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REACH, GATHER, GROW

Grow - Conforming to the Image of Christ

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 21 September 2025 · Romans 8:29 · 38:38 · 5,791 words

Romans S22 · 8:29 Waterford

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The sermon continues a series on what the church is, focusing this week on the third principle of growing. Looking at Romans 16, the speaker warns that false teachers and division can hinder growth, urging believers to stay rooted in doctrine and be wise and innocent toward evil. He challenges listeners to examine whether they are growing in knowledge of Scripture, in using their gifts, and in obedience to Christ. Those who sense a need in any of these areas are encouraged to contact pastor for guidance, accountability, or resources.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

grow 78 doctrine 34 church 75 serve 33 greet 16 whipped 6 pastor 22 lord 54 cream 7 obey 16 wise 9 superpower 4

Topics

Obedience 4 Salvation 2 Hope 1 Prayer 1 The Gospel 1

Scripture referenced 22

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 16 0:40 Romans 16 0:45 Romans 16 0:58 Romans 9 1:40 Romans 9 3:58 2 Thessalonians 1 6:26 2 Thessalonians 1 6:28 2 Thessalonians 1:3 6:28 Romans 16 7:55 Romans 16 7:57 Romans 16 8:16 Romans 16:21 8:39 Romans 1 13:43 1 Corinthians 14:20 15:26 Romans 1:18 23:41 Romans 12 24:40 Romans 14 25:07 Romans 14:16 25:12 Ephesians 4:16 29:50 Romans 14:19 30:46 Matthew 10:16 31:39 Philippians 2:15 32:59

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 8 lines, 0:39. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey, everyone. My name is Grant Grimes, and thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us, and we hope you are blessed by today's message.

So glad you are here. If you take your Bibles, go to Romans chapter 16.

Romans chapter 16. I encourage you to bring your Bible or a tablet or a phone to follow along.

Why? Because you can fact-check me.

You can make sure this lines up, because we want to be in accordance with the doctrine, the Word of God.

So Romans 16. This month, really taking a step back further,

and for the last few months, we've been studying the book of Romans,

just taking a slow walk through each chapter.

And this month, September, we're just kind of changing a little bit, looking at it a little differently.

This month, we are stopping to answer the question, what is the church?

What do we do? What's the purpose of the church?

And not just our church, the local church.

What does the Bible say the local church is to be doing and to be not doing?

What is the local church supposed to be gathering to do?

How are we called to act and to live?

So we're taking this month to study what the church is.

A couple weeks ago, we started in Romans chapter 9, and we looked at Paul's supernatural love for the Jews.

As the Jews were persecuting Paul, they were trying to kill Paul, they were trying to stone Paul,

they were trying to put Paul to death, Paul still loved them.

He loved them so much, he wanted them to know the truth of Jesus.

He wanted them to know the hope, so he had this heart to reach them with the gospel.

In the first week of our, really our church series, we talked about reach, that we're called to reach people with the gospel, that we are called to have the same supernatural love for people, even people who don't like you, even people who are your enemies, even people who don't do what they should do to you.

We are called as Christians to love people with a supernatural love, to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And last week, we talked about gathering together, and what does it mean to gather?

What does that look like?

And that the church, we have this supernatural unity, that if we are saved, we have this ability to be unified.

And it's kind of hard.

Look, it brings all of us together, young, old, different backgrounds, different bank accounts, different all of it.

The church is unified.

And last week, we went to Romans chapter number 15.

And look how we're called.

We're called to gather that the strong are called to take care of the weak, that we're called to build one another up.

We're called to endure and encourage one another.

We're called to have one voice glorifying God.

We're called to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us.

And ultimately, all to the glory of God.

This is the church, to reach people with the gospel, to gather together in fellowship and care and growing in God's word.

And so today, we're going to focus on, really,

this last principle that we're called to reach, we're called to gather, and then we're called to grow.

We're called to grow.

Now, I will tell you, next week, we're going to jump back into our walking slowly through Romans.

We're going to go back to chapter number 9.

So here's what I'd like you to do.

I want you to read Romans chapter 9, 10, and 11 12 times next week because it's a doozy.

All right?

Just read it together and get ready as we talk about the sovereignty of the Lord.

And it's going to be great.

9 through 11, read that.

