Principles of Position, Lesson 5
Mike Doyle · Mar 6, 2016
Principles of Position, No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926529471364

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

OK. Lesson five. Now, I don't know if you've begun to recognize because we're just sort of beginning to get into if you've spent any time reading the principle of position that kind of where a lot of this material is being taken from. And we'll talk about it today a little bit.

But I think that the author, Miles Stanford, has done a terrific job. in cataloging the steps of spiritual growth. We're still finishing up the very first one, which is justification, which is salvation, and then the assurance of that. He designed the layout of the book so that the first section, like justification, would be position, and then the second section, which is this one, would be assurance, which would be your condition. And all of the ten chapters we're going to go through are set up like that. So as you read them and as we go along, be aware of the fact that as we go into every new chapter, which we'll go into the next chapter two next week, hopefully, that that's really kind of the way it's structured. And one other point, and I'll cover this as we go along today. He makes a comment in there that unless you're established on the first principle, you're going to be handicapped going to the next one and even greater handicapped going to the next one. So there's a couple of maybe attitudes I would suggest.

Don't be in a hurry. Let the Spirit of God teach you. And you know, that's one of the reasons that we teach the class the way we teach it. because we want the Spirit of God to bring everybody along, not some agenda that we have artificially put into place here. So as you go along now, as we go along, that's why the forum is open, and recognizing that it's amazing how many believers are not really sure about their salvation, and you're recognizing how important that is.

And Laura will too. Not only is there the position and justification, but the persuasion and the rest about it is equally important to grow to the next step. So, question number one. What is the assurance of salvation, i.e. justification, based on? Our position. What's that? Our position. Right. Our position of what? In the Lord Jesus. Of what? As our righteousness. Okay. That's good. So your and my assurance is based on our position in the Lord Jesus that He is our righteousness. See how the position and condition go together? It has to be Is your position non-experiential? Is your position non-experiential? Absolutely it is. So is assurance non-experiential? No. Sure it is. It is? Sure it is. What about the scriptures? What about them? To be assured from the word. From the word. I don't know, I've had a very bad week. So if you have a bad week, the more you talk, the better it gets. Well, I'm hoping that you'll zap me. So we have a position that's non-experiential, like justification. Justification simply means that we've been declared righteous. Or another way to say it, we're saved.

And that's true because I exercise faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Am I assured about that? Initially, maybe, maybe not. But assurance is a conditional thing. I'm persuaded or I'm assured because of the fact and my position, but the Spirit of God is the one who comes along and assures me. I said to a lot of people, I'm really convinced that I'm saved. I'm not so sure about you. Why am I not so sure about you? Because the Spirit of God didn't assure me about you. He assured me about me.

Now some of you do act like Christians and I'm okay with that. Some of you, no. So, the assurance of your salvation or justification is based squarely on the fact of justification. Okay? Facts are important. Now, when does the assurance of salvation kick in? When you understand the facts. Okay, when I understand the facts.

Okay. Is that all I need to be done? Well, according to what it says in the Green Book, when we realize what our Father has done, and said and not our feelings. Yeah, it's not based on a feeling. He said it. And that's another principle that I think as we grow we understand. You kind of Over time, an attitude develops inside of you where you say, you know, thus saith the Lord. If He says it, that's good enough for me. I don't need additional persuasion. I don't need an experience. I don't need doors opening. I don't need them closing. I don't need feeling. I don't need fireworks. I don't need anything.

If He said it, that's good enough. And I must say that that's a very difficult place to get to because it shows a trust in Him and a spiritual maturity that not a lot of believers have. That he said it, and that's good enough. And I believe him, and I'm not saying that I'll believe you for two weeks if you persuade me in two weeks. I don't have a sticker on the back of my car that says I'm a Missouri Christian. You don't have to show me.

You already did. The facts are there. So, in this quote, because God has spoken, I am sure. Because I am sure, I feel at rest. Don't you like that? Set your mind on things above and not on things that are on the earth. Because God has spoken, I am sure. Because I am sure, I feel at rest. Kind of cool, huh? It's amazing how resting by faith in the facts brings with it just a rest about it. Now, let's talk about principles for a minute.

