Thank you. Please turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter. And as you do so, I'm sort of just wondering whether it's my watch that has gone wrong or somehow I've managed to get into the pulpit 30 minutes earlier than usual. Is my watch correct? I'm merely in the pulpit. Miracles still happen. When they came to pull me out of the office at 10, saying the elders are about to start praying, that was the first time I thought, something isn't quite right here. I was supposed to be praying in my office, and now maybe my watch is behind. But clearly, if anything, today is one of those rare occasions. May they keep happening. One or two quick announcements before we turn to God's word. First of all, I continue saying that the advantage we have with Hillview having just begun is that we have space in our auditorium to invite friends. I'd like to keep echoing that. It's a short window period. which I know. If past experience teaches me anything, in the next six months, these spaces will be gone again. So here's a good opportunity for you to invite friends to come and hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ without them feeling a little uneasy when announcements begin from the front that let's squeeze in, let's squeeze in, let's squeeze in. Okay? So I repeat, look around, you can see there's breathing space. Quite a bit of it. At least a quarter of our auditorium is still fairly empty. Okay, so send a text to a friend this coming Sunday. We'll still be continuing with Christian grow up and come along and hear from 2 Peter and chapter 1. The next announcement is to do with our annual conference. We are now just about a month away from that conference. It's a major conference. It's the biggest reformed conference on the continent of Africa. There it is. The screen is showing it. Individuals will be coming in from all over this continent and from all over the world. They've designated their holidays in such a way that they can be here. The organizing team invariably has a headache. because we are accommodating Zambia, we are accommodating Africa, we are accommodating the world. And so their ongoing appeal at a time like this is twofold. One, they need the money and the money comes from paying. conference fees, then they can get a number of things into place early. So the appeal, the first appeal is if you have registered and haven't paid, please make a double effort to pay as soon as you can. It will really help them. to get ready for the conference. This year is a special one because it's the 30th year in which we've been hosting this conference. The 30th year, so it's the 30th anniversary. Invariably, a number of individuals who have fallen by the wayside are thinking, well, let's go and attend the 30th for old time's sake, as we say. So there is need to make sure that we are ready with respect to the finances, to pay for the various services and make sure that that is ready. The second is for accommodation. Accommodation. we would love as many of these guests that are coming to be in our homes. Now, this is where I need to make an appeal, especially to wives. You know, the Bimbas have a saying, Bimbas have a lot of sayings, but they have a saying that says the visitor of a monkey eats what? Any Bimbas in here? Eats what? What a monkey eats, yes. That's it. So, please, don't start saying, you know, we need to budget so that there is a T-bone steak every evening plus drumsticks of chickens and so on. No, no, no. Whatever you eat, is basically what they should join in. So don't strain yourself, don't stress yourself too much. All they'll need is a bed, that's all, just a bed. And I've said this before here, I want to repeat it, I travel quite a lot and there are times when I find myself accommodated in such a way that I am in the actual master bedroom and the owners of the home are sleeping in the sitting room and sometimes, at least on one occasion, they were sleeping in the garage. And I didn't know until one day I woke up too early to have my cup of coffee. And I saw them coming with blankets and everything out of the garage into the house. That's when I realized how much they loved me, instead of putting me in the garage. So that's not what we are asking for here, that suddenly you all go into garages. But this is meant to say, let's not attempt to do the extraordinary and then failing, refuse to accommodate friends. And if your problem is transport, if you accommodate people, how to get to the conference, just speak to the conference organizing team and they will help out on those details. register our extra, our accommodation for the conference. In case you don't know who to speak to, there's Elder Charles Botta here, he's one of them, our other Elder Chola Chakonta, you know, he's just turned up brother, That's the other L that you can see. Thank you. And our deacon, Emmanuel Matafwali. Where are you? Okay, he's out at one of our pinching points this morning. Okay, so any of those three, see them, send them a text message and say we've got space for one person, for a female or a male, or for a couple. et cetera, et cetera. You might even give an idea of an edge range. That's also okay. You may say we've got room but we don't have a bed or we've got a bed but we don't have room or whatever. Then a few things could move around. Okay, so let's accommodate through our own hospitality the world which is coming here. I repeat. So hopefully if next Sunday we'll have the same miracle of starting early, I'll use about 10 minutes for a similar appeal. But now let's turn to God's word. 2 Peter, and we'll begin reading from verse one of the first chapter up to verse five. I know this five ends in the middle of the sentence, but I'll explain why we are stopping in the middle of a sentence. Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. may grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and virtue with knowledge. Well, brethren, we have begun this brief series on the theme, Christian, grow up. Christian, grow up. And what I have said in commencing this series is that from too many believers, Christianity is a kind of hell insurance policy. In other words, it's simply something you get into to avoid going to hell. So once you secure your soul from hell, you kind of put it in your pocket, and then the rest of life is life as usual. You don't think in terms of growing into maturity. You just don't think like that. Especially that growing into maturity is actually my responsibility. That I must be regularly doing something in order to ensure my own growth. The reason, rather the consequence of a failure to think biblically about the Christian life is that too many of us are ineffective in our spiritual lives. We are unfruitful in our spiritual lives. It just doesn't occur to us that Jesus wants to use us. and that his utilization of our gifts hangs upon our graces, what he has done in our lives. We see this in Verse 8 of this same chapter, after he speaks about adding one thing to the other in our spiritual lives, he says in verse 8, for if these qualities are yours, and not his, and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. or to put it negatively, if these qualities are not yours or are not increasing, you will remain ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what bothers me. that we can be so many as Christians, so many in our church's membership, and yet hardly any impact upon our world. And the reason is because many of us then are still wallowing in compromise and sin. Yes, we are saved. but we are with so many baby struggles that occupy us that in fact we are not striking any effective blow for Jesus Christ. We are like individuals who are perpetually patients instead of picking up an AK-47 and joining the troops in warfare. The reason is because we don't see the need for us to participate actively in our own spiritual growth. Now last week is when we began this series. And what we did at the very beginning was to notice from the greeting which we find, the salutation which we find in verse one and verse two, The Apostle Peter saying that all Christians have a faith of equal value. All Christians have a faith of equal value. And we saw this in the way he described those to whom he was writing. He said in halfway through verse one, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, we often don't think like this. We very quickly want to assure ourselves that the reason why others seem to be spiritual giants and we are not is because ours is some kind of inferior faith. And understandably so, for others it is rather different. It's like if I could use an example of an airplane, you know, airplanes tend to have classes. They are not classless. There is business class and sometimes even first class, and then they also have what they call economy class. And when you enter into the plane, the business class or first class are in the front seats. And as you go past them, you are not even attempting to sit in any of those seats because you know that you don't belong there. You belong to the cattle section. And so you go past. There are no issues, don't quarrel. In fact, if you see one of them, you know, the secretary of some government office, you even say in your heart, that's my money. But you still don't argue, just go past. The reason is you possess different tickets. The ticket they have is of more value than yours. So you don't quarrel, you just go past. You sit where you belong. I repeat, the cattle section. Don't make any noise about it. And we can easily treat the Christian faith like that. That although we got saved at the same time, 10 years later, 20 years later, my friend is now even a church elder, and I'm not. And I'm still struggling with little baby stuff. Well, it's because we possess different faiths. We can feel like that. That's something God put into him. That's why we possess a faith of equal value. The difference. And that's what we find in verse three and to underscore the importance of what Peter has done so far in speaking about the fact that we have a faith of equal value and we have everything that we need to grow up. And here is the reason why, verse five. For this very reason, Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, your virtue with knowledge, et cetera, et cetera. In other words, for this very reason, grow up. In other words, God, when you finally meet him on the judgment day, will not be happy with you. Because there'll be no excuse that you will give, for instance, for simply being a puwoma in his church. What excuse will you give? That you gave me an inferior faith? Will you say, well, it's because I did not have this extra to grow, which you gave to my brother or my sister? Because as we are seeing today, you have all that you need in order to grow up. Let's look at that very quickly together. First of all, Jesus's power gives us everything that we need to sustain our spiritual life and godliness. His power, Jesus's power, gives us everything that we need to sustain our spiritual life and godliness. Verse 3a. His divine power, and that's referring to the one that has just been mentioned, Jesus our Lord, has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Now that's the English version. The original Greek version puts it this way. all things that pertain to life and godliness, his divine power has