Looking forward to next week.

But today, we're going to talk about growing.

Whenever I preach, I pray, Lord, may you give me the ability to speak clearly the truth of your scripture.

Give me the scripture you'd have me to preach, and may I preach it clearly with a confidence in you, with a compassion, with a conviction.

And then I ask, Lord, help me to connect however you want, whether that's through story or illustrator.

Lord, whatever you want to do there.

And so, thinking about, Lord, how?

What's a good illustration to talk about growing?

And whenever I give illustrations, usually when they're personal, they're more effective.

So I think, what is growing in my life?

What is something I could share personally that's growing that would help people to see what this looks like?

So I'd like to show you something that is growing like crazy in my house.

So this is a picture of my son just two years ago.

All right?

And then this is a picture of my son just two years ago.

And then something happened.

And now he's no longer my little tiny boy.

All right?

So you can get to the picture of, and then fast forward two years later till now, and you're like, what happened?

You're no longer a little boy.

You've grown up.

And so now everybody who sees my boy, they're like, what happened to him?

I haven't seen him in a couple months, and he looks like six feet tall.

I'm like, yes, this is what's happening.

He is growing.

And so when we talk about growth, we're talking about how do we spiritually grow?

How do we grow in knowing the Lord?

And what does that really look like?

Have you taken an examination of your life lately?

Am I spiritually growing?

Is it just kind of been what it's always been?

Some of you have been in the church a couple years, a couple lot of years.

But we're called to continue to grow.

And this morning, I just want to press a little bit and have you ask yourself the question,

am I growing in the Lord?

And what does that actually mean?

In 2 Thessalonians 1.

Chapter 1, verse 3, it says,

What's so amazing as I preach this series about reach, gather, and grow,

I want to tell you there's no shortage of verses that tell us what the church is supposed to be.

We could just read verse after verse after verse.

And you come to a verse like this in 2 Thessalonians,

and it just tells us what the church looks like.

A church is growing abundantly.

And what happens when we grow?

We begin to love each other.

You begin to increase in love for one another,

increase in love for people to know about Christ.

So this morning, as we look at what church is supposed to be,

may we take a personal question and ask the Lord,

Lord, how should I be growing?

Let's pray, and we'll go to the Word.

Lord God, I pray this morning, may you use it for your honor and for your glory.

I pray that you would lead my words.

Lord, as there's so many distractions out there,

may we come and sit and listen to your Word and hear, Lord.

May your Holy Spirit lead our hearts and may we listen.

We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.

So Romans chapter 16.

Romans chapter 16 is the last chapter in Romans.

And you'll find many times as Paul wraps up his letters,

he will give this, I wrote down, he'll give greets and greetings.

Greets and greetings.

I know it's not proper, but I don't care.

All right, maybe you'll remember it.

That he,

he walks through many people in the church.

I think it's some 26 people he names in chapter 16.

And he walks through all these people that he says,

hey, will you greet this person?

Will you greet Phoebe?

She is a wonderful servant in the Lord.

Will you greet this person and this person that's doing this?

And so he's wrapping up his letter and he's giving all these saying,

hey, would you say hello and give this greeting?

And in verse 21, he then says,

there's then Timothy, my fellow worker, Timothy's with me.

He greets you.

And then there's this other guy named Jason and he greets you.

And Paul does this often.

He gives these greetings.

And many of you, I know you read through this really fast.

Cause he's like, whatever, I'm gonna move through.

But he's giving this greetings.

But right in the middle of this,

right in the middle of the greets and greetings,

it's like Paul gets distracted right in the middle of giving all these things.

Like in the middle of this, he gives this great,

it's like he stops and goes, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I have to warn you about something.

I have to, the letter,

the letter's wrapping up.

I have to tell you this one thing.

And there are some that have even questioned,

maybe this doesn't even seem like it's in the right spot in Romans.

It seems like it would fit somewhere else.

But right in the middle of this, in verse 17, he says,

I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions

and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that has been taught.

He says, avoid them.

For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ,

but their own actions.

And by smooth talk and flattery,

they deceive the hearts of the naive for your obedience.

Again, remember, Paul is writing to the church in Rome.

He has a love for them.

So he is saying to the church in love for your obedience is known to all

how you have been obedient to the Lord.

