Hello, hello, everybody. It is now approaching 7 PM. So please go ahead and make your way over to your seats. Those of you guys who are in the far back by the cafe, please go ahead and at this time make your way over to your tables. And also, good news, we do have a new water dispenser right in the middle of the cafe.

I guess that deserves a clap. You don't have to walk all over the sanctuary. And then please use your refillable water bottles, et cetera, et cetera. So again, let's make our way over to our seats, and we'll get started in just a moment. OK, good. Let's gather our hearts for a word of prayer as we start our evening off in our Bible study.

Let's pray together, everyone. OK. Heavenly Father, we thank you, God, for your grace. And Lord, we want to continue to pray that in our hearts, Lord, we would continue to seek your spiritual blessing. Above and beyond all the things that we can touch with our hands and see with our eyes, we pray, God, that we would see all the more of the incredible treasure that we have in Christ and the blessing of your presence, your word, instruction, all the things that guide us through your spirit we are so grateful for.

And I pray, Lord, that what we seek with the intent of our mind and the striving of our hearts would always be you. And so I pray, God, that tonight it would be a blessing, Lord, where we can dive into your word, share the things that we find in your scripture, but also really discuss and fellowship over how it can apply into our lives.

And we ask, God, that by prayer, Lord, that the moments that we have together would truly go above and beyond just an intellectual exercise, but that, God, it would truly be a spiritual one. And now, Lord, as we lift our voices to you, we pray, God, that it be something so honoring as we lift it up from our faith.

And, God, as our voices unite together to lift you up, would you be praised. In Christ's name, amen. Let's all rise-- actually, we can stay seated. If you stay seated, we'll go into time of worship. Thanks. Christ's assuring steady anchor in the fury of the storm, when the winds of doubt blow through me and my sails have all been torn.

In the suffering, in the sorrow, when my sinking hopes are few, I will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed. Christ's assuring steady anchor while the tempest rages on, when temptation claims a battle, and it seems a knight has won. Deeper still than goes the anchor, though I justly stand accused, I will hold fast to the anchor.

It shall never be removed. Christ's assuring steady anchor through the floods of unbelief. Hopeless thunder, oh, my soul, now lift your eye to Calvary. This my ballast of assurance, see his love forever proved. I will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed. Christ's assuring steady anchor as we face the wave of death, when these trials give way to glory, as we draw our final breath.

We will cross that great horizon, bounds behind and life secure. And the calm will be the better for the storms that we endure. Christ, the shore of our salvation, ever faithful, ever true, we will hold fast to the anchor. It shall never be removed. Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice.

You became nothing, poured out to death many times. I've wandered at your gift of life, and I'm in that place once again. And I'm in that place once again. Once again, I look upon the cross where you died. Humbled by your mercy, and I'm broken inside. Once again, I thank you.

Once again, I pour out my life. Now you are exalted to the highest place, king of the heavens, where one day I'll bow. But for now, I marvel at this saving grace, and I'm full of praise once again. And I'm full of praise once again. And once again, I look upon the cross where you died.

I'm humbled by your mercy, and I'm broken inside. Once again, I thank you. Once again, I pour out my-- Once again, I look upon the cross where you died. I'm humbled by your mercy, and I'm broken inside. Once again, I thank you. Once again, I pour out my life.

OK, with a lot happening this weekend, I just want to highlight a couple announcements for us. This Sunday, it was already announced that we're going to be observing the communion table. And so please take some extended time preparing your heart, praying. If there's anything to confess, think about our Lord and just currently where you're at with the Lord at this time.

And then on Sunday, what we're going to do is actually observe the communion by going back to coming up to receive the elements from the table. So please keep that in mind. Secondly, for our men's ministry, on the 15th, from 9 AM, we have our meeting. There's going to be a guest speaker, Pastor Paul Pack.

And we're going to be having a good time fellowshipping both learning, praying together, and then we'll cap it off with a lunch fellowship with the taco guy. So please make sure if you happen to forget or et cetera, just go ahead and do it on your phones right away.

And be sure to sign up for that, OK? All right, at this time, please go ahead and break off into your groups and have a good time of discussion. All right. Oh. All right, let's get started. OK. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hello? Jeremy, can you hear me?