granted to us. Now why am I making that point? Not because I want to speak about Greek, but it's because the way in which Greek language is composed is slightly different from the way English is composed. With Greek, whatever you want to emphasize is the first thing you say. Whatever you want to emphasize is what comes out of your lips first. And so, when a verse begins in a way that is awkward in English, then it's deliberate. And in this particular case, it was obviously deliberate on the part of Peter. because he wanted to emphasize not so much the source, his divine power has granted to us, but the thing granted. And what is that? Everything. Everything. Absolutely everything. That's where he wanted to begin. that as you are there as a person who has become a Christian and you are looking way ahead and you know that where there is life there must be growth and therefore that's what I ought to be as you are looking at other believers who seem to be way ahead of you. Jesus has actually bestowed upon you everything that you need to get there. He hasn't denied you one thing. He speaks about life and godliness. And again, that's deliberate. The life he's speaking about is simply spiritual life. The sustenance of that spiritual life. And the reason is because spiritual life has to be sustained. in order for it to continue. And His power is providing that so that you may continue to live a life that is the God kind of life. Let me try and explain it this way. A person is, for instance, rescued from a car crash and he is not bleeding. Everything is okay. He probably goes for a quick checkup at the hospital and from there, he's gone. He'll probably send you a note if you were his. Thank you very much. I know I owe you a lot, but thank you very much. In other words, for you, it is enough. You acted in that moment and you have parted ways. He's gone. You've gone on to do your business. But if, on the other hand, the person was terribly injured, or we can use the example of the good Samaritan who found a person who was beaten very badly and consequently took him to the hospital, you will notice that the account says that that man stayed there with the patient until he realized he couldn't stick around anymore. and he still promised to settle the bill, but this individual who had been badly beaten could not immediately get into an independent life. In other words, if we're to go back to the example of the car crash, you take the person to the hospital and there has to be a sea zone in which the medical people are sustaining his life. He might even be in the ICU. There may be blood. that has been brought from donors that's being put into his system and so on and so forth. There's a lot that is being done. They might be stitching him up and all the rest of it, giving him a lot of antibiotics to deal with the inflection that may have taken place in his body and so forth. There's a lot that they have to do. before his life can be autonomous again and he can get out there and begin to live his life. Well, friends, we are worse than that. We were dead, spiritually dead. It's God's life that enables us to be able to live in the realm of spiritual reality. It is his sustaining life, and as we are being told here, it is through his divine power that we are sustained. But it doesn't just speak about Life, he also speaks about godliness. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. These are not really two different things. These are two aspects of the same thing. In other words, the spiritual life that we get from God is a moral life. It's a life that transforms us from the inside out. It's a life that makes us godly. The phrase godliness primarily refers to a Godward attitude that makes you want to do what pleases God in everything. Let me say it again. Godliness refers to a Godward attitude that makes you want to please God in everything you do. your eating, your pleasure, your personal relationships, your work, your school, whatever it is, even going to church, which is supposed to be the most obvious, you are moved by the fact that God must be honored, God must be worshiped. And consequently, you are willing to sacrifice so much that other people are chasing after, simply because your eye is on one thing, God. Is God happy? Is God pleased? Because that's what I want to do above all. Now that's godliness. And let's face it, that also is not natural. Remember, we spoke about the spiritual life. It's not natural because we are born spiritually dead. Well, godliness is also not natural because we are born. Because we have a fallen nature, it drives us into just. Invariably, we'll go that route. Invariably. And yes. but on the inside, self-fulfillment. Until the power of God, the work of regeneration. We were not only given new life, but the seed of righteousness was planted into us by an act of God. And consequently, we've been able to live a life which previously was absolutely impossible. I repeat, it's the divine power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we call him Savior. It's because He really saves. He has saved us from spiritual death. He has also saved us from a life of sin and selfishness. By His power, we have been made what we are today. And hence the way this verse is phrased, His divine power has granted to us, granted to us. In other words, it's something free we never worked for and it is something permanent. It's been given to us. It's in our hands as it were. It's been handed over. So if you are saved, realize this as true about yourself. That the reason why you are what you are today is because of Jesus's power. A power that really changes, really transforms. A power that's life-giving. Realize that about yourself. But secondly, realize that about others around you who are genuinely saved. That it's not because some people are hitting them on the head all the time. And this hitting on the head is what's causing them to behave in a particular way. No. It is a life from inside out. It is a life that is due to the power of a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But let's hurry on because this divine power propels the health of this life and godliness, notice this, through our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Through our knowledge of Jesus Christ. Back to our text. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Now, in a sense, we've already heard this in verse 2, when Peter said, may grace and peace be multiplied to you, there it is again, in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Is he simply repeating himself? No. Again, it is an issue of emphasis. He doesn't want us to miss the means by which we grow. The means by which we grow. It is not automatic. It is this aspect of knowledge. Now, again, it's not the knowledge of Jesus in terms of Jesus knowing us, it is the knowledge of Jesus in terms of us knowing Jesus. An obvious example I can give is the way in which you became a Christian. You can't become a Christian if you do not know, you do not have information in your brain concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that's why missionaries go all over the world, to little islands like the one we saw on the screen a little earlier, to go and tell people about Jesus. Because unless they know him, unless that information is tucked away in the gray matter between their ears, they cannot be saved. So the beginning of this spiritual life and the beginning of this godliness is something that comes out of knowing Christ. Let me go further. The growth of that life and the growth of godliness also comes out of the growth of knowing Jesus Christ. In other words, when your knowledge becomes stale, your spiritual life becomes stale also. When your knowledge of Christ goes stale, your godliness goes stale too. And that explains the stunted lives of too many believers. It's because we are not putting in what Peter goes on to speak here, the making every effect on us. a complete disaster. Never forget, you literally have to eat food. You need to. And one of the consequences of illness is the loss of appetite. And you will know, those of you who are parents, that the greatest battle you have with sick children is the eating. Because it doesn't matter how much you say to them that you need this food. To them, because they're still very self-centered and creatures of instinct, I don't want to eat is equal to I won't eat. Now when you grow up and you're an adult and you behave like that, then yeah, you can go to heaven or hell, but wherever, you deserve it because you're an adult. You ought to know that you don't just eat because you want to eat. You eat because you need to eat. It's part of the cells in your being. receiving nourishment and consequently being sustained. Well still, when you are sick, you need all those nutrients in order for you to repair that body that has been invaded so that you can get up there and do what a man has got to do. Well friends, what's true in the natural world, is true also in the spiritual world. And it's this, when sin comes into your life, the first thing you lose appetite for is spiritual intake. That's the first thing. You start giving excuses for a closed Bible the whole week. I've been very busy, very busy, very busy. Start giving excuses for skipping on church, et cetera, et cetera. The truth of the matter is your soul is sick. And yet, dear friends, that's when you really need your Bible. That's when you really need to be in a place where Christian teaching is happening. Faithful Christian teaching. That's when you really need to be there. But that's when you keep away. Because you've lost your spiritual appetite. The converse is true. that those who are well are the ones who normally have the appetite and they're the ones who make sure they do not skimp on this book and on places where this is being taught because they want to know more about Christ. They want to be refreshed more concerning this Jesus because it is in that knowledge that is being processed in their system, that consequently the spiritual life and godliness is receiving that propelling, that energy that enables them to live for Him, to be effective and to be fruitful. I repeat, the knowledge of Him. through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. It's interesting the way in which Peter refers to Jesus. It doesn't just say, in the knowledge of our God and of Jesus our Lord, as if it's a repeat of what he already said. In this case now, he simply refers to him as him who has called us. Some versions say he has called us by his own glory and excellence, or by his own glory and virtue, the ESV says to his own glory and excellence. It's deliberate on the part of Peter again. Because the point he is making is this, that there is something about Jesus that causes you to get out of your mediocre spiritual life. And it is his glory and his excellence. His glory and his excellence. In other words, even you, when you begin to think about relating to him, your immediate reaction is, I need to do something about the way I am. Because I'm dealing with a very important individual. It's like trying to go for a job interview. And you know that you're going to meet the quite understood that it's happening around. And then what they are most interested in is whether I can do the job. Interviewers tend to say that when you walk