He says, so that I rejoice over you,

but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent to what is evil.

And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

And then he gets back to the greetings.

But here, Paul, there's something so important.

And we know Paul's led by the Holy Spirit to write this,

but he is writing.

It's like the last bit, like you have to hear this.

And he's writing to the church.

And here we have some warnings to the church.

Paul so wants the church in Rome to continue to grow.

And these are some great warnings

because he knows if the dangers in these verses take place, the growth will stop.

So he warns them of three things.

First, he says this.

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles.

Commentators, they wonder, did Paul,

was there already those in the church causing obstacles?

Were there already those in the church causing divisions?

And many think, no, Paul just knew it was coming.

There's always going to be the fight in the church, the division.

And so Paul warns, says there are going to be wolves that are going to come into the church

to try to destroy the unity, to try to destroy the growth of the church.

So let me just ask a personal question.

How many of you have been a part of a church and you've watched that happen

and you've watched a church destroyed by false teaching?

Anybody done that?

You've seen that?

Seen that happen?

More than one.

Paul is warning and he says,

what the temptation or what the deception,

is what are they trying to do?

There's one deception.

The warning here is that there will be those who come in and do what?

They will speak contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught.

What will stop a church from growing

is when the church stops growing in the doctrine of the Lord.

When the church stops growing in understanding God's word and God's truth,

and when hard times come up,

if we as a church don't run back to the teaching,

don't run back to the teaching of God's word,

we're in trouble.

It'll hinder our growth.

How does the evil one attack the church?

Through doctrine.

The warning here is that people will come in

and they will deceive people by the doctrine of God.

They will mis-teach God's word.

So how does the evil one attack the church?

Through doctrine.

This is why when you read the Bible and the calling for a pastor,

you can go to Titus chapter one and it says,

what is a pastor?

What is a pastor supposed to do?

It says Titus one nine,

he must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught

so that he might,

so he may be able to give instructions in sound or in healthy doctrine

and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Titus two one to a pastor,

but as for you teach,

what is in accordance with the sound doctrine Titus two 10.

So that in everything,

they may adorn the doctrine of God,

why do we preach like we preach?

Why do we take months walking through the book of Romans?

You made me ask pastor,

why do we not spend more time on topical preaching?

Why are we constantly walking through books of the Bible?

Because there's a calling upon the church and the pastors to preach the doctrine.

Why?

The church will not grow.

Unless we are founded on God's word,

we won't grow.

My challenge for us,

for us to be a strong local church in this community.

We must grow in the doctrine of God.

We must be learning his word,

learning his truth.

Ephesians four 14 says it like this so that we may no longer be children tossed

to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,

by human cunning,

by craftiness and deceitful schemes,

first Corinthians 14:20 brothers and sisters speaking to the church.

Don't be childish in your thinking,

but be infants in regard to evil and adult in your thinking begs the question.

It brings us to a question I hope you will ask yourself personally.

Am I growing in the doctrine of the Lord?

Am I growing in the teachings?

Paul here gives the stern warning.

He says, if there are those who come in the church and they're not teaching,

it says to avoid them is very strong language.

Now, Paul is not talking about us having like minor interpretation issues.

He's not talking about there being an immature believer and he's not talking

about, hey, you you need to like we talked about last week, right?

The church in Rome, there were some thought I couldn't eat pork and some thought I could.

And so in today's age, what we would do is one pastor said we

would have the first church of the meats and the first church of the vegetarians.

The Bible isn't calling us

to do that. The Bible is saying we must stand firm on God's word to grow what God says.

Why? Because Satan is going to attack and is

attacking the church to destroy a church from growing by confusing people in what

the word of God says you see when the church is growing in the doctrine of the Lord.

It's a church that's growing in strength.

It's a church that can fend off the attacks of the evil one.

It's a church that's strong enough that there are going to be difficulties in church.

There's difficulties, lots of them.

But if we're strong in the doctrine, we stay together tight together.

I'm going to be a little transparent with you this morning, and it may even upset

some of you, but I really feel I need to share this with you.

Share a little bit of my week.

About ten days ago, we had just an awful tragedy in our country.

A man by the name of Charlie Kirk, who was a political figure, but a man who was a

professional Christian.

He would boldly talk about the gospel.

