You
Good evening and welcome to verity baptist church. Let's go ahead and find our seeds this evening
Find a seat find a hand roll close to you turn to page number 227
Saw number 227
We will open the service with save by the blood saw number 227 sing it out
Saw number 227 sing it out on the first
Say by the blood of the crucified one
Now ransom from sin and a new world begun
Sing praise to the father and praise to the son
Say by the blood of the crucified one
Say say my sins all pardon my guilt is all gone
Glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of
Saw number 227 say by the blood sing it out on the second
Say by the blood of the crucified one
The angels rejoicing because it is done
A child of the father joined there with the son
Say by the blood of the crucified one
Sing it out glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins all pardon my guilt is all gone
Glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one
Saw number 227 gonna sing it out on the third but I just want to notice on the chorus there's two
Two words you can sing over there for the ladies you guys can sing save and for the man I want you guys to sing glory I'm saved
Glory I'm saved alright you're gonna I'm going to help you guys sing with that
Alright saw number 227 say and glory I'm saved alright saw number 227 sing it out on the third
Say by the blood of the
The father he spake and his will it was done
Great prize of my pardon his own precious son
Say by the blood of the crew alright here we go
Glory I'm saved glory I'm saved my sins all pardon my guilt is all gone
Glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one
That's good I'm gonna ask you guys to sing out with this last one saw number 227 we're gonna finish it strong
On the last
Say by the blood of the crucified one
All hail to the father all hail to the son
All hail to the spirit the great three in one
Say by the blood of the crucified one
One last time glory I'm saved glory I'm saved
All pardon my guilt is all gone
Glory I'm saved glory I'm saved I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one
Amen great singing we want to welcome everyone here to Verity Baptist Church we are so glad that you are here with us tonight
Let's open the service with a word of prayer
Dear heavenly father we love you and we thank you for a great day you've given us and thank you for
Again just for the opportunity to be in your house this evening and thank you for these dear people would come Lord and sing praises to your name
Learn from your words Lord and we pray that you bless everyone we pray for the singing
The preaching and the fellowship and we hope Lord that everything that we said and done this evening will only bring glory and honor to you in Jesus name I pray
Amen
All right it's now time for favorites where if you're selected we will sing a stanza from the song that you picked
Go ahead Dalia
143 song number 143 blessed assurance great song
We're going to keep the good singing going song number 143 sing it out on the first
Blessed assurance Jesus is mine Oh what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God Board of his Spirit, washed in his blood
This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all that day long
Miss Edith 112 112, song number 112
Be still my soul, song number 112 sing it out on the first
Be still my soul, the Lord is on thy side Their patience we, the cross of evil pay
Leave to thy God to order and provide In every change, the faithful will remain
Be still my soul, I pass thy heavenly fan Through thorny waves, into a joyful end
Miss Al go ahead
478 478 what is this?
Song number 178 onward Christian soldiers I think he meant 412
Yep, 412
Onward Christian soldiers, song number 412
Sing this one out with some passion on the first
Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war
With the cross of Jesus going on before
Christ the royal master leads against the fall
Forward into battle, see his banner go
Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war
With the cross of Jesus going on before
Miss Ava 452, song number 452
All I need, song number 452
Jesus Christ is made to me all I need, song number 452 on the first
Jesus Christ is all me, all I need, all I need
He alone is all my plea, he is all I need
Wisdom, righteousness and power, holiness is very hard
My redemption full and free, he is all I need
For the glen, 140, what was it?
143, go back to song number 143
We're gonna sing it out on the second for this one
Perfect submission, perfect delight, sing it out on the second
Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight
Angels descending, ring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all that day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all that day long
Alright, let's sing one more song, brother Matt, go ahead
138, this will be the last song for favorites
The haven of rest, y'all did a fantastic job
Sing, selecting songs this evening but we have to sing it out with this last one
Alright, song number 138, sing it out on the first
My soul inside exile was hard on life's sea
So burdened with sin and distract
Till I heard a sweet voice saying, make me your choice
And I entered the haven of rest
I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest
I'll sail the wide seas no more
My tempest they sweep o'er the wild so busy
In Jesus I'm safe evermore
Amen, great singing
Amen, and we want to welcome you to the Sunday evening service here at Radio Baptist Church
We're so glad that you are with us
Aren't these musicians doing a great job?
