Don't Stop Growing - June 8, 2025

If you have a Bible, turn to 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

It's actually going to be on the screen also.

My name is Johnny Esposito.

It means the little husband in Spanish.

God had a sense of humor.

So we say, Amen.

And your pastor had to bring up the size issue.

Okay.

That is not politically correct in America.

Amen.

I'm thankful for the size of this pulpit because when I come to America, sometimes the pulpits are like up here, and I have to stand over here, hold my Bible and my notes.

So I'm thankful for another midget pastor.

Somebody say amen.

And if you think he's five foot seven, I have a bridge in San Francisco.

I want to sell you.

Amen.

Now he is, he is.

I don't think so.

But anyway, it is a joy to be here.

He is a dear friend of ours, has been for oh I'm gonna guess 15 years.

My wife and I, uh Denise, if you'll stand up, she she hates doing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

Uh we've been married for 42 or 43 years.

I'm not sure exactly how long, but don't ask her, she doesn't know either.

We have five children, all of them are in the ministry, and we have uh 32 grandchildren.

We have been on the mission field now for uh about 12 and a half years.

We have been in the ministry for about 42 years.

We were in the ministry for about 30 years before leaving for the mission field.

We have served in uh four different countries, lived and served four different countries.

The country of China, a communist country, country of Laos, uh you know it has Laos, but it's actually Lao, the SS Island, another communist country, uh Thailand and Cambodia.

People ask all the time, actually, your pastor asked me this morning, so where are you now?

You know, because we move around all the time.

People say, Well, why do you move so often?

I don't pay the rent, we get evicted, we have to fight a new country.

No, I'm just kidding.

But anyway, uh we actually have three teams in Asia that are out of our church.

We have 22 missionaries sent out of our church, um, members of our church.

And uh I at one time our church was called Cambodian Baptist Church, so we have a lot of history with Asians.

And so many of them grew up and went back to the mission field.

And so about every two and a half, three years, I move and I work with the different teams of ours.

And I especially work with a lot of leadership development, discipleship, teaching in Bible college, that type of thing.

So that's why we move around a lot.

If you're able to stand, 2 Peter chapter 3, we're gonna read verses uh, well, I I think we're gonna, I we'll see if we have time.

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

2 Peter chapter 1, verse number 3.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Excuse me.

The Bible says this.

Peter is writing to Christians, and his warning is don't be influenced by the false teachers and the false teaching.

May I remind you, we have a lot of voices in the world today that are trying to get our attention, trying to get us away from God and from the things of God.

And we have to be very, very careful who's influencing us.

In the very last verse in this short book, he says, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So in chapter 1, which we'll read, and chapter 3, which we're not reading, he like bookends, he starts off with growing in Christ.

He ends up with growing in Christ.

Why?

Because the best way to keep from being influenced by the world, the flesh, and the devil is to keep growing.

Can everybody say keep growing?

I didn't.

I stopped in eighth grade.

But anyway, you know, I'm talking about growing spiritually.

So let's see what Peter has to say.

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things.

Can everybody say all things?

We're gonna come back to that in a little bit.

He has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

In other words, God has given you and God has given me everything that we need to grow, to become more like Christ.

Let's go ahead to the you already got there.

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.

Can't we say precious promises?

Ah, where do you find those precious promises?

Right in this book.

That's where you find them, and they are precious.

That by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

So basically, Peter is saying in the two verses we just read, he's saying, God's given us everything that we need to grow, to keep growing, not stop growing.

He's given us precious promises found in his word that will help us to become a little bit more like Jesus.

How many of you still have a little bit of way to go to be like Jesus?

Okay, I got two hands up, I got a leg up.

Okay, we have a long way to go, but thank God we're on our way.

Somebody say amen.

And beside this, giving all diligence, can everybody say diligence?

Always remember this.

The Christian life takes a lot of prayer and a lot of work, diligence.

If I'm gonna grow in Christ, if I'm gonna be the man God wants me to be, if you're gonna be the man, the woman God wants you to be, it's gonna take a lot of prayer and it's gonna take a lot of work on our part.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.

Now notice this we're adding, not subtracting.

