Caring for Newborns

Would you please open your Bibles to Colossians 2. Colossians 2, we're going to read a couple of verses there this morning that will get us started into the thought that I want to leave with you today dealing with caring for newborns. I will never forget the birth of our three children. The first of our children 30 years ago, in fact she was a bicentennial baby July 4, 1976. And I'll never forget her birth. You never forget those kind of things. We had a doctor who was 76 years old at that time and he didn't believe any of this stuff about the fathers being anywhere near, you know, the birth of their children. So he would just as soon I stayed home, I guess. I found a hallway somewhere in the hospital to kind of camp out. About every 15 minutes or so I'd go to the nursery and look through the window to see if our daughter had been born yet. And I still remember standing there looking at one of those times and the nurses bringing a little baby over and washing her off, setting her in a little bassinet and I watched as they put the name King across that bassinet. And although I didn't get to hold her, I didn't get to have her close to me in those moments, I will never forget the rush of emotion that swept over me in those moments. That awesome sense of responsibility. The joy, the exuberance, just so many emotions crowding through. Well three years later it looked like I was going to get to be with Jeannie for the birth of our second daughter Ruth. Ruth has always kind of been one who did things her own way and so her birth was no different. She was three weeks late and when we got to the hospital and it was determined that it was going to be today or never, then we found out why. She was turned sideways, one hand under her head, feet crossed, you know, just kind of, okay, come on, let's get the thing going here. She never got in the right position and so they had to take her and I got whisked to another part of the hospital and again did not get to be with Jeannie but I'll never forget the rush of emotion again, sense of responsibility when I saw Ruth all nine pounds, ten ounces of her, bigger than any of the bouncing boys in the nursery. I'll never forget that. And then almost ten years after that our wonderful surprise, Missy came along and I will never forget that time I got to be with Jeannie and I was in the delivery room and I watched them take the baby and wash her off and little Missy got put in my arms and I will never forget her looking up at me and saying hi dad. No she really didn't do that. She's always been precocious but not quite that bad. But I'll never forget those moments of just holding her and looking into her eyes and her looking into mine. There's a special bond there just really special. None of those three times did we then take those children and say thanks for the emotional rush hospital now they're yours. You take them back. You do whatever you need to do to raise them. If you need any help from us little money just let us know we'll chip in but it's your job. Of course we didn't do that. You didn't do that either with your children because when they were born it was your responsibility to see that they began to develop and grow. That's part of that awesome feeling of responsibility. You feel as a parent when you watch that little helpless newborn placed in your arms. The same thing is true with spiritual newborns. When people come to know Jesus as their savior it's just not right to abandon them at that point and to say well we hope the church does something here. We hope some class comes through for them or maybe the pastor will teach them a few things. The Bible says that they're beginning. In fact salvation is not the end of a process. It's the beginning of a whole new life. We shouldn't see the time when someone comes to know the Lord as the end of something. It's the beginning of something. It's the crowning into maybe a long process of witnessing to someone and introducing them to faith but it really is just the beginning of a new life and so people need to grow and begin to learn at that point. In fact look at these verses and Colossians which tell us four different ways that we need to grow, begin learning and growing in our faith in Christ. Verse 6 of Colossians 2 says so then just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him. You see that? The receiving of Christ is just the beginning because we're now to continue to live in Him. We're just started a new life and a new relationship and verse 7 tells us at least four ways that we're supposed to grow. First of all we're supposed to grow deeper. He says continue to live in Him rooted. We're to grow deeper. We're to send down roots deep into the love of God and explore and understand that better and understand more of what Christ has done for us and really set our roots down deeply into Him. We're not only to grow deeper but to grow higher. He says rooted and built up in Him. The word built up in Him is a word which means to build a structure, floor by floor layer by layer and the idea here is that we grow little by little building upon what we've already known. We grow a little bit more this year then next year we'll grow a little bit more and build on what we've learned and we continue building and growing higher, higher in our knowledge of the Lord and our living out of our faith. But not only are we to grow deeper and higher we're also to grow stronger. You see there in the middle of the verse, strengthened in the faith as you were taught. In other places the Bible speaks of this is growing so that not every wind of doctrine will kind of blow you away. And what he's talking about here is the only way you can grow strong like that to where you know what you believe and you're not just influenced by every kind of teaching that comes along is you are strengthened in the faith that means you understand more of what the Bible teaches and you grow in your knowledge of the Word of God. So you grow stronger so you grow deeper you grow higher you grow stronger. Fourthly we're