Session 6: Perseverance of the Saints

Amen.

The Meaning of Perseverance of the Saints

Our next talk will be on the Perseverance of the Saints, the Pea of Tulip. And for that, we have Pastor Micah McCormick. By way of introduction, Pastor McCormick is a member of New Hyde Bark, not Bark, Park.

That's the dog church down the street. New Hyde Park Baptist Church in New Hyde Park, New York, where he serves as an assistant pastor. Micah was brought up in a home where his parents loved the gospel and taught him the gospel from an early age.

By God's grace, he recognized his sin and turned to Christ, and he continues to trust in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away his sins and clothes him with righteousness. Before moving to New York, Micah studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

It's my pleasure to introduce to you, Pastor Micah McCormick.

1 Peter 1 and the Doctrine of Preservation

Turn to 1 Peter 1. If you have scriptures this morning, or you could look on there in the Pew Bible. 1 Peter 1. It's great to be with you all today. Being with God's people, singing together, praying together, hearing scripture is a wonderful privilege.

So thank you, and I do bring you greetings from New Hyde Park Baptist Church. It is near the border of Queens and Nassau County, about an hour or so west of here. This is gonna be our main text for today, although I'm gonna be mentioning a number of different passages, but this will be our sort of launching point and anchor here.

1 Peter 1, I'll read the first nine verses. This is God's Word. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, who were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit to obey Jesus Christ and to be sprinkled with his blood.

May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being much more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the power and the comfort of Scripture. We do thank you that you've caused us to be born again, not according to our works of righteousness, but according to your great mercy.

How we praise you and thank you for that, oh Lord. We thank you today that we can gather with your people and sing of the matchless grace of Jesus that is greater than all of our sin. And that must be some amazing grace that we can sing about, and it is.

So Father, as we listen to your word now, give us attention, give our souls excitement and joy as we hear the inspired word of God. In Jesus' name, amen. This last point of Calvinism, the perseverance of the saints, is perhaps the point that is least controversial, at least in American evangelicalism.

Now, having said that, it's perhaps in part sometimes least controversial because it's not always correctly understood. And a misunderstanding of this doctrine can give rise to much false assurance. It's a very dangerous thing.

But the other side of that is that when we rightly understand from Scripture what this doctrine teaches, it's a source of great comfort to God's people. So my message for this afternoon on the perseverance of the saints, my message has five points.

Now, I realized after the fact that my message had five points. I didn't do that initially. So truly, I say to you, as of my own free will, I planned the message, and then looking back, I realized it was all of God.

It had five points. Here's the five headings. If you're taking notes or just listening, that's fine too. Number one, the definition of the perseverance of the saints. Number two, the necessity of the perseverance of the saints.

Number three, the author of the perseverance of the saints. Number four, the means of the perseverance of the saints. And then number five, the comfort of the perseverance of the saints. So we'll move quickly through those five points this afternoon, beginning with number one, the definition of the perseverance of the saints.

What is it? I'm gonna offer you the definition of the New Hampshire Confession of Faith. That's from the early 1800s. It's not quite as well known as the London Baptist Confession or Westminster or the Canons of Dort.

It's not as thorough as those confessions, but it stands in continuity with them, and it's a bit more succinct. So here's what they say in chapter 11, which is on the perseverance of the saints. We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end, that their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors, that a special providence watches over their welfare, and they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

You can't go wrong when you use the exact words of scripture, right, what they had there from 1 Peter. So that's the doctrine in summary. Those who are truly converted, who have the spirit of God living inside them thanks to God's gracious effectual call, will indeed reach heaven safe and secure.

Those who are truly justified and born again can never be lost. So in that sense, you've heard that expression sometimes, once saved, always saved. In that sense, it is true. Those who are converted can never lose their salvation.

But I wanna set that definition and understanding between kind of two misunderstandings someone might be able to have. Because as you're thinking about that, okay, so we can't lose our salvation, but it has the word perseverance.

Perseverance implies you're doing something over a sustained period of time. So if you're a 10-year-old, we have some young people that are here today, which is fantastic, I love that. If you're a 10-year-old and you have a great uncle and he says, I set up a trust fund for you, you're gonna make $100 ,000 when you turn 21.

But you can't legally, you can't touch it, do anything to it, but if you persevere in that trust fund, you'll get the money. You'd be thinking, well, what does he mean? Don't persevere, does he mean I survive?