Unfortunately, some Christians they start subtracting after they've been Christians for a while.

Add to your faith virtue, to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance, patience, and the patience, godliness, and the godliness, brotherly kindness.

Can everybody say brotherly kindness?

Oh boy, we gotta we need a good dose of that in our churches today.

Somebody say amen.

And to brotherly kindness, charity.

Charity is actually from a Greek word agape, agape, agape love.

It's unconditional love.

God wants us to grow, keep growing, don't stop growing, and we'll know that we're getting closer.

We're growing the way we ought to be growing, is if we love others a little bit more today than we did yesterday.

Somebody say amen.

How many of you know sometimes it's hard to love our brothers in Christ?

How many of you have ever noticed that?

Matter of fact, sometimes it's hard to like them.

But you know what?

With God's help and God's power, and as we grow and we keep growing, don't stop growing, we can be the men and women God wants us to be, and we can love people the way God wants us to love them.

Let's go to the word of Lord in prayer, and then we will let you have a seat.

Father, we do pray that you'd bless on the few moments that we have.

We're so thankful for Pastor uh Jason and his uh his friendship over the years.

We're thankful for the opportunity to be here today.

What a great eight o'clock service.

Question-answer time was great.

We're thankful for the ladies who cooked all the food.

We're thankful for this opportunity for the accommodations.

This is just such a great church.

They've been such friends uh for many, many years.

And I pray that you bless the service uh this morning.

Help us, Lord, to grow, to keep growing, and help us, Lord, not to stop growing, and help us to realize when we get a little bit closer to you, as we grow, we will become a little bit more like you and will love people the way we ought to love people.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Uh, talking about growth, since Pastor brought it up about the size issue, amen.

Uh, I I don't know if you've noticed this, but I'm not a very tall man.

Somebody say, Amen.

Uh, when I went when I met my wife many years ago, we started dating.

I was tall, dark, and handsome.

Today I'm short, fat, and ugly.

Hello.

That's what happens the older you get.

But the truth of the matter is, when I was uh uh in junior high, middle school, I actually grew up here uh in Los Angeles area, uh grew up in California.

When I was eighth grade, I was this size.

When I was in eighth grade, middle school, we called it junior high in those days.

When I was in junior high school, I was pretty much about the same size as most of my friends.

I was the same size as the guys, well, not so much the girls.

You know, girls are usually a little bit ahead of the guys, and uh and then eventually the guys catch up.

I never did the catching up thing.

But anyway, so when I was in eighth grade, I was about the same size as most of my friends.

When we hit ninth grade, a lot of my friends started having a growth spurt.

I did not.

When we hit 10th grade, well, I didn't go to school, I got kicked out.

But when I was in 10th grade, old enough to go to 10th grade, uh, my friends kept growing, and the guys grew and the girls grew, and everybody was growing except for Johnny.

And I I and I used to visualize how can I grow?

Can I get somebody to grab my ankles, somebody grab my wrist and stretch me?

Now that didn't work.

I I I I is there a certain kind of medicine that that none of those things worked.

And so here I am today, thanking God that I'm at a church where the pastor is almost my size.

Somebody say amen.

Now, by the way, some of you guys are like disgusting.

You're standing next to me, six foot three, and I'm going, whoa, okay, we're away from here.

I don't mind, by the way, I don't mind being short.

Uh, everywhere I go, I'm getting ready to go to Midwest.

Midwest is terrible.

Cornbread, corn fed, they're all tall.

I don't mind the men being taller than me.

I don't mind the women being taller than me.

To be honest with you, I don't mind the teenagers being taller than me.

But when I go to the K4 class and the kids are tall, me, it bothers me.

Somebody say amen.

Well, here's the thing: God made me this way.

And I'm happy to.

I like being short.

It's hard to get the corn flakes in the morning, but I like being short.

But unfortunately, many Christians stop growing.

I stopped growing physically in eighth grade, but many Christians stopped growing.

So this morning I'm going to take a couple moments and I'm going to talk to you a little bit about this passage of scripture.

We don't have a lot of time, we can't delve into it.