And this man was murdered in my household.

We were broken, broken for our country, broken for a lady, broken for kids.

My wife and I have been praying through that.

I met with many people talking about that.

Pastor Roy talked about how just many hours helping people work through.

This happened about ten days ago.

The last Sunday as I preached, I did not I did not mention Charlie Kirk.

I studied and prayed and felt like the Lord led me

to speak into that issue and really talk about the hope because the only hope we

have is the gospel of Jesus and so knowing that.

But for some of you, that was a question.

And can I tell you, it's OK to have that question.

Pastor, why do we are we scared to offend somebody?

And I just want to tell people, listen, we preach the Bible here.

We offend people all the time, right?

We're going to preach the word.

But I've spoken to many of you, which I think is incredible.

Some of you reached out to me, which is wonderful.

It's what we should do. Pastor, I don't understand why this.

I'm going to ask why. Why don't we speak into these issues?

And I will tell you, one of the reasons that we don't speak

into every week issues is because which issues do you speak into and which issues

do you not? They're all horrific.

The lady killed on the subway, right?

The pastor who was murdered in California this week.

I mean, we can go on a list.

Why? The truth is, because we are a church

that aren't against speaking on those things, but we are a church that are going

to boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and we know

that hope is the God's word.

And so I tell you that not to fire back at you go see.

I tell you that because I want you to see the heart of where we're at.

And when people ask me that, you know what?

Your pastor takes an honest look at himself and go, man,

do I need to do something differently? Did I not care for people?

Right. Your pastor takes an honest look.

And let me just be upfront with you.

There are going to be times your pastor is going to disappoint you.

There are times my pastor disappoints me, right?

Like the pastor disappoints himself.

But there was a prayerful look to go, Lord, did I, did I miss preaching?

The word is a very careful thing for me.

It's something I'm very committed to and praying and seeking the Lord.

So one, just to see some of you reach out, it's a wonderful thing.

But can I tell you why I share this story?

Is because I've watched that this week, this question has strengthened us.

What I have seen is that we have come and go, I don't understand this.

What we have done was we've run back to the doctrine of God's word and go,

how are we together in this?

And we've had conversations and we've talked through it.

And so when an issue comes up and go, should we do this?

We run back to the doctrine and we go,

we hold fast to the doctrine, the teaching of the Lord.

And if this is our foundation, we are going to hold firmly together.

Unified, strong, growing in the Lord.

How does the church continue to grow when there's problems?

How does the church continue to grow when they're, I don't understand this or when

somebody sins against you? Why?

Because there's sin in the church, because we run back to the doctrine.

We run back to the teaching.

We see our foundation and we continue to grow together.

Continue to be unified in God's word.

And it's been a good thing I've seen this week.

I look back and go, man, maybe I should have said this or that.

And I honestly landed a place to go, Lord, I believe being led by you.

And now I've seen what you've done and how you've used it.

Paul for the church in Rome and Paul for the church.

Here through the Holy Spirit is warning.

We must grow in the doctrine of God's word.

This is what will make us a strong church.

This will help us grow in him so that we are no longer children tossed to and fro

by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.

But yet we stand firm in the Lord, knowing his truth.

And so it brings me back to that just personal question.

Are you growing in the doctrine of God?

Are you growing in the teachings?

Be completely honest with you.

This Sunday morning sermon isn't enough.

It's not enough.

Verse 18 says this.

It says for such persons, speaking of those who are causing divisions for such

persons do not serve our Lord Jesus, but their own appetites by smooth talking

flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive.

So just a simple point that I want to bring out of this passage is that Paul is

calling out, he says, people who serve, they can't serve looking that these people

who are causing dissension.

Why are they doing what they're doing?

Why are they serving?

Because they're serving their own appetite.

They're serving their own self.

And I just want to take a simple point on here is that when we look at the church, we

are called to serve, right?

Paul, all throughout Romans, like he says in Romans 12, speaking to the believers, he

says, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another and showing honor.

Do not be slothful and zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the

Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer,

contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

And then in Romans 14, he says, whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God

and approved by men.

At the beginning of verse 16, he speaks of this amazing lady in the church.

Her name is Phoebe.

What does he call her?

He says, he's a, she's a servant.

This word here, diakonos, really points to the word deacon.

