of peace sanctify you whole. It's as if He just breaks out into prayer saying, I know the tremendous pressure that you have facing you from all these responsibilities, and I am praying that the very God of peace, may He sanctify you wholly. And I pray, God, that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then He adds in verse 24, Faithful is He that calleth you. who also will do it. The lesson I think that we can take from these verses is that our growth is by God's grace. Your growth in following after God's goodness, in responding to God's goodness, in performing your spiritual duty and responsibility as a Christian is solely by the grace of God. The Bible says that we are saved by grace, solely by His grace. The fact is, we don't get saved by God's grace and then He lets go with the bike. No, the fact is, He saves us by His grace, and then He sanctifies us by His grace. He causes us to grow by His grace, so that at the very end of the day, when we are coming to the point at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 23, He is the one, He is the one who threw it all, kept His hand on the bike, and preserved you and I blameless in our responsibility to Him. Our growth is by God's grace. It says here that He is the very God of peace. He is the very God. The emphasis is placed on God and His role and His work in our lives. It can be also translated, God Himself. God Himself may He sanctify you wholly. You see, God alone is the only source of the grace and the goodness and the holiness and the peace that we need. And that is why Paul is appealing to God. Because he recognizes if he just says, do all these things without showing who we need to rely upon in order to do those things, we're going to fall every single time. And so he says, praying to God that God alone is the source of all the grace that you need, because it's only through his strength that you can pursue his goodness. It's only through His grace and His strength that you can rejoice evermore, no matter what the circumstance. It is only through His strength and His grace that you can pray without ceasing, no matter what the circumstance. It is only through His goodness and His grace that you can give thanks in everything. In everything! even those most difficult circumstances in life. He's also teaching that it is only through God's grace that you can respond properly to His goodness. It is only through God's grace that you will not quench the Spirit. Do you realize that? It is only through God's grace that you will not disobey Him and ignore the Spirit of God's working. It is only through God's grace that you will not despise the proclamation of His Word. It is only through God's grace that you will have the wisdom to judge and to prove all things. It is only through God's grace that you can abstain from all appearance of evil. That is why Paul, toward the end of this letter, appeals to God through this prayer, because he knew that God's role was paramount in all of this in our lives. He knew that your growth and my growth is by God's grace. And so we see three areas in these two verses that God does in us and for us through His grace. First, God purifies us by His grace. God purifies us by His grace. Verse 23, it says, And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly. God wants you and God wants me to be holy. In fact, God commands you to be holy. But then, He doesn't take His hand off the bike. What He commands and what He calls you to be, He then provides and enables you to be that way. God wants you to be holy, God commands you to be holy, and then God provides what you need to be holy, and that is His grace. He wants you to have a holiness that is pure. That word sanctify literally means to be set apart unto God. This is the goal that God has for every single one of His Christian children. He wants you to not be set apart for the world, or for your family, or for all these other things. He wants you to be His. That's why He saved you. He wants you to be set apart for God alone, so that He can make you holy. And we realize that God is the only solution And His grace is the only solution for the lack of peace in our life. That's why He's called the God of Peace. Not only is this God's desire to make you holy and pure, but this was Paul's desire. This is why he prayed to God after giving this huge list of your personal responsibility. Now he appeals to your reliance upon God and His grace in order to do what He has said to do. That's God's desire, is that you be set apart unto him. Is that your desire this morning? Is that why you're here today? Is your greatest desire to be set apart for the use of God? That was Paul's desire. That's Christ's desire. Is that your desire this morning? Because if it is, it's not just following a list of rules, do's and don'ts, but rather recognizing that we do have a responsibility to obey God, but we also must rely upon God's grace in order to do those things that He has called us to do. If this is your desire, To be holy, for He is holy. To be sanctified. To be set apart by God. You can only rely on God's goodness and grace to be that way. Because through God's grace, He will sanctify you. And He will give you a holiness that is completely pure. But not only this, it will be a holiness that is pervasive. The prayer is that God will sanctify you wholly. W-H-O-L-L-Y. Holy. This is a fascinating word in the original context because it's a compound word. It takes one Greek word and another Greek word and mashes them together, and through combining these two words, it gives a powerful picture of what God's desire to do in your life. He wants to sanctify you, set you apart, make you holy in a complete fashion. The two words that are joined together is, first of all, holos, from which we get our word whole. This is talking about something that is whole throughout. This morning, my children and I were making a breakfast for Mother's Day for my wife, and we were going to make sausage, biscuits, and gravy. So we wanted to make the gravy. And I haven't had a whole lot of success with the gravy until I found a recipe, and now I kind of like this recipe, and I hope it was okay. Is it alright? But the gravy has to have, and I like the gravy too, the gravy has to have sausage all mixed in through it. Otherwise, I don't want it and I don't think it tastes