through that door, they just take one look at you, the brain is already beginning to process. And some of you, you walk in through the door, you've already lost the interview. So clearly, there's something about the people you're going to meet that causes you to do something about the way you're dressed. But here's another point. When you're going for interviews, the worst thing you can do is to be ignorant about the company you're going to, because they'll ask you. They'll say, so what do you know about, suppose you're coming to get a job here, but what about this job? And they're saying, well, it's a long chili bull run. Anything else? Ah, it has a building where the members meet. They're already saying, call in the next chap, this guy. He doesn't even know who we are. Now Jesus, who has saved you, is a most glorious person with excellence of being. That's who he is. He is on the opposite end of sin and worldliness. That's who he is. Invariably, therefore, if He has called you either by His glory and His excellence, or He has called you to His glory and excellence, it doesn't matter which one of the two it would be. Ultimately, it is this. He is a glorious person. He's a person of absolute excellence. I am invariably an individual that must be aiming for that. I must be aiming for that. There's no doubt about it. There's no way I can be satisfied with shallow spiritual living. worldliness, canality, and so on. There's no way. When the one who has deliberately taken that stand of rescuing me is such a person, is such a person, I should be like him. Now, pastor's children often suffer from that. Because wherever they are when they misbehave, people say to them, ah, when I pastor, they soon begin to be very angry about being a pastor's kid. Because everybody is saying, but how can you, a pastor's child, be doing this, or living like this, and so on. Now, granted, they're teenagers. When they grow up, they realize, well, it was actually a compliment. It was a privilege that I had. But at that point, when they're teenagers and know their hormones are running riot, they want to sort of get free from anything that's acting like a boundary to keep them on the straight and narrow. The truth is, that we are not individuals that are just free-floating everywhere. We've got connections. We've got relationships. And for those of us who are Christians, our primary relationship is Jesus Christ. That's our primary relationship. And he is a glorious being. He's the most excellent being. Thousands upon thousands and 10,000 times 10,000 angels attend his throne and worship him. And then he has called us to himself. Will we be known by his name and at the same time playing with sin and compromise and shallow living? That's an absolute contradiction. we ought to be aiming for the same glory and excellence of life. And that's what he will come to in a moment. But let's hurry on to the end. Because within the all things that are given to us to grow by, we have God's precious and very great promises. Among the all things that his divine power has given to us, we are told in verse 4, by which He has, again there, it is granted to us. So we have this granted to us two times over. Verse three, his divine power has granted to us all things. Verse four, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped from the corruption, that is in the world because of sinful desires. Now, I won't take as much time on this, but I want you to notice at least a few things. First of all, it is the fact that God has not just given us his divine power through which we are enabled to live the Christian life and to grow in that Christian life, He's also given us, in all that, His promises. His promises. One of the very first ones is simply this. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Simple. And in my work of evangelism, that's all I say to people. When they say, but how will I know? Leave that to him. He has promised. Your job is if you're concerned about your sin, its consequences, and being saved from that, he has simply said, call on him. That's all. Call on him. He will save you. Now friends, the point that is being made here is that it does not end with the point of salvation. It continues also with our spiritual growth. We have, to borrow his phrase, precious and very great promises. Precious being that they are valuable. They are of great worth. And the phrase very great is simply an old way of saying greatest. That's all it is. In other words, the greatest of the greatest of the greatest of promises that you can ever have on this side of eternity. God has given them to us as his believers. so that by them we can grow in our faith. Now, Peter doesn't begin quoting promises because that's not his point. His point is not to start pulling out one promise or another from God's holy word, but it is to tell us the the fruit of those promises. The role that those promises play. And it's very clear about them. Listen to this. So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature. In other words, here is Jesus who is all-glorious. excellent in terms of his moral being, in terms of his holiness. This is who he is. It's his very nature. What has he done? He's also given us his great and glorious promises, his very great promises, his precious promises, the greatest of all promises, that we may experience something of that quality of spiritual life. That's why he's given them to us. So just as those same promises were the means by which we could cry to Him at the point of our salvation, Jesus, Jesus, save me! And He saved us. In the same way, it doesn't matter what sin you are struggling with, cry to Him. Cry to Him. Trust in