Three Keys to Spiritual Growth

Hi, you're listening to Him We Proclaim. We're in the concluding message of Where in the Church is the Gospel. Running the race of life day after day, especially the Christian life, is absolutely exhausting. and it means we need to receive spiritual rest and nourishment. Where does that come from?

John says spiritual nourishment comes from the means of grace, which is preaching, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. when these gifts are present and gospel centered, they keep on giving to nourish and sustain us. Let's listen now to this message called Three Keys to Spiritual Growth.

So if you're a brand new baby Christian just beginning to follow Christ. How do you get started on your faith journey? How do you begin to grow? Or If you're a mature Christian and you're looking for ways to grow closer to Christ. And renew your relationship with Christ.

How do you do this? And the answer to both of those questions, the answer both for the newborn baby Christian, And the answer for the mature Christian is the same answer. The answer is: you are to receive on a regular, ongoing basis, God's divinely appointed means of grace. That's how you grow spiritually. But tragically, as we saw last week, and we looked at a huge list, the means of grace seldom make the list for aids to spiritual growth for believers.

So, I'm going to give you another example this week. I went back this week and I quickly read through one popular evangelical author's book. That he devoted solely to helping believers grow spiritually. And the point of his book is to help believers who don't desire God to desire God the way they should desire God.

So, for example, as I read through the whole book, the author only devotes two paragraphs. Out of 234-page book to the Lord's Supper. And the two paragraphs that he devotes to the Lord's Supper fails to develop the Lord's Supper in any meaningful detail as a means of grace. The author in his book doesn't mention baptism at all. And then the author devotes about five and a half pages to preaching, which is the primary means of grace.

To be fair, there are some helpful statements concerning the importance of preaching in this book as being necessary for spiritual growth, but. Yeah. The discussion that is given on preaching is not robustly developed as to why and how the preaching of the gospel. Serves as the primary means for spiritual growth for the believer. And what is tragic is that the majority of evangelicals who are reading this book are not even aware that the relative absence of the means of grace in this book devoted to help spiritual growth.

It's a problem.

Furthermore, and here's another problem, a sizable portion of this author's discussion on preaching deals with the discipline, the spiritual discipline of learning to preach the gospel to yourself. If believers are to grow spiritually, the author says they must become preachers and preach the gospel to themselves.

Now, listen carefully. It is without a doubt that believers most certainly need to learn to preach the gospel to themselves. I'm not saying don't do that. In fact, that's what our church is trying to get you to do all the time. You must rehearse and meditate and recall the gospel and its promises to you daily.

But listen carefully. The truth of the matter is that believers don't do this very well. We don't preach the gospel on a daily basis to ourselves very well.

So what believers really need first and foremost is to be addressed on a weekly basis by someone else outside of themselves. They just need to sit down and hear, because faith comes from hearing, hear the word of the gospel proclaimed to them. And over them as they just sit and are addressed, and they will grow from that. It is to the foolishness of preaching. How do I know this is a fact?

Turn to the book of Ephesians and look at Ephesians chapter 4, and let's begin at verse 11. Ephesians chapter 4. Beginning in verse 11. The Lord knows that we do not preach the gospel well to ourselves. Therefore, guess what he does?

Paul teaches us in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16, that the ascended Christ, who is utterly victorious, pours out the spoils of his victory Onto the church because he's head of the church, and he unites and grows his body, the church, into perfection by means of gifts. Literally the gifted ones. That is the officers of the church whom he has given to preach this gospel.

So, rather than trying to become a preacher yourself. Believers need to learn to receive God's gifts. You come to church so that the ascended Christ, week after week, can pour on you his gifts to you, but you have to sit down and receive it. And so believers need to learn to receive God's gifts, that is, God's church officers, whom Christ, the head of the church, has given to build up believers in their faith as they exercise the office that they have been given faithfully. Look at Ephesians 4, and let's read it.

Look at verses 11 through 13. And he gave the apostles. This is the ascended Christ, if you're looking previously, and he, the ascended Christ, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastor teachers to equip the saints. Actually, the King James Version here is better than the ESV and the NIV. The King James Version gets the translation here correct.