I actually did a six or eight-week series on this passage many, many years ago when I was an assistant pastor at our home church.

But I'm going to delve into it because a lot of times people will ask me, Brother Johnny, how did you end up on the mission field?

Because actually it is a little interesting story, and I don't have time to talk about it.

How did you end up in the ministry?

How did you end up preaching?

How did you end up?

And they'll ask me, how did you end up doing some of the crazy things that you've done?

You lived in two communist countries, you left your family, your friends, you left all the comforts of America.

How did that happen?

Well, here's how it happened.

I grew into it.

Can everybody say grew into it?

And you know God has a purpose and a plan for your life.

Now, I'm gonna guess that most of you won't be going to communist countries next week.

But God does have a purpose and plan for your life.

And your purpose, God's purpose and plan for your life is just as important as God's purpose and plan for my life.

But if you're going to get in that destination God wants you to go, you have to get in the direction God wants you to go.

If you're gonna get that direction, you know what?

You have to grow.

Can everybody say grow?

You have to grow into it.

And so I want to talk to you a little bit about uh this this morning.

I I think we have one more verse.

Do we have one more verse, brother?

Okay, here we go.

For if go back, go back.

Okay, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

I should have mentioned that before we prayed.

But here's the thing God wants us to grow.

If we don't grow, you know what happens?

We become barren.

People say, Well, Brother Johnny, you've been so fruitful in the years you've been in the ministry.

You were so you're so fruitful on the mission field.

How does that happen?

And I say, I grow into it.

I grew into it.

If we want to be fruitful, if we don't want to be blind, go to the next verse.

I think we have one more verse.

But he that lacketh these things, in other words, if you don't grow into it, he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off.

Have you ever noticed at times in your own life for people that you know, we've all experienced this, but we we go into a church service and and exciting worship and a great message, and one person will walk out and say, Man, that was a great message.

Pastor Jason preached a great message.

Man, the worship was great today, the offertory was fantastic, and then the person next to him would say, I just don't see what you see.

Somebody say, Amen.

You know what happens?

We stop growing.

And we don't see the goodness of the Lord.

We don't, you know, Pastor Jason, I mentioned in an earlier service.

Uh I I love coming here.

People say, Brother Johnny, you're an old man, but you're so active and superactive and energetic.

I said, man, you need to know Pastor Jason Brown.

Somebody say amen.

He makes me look oh makes me look like I'm retired.

But here's the thing.

Many Christians stop growing.

And because they stop growing, they become blinded.

And because they stop growing, they're not fruitful.

God has ordained that we would be fruitful.

Jesus said, I've chosen you that you would bring forth fruit.

So I want to talk to you for a couple moments this morning.

I'm growing.

So, brother, if you'll go up to that first slide, just gonna make uh two comments real quickly, share a couple thoughts with you.

Number one, God.

Can everybody say God?

This is not Brother Johnny, it's not Pastor Jason.

God wants us to grow.

Can everybody say grow?

God wants us to grow, God wants us to keep growing.

Can everybody say keep growing?

God wants us to grow, he wants us to keep growing, and he wants us to never stop growing.

Can everybody say never stop growing?

Hey, we don't want to be like Brother Johnny as an eighth grader.

We want to keep growing.

What I have noticed that many Christians, and by the way, I've struggled with it.

We all struggle with it.

There are times where we sort of plateau in our Christian lives and we sort of stop growing.

But that but I have noticed many, many years in the ministry, many, many years as a Christian, one thing that I have noticed is some Christians never start growing.

Can we say start growing?

Now, a lot of times that's our problem.

We share the gospel with somebody.

They get saved, they trust Christ as their Savior.

But we don't follow up on them.

We don't disciple them.

We don't encourage them.

We don't get them into the church services.

And so what happens?

They never start growing.

And that's why every once in a while you'll you'll be somewhere, you're knocking on a door, you're talking to somebody, they'll say, Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian.

I say, Oh, how long you've been a Christian?

Oh, I've been a Christian for 20 years.

And then you're talking to them, and you realize within 10 or 15 minutes they're a baby Christian.

Some Christians never start growing.

Normally that's our fault.