What does deacon mean?

Says Phoebe.

She was deaconing all over the place, serving in the church.

Look what she's doing.

Many believe she was the one that delivered the word to Rome.

How incredible.

Just the simple point that, listen, we are called to serve.

Can I challenge you?

We're not called to serve ourself.

We're called, if we know Christ as our savior, we're called to serve the Lord.

And I ask you, are you growing and serving the Lord?

In a couple of my growth communities this week,

we just talked about people in the church serving.

And so I asked the question to the growth community.

I said, who in the church do you know has superpowers?

And what I meant by that is, who in the church do you see how they're serving?

And you just go, I don't even know how they do that.

For some of you, right?

You come into the gathering and there are people greeting at the door

and they see you and they smile and they shake your hand.

They give you a hug and you can't help but smiling.

It's like their superpower to make you smile.

Like they just have this gift of hospitality.

That they care for you.

And every time you come in here, you see that person and they love you.

And they just bring a joy to your heart.

And they have this gift from the Lord.

This superpower from the Lord to care for you.

A growth community we just talked about.

We talked about people in the band.

Somebody brought up this guy who leads sixth grade boys growth community.

Not many people have this superpower.

So I had a man in the church said, hey, there's just this man with these sixth graders.

He is just amazing.

The way he cares for them and speaks to them and connects with them.

And the way that God uses him.

It is just unbelievable.

We're in our growth community and a lady walked by who's been serving in Iwana for I don't know how many years.

I think my life goes, yep, that lady's superpower.

The way that she has loved kids and cared for kids and poured out her heart.

And there are kids who have come to know the Lord.

Because she has shared the gospel and so loves them and sacrifices.

See?

Growing in the church.

We not only grow in doctrine.

We grow in serving.

We grow to serve Christ.

And the amazing thing is in the church, the Bible says he has gifted people in the church with different abilities to serve him.

And I just want to challenge you.

Maybe a place you need to grow is in serving the Lord.

Because you will be blown away how the Lord can use you.

I remember probably about 15 years ago, I was the youth pastor here.

And I loved youth ministry.

And we had hired another minister.

And I said, I'm going to serve the Lord.

And I said, I'm going to serve the Lord.

And I asked a man to come do middle school.

He was the middle school director.

And I was the high school director.

And so he was a youth pastor at a church before.

And he came over here.

And so we were serving together on one Sunday night.

And I'll never forget.

I walked out of the gym.

And he looked at me.

And with this crazy look, he just goes, I don't have that.

I don't have that.

And he looked at me and said, what?

You caring for the kid.

You doing this.

I don't have that.

Now, was he bad?

Should he have?

No, no.

He's saying the gifting that you have.

What the Lord has given.

It's something amazing to be used in the church.

So for us to grow, it's not only to grow in the doctrine.

But let me tell you, growing and serving the Lord is amazing.

Ephesians 4.16 says, from whom the whole body, speaking of the church, join and held together.

It uses the illustration that the church is like a body.

And it's all knit together.

And we're all different parts of the body.

By every joint with which it is equipped.

Get a little excited up here.

When each part is working properly.

When each part is working properly.

Makes the body grow.

So that it builds itself up in love.

We talk about growing.

We talk about growing in doctrine.

But I also want to challenge you.

Maybe the Lord is speaking to your heart this morning about growing and serving.

Lastly, growing in obedience.

The Bible says in verse 19.

For your obedience is known to all.

So that I may.

Rejoice over you.

And I love this part.

But I want you to be wise to what is good.

And innocent to what is evil.

Paul is saying, hey, I see your obedience.

But you need to be careful in this world.

You need to be wise to what is good.

Listen, you need to be innocent to what is evil.

You cannot pack yourself with listening to a whole bunch of garbage.

Or watching a whole bunch of garbage.

Or hanging out with people who are leading you away from the Lord.

And go, man, I'm going to grow.

I'm going to grow in the Lord.

It's saying you need to be wise.

You need to be careful what you're inputting.

You need to be wise so that you continue to be obedient to the Lord.

Jesus said the same, really the same type of truth in Matthew chapter 10 verse 16.

He says,

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

That for the church to continue growing, we need to grow in our obedience to him.

And I know for me, there's a temptation to not be obedient.

There's a temptation to not do what's right.