But some people have this idea about their salvation that it's kind of like that trust fund. It's a guaranteed fact that really has no relevance for the way that they live their life. And it's bound to come to pass in the future, but for all practical purposes, it's out of sight, out of mind, that's not the biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

So the one misconception people might have is it doesn't matter at all how you live your life, whether you actually walk the path of faith, whether you continue to believe in Jesus, none of that matters.

As long as you offered some act of faith, and I'll put that faith in quotation marks because it's not genuine faith if it doesn't persevere, but as long as you had some act of faith in the past, you're locked in, you're good to go, you've got your ticket in your back pocket.

So you'll sometimes hear in a prayer meeting, Aunt Susie will get up and say, please pray for my nephew, Johnny. Say, well, what's wrong, is Johnny lost? And she says, no, no, thank the Lord. I remember that day when he came home from vacation Bible school and was excited, and he's definitely on his way to heaven, but for the last 10 years, he just expresses no love for Jesus, he never reads his Bible or goes to church, he's living in immorality, and let's pray that he will rededicate his life to the Lord.

Now, and I don't mean to tease, that desire is laudable to pray for your nephew, so I'm not really as concerned about Aunt Susie, but what if Johnny thinks everything's fine, I had the ticket in my pocket, it doesn't matter how I'm living, Johnny could falsely be deceiving himself into thinking that he's on the path to glory when he's not, that that's a terrible spot to be in.

So that's, on one side, this misconception, doesn't matter how you live, but there's another misconception people sometimes have, and this is perhaps not as common, but some churches that are so particular that think a true Christian could never commit this sin or that sin, and they're quick to cast people out of the kingdom, if I can put it that way.

Think of David, he sinned grievously. Think of Peter, he denied Christ. So this doctrine doesn't intend to teach that a true Christian could never sin, could never have periods of deep doubt or fall into some kind of grievous sin, but they don't lie with the pigs forever.

By the Holy Spirit's kindness, they're convicted, and they come back to walk the pilgrim path. It's a beautiful illustration, the book Pilgrim's Progress, Christian has a number of setbacks and missteps along the way, but he doesn't turn around and go back to the city of destruction.

He, by faith, continues on the path to the celestial city, and that's what this doctrine intends to teach, that those who truly believe will indeed never be lost because they will continue to believe.

Despite, perhaps, doubts and setbacks, they will persevere in their faith. So that's a definition. Number two, the necessity of the perseverance of the saints. It's great that we have a wonderful book that describes this in detail.

Through John Bunyan, we have these confessions of faith. This is all wonderful. Where is it found in Scripture? That's what's critical for us. And I'm gonna cite a number of texts here. You're welcome to write these down.

You don't have to turn to all of them right now, but feel free to look at the context more in depth later. But listen to the words of Scripture, Luke 9 .23. And he was saying to them all, this is our Lord, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily.

And follow me.

Matthew 24 .13, the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. Colossians 1 .22 and 23, Christ has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. Second Peter 1 .10 and 11, therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you.

For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way, the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be abundantly supplied to you. Hebrews 12 .12 to 15, therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, make straight paths for your feet so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. Hebrews 3 .12 and 15, last text I'll mention here from the New Testament in this point.

Take care, brethren, that there be not in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. But encourage one another today, as long as it's still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. There it is, Scripture passage after passage. We must persevere in the faith. Now those were New Testament passages.

In the Old Testament, the story of the nation of Israel is in significant part a grand picture of the importance of perseverance. Hebrews tells us they were not able to enter in because of unbelief. And you have to say on one level, well, there was some outward expressions of faith.

They left Egypt. They walked through the Red Sea. When God gave them the covenant on Mount Sinai through Moses, they said all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. They're not out and out rebels. They have some starting, some expressions of faith.

But for the majority of those in Israel, it showed that it wasn't real heart faith. They didn't persevere and they were ultimately, most of them, judged by God. When Jesus wants to evangelize, he doesn't exactly give an altar call.

He tells the parable of the soils or the parable of the sower, you might have heard it described that way. The sower goes out to sow seed. This is like the word of God. Sometimes, yes, there's immediate and obvious resistance to the gospel message.

Other times, there's an initial apparent embrace of the gospel message. But for various reasons, thorns, thistles, no root, the fruit ultimately isn't there. That's how Jesus speaks to those who are seeking the kingdom of God.

I had a friend of mine, still a friend of mine, and he was converted as an adult. He was visiting a church and he started meeting with the pastor to hear more about Christianity. He was a bit of a skeptic.

And it took some time and he really explored a lot. And eventually, he came to see that this is true, Jesus died for my sins, he's my savior. And one day during the week, he goes to the church building, goes to the pastor to say, I've become a Christian, I wanna follow Christ, this is for me.