Because we didn't follow up, we didn't disciple, we didn't help them to get involved with services.

But I've also noticed some Christians they they never start growing, but some Christians they do start growing, and they're they're excited about the Lord and they get baptized, and they're in church services and they're reading their Bible and they're praying and all the things that we ought to be doing.

Involved with ministry, they're giving.

But then something happens.

Can everybody say something happens?

Boy, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know that something happens in churches quite frequently.

Maybe there's two a brother and sister in Christ or two brothers in Christ, they don't get along, or the pastor, Pastor Jason gets up and preaches a message, and we know that Pastor Jason would never offend anybody with his preaching.

Somebody say, Amen.

So Pastor Jason says something, we get offended, and you know what happens?

We stop growing.

Some Christians never start growing.

Some Christians start growing and they're doing the things they ought to be, and they're becoming what they ought to be, and and for whatever the case may be, they stop growing.

But you know, God doesn't want us to stop growing, He wants us to grow, keep growing, and never stop growing until we see Jesus face to face.

Somebody say amen.

By the way, that's going to be a glorious day.

No more presence of sin in our lives.

All the things.

By the way, look, we we we we if we're honest, we all have struggles and we're human and and and many of us we would be honest enough to say, oh man, I just can't wait to get rid of this sinful body and the the desires and that type of thing.

Well, that day's gonna come someday.

Somebody say amen.

But until that day, God wants us to grow, keep growing, and never stop growing until we see Him face to face.

If you'll go ahead, I think we have one more slide up there.

I think we do.

Yeah, we do.

Now, real quickly, yeah, real quickly, God has given us everything.

Can everybody say everything?

Everything that we need to grow.

And I want to just share this with you real quickly.

If you'll go back to Second Peter, uh if you have your Bible open, don't worry about it.

2 Peter chapter 1.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Let me read verses verse number 3.

According as his divine power hath given us unto all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

In verse number three, he says he's given us all things.

I want to just real quickly give you a basic little lesson that is good for all of us to be reminded of.

Everything that we need in life to keep growing and not stop growing, God has already provided it for us.

Somebody say amen.

So I've got a list up here of a few things.

Number one, can everybody say Holy Spirit?

Number one, God's given us the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is living with you.

If you're a believer today, you have the Holy Spirit in your heart, your life.

If you're a believer today, the Holy Spirit is there, encourages you, comforts you, and sometimes even convicts you.

Can everybody say convicts?

We have the Holy Spirit.

We have the Holy Spirit that enables us to read the Word of God and understand the Word of God, to behold the unsearchable riches of God's Word, the precious promises.

The Holy Spirit guides, leads us, reminds us of the things that we've been taught in the past.

The Holy Spirit helps us to grow.

How many of you would say, you know, there are times where the Holy Spirit is speaking to me?

I'm no audible voice, but the Spirit is speaking to me, convicting me or encouraging me to make a decision, but I sort of ignore him.

Anybody ever have that problem?

Or am I the only one in the house that's had that problem?

Pastor Jason, you need to raise your hand.

Okay, there you go.

We've all, listen, we've all had, if you're not raising your hand, you're not being honest, okay?

We've all had that problem.

There are times where the Holy Spirit tells us.

I'll never forget uh years ago, my wife and I got in a debate, only debate we've ever had in our 43 years of marriage.

Kidding.

But anyway, we had a little debate, and I left the house and I went to my office.

I was reading the Bible, uh preparing a message to preach in a couple days, you know, and I've got a little bit of anger, bitterness in my heart towards my wife.

And all of a sudden I hear this voice, not an audible voice, I hear this voice speaking to my heart, says, You need to call your wife and apologize and ask her to forgive you.

Who that must be the devil?

Wow.

Whoa! Where where what demonic spirit just walked in here?

And it was the Holy Spirit.

You need to call your wife and say, sorry, please forgive me.

Let me tell you something.

I did not want to call my wife.

I did not want to ask her to forgive me because as far as I was concerned, she was wrong.

Somebody say, Amen.

The amazing thing about my wife and I, we've had a few of these debates over 43 years of marriage, and I've always thought I was right.