They're all doing a good job, I've taught them everything they know
I gave brother Andrew and brother James piano lessons, no I'm kidding
Let's go ahead and take our bulletins and we'll look at some announcements tonight
If you do not have a bulletin raise your hand, one of our ushers can get one for you
And the verse this week, Psalm 65, 11
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness and thy paths drop fatness
And that's a good verse there, we like that
Let's take our bulletins and you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m.
We had a wonderful service this morning, we're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service
And we do invite you to be with us for our midweek service
We do want you to make a note that the midweek service this week is moved from Wednesday to Tuesday
So no Wednesday evening service, there will be a Tuesday evening service at 7 p.m.
And of course that will be in conjunction with our New Year's Eve service, we'll talk about that in a minute
If you look at our soul meeting times, our main soul meeting time is on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And then we have additional sewing times on Thursdays and on Sundays at 2 p.m.
And we'd love of course for you to join us for any of those times
If you are a soul winner, please don't forget to add your salvations
If you have any salvations, add those on your communication card
And you can drop that into the offering plate so we can put that in the bulletin
Also if you have a map that you did not finish, please clearly mark what was done and what was not done
And put it in the bin in the foyer so that we can get that recycled through and get it done
And then of course if you're running late to one of our soul winning meetings, you can call us or text us at the number there
916-868-9080
Let us know that you're planning on being there but you're running late
That way one of our team captains, our soul winning captains, excuse me, can have a map and a partner and everything that you need
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course this week, the big announcement is our New Year's Eve service
On Tuesday, December 31st at 7 p.m.
So again, this will be on Tuesday, not Wednesday this week
And we'll have a normal service like we normally do at 7 p.m.
We'll have singing and prayer and preaching
After the service, we're going to have a potluck
So if you can, please bring a dish to share
And then of course if you want to stay until midnight, then we'll have board games, we'll have a time of fellowship
As we get closer to midnight, we're going to sing some favorites, kind of like we do here on Sunday nights
And then we'll pray in the New Year together
So we want to encourage you to be here for that if you're interested
But even if you, you know, don't want to stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve
We would love for you to be part of the service though at 7 p.m.
And you can just head out after the service or after the potluck
You don't have to stay until midnight
So just make a note of that
And then of course starting January 1st is our 9 chapters a day challenge
And we hope that this will be one of the goals that you do for the new year
And we challenge our entire church family to read 9 chapters in the New Testament
Every day in the month of January
Now you have a chart there in your bulletin that will help you with that
If you take the challenge, you can track that
You'll notice that there's two grace period days just in case you get behind
You've got some time there to catch up
If you finish the task, you of course will not only have read the New Testament in the month of January
But will also put your name on a nice plaque
And we've got plaques from every year
And it shows all the different people that have read through the year
My wife and I have always noticed that January just seems to be a very sweet time
Generally at our church
And I think it has to do with the fact that so many people are in the word of God and reading
So we want to encourage you to be reading 9 chapters a day in the month of January
Make a note of the fact that we have a Spanish service coming up on Saturday, January 11th
If you'd like to participate in that
Make sure that you put that on your calendar
And then also we have the wedding coming up for brother Adam Ritchie and Miss Emily Gessler
On Saturday, January 18th at 2.30 PM
And again, if you're planning on attending and you've not yet RSVP'd through the communication card
Please make sure you do that
So that we can give that number to them
And it will help them to know about that
Choir practice for the adults begins next Sunday
And they're going to start practicing for I Love My Church Sunday
So just make a note of that
There's other things there for you to look at
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries
For the month of December
This week we have Penelope Pompa's birthday is on December 30th
Miss Diane DePasquale has a birthday as well on December 30th
Brother Aiden and Miss Ruby Rolden have an anniversary on December 31st
And Brother John and Miss Irene Reed have an anniversary on December 31st
And Brother Ron Edwards has a birthday on January 1st
And Amaira Holland has a birthday on January 2nd
Praise Report, Money Matters, all of those things are there for you to look at
Don't forget about the Christmas Kiss for Jesus
If you've not yet participated you can do that
Through Tuesday if you'd like to pick something up from this list
These are things that we use on a regular basis
And you can drop it off in the drop off section there
And then of course I just want to remind you that
If you'd like to sign up
If you ladies would like to sign up to help
Bring a meal for Miss Laura Beth who just had her baby this week
You can see my wife after the service
And she has a clipboard and she has the things that you need
In order to get signed up for that
And if you are a first time guest
If it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church
We're so glad that you're with us
We have a gift we'd like to give you
As you walk out of the church building this evening
As you go out to the main foyer
You'll see a little table set up
And on that table you'll see these little gift bags
Please grab one on your way out
As a gift from us to you for being our guest tonight
We appreciate you being here
And we want to make sure you take one of these
There's lots of different resources in this bag
The one I like to highlight is this documentary that our church made
It's called Being Baptist
Very well made, very interesting
We think you'll like it
And we wanted to give this to you as a gift