Jeremy Wong, can you hear me? OK. All right, let's get started. All right, we're in second. Peter chapter 1, verse 12 through 15. Short passage, but again, let me pray for us and then we'll jump in. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your continued grace and the word that you give us to speak to us.

I pray that you would open our thoughts, our mind, our own hearts, Lord God, that your word would not simply be an academic endeavor, but I pray that you would mold us, guide us, that our emotions, our thoughts, our wills, our lives may all be formed, Lord God, by your word.

So we pray for grace. We pray for understanding. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, so the people on the other side of the cafe, can you hear me? We had some technical issues last time, so can-- OK. Give me one second. I want to double check. Last time it didn't turn on, so they had to double check.

How's the noise in here? It's good? How's the noise level in here? Are you able to hear each other better? Huh? Oh, it helps. Yeah, it better help. With all the time and effort they put into this? Yeah. Richard says in a couple of months you're not going to hear each other.

That's his goal. All right, so let's look at the text in 2 Peter. So the text begins by verse 12. It says, "Therefore I will always be ready to remind you." So I'm pretty sure I don't need to say anything, but what is the theme that is repeated here in this text?

"Remind, even though you already know them, that you are already establishing the truth to which you present, I consider it right. As long as I am earthly dwelling, I stir up to you reminder. Knowing that, laying aside my earthly dwelling, Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me to be diligent.

Any time since departure you will be able to recall, call these things to mind." OK, so over and over and again he says I'm writing this because I'm trying to remind you. I'm remind you to stir you up. I'm reminding you so that when I leave that you can remember even after I'm gone.

So clearly the theme is to remind. What is he trying to remind them of? What's so important that he needs to do this in repetition over and over again? What is he referring to? What he said in the beginning, right? Remember what we talked about last time? Remember, he mentions it in the first four verses.

And then what we talked about last week is the diligent pursuit of our sanctification. But the beginning part of it here, where he says, "Bond-serving to those who have received a faith." The same kind, how do we receive it? "By the righteousness of God, our Savior, Jesus Christ." So this is referring to justification.

So first part of it is justification by grace. Second part of it, "Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to the life of godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his-- So this is-- what is it? Sanctification. By what? By grace.

Everything you need for life of godliness, by grace. Sanctification by grace. "For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, that what you will receive, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the question of the--" this referring to glorification.

By what? By grace. So he is reminding them, do not forget over and over again that your justification is by grace. Your sanctification is because God has granted to us. The hope that we have is because of grace. So the foundation which we build, the thing that we do is recognizing that he has given it to us by the grace of God.

So everything that we pursue is because of the grace of God. And this is something that has to be reminded repeatedly over and over again. So what happens when you start to believe that justification is by your works? What negative effects does it have on your life when you begin to-- you may not say justification by works, but you start to live like it.

What happens? What usually happens if you think you're justification by works? Legalism? Or pride, if you think you're doing well? Burnout? Keep saying it. You guys all know. Burden? You're never either-- you're never good enough or you're too good. So it has an opposite effect, one or the other.

Same thing with justification, sanctification. If you're pursuing sanctification by your works alone, what happens? Same thing. So you think like, oh, I did it. Oh, I found this system. Or I was more disciplined. I was more serious. He says, no, everything has been granted to you. So even the things that we pursue is because God's been gracious to me.

So the reason why I'm even able to understand, even able to desire it, is because God's been gracious to you. So the foundation upon why we pursue righteousness is grace. So when we are pursuing righteousness by grace, what is the default setting for a Christian? Humility. Humility. Because what I have, God gave it to me.

I'm able to do this because God's been gracious to me. What happens when you start to think that glorification is by grace, even though all these things are connected? Same thing. Either you fall into defeatism or you fall into arrogance and pride, legalism or judgmentalism. You end up being one or the other if you're not careful.

And so if you look at the end result, the fruit of your labor, and if it results in one or the other, it's because you have forgotten this. You have forgotten this. Or it's kind of in the back of your memory, but this isn't what's motivating you. Your primary reason for what you're doing, this is not the reason.

That's why Peter is saying, I'm going to keep reminding you this, because your Christian life, justification, sanctification, glorification, their default setting is you didn't deserve it. God gave it to you. So whatever you're pursuing is because by the mercy of God, by the grace of God. So what ends up happening when you're motivated by this?