that good because otherwise it's just milk and flour, right? But I was trying to make sure that there was a whole pound of sausage in this gravy. And I was just stirring it and stirring it and stirring it, because when I put the gravy on my biscuits, I want more sausage than I want gravy. That's what I want. But that's what the picture is here. God wants to sanctify you wholly, so that holiness is permeated and pervasive throughout your entire life and throughout your entire being. It is holos, whole. But also, the second word is telos. This word means something that is completed, something that is to the uttermost. When Jesus Christ died on the cross and just before he gave up the ghost, he said to tell us, die or tell us it is finished. That's what this Word is. And so, a complete, finished work is what God is trying to do when He sanctifies you wholly. It is something that will be pervasive, but it will also be something that is permanent. The Word here refers to both the depth of holiness and the breadth of holiness. Remember the song when you were a child? Deep and wide, deep and wide, there's a fountain flowing. deep and wide, and that's the picture of this word, holy. He wants you to be sanctified deep. That means every part of your being, but also wide in your influence from the very moment you were saved, as we see in verse 23, to the very moment that Jesus Christ returns. God is doing a sanctifying work in your life. And Paul recognized this. And Paul wanted and prayed that you and I would experience this by God's grace. Because he's the only one that can do this. I can do verse 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and yet not be sanctified holy until I recognize that it is God that works in me, both to do and to will His good pleasure. There's a responsibility, yes, but there's a reliance even more, a reliance on His grace. It is a quality of holiness and a quantity. It is a holiness that is pervasive. That is where we see the word holos, whole throughout, pervasive. But then a holiness that is permanent. That is the wideness, the extent of it. It is a thorough sanctification by God. Is that what you want? Do you want to be sanctified, set apart, and made holy by God in a pervasive, permanent, extensive way? If you do, then rely on God's grace to do it. And we're going to see in a moment how. Adelaide Pollard wanted this in her life. She believed that the Lord wanted her to go to Africa as a missionary, but she was unable to raise the money that she needed to go. So in an uncertain state of mind, she attended a prayer meeting where she heard an elderly woman pray It's all right, Lord. It doesn't matter what you bring into our lives. Just have your own way with us." And at home that night, encouraged, Adlai Pollard wrote the favorite hymn, Have Thine Own Way, Lord, Have Thine Own Way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Search me and try me, Master, today. Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now as in Thy presence humbly I bow. Have Thine own way, Lord. Have Thine own way. Wounded and weary, help me, I pray. Power, all power surely is Thine. Touch me and heal me, Savior divine. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Hold o'er my being absolute sway. Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always living in me. If you desire to be sanctified wholly, it's not just about your responsibility. It's about a reliance on God's role and God's grace. Is that the kind of holiness and purity that you desire? That last phrase of that verse of that song has always meant a lot to me. In fact, in my other Bible, the one that I keep here at the church and sometimes I'll preach from, I put those three words, Christ only always, because that is a mark of someone who is not just performing a responsibility, but relying on the grace in order to do what God wants you to do. You need to remember that your growth is by God's grace. The Christian life is much like flying in an airplane. If you ask somebody if they're going to go to Hawaii or Europe or India, how are you going to go? I'm going to fly. Oh, really? Are you really going to fly? Well, yes. I'm going to the airport, whichever airport you guys are going. and you're going to hop in an airplane, and you're going to fly. So in a sense, yes, you are flying. You are up in the air. You're farther up there than I will be. Thank goodness. But really, who's doing the flying? The pilot. He's the one piloting. But really, is he flying? Well, sure, he's up in the air with you, and you're going hundreds of miles, streaking across the sky. But really, are you flying? Is the pilot flying? No. Who's holding you up there? The airplane. The airplane is doing the flying. Thank goodness for that. Our arms would get tired and we wouldn't go very far, right? That's the fact of the Christian life. When we realize that it is God who sanctifies us, and it is God who wants to sanctify us wholly, we will recognize our responsibility of getting into the airplane, but we will always remember and we will always rely upon God who is doing the flying. He is the one who enables us to get to our destination, which is being preserved blameless under the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is our second point, that not only does God purify us by His grace through sanctification, but God preserves us by His grace. In verse 23 it goes on, and Paul says, I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God desires your holiness more than you do. Now that's an amazing thought. You might say, I'm tired of this body of sin. Paul experienced this. Oh, wretched man that I am. This was after he was saved, after he was being an apostle, after he was used by God to write powerful books inspired by God to churches. What did he say? Oh, wretched man that I am. Who's going to deliver me from the body of this death? And he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. The fact is, God desires your holiness, sometimes even more than we do. You may want to get released from your sin. You may want to be released from the body of this death like Paul did. God wants you to be more holy than you do. That is why He tells you not to quench the Spirit. That's why He tells you to not despise prostitutes. He goes on. The goal of God's grace is to preserve you in holiness. To preserve