to grow sweeter. Look at it in the end of verse 7 and overflowing with thankfulness. I think of that as growing sweeter in our Christian life as really developing the kind of outlook on life that enables us to thank God and be grateful to Him no matter what the circumstances or issues are that we're facing. Developing thankful spirit, sweet spirit before the Lord. So we're to grow in those four areas. Now the best person to help a new believer grow is you. If you had some part in reaching that person in winning them to Christ in helping them come to faith the best person to help them grow on. If you were divinely positioned in their life to bring them to faith you are in the best position to help them start growing in the faith. Don't abandon them at that point. Don't say well you know it was great to see you come to Christ now go to church. Let them take it from here. Now we're going to see in a moment the church plays a very important part in following up new believers but the best person to really cultivate them and to help them start growing is you. They're friend. The one who may have helped them come to Christ in the first place because they've just begun a new life in Christ and they need to know how it works. They need to know how to develop this kind of growth, how to grow deeper and higher and stronger and sweeter. Need to know the steps to take to do that. You're in the best position to help them take those first steps. So what I want to do this morning is to give you some key elements of developing your new life in Christ that you can help work with a new believer in. They're very simple, they're very basic. Every Christian in this room can help someone else learn these five basic truths. And all of us in this room need refresher courses in these five truths. And so to be good for all of us this morning I trust. Key element number one in developing our growth with Christ is the Bible, the Bible. And what we need to tell new believers is this, read the letter God has written to you. Now they'll understand that. They'll grasp that. Read the letter God has written to you because in reality the Bible is God's love letter. It really is. It's God's love letter to us. I share this next illustration with permission. Missy has a boyfriend. I think I'm happy about that. He's a fine young man. Kind of happy about that. He finished his first year Bible college and he's from Iowa and he's working in a camp in Iowa this summer as a counselor, a Christian camp. And the camp is really remote so they have no internet access, there's no cell phone coverage. So you know how they're staying in contact this summer? Writing letters, isn't that quaint? Writing letters. And so suddenly Missy has developed this interest in writing. I mean it's like a research paper every day writing this long letter and she's suddenly developed this tremendous interest in knowing what time does the mail arrive. And how can I help you mom and dad by checking on the mail, making sure it's here? All of our mail gets dumped on the kitchen counter. She's looking for those envelopes at the right size, with the right handwriting on it and then she disappears into a room and for an hour she's there. Now I've seen some of the, I've read them but I've seen the length of them and they're not that long. They don't take an hour to read. So I'm wondering why does it take an hour but then I remember, I remember 35 years ago after my first year of Bible college and I was serving as a youth pastor in Daniel's West Virginia to step the road. Daniel's missionary Baptist church, that summer. Jeannie was traveling with a trio from Piedmont, a bridal college, I mean Bible college. And we had very little opportunity to communicate with each other except through letters and I, as I've watched Missy I've remembered how eagerly I waited for the mail to come, how much I wanted to read those letters and how long it took me to read them. Looking for little nuances of words and what they were saying and was there any clue into how their heart really felt about me, you know, it was just wonderful, those love letters. Well the Bible really is God's love letter to you. You see you're separated from the one you're engaged to. Really, Jesus came to win a bride, the church and then he went back, he left for a while and in Jewish wedding customs the arrangements for the wedding were made, the betrothal was made, the engagement was made and then the groom went back home and prepared a house for his bride and his father's house. And that's exactly what Jesus is doing according to John 14. Some days he's going to come back and he's going to take us home and we'll have the wedding feast and we'll be with Jesus forever but until then he's left us a whole book full of love letters. Letters that tell us what he's been doing from the beginning of human history, what he's doing right now, what his plans are for the future and how much he loves us. In all the provisions he's made for us, he's written his letters to tell us that. If you love him you'll want to read his love letters. If you really love Christ you'll want to dig into his word, start finding out what he has for you there. I cannot stress enough this morning the importance of reading the Bible as a new believer especially, the importance of reading the Bible. Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 2, in verse 2. He says like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation. It's clear from the context, chapter 1 verses 23 to 25. This pure spiritual milk is the milk of the word of God. He's just talked about the word of God and in chapter 1 he calls it seed which never perishes in chapter 2 he calls it milk which nourishes babies in Christ. The importance of reading the word of God help them understand how important that is. George Barna is a Christian researcher and writer. He's done some research which leads him to believe, oh the research proves it, shows it. 90% of Americans own a Bible. 