First of all, it leads to our humility. It leads to compassion. It leads to grace. Even the byproduct of what we do ultimately leads to grace. So again, this is why Paul says this is so important for us to pursue. That's why he said, I'm going to remind you repeatedly over and over again.

And he says, I'm going to do this even though you know already, even though you're already established in this. Only reason why you're even established, you understand what I'm saying, is because God's been gracious to you. And this is present in you. And I know if you use another translation besides NASB, these two things are put together.

But in the NASB, they decided to kind of separate it. This idea is that I'm going to keep reminding you, even if you know them, even though you're doing great and you're already established in this truth, the truth of grace. And even though this is presently-- I'm not saying this to you because I see a great need in it, but I'm saying this so that you don't stray from this.

So whether you are in need or whether you're doing great, this is how important this is. Because the moment you stray from this is where you will work your tail off and lead to either defeatism or legalism. So you can work hard and then at the end feeling like, oh, I did nothing, because you're not measuring up to your own standard.

Or you end up thinking like, I did it, and you end up becoming proud. So again, can't emphasize enough. He says, I'm not saying this to you because this church or these people in particular had a problem with this. He says, no, they're actually very well established in this.

I'm going to keep reminding you because after I leave, this is what's going to cause you to continue. If you're going to continue in your walk with God and bear fruit, you're going to have to remember it's justification by grace, sanctification by grace, and glorification by grace. So he says, I consider it right, long as I am in the earthly dwelling, to stir up by way of reminder.

So the first thing he says, why? Why is he saying this? He says to stir up. Anybody look up the word stir up? What is the word stir up, another way that this can be translated? OK, awaken. Anybody else? To make it happen? To be captive? Oh, to make active, OK.

Yeah, I said to make captain. Make active, to arouse. So this word basically means I want to keep reminding you in order to continue to stimulate you. So what's the motivation? What's the energy behind why you want to pursue sanctification? Why you want to be pure? Why you want to be godly?

Why you want to practice love and grace and discipline? What's the motivation behind that? Not for your acceptance, not so that you can be accepted here, not so that you can have respect of people. What's the motivation behind the motivation of grace? What is what causes you to be stirred up?

God's love for you. God's love for me. So if the love of Christ is not what can compel me, then what is compelling you? If the love of God is not at the center of compelling you to be righteous, to be holy, to practice love, then what else is compelling you?

Probably social pressure, guilt, fear, judgment, rejection, expectations of people. So if it is not the love of Christ compelling you, you have something else compelling you. And if anything else is the ultimate cause of what compels you, what's going to end up happening? You're not going to make it.

Eventually you're going to fall apart because you're not going to have fuel to continue in your faith. That's why he says he's going to remind you continually to stir you up, to wake you up, to make you active, to arouse you to continue. So that's why when we practice accountability, accountability only works with people who are already being motivated by the love of Christ.

Or accountability alone is not going to cause you to be holy. Because if the love of Christ is not compelling you and you happen to be a group and they're asking you, did you do it or did you watch porn or did you do this or not? You'll do it for a little bit because you don't want to be ashamed when you come, but eventually you'll find another way.

Covenant ice isn't going to keep you from watching porn. You can watch it at work. You can get a VPN. You can do whatever you want. So if your motivation is simply the shame of the people that are around you, eventually it's not going to work. So even accountability is only going to work within the context of people who are being stirred up by justification by grace, sanctification by grace, glorification by grace.

And then he said, "Knowing that, that laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent," meaning he knows. He knows he's about to go. What was the difference? In the beginning, we talked about how when Paul was writing 2 Timothy, he knows that he's going to go. He says, "I'm being poured out as a drink offering." He knows he's going to go.

So he's writing. So that's his last letter. This is Peter's last letter. What was the difference between the two letters? Do you remember? Not simply the content, but to whom? To whom was the letters written to? What is 2 Timothy? Huh? Yes, to Timothy. And who's Timothy? Spiritual son.

What kind of spiritual son? He's a pastor. We call that a pastoral letter because he's writing that letter to Timothy, who's his spiritual son, because he's establishing him as a pastor of Church of Ephesus to go back and persevere. So he's writing a very personal letter to the pastor on how to lead his church.