And the pastor, it was a little bit of a larger church, the pastor calls the staff together, I think there's some interns that were there, rejoiced with this man, prayed for him. And then the pastor had everyone leave, he was left there with my friend.

My friend said, he told me, this is wonderful, you're feeling so great right now, time will tell if this is real or not. Whoa, now I'm not saying it has to be your response every time someone professes faith, right?

So he knew him, so maybe the pastoral situation. But it's not without warrant, because Jesus does essentially do that, not always, but sometimes. And praise God, my friend, to this day is still a believer, an elder in his church, praise God for his kindness, right?

Salvation is free for us. Isaiah, hoe everyone that thirsts, come buy wine and milk without money or price. It's free, Jesus paid it all, his life and death in our place. But following Christ is costly in one sense for Christians.

Compared to what we gain, really, you can't say it's costly. But there are real sacrifices to be made, and there is a seriousness about what it actually means to follow Christ. When we receive and unite to Christ in faith, we don't choose what part of Christ we want.

As Calvin said, you can't divide Christ up. You're united to the whole Christ. So we can't say, well, I like that justification part, freedom, forgiveness, all that. But as far as continuing, obeying, trusting, walking with him, following him, I need to think about that.

That's not the way salvation works. True believers are those who persevere in their faith, joyfully and by God's grace. Now at this point, some of you might be feeling a little bit uncomfortable. Here we are at this conference, celebrating the sovereign grace of God, his hand reaching down, grabbing sinners, doing all the work.

And yet, I've talked a lot about us persevering in our faith. That doesn't smell exactly right, but then you did read a lot of Bible verses, so I'm not sure. What should I think about this? Well, friends, let me be very clear.

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone. It's not our own doing. So if this is sounding like work salvation to you, please don't get that impression, all right? I don't mean to sound as though when we make a profession of faith, God is up in heaven with his arms folded, saying, oh, we'll see how this turns out.

And then at the end of our lives, God looks back over the course of our faith and says, all right, you've continued enough, you've done enough, you can make it in. No, no, no, that's not at all what I intend here, okay?

Our persevering attachment to Christ is not the grand cause of our justification. It's the grand mark which distinguishes us from false professors. It's the necessary evidence that we have been justified.

Not the cause, but the evidence. So please understand that and hear that very clearly. And you might hear that, okay, well that, I hear that, so I'm not saved by works, and I know faith is looking away from myself to Christ, but I know myself, and I hear those verses that I have to keep trusting and keep looking away from myself to Christ.

Can I even keep doing that? And it should be scary in one sense. If you've been a believer for five days or 50 years, if you know your own heart, whether you're from Norway or not, we all have hard hearts, you know your own heart, that can be a frightening prospect.

But, and this is a tremendous, great, almighty but, third heading for today, the author of perseverance. The author, the ultimate author of our persevering faith is no one other than God himself. There's our comfort, so I'm looking ahead, we'll come back to this at the end, but that's our hope, friends, that God is the one who protects and preserves his people.

Jesus is not only the object of our faith that we look to, Hebrews says Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. So sometimes you hear this particular point referred to as the preservation of the saints instead of the perseverance of the saints.

Even in the Canons of Dort, in their section on perseverance, they use the word preserve a lot in that section. And I do like that a little bit better because when you say perseverance of the saints, you could understand it to be as though we were the main ones doing the work, right?

Kind of like you're running a marathon and in mile 20 you round the bend and there's God with a cup of water cheering you on, six more miles, you're almost there, thank you, and then you have the power to keep going.

That's not at all what's going on here. It is ultimately God's work and power in our hearts. Give you some more scriptures. Again, 1 Peter 1, verse five, the passage I read, probably some of you are still here, verse five, we're kept by the power of God.

Jeremiah 32, 40, I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me.

Philippians 1, verse six, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. Jude 24 and 25, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time, now and forever, amen.

1 Peter 5, 10 and 11, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Romans 8, 29 to 32, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren and these whom he predestined, he also called and these whom he called, he also justified.

These whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

As our brother said, these doctrines all fit together. And think, friends, if God is giving you the grace of sacrificing his son for you, if he's done that, will he not give you the grace of perseverance?

He will, he is the author, he will do it. Listen to what Spurgeon says. This is a Spurgeon conference, so someone's gotta quote Spurgeon, right? But listen, this is very good. Every good thing that is in a Christian not merely begins but progresses and is consummated by the fostering grace of God through Jesus Christ.