80% of Americans would say that the Bible's the most influential book ever written in world history. But those are superficial numbers because the rest of the survey shows that barely 33% of Americans will read the Bible anytime during the week and less than 20% will ever in their lifetime read the whole Bible. Think of that. I want to impress upon you this morning no matter how long you've been saved the importance of reading the Bible. But especially for a new believer some things you can help them do to get them started in reading the Bible is encourage them first of all to set aside a time regularly to be alone with God in his word. You know Bible readings like anything else if it's kind of on our to-do list and sometime we're going to get to it we probably never will. We've got to strategically plan make a time, plan a time, make an appointment with God that I will read his word and as often as you can do that on a daily basis do that. Secondly help that person get started with a good book that will be good for new believers an easier book to grasp and understand like the Gospel of John or the letter of first John or the book of James or Psalms or Proverbs. I mean don't start them out in Leviticus. Start them out in something they can really get a hold of and start to understand and grow to start them out there. Help them understand a couple of questions they should ask as they read the Bible. If this is pure spiritual milk that's going to help them grow a couple of questions will really help them digest the word of God. Help them to see they need to ask this question what is God really saying here? What is he saying in this passage to think about that a little bit and then help them to understand the importance of asking a second question what change do I need to make in my life because of what I've just read. And see they will begin to learn how to understand the Bible the Holy Spirit will help them and they will begin to understand how to apply the Bible to their lives if they ask those two questions and then check up on them every once in a while. Make sure they're doing okay that they're reading their Bible ask if they have questions about that make sure they're doing okay. Now there's going to be plenty of time for that new believer to learn that there are other levels of interacting with your Bible like intense Bible study or Bible meditation or memorization or things like that. There's plenty of time for them to learn that but to get their feet wet to get them started help them understand what it means to read their Bible. So important. Don't be like the little boy who went to vacation Bible school and he came home and his mother said how did you like it and he said it was great I loved it but I'm not going back tomorrow and she kind of looked at him and said well why and he said I learned enough today don't be like that you will never learn enough of your Bible there always be more to learn so read your Bible and then as time goes along get into Bible study and other forms of interacting with your Bible that it will lodge deeper into your heart but begin with some Bible reading that's so important key step number one okay key element number two is prayer help that new believer to see they need to talk to God again I cannot stress enough the importance of prayer one of the most important ingredients of any relationship is communication being able to talk to someone being able to understand what they're saying that's so important in any relationship whether it's marriage or parent child or friendship so important to be able to communicate to American tourists were in Sweden Stockholm Sweden visiting that country and they were sitting on a park bench and a guy rolls up in his car rolls the window down and asks them for directions to a certain place in Swedish of course these two American guys had no clue what he was saying kind of looked at him quizzically and so the guy repeated the question a second time this time in French well they still didn't know what he was saying so he figured that out and he repeated it a third time this time in German they of course still had no clue what he was saying they're shaking their heads putting their hands up and finally he just rolls up his window and goes on one of the American guys turned to his buddy and said you know I really wish I could learn to speak another language sometime and his buddy said well why that guy knew three languages it didn't do him any good yeah but but communicating where you can understand someone and being able to express your heart is very important in any relationship and it is especially important in your relationship with God so introduce that new believer to a couple of very important verses on prayer to help them see what prayer is and how it should be done now there are lots of verses but introduce them to a couple of basic ones like this Hebrews chapter four in verse 16 let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need and stress to them the importance of being able to be confident in their approach to God they don't have to be afraid they don't have to worry about using the right words they can come confidently to the Lord he will listen to them and he offers help here's another couple of verses that I think every new Christian should grasp about prayer Philippians 4, 6 and 7 do not be anxious about anything you see a new believer needs to learn how to take life's cares and turn them over to the Lord that prayer is not just some routine of certain things like a catechism or something you're supposed to learn prayer is pouring out your heart to God so do not be anxious about anything but in everything in every life circumstance by prayer and petition the word prayer emphasizes worship petition emphasizes the request Paul's not just doubling up words here he's talking about a little different slant on prayer as you come into God's presence and worship him and as you ask him for something with thanksgiving he says present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts in your minds in Christ Jesus so help new believers to see a couple of those basic verses on prayer