There's a threefold purpose for why God has given gifts to his church. And he tells you in verse 12: it is to equip the saints. It is to do the work of the ministry. It is not the saints doing the work of the ministry. It is the gifts doing the work of the ministry, which is the Word of God being proclaimed.

That's how you have to read this. He has given gifts to the church to equip, to literally, the word better is to perfect, to bring to perfection the saints' spiritual growth in Christ. He has given gifts to do the work of the ministry. What is the ministry? It is the ministry of word and sacrament.

In this context, it is proclaiming the gospel, teaching the gospel in the church. He has given these gifts to perfect the saints, to do the work of the ministry, and look, thirdly, to build up the body of Christ. Those are the three purposes that God has given gifted ones to the church. And so, spiritual growth, Paul says. Look at verse 16.

This is so key. Spiritual growth, maturity, perfection in your faith, unity in the body of Christ comes first and foremost by receiving regular ministry from the gifts that Jesus has poured out into the church. Through these gifts, verse 16, Christ, the head, promotes the growth of the body. Do you see that? That's spiritual growth.

You don't become a preacher. You are made a preacher by the ascended Christ.

Some people in the church are given the gift to preach this word of God to the church. They did not make themselves this. Jesus made them that as a gift to the church. And so we don't become preachers, we listen to them. A preacher, a pastor, teacher is a gift given by the ascended Christ to his church to promote the church's spiritual growth.

Now, as we learned last week, our faith needs constantly refueling because we said the means of grace, preaching, baptism, the Lord's Supper. They are the three keys to spiritual growth. Think of them as like God's spiritual water raid stations in a marathon. Where every time you stop, you get replenished. You get new electrolytes.

Your glycogen levels go back up. That's what we saw last week. This is what the gifted ones in the church give to the people each week, God's spiritual water rate stations. And they say, sit down, listen. Faith comes from hearing.

Receive, touch, taste, smell, ingest, drink. The sacraments. Visible gospels. And so, if we are to run the race of faith, that is, the race of faith is: it is loving God and loving your neighbor. That's what the race of faith is.

And if you are to have love in your life, your faith has to be constantly nourished and refueled. Why? Because love comes from faith, and faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And so you have to hear it, and you have to see it, and ingest it, and touch it, the sacraments. The fuel for faith is the gospel, just as sport drinks are the physical electrolytes and the glycogen replenishing stores for marathon runners.

That's what the means of grace are for believers spiritually. And so insofar as the gifted ones in the body who are appointed by the head of the church, Christ, the ascended Christ, insofar as these gifted ones are given for the edification, the spiritual growth and unity of the church, Insofar as they are neglected in the church, the church's spiritual growth will diminish and suffer greatly. And so to run this race of faith with endurance, we have to learn to stop at God's water aid stations and drink the gospel. Drink. Drink and drink in God's spiritual glycogen.

The gospel Second, not only are the means of grace routinely neglected, but they're often remodeled in the church into the means of gratitude. We saw this last week. What is crippling for the believer's spiritual growth is when spiritual disciplines. Which are the means of gratitude are set forth to you continually as the means of grace, the sources of God's spiritual water aid stations for your spiritual life.

So, this past week I was reading in Christianity Today, and I was reading a book review. And the book review examines a book. That treats the renewed evangelical interest in the classical spiritual disciplines. And I thought, well, that's what I'm preaching on.

So, this would be interesting.

So, I'm going to read this book review. Here's what the reviewer says about the spiritual life of a Christian. It involves this for spiritual growth. A disciplined embrace of such concrete means of grace So I thought he was going to say preaching the gospel of baptism and the Lord's Supper. It's not what he said.

Spiritual life of a Christian involves a disciplined embrace of such concrete means of grace as prayer, silence, worship, and service to others. Those are means of gratitude. Those are not means of grace. Prayer, as we learned last week, is the chief means of gratitude. It is the chief way.

That we respond to God because of the mercies received in Christ.

So here's the question: Why are spiritual disciplines, which are means of gratitude, always or most so often mistakenly set forth? As means of grace. Why does this occur? I believe the answer lies in a misunderstanding of grace.

