All right, church, how we doing? Doing good?

You guys excited about the baptism? I mean, it's not going to be epic.

Hope you're going to be there.

You know, save some chicken for me.

I'll be there.

We'll commence to Dunking about 1.45.

So grab your Bibles.

If you got them, I hope you do.

We're going to be in 1st John chapter 3, 1 John, chapter 3.

We're going to pick it up in verse 18. And so we've been in this long study called Give Love a Try. It's just verse by verse through 1 John. And the whole point of 1 John is this

word assurance. That the assurance of your salvation is not rooted in what you do for God,

but what he has done for you. The assurance of your salvation is found in the finished work

at the cross by Jesus, not in how you work for him. The assurance of your salvation is found in the finished work at the cross by Jesus,

not in how you work for him. Last weekend, I was hosting this Bible study retreat kind of

environment, and we're in that environment. This friend of my name Chuck stands up and says

that he's really loved the first John series. He says, because what he's figured out is that,

let's see, I wrote it down. He said it

somewhere I wrote it down. Here it goes. He says, I thought my good deeds would earn me a better

standing with God. But now I'd learn in Christ, it's my standing with God that leads me to good

deeds. And when he said that, I wanted to jump up and down and, you know,

clap and cheer and do a cartwheel and spirit fingers, right? Because I was like, yes, that is it.

That is First John. It's not that our good deeds earn us a better standing with God, but it's in

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