If my finger were on the golden latch of paradise and my foot were on its jasper threshold, I should not take the last step so as to enter heaven unless the grace which brought me so far should enable me fully and fairly to complete my pilgrimage.

And then he goes on to say, the veracity of God to his promise, the faithfulness of God to his purpose, the immutability of God in his character, the love of God in his essence, all these go to prove that he cannot and will not leave the soul that he has looked upon in mercy until the great work is done.

The Means God Uses to Preserve His People

Fourth, the means of perseverance. So this is an important idea to reiterate because sometimes with the perseverance of the saints, people can go pendulum swinging back and forth. So some people who perhaps have faith but they get a little lazy in their faith and then they hear and recognize the scripture's teaching about the nature of perseverance and what it is to walk with Christ and they swing to problems with assurance of their salvation and fearing they're on judgment's doorstep and then they're brought to scripture and the reality that Christ has done it all.

He will keep those whom he has saved and called and they can swing back towards a lazy faith. Again, it can happen but it shouldn't happen. Philippians, God is the one who works in us the willing and the doing of his good pleasure and because of that fact, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

These are not ideas that are opposed, these are ideas that should meet together. So God has sovereignly ordained the end. Those who are his will persevere in their faith but he's also ordained all the means to that end.

He uses means to accomplish his purposes. So we're going to keep trusting in Christ if we know the Lord, so we have to keep trusting in Christ and we should do things in our lives that tend to nurture our faith.

Again, not to earn our salvation but because we love God and want to obey his word and follow him and rejoice in him. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You want to persevere in your faith, read scripture, meditate on it day and night.

We're told in Hebrews that we should exhort one another while it's called today so that we won't be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. You want to persevere in your faith? Put yourselves around believers who are serious enough to exhort you not to be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

And thankfully, it's really not complicated. You know, so many religions, you have to go through these long complicated steps to have hopes of earning God's favor. We have scripture. We have believers who know the Lord.

You know, we can pretend like no one in New York is converted. There are thousands who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. We have friends right here in this room. And think now, where would you find a lot of Bible and a lot of people of God?

Church, okay? So church is not optional. It doesn't earn our salvation but what Christian in the New Testament says, oh, think about going to church. No, you want to be with the people of God. You want to be worshiping.

You want to find your faith strengthened and encouraged. And we should pray for each other. We should pray that we would persevere in the faith. That's part of the means. Often there'll be a prayer request for someone who's in a great trial and the prayer will sometimes be, Lord, remove that trial from them.

And that's a fine prayer. But we should also pray that their faith, though tested, would be shown to result in praise and honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus. So part of Peter's prayer is that they would be actually persevering in faith through those trials that come along.

There's no contradiction between affirming God's sovereignty and keeping his people in the faith and causing them to believe. And at the same time praying, Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. Listen again to Spurgeon.

Well, but, saith one, if God guarantees final perseverance to a man, why needs he pray for it? Sir, how dare he pray for it if God had not guaranteed it? I dare not pray for what is not promised, but as soon as ever it is promised, I pray for it.

And when I see it in God's word, I labor for it. And Spurgeon gives illustrations. If you have reason to believe you're going to be a successful businessman or a successful athlete, that that will embolden you to start that business or go to practice.

It won't embolden you to not do those things. We sometimes think of great athletes or movie stars and they have a messiah complex. Well, normally that messiah complex is also accompanied by an obscene amount of hard work because they believe that.

Now, it's prideful that they believe that, but the point here is they're having this sense of destiny actually pulls them off the couch. We shouldn't be couch Christians. Knowing that God is sovereign should make us want to go out and evangelize and do these things to nurture our faith.

Spurgeon gives an illustration of when he was a young child, a godly man came to his house one day and took Spurgeon on his knee and said, this young boy is going to preach to some of the greatest congregations of our time.

And Spurgeon says that after his conversion, that the thought of that man's words, rather than keep him from studying, keep him from pursuing ministry, that encouraged him to do it all the more. Some of you, Bruce is saying, amen, that's right.

And some of you are thinking, well, that was a coincidence that what that guy said came to pass and Spurgeon was presumptuous to believe it. He should have just studied anyway. All right, this isn't a prophecy conference, so we'll have to sort that out.

We'll sort that out later. Main point here is if you have reason to believe something will come to pass, you're gonna be emboldened to act on it. And we have infallible assurance from God's word that his people will endure to the end because they are being kept by his own power.