that highlight the importance of prayer but go a step beyond that with that person you may have seen come to Christ help them understand the experience of prayer as well you see if a person has not been churched if they are not if they haven't grown up in church they may not really understand what they're supposed to do when they pray and so again this is very basic very elementary but it's good especially for a new believer to think of prayer in these terms teach that new believer to pray basically three ways first of all teach him to pray I am thankful for and they can fill in the blanks teaching that prayer is thanksgiving it's praise I'm thankful for then secondly teach them to pray I'm sorry for in other words prayer is confession prayer is owning up to the mistakes and sins in your life and and agreeing with God about them and asking for his forgiveness so I'm thankful for I'm sorry for thirdly I'm asking for these are the requests that we make for ourselves our families others that we you know teach that's very simple very basic yes and most of you in this room have gone far beyond that in your prayer lives but we all need to be reminded of those basics and for a new believer that's a great place to start I'm thankful for I'm sorry for I'm asking for those three areas they can start there you can build on that later or you may want to even take them to the you know the sermon on the mountain Matthew 6 and what we often call the Lord's prayer to really the disciples prayer Jesus used a model prayer to help his disciples understand things they should pray for our father which art in heaven howl would be thy name that's praise that's worship thy kingdom come thy will be done honor of this it is in heaven that's commitment to the will of God give us this day our daily bread that's requesting for provisions that we have forgive us our sins as we forgive those who forgive or sin against us that's asking for forgiveness that's confession of sin lead us not in temptation but deliver us from evil that's asking for God's protection through the day to be spiritually close to him for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen that ends again with worship I mean there's five or six basic simple areas to pray for in the in the disciples prayer so maybe use that and teach them how to pray that's the answer Jesus gave when his disciples said teaches how to pray so it's a good place to start with a new believer so teach them the experience of prayer as well prayer is the second key element in their growth their newfound life in Christ the third key element is the church and a new believer needs to understand that they must spend time with God's people it's very important and again I want to stress the importance of the church why is it important to be involved in a local church to be a part of a local family of believers why is that important well the church is the place where we join with other believers in worshiping God now you can worship God anytime anywhere on your own and I think we should live a lifestyle of worship but there's something about corporate worship that reminds us of what heaven's going to be like at least a little bit reminds us that we gather together with other believers and lift our voices and unison up to God there's something exhilarating about that there's something about that that just lifts our soul into the presence of God church is important for that reason it's important because churches where we learn more of the word of God as you hear it preached as you hear it taught in classes you will learn more of this book you'll understand what God was saying by His love letters to you churches the place where we share our lives in a spiritual family we learn to live together brothers and sisters in Christ and open up our lives to each other churches the place where we receive encouragement and support and care for our needs that's why for all those reasons why the writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 10 and let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another see churches a place for impacting one another's lives and he says all the more as you see the day approaching so help this new believer see the importance of the church but go beyond that help them to see some steps to connecting with the church some steps to connecting with the church want to take just a couple of minutes to emphasize those there are at least four steps important steps to connecting with the church and they're very easy to remember if you can remember the two bands on your radio dial AM FM okay let's do the AM first the first step in connecting with the church is attendance attendance I mean you can't connect with the church if you're not here so the more you're able to attend the better connection you will have with the church so I would encourage you to attend Sunday morning where we gather together to focus on God and worship him and here is word I would encourage you to attend Bible fellowships it will say a little bit more in just a moment about I would encourage you to attend on Sunday night where we gather back together for Bible teaching and also for special programs like we have tonight focus on missions and how the Lord is using people in our church to impact the world it's a great opportunity so be here if you can I'd encourage you to attend on Wednesday nights where there are all kinds of opportunities for your children for your teenagers for you as an adult to get training to get deeper into the word of God to pray together to bring friends to care ministries like grief shared divorce cared so forth all kinds of opportunities on Wednesday nights so attend that's the first step the second step is AM membership now I would be hard pressed to give you a specific verse in the Bible that says you must join a church it's just not that clear in the word of God that you actually have to join a church but the reason why most people don't see membership or many people don't see membership is important is because they they misunderstand what membership