2 Peter is written to who? To the congregation. Not one particular congregation, but just regular people. So 2 Timothy, what's the main thing that he says over and over again to 2 Timothy? Yes. The main theme in 2 Timothy is do you make sure that you will be responsible that the Word of God is being taught, whether they obey or disobey, whether it's in season or not season.

Your job is to keep teaching the Word of God. And so as a pastor passing it on to his protege, he wants to make sure that Timothy is going to fight for the truth. Now Peter is writing to the congregation, and what's in his mind? For them to persevere in their faith.

After I leave, I don't want to see you falling apart. So he goes back, and he actually goes back into the content of the gospel. Make sure that you don't fall apart. You keep remembering even after I leave. And he says he knows he's going, so this is his last thing that he wants to say.

So we're not there yet, but first chapter is this. Is the content of the gospel, and you persevere in this. And then remember what chapter 2 is about? False teachers that are coming. You keep doing this. You remember this. When the false teachers come, and they start teaching strange things, it's because their judgment has been determined long ago.

Don't follow them. Don't envy them. You stick to what you already know. You remember this. And then chapter 3, and when it gets hard, remember Jesus is coming. Even though people are telling you, "Where is he?" You say, "He's coming." And so that's how 2 Peter is organized as his last letter.

Don't forget what you already know. Pay attention to false prophets so that you don't stray from what you already know. And when things become difficult in walking with God, make sure you persevere because Jesus is coming. And that's 2 Peter in a nutshell. And it says, "And I will also be diligent that at the time after my departure, you will be able to call these things to mind." So it's the same thing I'm telling you.

It's not like, "Okay, now I learned fundamentals one on one. Now we're going to get to 201 and the 301 and 401." He says, "No, remember. Keep remembering." Remember in Church of Ephesus, when they lost their first love, when they were practicing all of these things, and because their love group cold, what did he say?

"Remember." "Remember where you started." And then repent. Go back to where you started. He doesn't say, "Here's like 15 things. You got one. Now go look for the other 14." He says, "No, what you have has been given to you in the beginning." Not five years later, not because of many years of training, not because of all these experiences, not because of so much education, not because so many books have been read.

He says, "No, everything that you have has been given to you in the beginning." So does that mean that we don't need to study the Bible? If everything has been given to you in the beginning, then why do we need to continue? Why do we need to dig? Why do we need to study?

We already know everything. It's an open question. You don't know? What are your thoughts? Why do we study the Bible? One, because we forget. Yes. Right? What else? Definitely that. Right? It's constantly two. That's one of the best ways to remember is to keep studying it. But what else?

Remember what he says in Ephesians? Paul's prayer? That you would understand the love of Christ, but in what manner? How deep? How strong? Right? So basically he says, "I'm praying for you so that you do not just understand the love of Christ, but you would understand the depth of the love of Christ." That you don't just understand your sins, but you understand the depth of your sin.

You don't understand just God's sovereignty, the depth of His sovereignty. So everything that we're learning about God, we already know. But we know as a child. Right? Just like you ask a child, "Do you love me?" Of course they love you. They love you, you know. But as you get older, you understand your parents more, and you understand the sacrifice that they've made.

So is your love different? No. You still love, but there's a degree of understanding of the sacrifices that people who have poured into you, and so you start to deepen your appreciation toward things that you already have. Right? That's our spiritual growth, when we understand the depth of what we have.

So we already have everything that we need. Right? Everything we need was given to us the day that we met Christ. But for the rest of our lives, we're trying to understand the depth of what we have. We understand, "He loved me. He died for me." Right? But what did it really take for the Son of God to die?

What did it take the Son of God to take on human form? What did it mean for Him to absorb our sins upon Himself? All of this stuff we knew superficially. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that He died for you." Right? We knew that from day one.

But what does it mean for the Son of God to die? What does it mean for the Son of God to become sin? What does it mean for us to become adopted children? So there's a depth of understanding in the things that we already know that we are to continue.

Right? So we're not necessarily learning completely different things. In fact, the majority of the time when somebody tells you that they found something new, it's probably not from the Bible. Right? I mean, for 2,000 years we've been studying this, and nothing has changed except for the depth of what we understand.