And we've got a great example right from scripture of how God uses means to help people persevere and be saved. It's an example from the physical realm, but it's illustrative. In Acts 27, Paul gets on board a ship and he's traveling and the ship gets caught in a storm.

There's a large crew. And after this storm has tossed the ship around for days, the sailors are all despairing of life. And then Paul receives a vision from God, from an angel, that everyone in the boat's gonna be saved.

They're all gonna make it to land. No one's gonna lose their life. And so Paul gets up and announces that to the crew. Storm continues. Then they start to see land at some point finally. Some of the men, you can go read this later.

It's a fascinating account. Some of the men in the boat, they're afraid the ship's gonna run aground in the shallows when it's still being tossed around. And so they try to get a rowboat and some of them to kind of sneak away and get to land safely, lest the ship be dashed on the rocks.

And Paul sees them getting into the boat. And he says to the captain of the guard, unless these men stay in the ship, you can't be saved. Well, wait a minute, Paul. God already told you everyone was gonna be saved.

So what was Paul doing? Why wasn't Paul down in the galley with his hammock strung up, just kind of snoozing, waiting for God's providence to work itself out? Because Paul knew that God uses means to accomplish his ends.

God's word was never in doubt, but Paul's warning the men, stay in the boat. They listened to him, they got back in the boat, and sure enough, they all made it safely to shore. God's gonna carry us, friends, across the Jordan River.

But we have to stay in the boat. We have to keep believing in Jesus Christ, and we should encourage one another while it's called today, the Savior is good, keep trusting in him. Last point for this morning, the comfort of the perseverance of the saints.

I already kind of hinted at this. Really, this just goes back to the author. The reason we persevere is because God is rich in mercy. And because God is rich in mercy, we will persevere. Think a moment about the alternative.

And we have to give the genuine, thoughtful Armenians, we have to give them credit because they are being consistent here. If my first decision to come to Christ is ultimately just up to my independent will, God's kind of looking on, unable to touch it.

If that's true, and if we must continue in the faith, then really at any point in my depravity, I could choose, if it's my independent will, ultimately, I could choose, since I started to choose, to stop believing in Christ and be lost forever.

Right?

That's the alternative. Either ultimately we keep ourselves in the faith, or God in his kindness keeps us in the faith. And that's a very fine line to walk between the fear that, what if I make a mistake, and the other side of that, which is, well, I'll keep believing.

Very dangerous lines to walk. Be careful. If you're here today, anyone, and you're trusting somehow, ultimately, in your faith, beware. That could be a house built on sand if it's not truly Christ who is the one you're leaning on and grasping hold of for salvation.

But thank God we don't have to walk that line because that's not what scripture teaches. Scripture teaches us that the Father holds us in his hand, and because it's his hand, he's stronger than we are, he's stronger than Satan.

We will remain right there in his hand. In Philippians, the verse I read earlier, Paul says, being confident of this very thing. Now, and Spurgeon points this out. Why would Paul say be confident of this?

He's inspired. I mean, shouldn't we be confident of anything scripture says? So whatever Paul writes under inspiration, we can be confident in it. But Paul goes out of his way to add on, no, really be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it all the way to the day of Jesus Christ.

Is your faith stronger than Peter's?

Is it?

Peter doubted, he denied, but he was brought back on the path of following God. Christ told Peter, Satan has desired to have you, to sift you as wheat. Is Peter stronger than Satan? Are you able to withstand the lion who walks about seeking him he might devour?

You think he wants to sift Peter as wheat and not you? You think he attacks Peter's faith? He won't attack your faith? But remember our Lord's words to Peter, I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail.

And those are Christ's words to us today. This is a comfort for us. Christ is actively our mediator praying for us that our faith would not fail. And he has always heard of his father.

Let's pray.

Lord, we are astonished at this mercy which brought us from death to life. Lord, we ask your forgiveness. We ask for at times taking our salvation for granted, for toying with sin, for entertaining doubt as though it was some virtue.

Oh God, help us to keep our confidence firm to the end. And that we would rather than assume, we don't want to be critical or judgmental, but rather than assume in an easy and lighthearted way that we will all make it to glory, let us urge one another on that we might keep believing.

And yet help us to remember all the while that it is your power that's at work in us. That though there are trials, we have been born again and we will be guarded, not apart from faith, but through faith, which is indeed your gift.

And how we thank you for your gifts to us today. We thank you for the gift of your word and pray that as we continue to spend time with each other and spend time worshiping you, that even this very day would be a means of nurturing us and helping us to persevere until we reach that joyful celestial city.

In Jesus' name, amen.