Do you think God would show you a truth, you would exercise faith in it, and then you would be brought into a period of testing of what you believe to see if you pass it or not? Why the test? Why the test? Help us know if we truly do believe. Sure, settle you down on it. Yeah, I mean you wake up a lot of times in your life and say, gee, God wasn't kidding, he really meant that. It's kind of cool. And when that happens, it increases your faith and allows you to trust him for the next thing. And that's why principle upon principle, line upon line is so important in spiritual growth.

And as you mature and God brings people into your life, you should recognize that position, that it's, you know, first things first, line upon line, precept upon precept, don't need to be in a hurry, you know, we can stay with this one for a while and not jumping all over the place or, oh, I think we'll have a Bible study amongst Christians who are four months old and we're going to teach Ephesians. Really? Really? They don't even know who they are yet and you're telling them that. Okay, explain the first major mistake in a growing believer's life, what a growing believer's life might be. And if you read it, you'll know what it is immediately.

I think you pointed out it was shifting our focus from our position to our condition. Right. Yeah, we're going along and the focus shifts from the basis of our assurance to what? To our condition. You know, none of you in this class have ever had that problem. No, just all week. Miles makes an interesting point. He says, we looked, we felt and we sounded safe. Hence, we were assured of our salvation.

But then Wanda woke up on Monday morning, and she didn't feel very saved, nor did she look very saved, nor did she even... I tried to get it together. We didn't feel at all saved, and we didn't sound saved either. Did you write this? That's not true. I mean, I feel saved. But I feel, I can't think of another word, confused and depressed because of things. Circumstances. In my condition. Does this sound like you? Yes, it does.

All day long everything and everybody went wrong, right? And by nightfall we found ourselves to be at the end of our assurance Thoroughly shaken, we determined to rectify matters on tomorrow. The next day, we strove to look saved, to feel saved, and to sound saved. But because we were centered in our condition, all was a wretched failure. We even began to question our salvation. So what happened? So what happened? It's really simple what happened. The focus went off of God's word and what he said about your justification and you began to look at your circumstances and you began to rest your faith in how things were going.

Back when Courtney and I and J.D. were teaching the faith class, we probably didn't harp on that enough. that the focus has to be on the facts of God. And trust me, the quickest way, especially a young believer, to get him off of his security and his rest is to get him focused on his circumstances. Every believer goes through this.

I can't tell you how many times in my life I've awakened in the morning or something's happened and I think, Lord, what happened to you today? I've been here all along, where did you go? Some deal fell apart or who knows what the circumstances are, but you begin to base your assurance on your earthly accomplishments, or your bank account, or your friendships, or you're just, I feel so good today, you know. And I wake up tomorrow and I wake up with a headache and I think, I'm grumpy all day.

Yeah. I was thinking about when Tom Paul was in the process of being tried and stoned to death by other people. You know, when you're thinking about your condition and he gets up and goes to the next town and starts telling the good news. Oh yeah. He had some bad days. Yeah, he had a few. We were studying the Philippians on Wednesday night and chapter two talks a lot about that.

He rejoices in his circumstances, and he wants the Philippians to rejoice with him. And it's kind of like, well, he's in the Mamertine prison, which is just a big hole in the ground and a cave, and you don't come out unless they're going to put you to death. And he's rejoicing. Circumstances were not the issue and he wanted the Philippians to understand that their joy wasn't based on circumstances.

You always beat me up whenever I say feelings. I know. So I'm going to return the favor. OK. You know, I think I think the real thing is facts. I bought lunch this week, by the way. No, I did. Oh, he did. That's right. Wow. Taking credit for that. You know, this is a great space. You're going to get it next time. It's going to take me an expensive place to put it in your wallet. Yeah. Now, I think the key again is is.

But facts first, then feelings. And usually the problems come when we have the feelings first, and then we look for facts to justify the feelings. And the key is the facts first, and that's where the rest and everything comes from. But if you're basing everything on your feelings first, that it's a great day, it's feeling good, or I'm feeling bad, or whatever, and you're looking at that first, it's reversed. And you have to look at the facts first, then the feelings. And what Vern has a trained thing, The facts and the tracks and feelings.