So please make sure you don't leave here
Without grabbing one of these gift bags on your way out
And if you are a guest we'd ask that you please take a moment
To fill out the communication card
Which is inserted in your bulletin
And if you would take a moment to fill this out
We would appreciate it
You need a pen
You can raise your hand
And one of our ushers will bring you by
A Verity Baptist Church pen
We would love to have a record of your attendance
And we actually would like to send you a little gift in the mail
But we need your information to do that
So please take a moment to fill the card out
When we're done with the announcement
We're gonna sing a song
When we're done singing
We're gonna receive the offering
And as the offering plate goes by
You can drop this card in the offering plate
Or you can hand it to me after the service
I'll be standing at the back door
Greeting people on the way out
And I hope you'll come by and say hello
I think that's it for all the announcements
So we're gonna go ahead and sing the chorus of the week
Which is the insert in your bulletin
And we're gonna sing
I Know Who Holds Tomorrow
It's a good song to sing right before a new year
And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first
I don't know about tomorrow
I just live from day to day
I don't borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to gray
I don't worry or life's future
What Jesus said
And today I'll walk beside Him
For He knows what is ahead
Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand
Good singing out on the second
I don't know about tomorrow
It may bring me poverty
But the one who feeds the sparrow
Is the one who's left by me
The path that is my portion
May be through the flame or flood
But His presence goes before me
And I'm covered with His blood
Many things about tomorrow
I don't seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand
Amen. Good singing. Before the guys come up to help us with the offering, just a quick reminder that we of course are a family integrated church.
We've got mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
Make sure you use those if you need them.
And then of course don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service so that they don't go out in the middle of the preaching.
We'll have the guys come up and help us at this time. Let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for lying us together together tonight.
And it's just a sweet time to be with God's people, singing praises.
And Lord, we pray that you bless the offering, the gift and the giver.
Lord, we pray that you bless the time set aside for the preaching of your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
We'll read the entire chapter as our custom.
Amen.
Jesus passed forth from thence. He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom.
And he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him.
And he came to pass. As Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
When the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners?
But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
But go ye and learn what that meaneth. I'll have mercy, not sacrifice.
For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we in the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?
And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridegroom of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.
No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish.
But they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.
While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying,
My daughter is even now dead, but come, and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment.
For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall behold.
But Jesus turned about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort.
Thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
he said unto them, Give place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And he laughed in the scorn.
When the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
And the fame thereof went abroad into all that land.
And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on us.
When he was come into the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus saith unto them,
Believe ye that I am able to do this. They said unto him, Yea, Lord.
Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.
And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.
But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.
As he went out, behold, he brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil.
And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake. And the multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.
But the Pharisees said, He casted out devils through the prince of the devils.
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted,
and were as scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few.
Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labors into his harvest.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening.
God, I thank you for your word, for our church.
As you please, meet with us tonight, and as you be the pastor, we strengthen him.
And if you're in the spirit, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Alright, well we're there in Matthew chapter number 9.
And I'd like you to look down at verse number 35, Matthew chapter 9 and verse number 35.
These are well-known verses.
The Bible says that Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues,
and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted,
and were as scattered abroad as sheep, having no shepherd.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few.
Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labors into his harvest.
And of course, tonight, today is the last Sunday before we enter into a new year.
And usually around this time of year, during this type of service, I like to preach sermons to prepare us,
as we end an old year and begin a new year.
And this morning, I spoke to the individual, and I talked about being a time to change individually,
for us to grow as people in the new year.
Tonight, I want to speak about our church.
And this might be a little bit different of a sermon than something I would normally preach on,
but being the fact that we're beginning a new year, I think it's appropriate.
And I believe that this coming year, 2025, could be the greatest year of our church's history.
I think it could be the greatest year of growth of our church's history.
And we are coming out of a difficult year, no doubt about it.