here means to carefully attend to someone. To carefully attend, it's like tending a fire that might be going out. I remember going camping with my brother, and there were times that we would go camping, just the two of us, and it would be cold at night, and we would be wet from doing canoeing, and what we would want is we would want someone to always tend the fire, and so we would usually say, Well, I'm going to stay up for two hours and tend the fire, and then you're going to stay up for two hours and tend the fire, and then the other person will wake the other person up in two hours to tend the fire, and more than likely, after the first two hours was up, we stayed asleep the rest of the night, and by morning, there were no hot coals. And we didn't enjoy the fire, and we were freezing cold and wet from the dew, and we didn't enjoy it. No one tended the fire. The fact is, We can do all we can to tend to the fire of our life, stoking the fire like we talked about. But who's the one that really does the tending? Who's the one that really does the lighting of that fire? It's God. God is the one who wants to preserve you and will preserve you, carefully attending to you, always watching, always observing, always keeping you. To preserve you, how? To preserve you completely. to preserve you completely. And this preservation only comes through the Lord by God's grace. Again, if I try to preserve myself, and I do it in my own strength and my own might, I will fall every single time. But if I rely upon God's grace and God's power to do this in me and through me, He will do the preserving. God is the only source, and He will preserve you completely. There's another word here in verse 23 that says whole. Now, this is similar to holy, as we've seen, but it's a little different because it describes every single part God wants to preserve in your life. His desire is that nothing in your life be lost. The Greeks back in this day believed that the body was more of a prison for the real soul and the real person. Sometimes we feel that way. But God takes us as a whole individual and every element that exists in our life, and he lists them here, every part, if you will, your whole spirit and soul and body, everything that makes you, you, God wants to preserve. No part of you is meant to be overlooked and lost. And so God preserves you completely by his grace. But also God preserves you changed. He doesn't want to leave you where he found you. And if you are the same in the same place today as you were when he found you. The process of sanctification has been stopped. It's perhaps because you are focused so much on your responsibility that you're forgetting and forsaking the power of God to enable you to do this, which we need to learn to recognize His grace in this way. But His desire is to preserve you blameless. His desire is to change you and to make you more fit for heaven. Blameless means to have a holy character, that is the inside, reflected in a holy conduct, that is the outside. That's God's aim. So that your whole part, spirit, soul, and body, everything that makes you, you, He alone can preserve. in blamelessness. In chapter 3, verse 13, he puts it a different way. To the end that He, God, may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God. He preserves you to change you, but He also preserves you continually. He says, unto the coming, or it could also be translated, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This transformation is not necessarily something that will take place in the future. The focus is on the here and on the now. This is where God wants to sanctify you and preserve you. This is where you need to recognize your responsibility, but rely upon God's role and God's grace through the process. This transformation is to be taking place until Christ comes. We need to remember that our growth is by God's grace. He is the one who purifies you. He is the one who preserves you. And something that has been really. Astonishing to me this last week is that we need to learn how to recognize God's grace in our life. Because this is the first step to relying upon his grace. We need to understand that any good that you pursue is God's grace at work in your life, if you're a Christian. Any good that you respond to is God's grace at work in your life. Any good that you do is God's grace working in you to do it. Philippians 2.13 says, it is God which worketh in you He's the one where it comes from through his grace. It is God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We have a responsibility. That's one aspect. But then we must rely upon God's grace and God's empowerment. That's the other side. So when you make a good decision. Where did that good decision come from? Came from God's grace, didn't it? We need to learn to recognize God's grace. I was telling the kids on the way home after we worked for several hours in the morning yesterday here at the church. We started out with about five of us. And I'm sure, Pat, you were a little discouraged when just you and Lisa showed up. And then it was just me and the kids. So that was five. And it's easy to get discouraged. But you know what happened? Other people started coming and we had a huge crew and we were able to get a lot accomplished yesterday. And I was rejoicing. Because you know who really was behind the decisions that was made yesterday in my life and in the lives of every person that made those decisions? Behind that decision was God's grace. And we need to learn to recognize His grace. You say, well, I did that. Well, it's God that works in you both to do it to will and to do His good pleasure. Was that a good thing to come yesterday? Absolutely. Was that doing God's pleasure? Absolutely. But who put that mind and thought in your brain in order to through that good God, through His grace. We need to learn to recognize God's grace, even in some of the smallest details of our life. When you deny a temptation, it's God's grace at work in your life. If you have a temptation to do a particular sin and you realize, hey, I denied it. I said, no, I resisted the devil and he fled from me. Sometimes we can get really proud and cocky, right? Praise the Lord. I didn't do that. Now, let me go back and think how I resisted the devil, and I'm going to go through the same steps and the same process