So let me help you understand this morning for a moment what is grace? What are we talking about? What are we receiving? What is grace when the Bible says it is by grace you have been saved through faith? First of all, what it's not, grace is not a substance.

It's not like filling up a bathtub, but you got some leaks in the bathtub so that the water is slowly leaking out.

So you got to turn the water on because you got leaks, so you got to fill it back up. That's not grace. Grace is not an infused habit. It is not an infused power. It is not an impersonal force that transforms me.

That's my grace. Grace is not, even in a very broad, general sense, merely God's favor. God's favor in a general way, that's not grace.

So how do we understand grace? How do we define grace? Let me give you a big definition, then I'll just kind of break it down. Grace Is the person of Christ himself. That's what grace is.

Who? This person, Jesus, redeems fallen man through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And then he applies all of that work in his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. He applies all of that work to the believer. Through the indwelling and transforming person, power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what grace is. So, when we're talking about grace, grace is not some impersonal power. That sanctifies and transforms me. Grace is Christ through the Holy Spirit bringing about my spiritual transformation. It is a person and it is a work.

In short, the grace of God is God's favor, not generally, but it is God's favor in the person and work of Christ applied to me by the Holy Spirit.

So it is Jesus by the Holy Spirit who is working in me to grow me spiritually. It's a person.

Now, why is it essential to understand grace like this? Listen carefully. You have to understand grace properly because the definition of grace. Determines the means of grace. What do I mean by that?

This is what I mean. Not everything can communicate Christ and his saving benefits to me. For example, if grace, generally speaking, is just simply some vague general notion of God's favor, the means of grace can be about virtually anything. The activities within the fellowship of the church that God uses to give me more grace could be about anything. Listen.

If God's grace is the person and work of Christ, Applied by the Holy Spirit, the means of grace. Have to be narrowly defined and restricted because not everything can do that. What can do that? The means of grace Theologically speaking, have to be tied to special revelation. The ministry of the Word of God.

They have to be tied to the sacraments, the visible word of God. Which had the same office as the verbal word of God, that is, to herald. Christ and all of his saving benefits to me.

So this means I can go out and enjoy a sunrise or a sunset at Jack's Beach, but that doesn't mean I'm getting Jesus and all of his saving benefits. Because general revelation does not give me that information. does not communicate Jesus savingly to me. in all of his benefits. Romans chapter 1 verses 18 through 20, Paul says that God's eternal power and his divine nature is known by all men in all of creation.

And then he says in Romans chapter 2, verses 14 through 15: there is even a natural order of morality that has been written on the hearts of all people. It's called a conscience. You know it's not right to take a gun and kill somebody. Why? Because God has written the moral law called the conscience on every single person who has ever been born.

But this knowledge of God in a general way is not a saving knowledge of God because Paul says man in his unrighteousness suppresses that natural knowledge of God in his sin, and he says, I won't believe that.

So general revelation does not provide sufficient information for the gospel message. A sunset is beautiful. A mountaintop is wonderful. But it doesn't give me Jesus there. It gives me his eternal power.

It shows me his creativity. It shows me his wisdom. It does not show me, listen, his son. You will look in vain forever to find Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. In creation, because he's not revealed there.

Where is he revealed? The gospel in its proper sense: the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15. Is disclosed only in the Bible through special revelation. God has only revealed himself savingly through the means that he's instituted, chiefly. First and primarily through his son.

The incarnation. He is the Word of God. Jesus dwelling among us pitched his tent, we'll see, and dwelt among us. No one has ever seen God except Jesus, John 1:18, who has explained him. And it is clear from the New Testament scriptures that a commitment to being self-consciously gospel-centered involves.

An equal commitment to weakly receiving in a church the means of grace that God has instituted for my spiritual growth. Neglect that, and you will be stunted. Severely. It will be like hitting the wall in a marathon at the 20-mile marker where your legs cramp up so bad because you have no more glycogen. And it's the same with the spiritual life as Christians.

When you go and go and go and are not regularly receiving God's means of grace that He has instituted to refuel and refresh and nourish your spiritual walk, you will hit the wall, spiritually speaking, and your spiritual muscles will cramp up to the point where your Christian life feels painful and awful. Here's question 155 in the Westminster Larger Catechism. It asks, How is the word made effectual to salvation? And listen to the answer. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word.