Now, don't don't don't get the idea that feelings are not part of the equation. They certainly are. But you can't base your your position of, say, justification on how you feel about it, because some days you're going to feel great about it and other days you may not. feelings, in my mind, feelings, if they're very strong and you're not quite sure, you need to go into Word and find out if you can back them up. If you can't back them up, they're probably not legitimate. You said earlier, rest. You're feeling a rest. Well, rest is a feeling. It is, but you can be fooled about rest, you know, in terms of your principal position.

Because as we go now, we're going to talk about a lot of different positions. And now we're just talking about the basics of salvation, justification, but we're going to go on to completeness and identification and sin and sins and all kinds of stuff that the same principles hold true. Lots of believers, what was that my friend Strong used to say, well, somebody comes to Christ, they're very excited for about two years, and that the scream you hear is them going off the spiritual cliff of lack of assurance because this starts to happen. And that's of God, absolutely, so that they'll settle down in what God has told them, not how they feel about it, not what the circumstances are.

And not that feelings aren't good, they are, but they have to be their second, maybe, in line rather than first. In our society, feelings are promoted first. How do you feel about... I'm never going to have a guy put a microphone on my face and say, how do I feel? Because I've already got the answer. You know what my answer is? I don't feel I'm a critical thinker. Next.

So from that mistake, what first important lesson do we learn? Do we learn a lesson from that? And there's a really interesting point here. So we made that mistake. Let me maybe I should do this. Let me have a show of hands of people who have never made that mistake. OK, so we're all in the same game, right? So what did you learn? My son says, OK, Dad, what did we learn? What did we learn from that mistake? Simple thing is you can't trust your feelings. Very important. And the other thing you learn in this is that how do I get from being dominated by my feelings, back to resting in my position. Whose job is that? Yeah, it's the Holy Spirit's job. And oh, by the way, He's pretty good at it.

And so He will refocus our faith upon our position by means of what we revisit in the Word, or visit in the Word something new. And our assurance of salvation was again anchored in the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's the other principle that you learn through this process, that the Spirit of God has an agenda, and he has principles in play, and he operates based on his principles and the Word of God, and he never varies from those. And he'll let us flail all over the place, but he sticks to what he tells us. And so if you start getting, you know, the vine and the branches, the vines over here and the branch and the fruit, if you start watching that fruit too much, and then your assurance of salvation starts to go away, He will refocus you on this through the Word.

He'll do it. And so what happens? There begins to be a trust. The second trust. The first trust is you believe what God has told you. The second trust is that the Spirit of God is in charge of this whole process and He will restore you and maintain you. See? It's amazing how this whole thing is designed to make us dependent on Him. And He's consistent all the time. And you better be listening to Him. And even if you aren't. Let's say if you aren't. Let's say you're not listening. Because your feelings are clouding.

He will keep on convincing you. That's exactly right. He doesn't stop because he does not work based on your principles of feelings. He works based on his agenda to conform us to the image of Christ and to operate and to live by faith in the facts. That's how he works. And he wants us to do what? Trust him. And it's up to Him to prove to me that He's trustworthy. It's not up to me to prove to Him that I'm trustworthy, because I already know I'm not. If I was, He wouldn't have to go through the process of saving me. Why? You have to get your Bibles out now.

James 1.21.

Why is James 1.21 a very important verse for the growing believer?

So somebody who's really fast or has an electronic Bible, read James 1.21.

Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the Word implanted which is able to save yourselves. Very interesting verse, right? So who's operating or acting in this verse? You're to receive the implanted Word. You're the receiver. Who does the implanting? The Spirit. He teaches us total reliance on the Word of God, nothing added. Receive with meekness the engrafted Word. See how important that is? It's incredibly important that you take God at His Word and you believe Him.

And you know, it's okay to look at them and say, well, I just read 121. I believe you, but boy, I don't know what you're talking about. Or yeah, I kind of know what you mean, but I do believe you. That's the most I can do. I'll let it go at that. Is that enough? Yeah.

A new living translation? and humbly accept the word God has planted in your heart. Yeah, it's there. Yeah, it's there. The word planted in your heart and the word planted in your Bible is the same. It's the same word. One's a personification. The other one's written.