Right? How do we keep the Gospel message from becoming stale in our lives? So this is part of the discussion questions that I'm going to leave with you, but I wanted to go over this with you, and I'm sure you can add to this. Right? I think if we are to continue to remember not to forget, even for the rest of our lives, but to grow in depth of what we have in Christ, we celebrate.

That's why we come to church, and we celebrate what we have in Christ. We don't just come to Christ begging Him because I have a list of things that I want from Him. But our main part of worship is to celebrate what He has given us. That's what ultimately communion is.

Communion isn't simply repenting. Right? Confessing our sins and getting right with God is required, but the primary meaning of communion is to celebrate. Right? Celebrate what God has already given us. That's why corporate worship is so important. If we don't take corporate worship significantly, then we end up celebrating kind of in a casual manner.

Whatever you don't celebrate on a regular basis, you have a tendency to become stale. Second, learn from it from other people's perspective. Right? Maybe you've been walking for a while. It's like, "I know that." I hear people all the time, especially people who have gone through seminaries or pastors are guilty of this or leaders are guilty of this.

"Oh, yeah. I took 2 Peter in seminary, so I know this." Right? How many times can you hear the gospel? "Oh, I preached about this so many times. I already did this. I did quiet time in this." It's already become stale to them. That's what it means. Anybody who thinks that they've exhausted the understanding of any book or any topic is because it's become stale to them.

Right? But it's never stale because I can learn the same thing, but I can learn it from your perspective. I could tell you what Christ means to me, but what does Christ mean to you? How did he save you? Right? What's motivating you? So sometimes when I—majority of the times when I hear your testimony, even though it's something that I already know, it helps me to see things from your perspective.

And there's things that I—it reminds me about my testimony and when I hear your testimony, but it also gives me a different light. Right? Some of you came to Christ because of logic. Right? Some of you. Some of you came because you were so touched by the love of Christ.

God bless you. Some of you came to Christ because you were deep in your sins and you had no way out. Some of you came to Christ because you had no hope. Right? Every single one of our testimonies, we came to Christ because of different reasons. So you came through the same entrance, but the path you took to get to that entrance is different from each different person.

Right? So when we learn it from other people's perspective, right, even though it's the same thing, it's kind of like watching a movie and you're seeing it from a child's perspective versus a movie critic's perspective versus a first-time watcher's perspective versus a fanatic's perspective. They all give you a different perspective.

And they all notice different things about the movie. Right? You hear from one language and from a different language, it's different. Right? Three, go deeper into greater understanding what you already know. Right? I remember the last time that it really hit me like a ton of bricks is that some of you guys remember when Dr.

Harris was here and we read that book, Darkness and the Glory, and he described how God drew near to his son and the world went dark for three hours and how it was God drawing near because he was going to punish his son for our sins. Most of you guys weren't there for that.

But I remember reading that just being blown away. I don't know how many times I preached that. I don't know how many times I preached the gospel. But when I read that, it was like I was reading that for the first time. And just the depth of his love that he would do this.

He didn't just passively hand over his son. He actually did it himself, brought the punishment to his son by himself. He did it by his hands. And he made his case for that, how God would show up every time a new covenant is ratified so it would only make sense that God drew near.

And the reason why it went dark is because if he doesn't come in darkness, people die. So he had to come in darkness in order to come draw near to his son and punish his son for our sins. I remember reading that just blown away. Even though it's the same gospel I've been preaching for so many years.

And so the depth of what it is that we already know is so deep that no matter how long you dig, the more you end up appreciating and you realize how shallow of an understanding that we had. And how deep does this go? To eternity. I believe that we're just scratching the surface and when we get to eternity, that the depth of who he is is going to be revealed more and more.

I think we're going to be doing inductive Bible study in eternity. In a different way. We're not going to be scratching, but we're going to be studying God. And we're going to be knowing about who he is and the depth of his love. There's things to this day I don't understand.

Why would you give your son? That's a kind of love that you and I would never think to practice. We wouldn't even think that that's good. Why would I give what's most precious to me? Not only to somebody that may not be good, but is actively going against me.

Why would I do that for your sake? So there's a kind of love that you and I don't understand. We just sing it, but we don't really deeply understand. And I think everything that we know, we're just scratching the surface. So going deeper, that's why we study the Word of God.