An effectual means Of enlightening, convincing, and humbling sinners. Of driving them out of themselves. Do you know what you and I need most often to grow spiritually? Just to get out of my own head. To be driven out of me to see Christ.

And then I'll change. And this is what preaching does. It drives me out of myself and it draws me to Christ. Conforming believers to his image, subduing their will to his, strengthening them against temptations and corruptions, building them up in grace. Establishing their hearts in holiness, comforting their faith.

Under salvation. That's the means of grace. Preaching the gospel does those things. And so the word of God is the primary means of grace in whatever form it comes, but. But when we speak of the ministry of the word as a means of grace.

According to many passages in the scriptures, there's something unique that happens when the gospel is preached. Turn over to Titus chapter 1, verse 3 with me. And Titus chapter 1, verse 3. Paul's statement is very unusual. Listen to what he says.

He says, and at the proper time manifested, this is the God who never lies, at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching. with which I have been entrusted. by the command of God our Saviour. Preaching is not an option, it is a command, it is a divinely given command to the church. And Paul says here that God This is unusual because normally Paul speaks of Christ as being the one manifested, the incarnation.

That's not what he's saying here. Paul says that God has manifested the hope of eternal life. In his word, Through preaching. Yeah. Now that is absolutely astonishing.

Why? It's startling because it shows you the necessity and greatness of preaching as a means of grace. Paul says in verse 3 that the coming of Christ to fulfill all of God's covenantal promises from the Old Testament. Is now made known to God's people when the gospel is preached. In other words, by the means of preaching the gospel, Jesus is present.

Okay. That's a powerful statement. The whole Christ event called the gospel that happened in history: life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, all of that. Continues to be present in the church when. It comes through preaching.

Paul says the same thing in Galatians chapter 3, verse 1, almost the same thing. He tells the Galatians in chapter 3, verse 1, that when he showed up to preach the gospel to the Galatians. Listen, he says he did it in such a manner that it was as if they themselves were eyewitnesses of the crucifixion of Christ. Galatians 3 verse 1 And so, above all, the preaching, listen, the preaching of the gospel doesn't inform people about Jesus, but it does that. It doesn't tell people about Jesus, but it does that.

You know what it first and foremost does? It manifests Jesus by the Holy Spirit through the means of preaching. Titus 1 verse 3. It gives Christ and all of his benefits right then. And so the main point to keep in mind is this: God is savingly present where He promises to be present.

You don't have to go working it up to get into the presence of God. He comes to you through the means He's sovereignly ordained to meet you. Listen, the means of grace continually reminds us that we don't have to somehow bring Jesus out of heaven. We don't have to bring him up from the grave. The triune God of grace comes down to us through the means that he has instituted.

Especially the preaching and the gospel. The preaching of the gospel not only tells me about Jesus, it actually delivers him to my soul. By the Holy Spirit. And this is amazing.

So you say, but God is omnipresent. Why do I have to be in church each week? I can go to the golf course. You always hear that little excuse, you know, go to the golf course and be with Jesus because it's a lot more solitude out there. And I just get it back into nature and I can just rest and, you know, weary from the week.

Well, here's the problem: God is omnipresent, but the question for us is not where is He present in His majesty and His glory. But where is He present in His mercy and grace towards sinners? To be sure, as I said, God is present in a beautiful sunrise. He's present in a beautiful sunset. He's present at the breathtaking grandeur of the Grand Canyon.

He's present. But the question we're asking is this: Where is God, the triune God, present in peace? Where is he present with the assurance that he still accepts me? Where is He present that He still forgives me? Where is He present that He still adopts me as a beloved Son as much as He loves His own Son, He loves me?

Where is He present? Where can I get that assurance for my soul? This comes only through the gospel, and it is only confirmed, strengthened, and assured by the proper use of the sacraments, the means of grace. You neglect that, you neglect the spiritual growth of your soul. And so God's means of grace are like God's spiritual water aid stations for weary and depleted runners in the race of faith.