And the interesting thing, she's always thought she was right.

But we know she was wrong.

Amen.

But you know, I had to make a decision.

Was I gonna listen to the Holy Spirit?

I did I listened to him and I called my wife.

Anyway, Holy Spirit, everybody say Holy Spirit.

Go ahead, real quickly.

We gotta run.

The word of God, everybody say the word of God.

God has given us his word.

Thank God for it.

By the way, there are thousands, uh, thousands of people groups in the world that do not have a Bible in their language.

We you we ought to be thankful that God has allowed us his word and we have it in our language.

We can read it.

Now we have apps, we we've got the internet, we've got all kind of access to God's word through the preaching and teaching of God's word.

We can read it, we can study it and memorize it, meditate on it.

God's word, can everybody say God's word?

It'll help us to grow.

But only if we read it.

Somebody say amen.

Only if we're listening to the preaching and the teaching.

You know the Holy Spirit can't help us, and you know the word of God cannot help us if we don't say, Here am I?

Lord, are you speaking to me?

One of the best things that ever happened to me, maybe the best thing that ever happened to me after my salvation, concerned my Christian life, is I was taught the importance of getting in God's Word every day.

Every once in a while, some would say, Hey, you want to meet at the gym at such and such time, 5:30, 6 o'clock in the morning.

I said, I already have an appointment.

You have an appointment that early?

Yeah, I have an appointment with God.

Somebody say amen.

The Holy Spirit, the word of God.

Number three, real quickly.

The privilege to pray.

Can everybody say pray?

What a privilege.

We have the privilege.

The veil has been rent.

We have the privilege to go to God in prayer.

We are commanded by God to pray without ceasing.

Over and over again.

Hundreds and verses in the Bible remind us how important prayer is.

If I've got the Word of God, and if I've got the Holy Spirit of God in my heart, I've got the Word of God right here.

If I'm praying, can I tell you something?

I am going to grow.

And I'm going to keep growing, and I won't stop growing until I see Jesus face to face.

But you know, prayer is a wonderful thing.

But it, you know, it doesn't do a whole lot of good if I don't pray.

Now I'm going to confess one of my sins.

I have two sins.

I'll confess one right now.

If you want to know all my sins, talk to my wife.

But anyway, so um reading the Bible, studying the Bible, memorizing scripture, meditating scripture, it comes very easy for me.

I can spend hours reading the Bible.

But to be honest, now I pray every day, but to be honest with you, praying like I should, I tend to struggle a little bit in that area.

And most Christians that I know say they have the same problem.

I think the devil knows that there's power.

Can everybody say power?

Power in prayer.

So God wants me to grow, God wants me to keep growing, God doesn't want me to stop growing.

Some Christians never start growing, some Christians stop growing.

But God wants us to keep growing, and God's given us everything that we need to grow.

He's given us the Holy Spirit living within us.

He's given the word of God.

We have it in our language.

I even have it in big fonts so I could see it, as long as I have glasses on.

But anyway, He's given us the privilege to pray.

But there's a fourth thing that God's given us.

Ah, the church family.

Can everybody say church family?

Oh my goodness.

I have been a Christian for 48 years.

I've been in the ministry about 42 years.

I have never met a strong Christian who was not faithfully gathering together with a church family.

Never.

I know what people say.

Well, you know, I can worship God in the woods while I'm fishing or hunting or watching the Padres.

Padres, man, I'm a Dodger fan.

Well, anyway, I just lost the whole crowd right there.

Oh, I have a story I would like to tell, but I don't have time.

But anyway, church family, hey church family, can I just say something?

We need one another.

We when the doors are opening, we need to gather together.

You say, well, sometimes I don't feel like it.

Can I tell you something?

Almost every Sunday I don't feel like it.

Hello?

But I need it.

I've been a Christian 48 years and I read my Bible and I pray and I'm involved with ministry, but can I tell you something?

There's something about gathering together with the church family, Hebrews chapter 10, 24 and 25, where we encourage one another, we pray for one another, we fellowship with one another.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

We need the church family.

Can everybody say church family?