is membership is not putting your name on a role of some kind a church role that's not remember you'll never find that in the New Testament what you will find in the New Testament is a commitment to a body of believers and the purpose and the ministries of that body of believers in getting involved and the New Testament does teach that that's what we believe membership is all about so highlight for this new believer the importance the value of membership in a Bible believing church like this one there are others too believe the word of God and are serving the Lord help them understand there are three requirements for church membership one is obviously they must be saved and if they're a new convert they've already done that secondly they need to be baptized they need to publicly declare to other people they're following Christ by that object lesson of baptism third thing is here at Johnson Chapel they need to take 101 now we just really instituted that about a month ago as a requirement for membership and I want to take just a moment to explain that when we voted on that it was the worst vote we've had since I've been here 16 years it's like a 65% vote and it kind of took me back and I thought you know I really didn't explain that very well so that our congregation understood why by the way membership classes are pretty much commonplace in churches our size are larger for two good reasons two very good reasons number one if New Testament identification with a church or membership in a church is not just having your name on a role but it is a commitment to the ministry of a church the beliefs of that church the direction and purpose of that church and say yes I'm on board I'm with you I'm gonna serve with you then people need to understand what those purposes are what that direction is what those go before they become a member you can't commit to something if you don't know what it is so we feel that 101 is a very important part second reason is we're having a lot of folks come to our church from different backgrounds you know different kind of church backgrounds and so forth and we just need to make sure that they understand what kind of church we are what we believe where we stand on certain things before they become a member so it's very commonplace in churches like ours to have a membership class to have folks go through that before they join so they know what they're getting into so that's the reason for that membership in a local church is very important okay the third step a.m. F.M. F is fellowship fellowship that's a great step of commitment and and connecting to a church and the best place to do that is in a Bible fellowship a Bible fellowship is what we call Sunday school classes traditionally they've been called Sunday school classes we feel like Bible fellowship really really identifies the purpose better it's Bible study and it's geared around fellowship that's the place where you're going to be able to connect with a smaller group of people get to know some people your own age your own life stage here the Bible taught fellowship with people around a cup of coffee in a donut and some classes it's a whole breakfast menu but you get to you get to fellowship with some folks and get to know some people that's a great place to connect so fellowship with one another and then a.m. F.M. the last M is ministry you know you will be best connected with this church when you find a place to serve when you're willing to invest your life in something of eternal impact find a place that you heard about a great opportunity this morning mobs and mopettes and I know some of you are wondering what's a mopette well a mopette is a kid of a mop what a mopette is a mopette is just a child of one of those mothers of a preschooler he's the preschooler she's the preschooler and they come with their mothers and so to give the mothers the opportunity to really feel like they can have that undivided time to fellowship with other mothers and to learn to grow we need folks who will care for their children we've got curriculum we've got programs established who does need the workers so there's a place to plug in if you've never plugged in anywhere in ministry now I I see getting involved in the church a twofold responsibility there's responsibility we have to try to work with you to get you as connected as possible but you also have a responsibility individually to take the initiative to get connected sometimes we have folks come here and they say I just can't make a connection sometimes that's partly our fault sometimes it's partly their fault you see you need to take some initiative to attend you need to take some initiative to pursue membership you need to take some initiative to get in a place where you can fellowship with people beyond Sunday morning at this service get in a Bible fellow you need to take the initiative to minister to get involved in some ministry people who do those four things very rarely have any trouble connecting with this church so help new believers to learn what it means to connect with the church the local church is important now quickly the fourth key element in growing in Christ is obedience we must learn to do what pleases God now there's a relationship between love and obedience Jesus talks about that in John chapter 14 connection relationship between love and obedience Jesus said this John 14 verse 15 if you love me you will obey what I command down in verse 21 he says whoever has my commands and obeys them he is the one who loves me verse 23 if anyone loves me he will obey my teaching verse 24 he who does not love me will not obey my teaching four times Jesus makes the connection between love and obedience you see my friend obedience in the Christian life is simply as it is in any relationship understanding what it is that brings pleasure and joy to the one you love and what it is that brings them pain and wanting to do that which brings them joy staying away from that which brings them pain obedience is not a list of do's and don'ts it's not a list of legalistic