As I said last week, there is grace for the race. That's not a trite little expression. It is exactly what God has intended. Grace. For the race.

And you need it every single week.

So I wonder if it's a very good question. If baptism is as central in your life, to your identity You're asked the question: who am I? Is your default answer immediately? I am a baptized member of the body of Christ. I am united to Jesus and all of his saving benefits.

So baptism does. That's more than that, but that's one Part of it, one benefit. But I wonder: is baptism central and corporate worship? Central in your daily life, in your daily identity, as much as it was in the first century church in the book of Acts. Precisely because the means of grace are God's gifts to us, rather than our pledge or our devotion or commitment to God, we are filled with thanksgiving, and then we have power, motivation to respond and obey, and do the means of gratitude.

So there are three keys to spiritual growth. Three keys. Preaching of the gospel. Baptism. and the Lord's Supper.

It is the ministry of the word and sacraments. And these three means of grace are to the believers raised to faith what water raid stations are to a runner and a marathon.

So, where did the spiritual disciplines fit into all this stuff when you're pursuing?

Well, here's where they fit: prayer, the chief means of gratitude, Bible reading, Bible memorization, meditation, journaling, service in the church to other fellow believers, service to your wife, service to your husband, service to your children, service in the nursery, whatever it is. They simply become the means of gratitude, that is, the appropriate response that you give with your life to the grace you have received. That's it. And so, as we learned last week, what happens too often in sanctification, spiritual growth, the means of grace, where Jesus and all of his benefits are given to me by the Holy Spirit, are substituted with the means of gratitude. And so, all I do is run.

And I just keep running. And what happens is, God's water aid stations, the means of grace, become like a temporary CrossFit session. Everybody's in the CrossFit, so here's how it works. You're running a marathon, and you come up to God's water aid station, and instead of receiving water and spiritual sport drinks with electrolytes to replenish your lost, depleted glycogen level so you don't cramp up. The people at the WaterAid station say, okay, 10 minutes of CrossFit, here we go.

I mean, can you just imagine the absurdity of that? Here, this poor runner has been running 20 miles, and they say, 10 minutes, CrossFit, let's hit it. And then after you've done 10 minutes of CrossFit, keep running. Good luck. I don't think you're gonna cross the finish line.

And what happens spiritually? As God's water raid stations and means of grace become like that CrossFit session, and you come to church week after week after week, and what you hear is this. Baptism commit. Lord's Supper, recommit. Preaching, let me tell you how to keep your commitment.

And there's never any grace, there's never any Jesus, there's never nothing of spiritual sustenance to refresh and refuel your spiritually depleted soul so you can keep running. As you just come to church week after week after week, and you're doing CrossFit sessions, and you never ever learn to just sit and receive so you can grow and keep running your race during the week. There has to be grace for the race, and if you don't stop regularly at God's Water Aid stations to refuel your depleted spiritual glycogen stores, you're going to hit the wall at the 20-mile marker, and your spiritual life is going to be one of just pure exhaustion. Here's how I tried to illustrate it for you again this week, too. Preaching.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the three keys to spiritual growth, the means of grace. They're sort of like the energizer bunny. Just keeps on ticking.

Well, preaching baptism in the Lord's Supper is kind of like the energizer body, but instead of keep on ticking, you know what they do? They just keep on giving. They just keep on giving God's gifts to you, Jesus, and all the saving benefits, over and over and over and over, and it never stops giving. In John chapter 7, look at verses 37 through 39. Let's just read this as we finish.

And this is an illustration to help you see this. Listen to what John says, verse 37. On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and he cried out: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now, this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet, the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now, here's the point. Too often, this passage is read by believers as understanding that the rivers of living water that flow are the rivers that flow out of the believer's heart. And that could not be further from what John is saying here through the words of Jesus. That's not what this verse says. It's not what it says.

Let me just quickly give you some context. The context is the Feast of Tabernacles, John tells us that. That is the feast that reenacted the 40-year period of time when the Israelites wandered in the desert wilderness of Sinai. And they didn't have water. Jesus is saying through the words of John's gospel that he is the fulfillment of the rock that gave living water to Israel's camp.