He's there. I think a lot of times Christians operate in a Christian environment like God's fooling them. Or He's always testing them and tricking them or whatever. There's no... See, I just trust Him. He's proven Himself so faithful to me. Any questions about that? I'm going to get through this JD in one class.

Is there a temptation to hanker after something more tangible than the positional testimony of the word? Everybody know what the word hanker means? Is there a temptation to do that? Yes. I think that's where all the self-help books and the did you know about this and whatever tend to play to. Why? Why would this even be something that would fascinate us or make itself desirable to us? The example I'm going to use is the very first example of this ever.

When Eve is in the garden and Lucifer gets her to sort of take a look at the fruit, he persuades her that she's missing something. And once he got her to look at the fruit, which meant her eyes went off at something else, then he could extol the virtues of what was missing, or what she thought was missing. So what happens is that if we are condition focused, feeling focused, it's a very easy thing to have you begin to hanker after something other than the word. Because you're looking for verification. You're looking for something that is more than what you have now.

I studied a little bit, and I'm not an expert by a long shot, but I studied this fairly new thing called contemplative prayer or spiritual formation. It's a theology that's now infested in almost every seminary and every big church. And in essence what it says, here's how they sell it. If you want to be spiritual, we have the method. What's wrong with that statement? I'm hankering after something that I think I don't already have. Right? I want to be spiritual. Okay, I do.

Here's what you got to do. And then they give you this whole system of of emptying your mind in contemplative prayer. All it is is transcendental meditation with holy water pouring on it. That's really what it is. And some spirit is going to come in and occupy your spirit or your soul and make you feel spiritual. It's an easy sell. It's so easy that I can't find a single seminary or big church that doesn't teach contemplative prayer. That's how big a seller it is. So what's the problem with it? Why does it sell so well?

One time Alistair Bain was one of his half hour thoughts. He sat away for a plane with a lady who did Transcendental Meditation and he said by the end of the 15 minutes talking to her, he said, I believe that your Transcendental Meditation really does help you.

It won't save you. TM, Transcendental Meditation, is a process of inviting somebody else to come in and take over you. That's really what it is. But it's based on the fact, if you're a believer, is that God's Word isn't enough. You know? You hear, oh, we want to grow spiritually. I want to grow spiritually every day. I want to be more spiritual than I was yesterday and the day before.

What's wrong with that thinking? Is there anything wrong with it? What's wrong with it? Nothing? Something? It's self-focused. It's self-focused. It depends on how you expect to get it done, whether it's you or God. Even if you expect God to do it, if your focus is you want to grow spiritually, it's about you. And if you make the rules. Always make the rules. Even if you follow God's rules. You're limiting God. Even if you follow God's principles, it's still about you.

Do you see that? See that? What happens is, As you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, who gets to be the center of who you are? He does. He does. And then you begin to realize, oh, hey, I have this position in Christ Jesus that lacks nothing. And I mean nothing. You see? Well, Stanford used to say that if your focus is on your spiritual growth, you haven't figured it out yet. You know, the life is not I, but Christ. The life is Christ. And in His Word, He gives us everything, slowly but surely, every little bit of all of those spiritual blessings. He shows us to them, they're all in Him, and He's the center and the focus of it. And that takes a couple of weeks to get that down. I think the thing that's really hard, and I'm sure lots are thinking, that sounds good, but how does a rubber meet the road?

I guess from my perspective was, again, something you said one of the first times, read the scripture to know him, just to know him. And I had to explain that to, because when you say, you know, get out self and do other, but I struggled for years trying to figure that out. And I don't know when, just curious from the class, is that a curious thing? How do you do that when he says that? Because I struggled with that for a long, long time. Until literally just resting and reading the scripture to know him. Not trying to do anything. but to know him. And that's what, you know, Sector 318, to grow in the grace of knowledge.

It's just too simple. And as I progress, it's like, you idiot, you know, you've been struggling. And I just find it hard when, I don't know, when we say this in class, I'm just curious if thoughts from the class, if that's something to struggle with. what that means when we say things like that in the class. Sorry, I'm just...

Let's ask him. Yeah, go. What does it mean if someone like me or Courtney or JD say to you, the reason you read your Bible is to know Christ? What are we saying? Well, that's strange because when I came in, I mentioned that to Joanne that I have trouble reading the Bible, not looking up all the scriptures and writing things up, but just reading it seems Sure, just reading it. Boring. Boring, yeah.