And so me growing in that and seeking him.

And so Jesus says, hey, you need to be, he uses two animals.

He says you need to be wise as serpents.

Or other words, shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.

It doesn't say to be guilty as serpents or unwise as doves.

It says to be shrewd.

He uses this picture of a snake to not be gullible.

It's not to be sneaky.

It's to be smart.

It's to be innocent, to be blameless like Philippians 2.15.

It's to be wise to not fall into those traps of falling out of obedience.

You ever mess with your kids with things like you go to the ice cream store and you get a big shake, right?

And you have, he gets a shake and you put the whipped cream on top and your son's next to you in the car.

And this thing's like overflowing with whipped cream.

And you look at him and go, hey son, you ever smelled whipped cream before?

It smells really good.

We all know what's going to happen.

Right?

He's going to smell that whipped cream and we're just going to hit that cup a little bit.

Right?

And then he has whipped cream all over his face.

We go, right.

But the next time you get in the car, you go, son, you ever smelled whipped cream before?

And he looks over you with a 15 year old look like, yeah, right, dad.

And he's falling for that one again.

But this is the truth of the word that Satan is a liar and a manipulator.

He wants you to fall out of being obedient to the Lord.

He is going to put things way trickier than that in front of you.

And so here, Paul, in this cry for the church.

If we're going to grow, we have to fight to be obedient.

We have to be wise.

We have to be innocent.

We have to be careful to not fall away from the Lord and into the pain of going our own way.

So this morning, it's a simple sermon challenging us to grow.

If we know the Lord as our savior, if Christ has saved us, right?

I don't want you to get this confused to think, well, I'm going to do these things and I'll be saved.

Or I got to do all these good things.

Then God will like me.

No, this is speaking to us.

Those of us who have accepted Christ as our savior, that we know it is not because we love God,

but because God loved us and sent his son, Jesus, and Christ died on the cross.

The Lord has opened our heart to that amazing love and he has saved our life.

Then if we are saved, we're not saved by works, but we're saved to good works.

Just a challenge for us as a church.

We are seeing some amazing things happen.

We are seeing people saved and baptized.

We are seeing new believers.

We are seeing believers being discipled and growing in the word of God.

We are seeing old believers pour into new believers.

It is some wonderful things going on.

But as we grow, I believe the evil one will want to tear this down.

So how do we grow strong?

We who know the Lord.

Say, Lord, do I need to grow in doctrine?

Is this maybe a conviction now that I really need to get on and get growing in the doctrine?

Do I need to grow in serving and using my gifts and finding my gifts?

Do I need to grow in obedience?

Hey, listen, if the Lord is pressing one of those things on your heart,

I just don't want you to hear it and leave.

I want you to act on it.

So maybe you're here and say, Pastor, I really need help growing in the doctrine of the Lord.

Can I tell you?

I want you to go on the website or email me this week and go,

Pastor, I need to grow in doctrine and we will help you take steps.

That may be I may point you to a growth community that is teaching the heavy doctrine of the Lord

that may lead you.

I may give you a book or a commentary and say,

Hey, listen, I want you to read through the book of John and I want you in your personal time.

To walk through this Bible commentary, answering questions and we'll help you grow in the doctrine.

If you're pressed to go, I need to start serving.

Then I want you to act on it.

Once you go on the website and put, Hey, I want to serve or email me.

I don't care.

I'll figure it out.

Email and say, Pastor, I need to serve.

What do I do?

And I will have one of our connection team reach out to you and we'll start that process of helping you to serve.

Pastor, I'm really struggling in obedience.

I need to grow in obedience.

All right.

Right now.

Right.

Send me a text.

Send me an email.

Say, I need.

I need to, I need to, I need help in this.

And what we will do is we'll get you accountability where they're connect you with a group that

there'll be people who care about you, love you enough to call you out and keep you accountable.

We can get you a mentor that will walk with you.

This is not just a preaching to go, Hey, here, isn't it wonderful?

Let's all grow and leave.

No.

What do we do then to grow?

How do we now take steps?

You're growing in the strength of the Lord.

Let's stand together, please.

Lord, continue to grow us in you.

Grow us in the doctrine of your word.

Grow us in serving you.

and obedience. Praise you and thank you in Jesus' name.