him that he will do it. He will do it because he has promised to. That's what his promises are all about. He has promised to. So there's no one who can have an excuse and say, well, me, there's nothing much I can do. I have this fallenness. This is a weakness that I have. So I might as well just be in economy section and continue going to heaven. After all, I'll still get there. Say no. He's given you promises. so that you can go into his presence in the midst of a soul that having gazed upon him, you have recognized your own sinfulness and you just cry to him, Jesus, take this part of me, tear it away from me. I want to be like you. I want to be Christ-like. I want to be godly. Lord, deal with my life. He will. because he has promised. He has promised. The word partake, partake as they, is the word fellowship. It's the word koinonia, which most of you will know. Fellowship in God's holy nature. That's how we grow as Christians. It is as we interact with this God in real fellowship, as we are knowing more and more of him in this relationship with him, that more and more of who he is becomes who we are. having escaped from the world's corruption. Let me quickly hurry to close. Brethren, there is no excuse for us not to live a truly godly life. There's no excuse. Why? Because everything has been provided for us. Everything. Everything. A church should not be struggling to have more elders. Nothing. Shouldn't. A church should not be struggling for ministry leaders. Shouldn't. A church should not be struggling for home group leaders. It shouldn't. Now, granted, if you only got saved last year or two years ago, yes. But you cannot be speaking in terms of the fact that you've been a Christian five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, and you still have a thumb in your mouth. There's something seriously wrong. The stunted growth needs to be addressed. Because we ought to be growing. Because God has provided everything for us. But you see, the problem is that for this growth to happen, you have to grow in your knowledge. In your knowledge. And that's why we are lazy. We are intellectually lazy. We live in a digital world where everything is just thrown at us. Everything. So our normal approach to life is just sit in a chair and with a remote cancha. And now, you know, all the garbage of this world, all the garbage of this world is just coming to us. It's coming to us. We don't say to ourselves, I need to grow. And just as I must rise and get into that kitchen and cook a nourishing meal, put it on the table and eat it, I also need to get out there, get my Bible, get Christian literature, good solid Christian literature, and really put my brain into it. Because that's how I will grow as a Christian. We're losing out on this. And consequently, we have a world that desperately needs Christians, and the Christians are all in napkins, all of them. With small, self-centered, selfish lives. crying about what nobody ought to be crying about. You know that little babies, sometimes when baby's crying, you just say, just tell your mom your napkin is wet. Come on, we need to get on with life. Just say, napkin wet. That's all. But here we are with adult believers. who cannot see that in Christ is all their sufficiency. And consequently, they ought to be, as it were, soldiers of the cross, impacting the world and being fruitful in the world. And consequently, God being honored in this world. is a chorus that we sometimes sing, which says, turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the presence of his glory and of his grace. That's what we desperately need. Christians who are spending time with that which matters the most, filling their lives with the knowledge of Christ, filling their lives with the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I close with this, that if what I've spoken about doesn't make sense to you, most likely it's simply that you're not a Christian. That's all. Because to you, Christianity is just, I made a decision, I got baptized, I'm now a member of a church, I'm going to heaven. What I do the rest of the time, please, is no skin off your nose. They will be the spiritual giants, they're the ones who will know whatever is happening, not me. I don't even know who switched on the lights in this room, I've got no idea who cleaned these pews, I've got no idea who set up all this. Yes, I'm your member. It's now 10 years, but I just come in and go home, come in and go home. At least I come in and go home. Most likely, you're not a Christian. You're not. You are unfruitful and you are ineffective. And don't try and convince yourself that I'm in economy class. You're not on the plane. Because we have the same faith. How come others are being driven to serve and you are not? Most likely you don't have that faith. You think you do? But you wait until the judgment day when God says to you, we never met. I never saved you. Get away from me, you worker of iniquity. Get away from me because that's how your life was in selfishness and sin. Get away from me. Oh brethren, let's search our hearts. Let's search our hearts. I would hate to see you on the judgment day, having been your shepherd for so long, with Jesus saying to you, get away from me, and to realize I never told you that where there's life, there's growth. If there's no growth, most likely you are still dead, still in sin, still going to hell. Cry to Christ to save you. The hymn that will be singing in closing is one which every true Christian knows. Every true Christian. I'm pressing on the upward way. New heights I'm gaining every day. Can you say that? Can you honestly say that? I leave you and God to process it. Amen.