So how do, and so she said ask the Holy Spirit to help you and of course I know that's the help I need. So let's talk about asking the Holy Spirit from a positional standpoint. He has taken, the Godhead has determined the three The three persons of the Godhead have determined what their roles are going to be with humanity, right? What's the role of the Holy Spirit? What's his role?

To teach, to guide. To what? To teach, to guide, to instruct. Close. To reveal Christ. That's his whole job. That's his whole job. So how do I respond to that? I believe him. I don't have to dance around. John 15, he says exactly that. John 14, he says that. The Lord Jesus said it over and over again. He's going to reveal me. Well, okay, I'm going to trust Him to do what He says He's going to do. And the Lord Jesus said, I'm here to reveal the Father. If you know me, you know the Father.

So see what they're doing? It's important to know what their scheme is. What are they up to? If their purpose is to glorify themselves and to share their glory with us, how do you know the glory of God? You've got to know Him first, don't you? How do you know that God loves you? How do you know? Because it says so in here, in the Word? How do you really know? How are you persuaded that He loves you?

Yeah, He said it. But then the Holy Spirit persuaded you that he does. It says in Romans 5 that the very first time the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Paul's epistles is in Romans 5. And what's it say about him? That he has shed abroad in our hearts a love for God.

Oh, okay. So then it's a process, like you guys have said, it goes from objective facts to relationship with us. To love and affection with the Lord Jesus. That's where we're headed. See? You have the objective facts, but what you begin to find out is those facts are a person.

And through the work of the Spirit, you begin to know the person in the Word, and then you find out, my goodness, He loves me. He really does. And he loves me more than my dog does. He really does love me. And you know what? I love him back because he loves me. Really cool.

So I think that the process, Don is right, I think the process is a matter of what's the first principle? Know your position. Where's the position? It's in the word. What's the second thing? Believe your position. Right? What's the third thing? Trust Him to work in India. Right? It seems pretty simple, doesn't it? The problem is that it probably isn't going to all happen by 2.30 this afternoon. You can't drive through the drive-through of grace and get it all done in a day. Would you say that again?

You know, you need to know your position. You need to know your position. And you need to believe. Yeah, just because God said it. That's all it takes. You know, we're talking about Laura speaking with some people and Jill, Jill has come to Christ. Why? She found some things out. And she believes them. Pretty cool. And you're talking to a person who did Centering Prayer, is what we call it. Yeah, same thing. Thomas Merton. Yeah. Yeah, same deal. And that led nowhere. That's right.

And then I came here, and the first Sunday I was here, you talked about grace in a different way than I ever thought about grace. So, it's a long journey. Something that comes to mind is how we sometimes feel like we can comfort ourselves. Sometimes it seems like if I eat a quart of Blue Bell pistachio almond ice cream, I literally feel like something spiritual happens. Yeah, for about 10 minutes. Oh, sure. Absolutely. I don't like it. I don't like the pistachios, but the rest of it.

Okay, based on all we've talked about so far, why must we grow from the infant stage to maturity? Why is it important that we all grow? The Word of God talks about from milk to meat, right? I'm thinking, one, it makes us more secure in Him as far as we're concerned because we understand more. Right. Two were more useful to him while we were here. See, now you're starting to hit on it a little bit. To help others. What's that? Well, isn't she saying it's to help other people? Yeah, and you cannot help other people unless you're responsible yourself, right?

Those of you who have young families, hopefully you're mature enough to teach a five-year-old not to walk out in the street. You're responsible. We have to grow up and be responsible spiritually. Growing believers are a great term. They're spiritually intelligent. You get that term? Mature believers are spiritually intelligent and they're adults.

Now, we were studying what, 2 Corinthians or something, talking about strong believers and weak believers, and Paul talks about strong believers and weak believers, right? So as soon as I say that, I know every mind in this classroom said, we're strong believers. It's some other guys that are weak. Right? The room is always filled with strong believers. It's those other guys in that other classroom that aren't the strong ones. They're the weak ones.