again. And then when the next time comes, we think, I got this licked. I can do this on my own. And what happens? Boom! We fall. Why? Not because God's not holding on to the bike, but because we were trying so hard to get away from Him that we fell. The fact is, when we deny a lust or we deny a temptation. What's the backdrop? Who did that? It's God's grace at work and we need to learn to recognize in the decisions that we make that it's God's grace. When we deny a temptation, it's God's grace. When you serve, it's God's grace at work in your life. Again, like flying an airplane, when you reach your destination and you have jet lag, You're tired, but you didn't do any work, did you? Probably had worse staying up, getting worried, trying to get where you needed to go in the airport. But flying, you just sit down on the seat. The airplane took you. You had some responsibility in the area, but you've got to consider the backdrop. Yes, you have responsibility, but you must never separate the responsibility that God has given you from the grace that he enables you to do it. We need to rely upon that. He is the one that purifies you by His grace. He is the one that preserves you by His grace. But then in verse 24 we see, third, that God performs through His grace. He says, faithful is He that calleth you who also will do it. This is why He prayed to God. Because He recognized that it's God who will do it. It is God who will do it. God has called you and is calling you. That word call is in the present tense. He is calling you to do a lot. He's calling you into holiness. In chapter 4, verse 7, he says, For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. Now that is a tall order, isn't it? a tall order if you were to go to a restaurant and you had a huge group I remember a few weeks ago we went with some family members to celebrate my wife's grandfather's birthday and we went to Bob Evans and they said how many and I said 11 I think and they immediately just kind of looked and wow that's a big number do you want separate tables I said no I'd kind of like to have it all on one table Then they really started panicking. They said, it'll be a few minutes. And so they go back there and they start rearranging the tables. And then we get over there and then they start taking the order and we tell them who's going to be on this ticket, who's going to be on this ticket, who's going to be on this ticket. And you can just see the panic, the tall order. Don't we feel that way when we're going through chapter verses 16 through 22 or the other passes the Bible? This is a tall order. God, I can't do this. That's exactly where he wants you to be. That's exactly where he wants you to be. Because he has called you and it's not so much your faithfulness that is on display. It's his faithfulness. Faithfulness is he that calleth you who also will do it. If God calls you, he will enable you, empower you and equip you by his grace. And that's what he does. You've heard the phrase, what God orders, he pays for. What God calls, He enables, and He quits, and He powers. He holds on to that bike. He's not going to let go. He's not going to let you fall if you rely upon Him. His performance is faithful. Faithful. This is the very nature and character of the God of peace. He is reliable. Numbers 23, 19. Even back in the Old Testament, it teaches that God is faithful and reliable. And that is why we need to rely on Him. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? If he says, I'm going to sanctify you and preserve you, he's going to do it. But his performance is not only faithful, it's fruitful. Philippians 1.6, He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it, will do it. until the day of Jesus Christ. That is such a wonderful promise. That is why we must recognize our responsibility, but never, never, never stop relying upon God's grace, and stop looking for God's grace. We need to recognize it! Recognize the grace of God in our life, because what God has called you to be, He will provide through His grace. Our growth is only by God's grace. God's role is to purify, to preserve and to perform. And he does it perfectly, perfectly, far more perfectly than we could ever do any of the responsibilities that he's given us. We need to do our duty. We need to be holy because he is holy, but never forget God's role, because if we do, we're going to fail. We need to learn in our Christian lives to recognize God's grace in our growth daily. When you choose to open up the Word of God and have your devotions that morning, don't feel good about yourself. Hey, I did this. Because behind that decision was God's grace. God's grace. We need to learn to recognize it in the daily things of our life. It's God that works in us to do these things. But then once we recognize God's grace in our growth, and I've got to tell you, this last week as I've been preparing and thinking about this, this has really revolutionized and opened my eyes to God and His work. He's working everywhere. He's working in my life in amazing ways. Things that I think about, things that I say, things that I do, behind it all is God's grace and goodness. But once we recognize God's grace, what are we to do? We are to daily respond to God's grace. That is where joy, rejoicing evermore, that is where prayer, praying without ceasing, that is where giving thanks in everything comes into play. Once we see God's grace in our lives in a daily way, we will naturally rejoice. We will naturally pray. We will naturally, spontaneously give thanks. But then what do we need to do? daily, constantly rely upon God's grace in our growth. Do not start to think that more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Don't start to think that this is what I did. This was my decision. This was my goal. This is look at me. That's pride. Pride comes before a fall. When you're trying to get away from the one that's holding the back of the bike, say, look, I can do this on my own. You're going to fall flat on your face. Our growth is only by God's grace, and we need to learn to recognize His grace, to respond to His grace, and then to always rely upon God's grace in our growth as we fulfill the responsibilities that God has given to us in our life. This is what God's grace is for. To enable us to do His will. God's grace is the basis for our growth.