requirements obedience should never be seen in those ways obedience should be seen not as keeping rules but as keeping myself from breaking Jesus heart of causing him pain by my lifestyle so the question we need to ask ourselves in the matter of obedience is this what needs to change in my life what needs to change in my life you see as I'm reading the word as I'm praying to my heavenly Father as I'm beginning to connect with other believers I'm going to start finding out things that bring God joy and pleasure and also things that bring him pain I'm going to find those in his word other Christians are going to challenge me about those things and when I find a behavior pattern when I find a pattern of speech in my life when I find a pattern of thinking in my life that I realize now that doesn't please God that brings in pain then I want to change my life that's called obedience that's what obedience is obedience to the word of God and then the fifth key element that every young believer needs to know is witnessing talk to others about Christ now the motivation for witnessing his love you know when you love someone you don't mind talking about them but your child but your grandchild but your mate you don't mind talking about someone you really love and the Bible says if we love Jesus Christ we should speak about him as natural as we would a family member that we love why would we be ashamed of someone who gave his entire life who gave his life for us why would we be ashamed of him why would we not want to speak of him to others after the way he showed his love for us surely don't we love him enough to let others know what he's done for them to but there's also a responsibility for witnessing you see God has given us a responsibility to share the gospel with other people not an option to responsibility the motivation should be love we should want to do it anyway but we also have a responsibility to share the gospel this is the means God uses to reach people for himself now there are lots of verses like this in the Bible but let me just remind you of these we've looked at all of them in this study this series of messages Acts 1-8 Jesus told his disciples you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem not an option he just says you will be my witnesses it's not an option it's it's an expectation that God has of us and then 2 Corinthians 5 20 says we've been given a position of responsibility we are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God we're making his appeal through us we implore you on Christ behalf be reconciled to God we have an official position a commission given by God where is ambassador we represent him on planet earth against not an option responsibility we have and then Romans 10 this is powerful Romans 10 for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved how then can they call on the one they have not believed in and how can they believe in the one of whom they've not heard and how can they hear without someone preaching to them and how can they preach unless they're sent as it is written how beautiful of the feet of those who bring good news now that chain of what it takes to get people to faith that that linkage there in those verses really gives us God's plan of getting the gospel to people people cannot believe they will die and go to hell according to those verses unless we get the gospel to them now there are some verses that emphasize God's sovereignty in that and I fully believe that there are other verses that emphasize our responsibility in that those verses emphasize our responsibility I believe God is sovereign enough to choose not only the end but the means and he makes it very clear he has chosen the means of us getting the gospel to people where they will not be saved Romans 10 teaches that very clearly how can they believe in the one they've not heard of how can they hear unless someone tells them so you see we have a responsibility to witness to other people so help that young believer understand that basic responsibility these are the five basics that every new believer needs to learn and you you can help them I've given you kind of a plan a pattern for working with that new believer if you wrote them down if you filled in the blanks jot it down the verses you have got your first discipleship class already ready to work with that new young believer okay and you can get them started and then you can get them involved in ministries of the church that will help them grow but you can get them started you know as you drive around this area go by any school and you'll see the football team or the soccer team or if you were in the gym maybe the volleyball team starting to practice for the fall season and you know in those practices in the fall there's always a lot of going over the basics you know in football they go back over how to block and how to tackle and how to catch a pass and how to move their feet and those kinds of things those are things they learned in elementary school but they go back over those things because most coaches will tell you that when teams mess up they mess up by failing to do the basics and you know what my friend if you come to know Jesus as your Savior if a friend of yours comes to know Christ they've got to get grounded in the basics they've got to get these basic keys to developing their walk with Christ down and then we need to continually be reminded of those things by our coaches remind of those basics so that we don't forget them we don't mess up by losing those basics would you pray with me this morning Father help us to understand clearly what it means to follow you at least to begin that walk with you and I pray that you would help us when we see people come to know Jesus not to abandon them to turn them over to the hospital but to take our responsibility to help them start growing and learning Lord I pray that you would help us to emphasize in our own lives too these very basic truths that we need to continually be reminded of so that we can grow continue growing in Jesus name we pray amen