But there's a responsibility that the strong believer has to the weak believer. What is it? If you were in my class in Corinthians, you can't answer. What's the responsibility of a strong believer to a weak believer? It's exactly the same responsibility that a parent has to a child. What is it? Partially. What is it?

The strong believer's responsibility to the weak believer is to teach them. Because if you teach them, what happens to them? They get strong. Okay? Is there a responsibility for the weak believer to the strong believer? I don't think so. You know? There is. What do you think it is? Huh? What do you think it is? They're not to judge the strong believer. Oh, that sounds kind of weird, doesn't it?

I mean, take advantage of you. A strong believer is not only a believer who's got the word down, but he's also, or she's also, has the principle down. You know, Laura's going to talk to this friend. Not only is she going to give her the Word, but she's going to give her the right amount. How long does it take a growing believer to learn to give the right amount? It takes a long time. I've said this before, I've made a career out of telling the wrong people the right thing. They weren't ready for what I had to tell them, because I thought I was so smart. And then so as you mature, and as you get comfortable, and you begin to become more and more responsible, what happens?

Here comes the weak believer in your life, and you observe, and you try to find out where are they spiritually? Really, where are they? And I'm going to teach them there. Pick up right where they are. I'm not going to get way out in front of them or way behind them. I'm going to try to find out where they are. So as I walk beside them, I can walk beside them. I can teach them where they are. And we're all someplace different. I'm part of the responsibility. It's like those of you who have kids and have raised kids. You kind of know where they all are. You're not totally on the money, but you kind of know.

This one can read, that one can't. This one's more responsible than that one. Some of them get to be 25 and they haven't learned a thing. When I first became a believer and I realized if you don't believe in Jesus, you're a goner, And I had a friend that said, Russ, if you tell me one more thing about the Bible, I'm going to beat you to death with it.

Because I didn't understand. You've got to be safe. I did the same thing. I had some people kick me out of their house in the middle of a dinner party because I wouldn't shut up. And he's the guy that said, you need to go see that guy because he's got your answer. 1 Corinthians 14. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle?

That's a great verse when it comes to understanding spiritual growth. Because once we are sure and sound, the Lord Jesus can establish others through us. Do you realize that your spiritual growth and your conformity to Christ means that you're in the service of the Lord for somebody else? The Christ life is a selfless life.

It just is. Because that's who He is. I mean, He did come to the earth. He did set aside all His glory. He did obey even to the death of the cross. And He did it just for me. And just for you. That's the kind of life we're talking about. And you have to mature into that life. where it isn't about me anymore. It's not I, but it's Christ. Why must we be well grounded on the principle of spiritual birth?

I answered this in the first two minutes of the class. And I'll read the verse that talks about Hebrews 5, 13, 14, and 6, 1. For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongs to them that are full-aged, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrines of Christ, let us go on unto perfection or maturity." So, it's really important, again I repeat myself, that we be solidly founded upon the principles of spiritual birth. You've got to get that straight first and settled on it, because unless you do that, you cannot enter in and get solid on the principles of growth and maturity.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but how many of you know lots of believers that aren't really sure about their salvation? Or they came to Christ on some sort of not-so-solid doctrine. Or it was based on a feeling or an emotion. Or I did get up and come down to the front. I did make Jesus the Lord of my life.

We've got to do some unlearning there. Last question. What would you consider to be strong meat of the word? Identification truths? Adam or Christ? What else? Knowing Christ? The whole concept of positional truth. The whole concept of that, I think, is strong need to understand that principle. We need to know who we are, where we are, and what we have, and we need to be settled on that.

True or false? The witness of the Spirit The witness of the spirit is his witness to your experience wherein lies God's revelation of eternal position. Why false? He doesn't witness to your experience, he witnesses to the truth. The blessed assurance of salvation and of justification in particular is based squarely upon our experiencing the Lord Jesus as our righteousness.

True or false? Totally false. Since justification is in Christ and not ourselves, it is a truth of position, not condition. True or false? True. Okay. I did it. Okay, we're going on to six next week. Cool. Did a whole lesson in one setting. So let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace towards us. We thank you that we do, in fact, enjoy a position in your son, the Lord Jesus. And if we would ask anything, we would ask that we would continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of your dear son. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.