If the Word of God starts to come alive to you, it will come alive to you when you begin to see the roots. When you begin to see the roots and the depth of what it is that you think you already know, the Word of God begins to come alive.

And it's different when I tell it to you than when you find it. That's why inductive Bible study is so important. Then practice it. You can't just study it in your head. You have to apply it. There's a huge difference between applying the Word of God than studying the Word of God.

It's just like when Paul is telling Timothy to persevere, hearing as a pastor that all the persecutions and not bearing fruit and people falling out, and hearing that as a pastor makes a world of difference in my perspective. And so same thing. If you're married, there's a perspective you will have of a married person.

If you're single, there's a perspective that you will only have. There's a perspective that you will have if you have many children. There's a perspective that you will have if you don't have children. And so there's a huge difference between how the Word of God sounds to you based upon how you're living your life.

And so practice in obedience. And then share it with others. Get in the habit of whatever it is that you've been touched by. If something in your Bible study mate says, don't just share it just with your small group. Share it with your friends. Get in the habit of fellowshipping and telling other people.

And the more you share it to other people, the more the things that God has blessed you is going to multiply. I guarantee you. One of the biggest benefits for me as a pastor is that I have to teach it. And so because I have to teach it, I'm constantly sharing.

And so the Word of God becomes a lot more, it makes a lot more sense to me as a pastor because I have to go deeper in order to share with you. And then every time I share with you, and if you get blessed, I get blessed because you get blessed.

And then finally, get in the habit of teaching it to others. Find people who don't know. Don't just hold it to yourself. That's a part of being in a community. Find somebody. Don't be frustrated that other people don't know. If they don't know, that means you're filled with opportunities to teach.

It's interesting to me how people come to church and say, "Oh, we don't have an opportunity to share. We don't have opportunities to serve." You're surrounded by people who have shallow understanding of the Word of God. You're surrounded by people who don't know Christ. What do you mean there's no opportunity to serve?

You are surrounded. Even in this room, you are surrounded by people that you can easily sit down and help them. You don't have to have a title. You don't have to be part of a group. You are surrounded every single day, opportunity to serve. So when we are celebrating it, when we are learning it from other people's perspective, when you go deeper into the study of the Word of God, when you begin to practice what it says, you begin to share it with your friends, and you get in the habit of teaching.

I think this is a very practical way to make sure that the gospel or salvation doesn't become stale. I know that previously we had a movement called the Gospel Center Movement, and one of the key themes of the Gospel Center Movement is "Preach the gospel to yourself." I have nothing against preaching the gospel to yourself because it's that important, but if you're in the habit of preaching gospel to others, you end up preaching it to yourself.

You kill two birds with one stone. But if you only preach the gospel to yourself, you're going to miss out on a whole other part. So focus on preaching the gospel, teaching other people, and helping others to come along, and all of a sudden you'll realize this never gets stale.

In fact, you will go even deeper. All right, so the discussion question for you today is, "How do you make sure repetition doesn't become mindless religious activity?" I mentioned some of the stuff. Hopefully you guys can have some other things that you can discuss, like practically. And then, "At what point does diligently striving turn into legalism?" That's always the struggle that we have, right?

We want serious discipleship versus compassion and grace, but at what point does passionate pursuit become legalism? Sometimes we use the term "legalism" to make excuse for not pursuing righteousness. And then sometimes we will pursue the other way. We're afraid of licentiousness, so we allow legalism. Neither is right. The Bible teaches against both, the dangers of both, the danger of legalism and the danger of licentiousness.

So how do we make sure that our passionate pursuit of Christ doesn't turn into legalism or licentiousness? And then three, "What practical things can you do to help you individually and collectively as a community not to forget?" I mentioned some things that we can do individually, but how do we do it collectively, and maybe specifically in your small group?

All right, let me pray for us, and then I'll dismiss you. There are some guidance I want to give you about the next text, but I'm not going to do it today. Just watch for it online. I'm just going to post it up to save time for us here.

Let me pray for us. Gracious Father, we pray that your Spirit would lead our discussion, and the things that you've given us already help us to know even in a much more deeper way than we know now. Help us to not just be hearers, but to be practicers. And we pray, Father God, that you would be gracious to us and allow your Spirit to teach us and lead us and build us up through our small group.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.