So the river that flows, the Holy Spirit. Right. Flows not from Israel, the camp of Israel, it flows from Jesus. It flows from his heart. The Holy Spirit proceeds from Jesus.

And so, drinking is simply in this context a way of speaking about believing, trusting in Christ. John says that when we come to Jesus to drink, that is to trust in Him alone for salvation, guess what happens? The Holy Spirit flows out of Jesus' heart like a mighty, life-giving river from Him to you. Paul says this in Galatians 3:14 when he talks about the gospel of justification by grace through faith received. He says that when you believe this gospel, you receive in Christ the blessing of Abraham.

And he says the blessing is so that you might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith. Through the preaching of the gospel, which is the chief means of grace, you don't just hear about Jesus, you get him. And when you get him, you get the river of living water, the Holy Spirit, because Jesus, he says in John 7, will pour the Holy Spirit from his heart to you and bring you life. And John says this was taught from the Old Testament. And you go, well, where in the world was this ever taught in the Old Testament?

Glad you asked. Here's one more passage. Look at Ezekiel 47. Verses one through nine. Ezekiel saw the glory of God leave the temple in judgment.

Ezekiel 10. And then at the end of the book, he has a great vision of hope where he sees a new temple that is far more magnificent than the first. And he sees God entering this temple, and then he sees from this temple, this magnificent temple, a river flowing out from it, and everywhere it flows, it brings life to everything.

So listen to Ezekiel 47, beginning verse 1. Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east. For the temple faced east. The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. Then he brought me out by the way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate.

That faces toward the east, and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side. Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, the man measured a thousand cubits and then led me through the water, and it was ankle deep.

So this water is increasing, it's getting increasingly deeper. And again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water, and it was knee-deep. Again, he measured a thousand and led me through the water, and it was waist deep. And again he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be passed through.

And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw on the bank of the river very many trees on the one side and on the other. Life was beginning to sprout up on both sides of the riverbank. Because a river was flowing.

And he said to me, This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Erebah and enters the sea. When the water flows into the sea, the water will become fresh. 'Cause nothing can live in salt water. And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live. And there will be very many fish.

For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh.

So everything will live where the river goes. And Jesus said. Stands up. And says, I am the temple that Ezekiel saw, and the river that I'm talking about is the Holy Spirit that I pour out when people come to drink from me to get life. And wherever this river goes, living things come to life and flourish.

This Jesus says he is the true tabernacle and temple. And the river is the Holy Spirit. And how do you get it? By drinking at the fountain of Jesus. Over.

And over and over. And when you drink from his means of grace, oh, it's a wonderful day. Why? Because you're receiving the river of life. The Holy Spirit.

And so the word and sacrament are essential both in the commencement of salvation and in the believer's ongoing growth in sanctification. This is why we have to receive God's appointed means. And so, this morning, just a quick question: Are you thirsty for running your race? Jesus says Stop a while and take a drink. I'll quench your thirst.

Are you hungry from running your race? Jesus says, come and eat. I am the bread of life. Jesus says, Are you weary from running your race?

Well, then come to me and I will give you rest. Jesus is your spiritual water aid station. And he gives you the Holy Spirit. Every time you drink from him. Every time you come to receive from Him, His means of grace sustain, nourish, and refuel your faith.

They give you the rest and refueling you need in this race.

So if you're wearied by a tough week at home. If you're wearied by an exhausting week at work, If you're just spiritually depleted when you come into church and you go, man, I'm not even ready to even worship today. That's a good place to be because church is where you need to be. You know why? Even though you know in your heart, man, I am just completely depleted.

You know what you know in the back of your mind? Sunday's coming. I'm going to God's Water Aid Station. And the king is going to sit me down. And pour out his gifts to me once again and assure my heart.

I do love you, and you're under my favor, and all your sin is forgiven. Go run the race. I'm with you all the way. And you've got to hear that weak. After week after week, and just as Jesus was the rock who created a water oasis for the people in Israel who are wandering in the wilderness, He is your feast and your wilderness where you just come and sit and receive His means that He's instituted, and He'll create a river of living water.

flowing to you through his appointed means of grace. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville. Hymn We Proclaim is a ministry of John Fawnville of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.