So if I'm gonna grow, if I'm gonna keep growing, if I'm not gonna stop growing, not only do I need to read my Bible, not only do I need to pray, not only do I need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, I need to be faithful to gather together.

You say, oh yeah, but you don't understand.

I heard pastor tell the same illustration three times in the last three years.

Well, you're better be glad you I wasn't your pastor.

You'd hear it three times in a month anyway.

But here's the thing: we need to gather together.

We need one another, we encourage one another, we pray for one another.

By the way, let me just say this too.

When you gather together, I mean get to know one another.

You know, some sometimes we sort of like to sit in the last row, and as soon as the amen, we're out of there.

That's not healthy for us.

Go ahead, next one.

Ah, the church leaders.

Can everybody say church leaders?

Look, God wants us to grow, God wants us to keep growing, God doesn't want to stop growing.

Some Christians start growing, never start growing, excuse me.

And that's usually our fault.

Some Christians do start growing, but somewhere along the line something happens and they stop growing, but God wants us to keep growing.

But Peter said, God has given us everything that we need to grow and to keep growing and to not stop growing.

And one of those things is church leaders.

Can they say church leaders?

Now, let me let you in on a little secret.

You probably don't know this.

Your pastor's not perfect.

Nope, don't laugh.

You know what, your pastor's not perfect.

There's no perfect pastor, just like there's no perfect church, there's no perfect missionary.

But our church leaders, according to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16, are a gift to the church family.

Ephesians 4:11–16

They pray for us, they teach us, they preach to us, they counsel with us.

By the way, you have a very good pastor.

Very good pastor.

He values people.

I've only been here for a couple hours, and I don't know how many different people I've seen him interacting with and saying things.

He values people.

He's not perfect, but he's God's gift to the Victory Baptist Church family.

And and same with Pastor Daniel back there.

He doesn't know his geography very well.

When I saw his last name, I asked him this morning, hey, your last statement is is that Burmese?

He said, Burmese, what's that?

I said, What do you mean Burmese?

I said, from Burma, Myanmar.

He said, Burma, where's that?

I said, Who was your geography teacher?

He said, I slept in that class.

Amen.

He is the first person I've ever met, especially of Asian descent, that didn't know where Burma was.

Anyway.

I'm not going to ask what Bible college he went to.

Anyway.

So, anyway.

By the way, he's been a great, great help, just doesn't know anything about Burmese people.

Anyway.

But you know, God gives us church leaders.

God gives us a church family.

God's given us the privilege to pray.

He's given us the word of God.

We've got the Holy Spirit living within us.

God's given us everything that we need to grow.

God's given us everything we need to keep growing.

God's given you and me everything that we need to keep growing and not stop growing until we see Jesus face to face.

Somebody say amen.

That's the good news.

Now here's the bad news.

The bad news is this.

That means if I'm not growing, it's not God's fault.

That means if I'm not growing, it's not the church family's fault.

Or the church leader's fault.

That means if I'm not growing, it's.

Flip Will said, the devil made me do it.

No, the devil doesn't make us do anything.

He tempts us, and our flesh stirs us to do what we shouldn't do.

God has a purpose and God has a plan for your life.

God has something very, very special for you to do.

He has a people for you to reach, a people for you to help.

It may not be as a missionary in Asia, but it might be in your neighborhood, it might be some children, teenagers, might be a broken family, it might be whatever.

God has a purpose and plan for your life.

How do you find it?

How do you follow it?

How do you finish it?

You grow.

Can everybody say grow?

You grow into it.

I'll close with this, and Pastor, you could start coming up.

15 years ago, if you would have asked me, if you would ask, if you asked anybody in our church family, could you ever imagine Brother Johnny going to the mission field?

They would have said, absolutely not.

If you would have asked most of our church family 15 years ago, could can you imagine Brother Johnny ever going to serve the mission on the mission field in Asia?

They would have said, never.

Never.

Never.

What happened?

If you would ask me, I would have said, no.

You say, well, how'd you end up on the mission field?

How did you end up in the center of God's will, doing God's purpose and plan for your life?

I grew into it.

One day at a time.

God wants us all to grow, to keep growing, and not stop growing.