I believe that this year, 2024, has been a purge, a bit of a purge on many different levels.
But I believe that purges are there to help us, to prepare us for future growth.
And what I can tell you is this, by God's grace, over the years, we have grown.
And my wife and I started this church 14 years ago in our living room with a handful of people.
And over the last 14 years, the Lord has allowed us to come this far.
And I believe that the same God who has led us thus far will lead us in the future.
And the same ideas that have helped us to grow in the past, I believe will help us to grow again.
Tonight I want to speak on the subject of how we can grow and how we should grow in this coming year.
And if you're there, again, I want you to just notice Matthew 9, 37, the Bible says this,
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous.
The harvest truly is plenteous.
And of course Jesus is not talking about a physical harvest here.
He's talking about a harvest of souls.
He's talking about what we would call the great commission or soul winning.
He says the harvest truly is plenteous.
The word plenteous means abundant.
He says, but there's a problem.
He says the laborers are few.
He says the problem is not with the harvest.
There's enough people out there that need to be reached.
The problem is with the workforce.
He says the laborers are few.
There's not enough workers.
And for that reason he says, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labors into his harvest.
And our church has always emphasized this idea of soul winning and reaching people with the gospel.
Remember when we used to be a soul winning church?
And I say that jokingly of course.
But we've always emphasized this idea of soul winning.
I've often said to our church family that everything we do around here needs to fall under two categories.
Reaching people and teaching people.
If you ever want to know what the mission statement of Verity Baptist Church it is just that.
We are here to reach and we are here to teach.
And as a result of that we've had these values.
These what we might call core values for our church family.
And I want to speak about these just quickly tonight.
And if you want to jot these down then maybe you can go ahead and jot them down if you want to take notes.
And this shouldn't be surprising to you.
These have been the core values of our church from the beginning.
And maybe I've never stated it quite this way.
But these should not be new to you.
You say what is the core values of Verity Baptist Church as far as the things that we value the most that are the core, the DNA of this place.
Number one, soul winning.
Number two, discipleship.
Number three, fellowship.
And number four, serving.
And again that shouldn't be a shocker to any of you if you've been at our church for any length of time.
The things we value here are soul winning, discipleship, fellowship and serving.
Soul winning, discipleship, fellowship and serving.
These are the things that we set out to do when we started this church.
These are the things that we will continue to set out to do over the coming year.
And I believe that these are the things that God will use to help our church.
It's what we've done to help us grow to this place.
And it's what I believe God will use to help us to continue to grow.
So let me just deal with these real quickly tonight and we'll do this as quickly as we can.
Number one, I want to speak or I want to just highlight for you this idea that I believe that our church can grow through soul winning.
I believe that our church can grow.
You say what's the plan for growth in 2025?
We can grow through soul winning.
Let me just say this, personal evangelism still works.
Soul winning still works.
Anything the Bible says to do is always going to work.
And what we need to realize is this, that there is no lack of people out there that need to hear the gospel
and that need to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Look at it again.
Matthew 9, 37.
Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous.
The harvest truly is plentiful.
The harvest truly is abundant.
He says the problem is not with the harvest.
The problem is with the laborers going out to reach people with the gospel.
There is no lack of people that need to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There is no lack of people that are out there who would get saved if somebody would bring the gospel to them.
And by the way, let me just say this.
And tonight I'm going to give you a lot of different things.
And again, this might be a little bit different of a sermon than I normally would preach.
But not only is there not a lack of people that need to be reached out there.
Let me just say this.
There's no lack of people coming to Verity Baptist Church or coming to check out this church from our outreach.
In 2024, here of course at our church and with our staff, we like things to be organized.
I like things to be organized.
And we like to keep track of what our church is doing and things that are being accomplished.
And we track of course our guests.
We have guests that come to our church every week and we appreciate that.
If you're a guest here tonight, we're glad that you're with us.
And I think it's good for us to maybe look at these numbers sometimes and be reminded of these numbers.
In 2024, our church, and this is not counting this week.
This is not counting today.
We've had guests this morning.
We have guests tonight.
But let me say this.
In 2024, I think this is an interesting number for you to know.
Our church has had 373 first-time guests come to Verity Baptist Church just in the last 12 months.
We've had 281 come on Sunday mornings.
We've had 55 come on Sunday night.
We've had 37 come on Wednesday night.
373 first-time guests.
And some churches have problems with trying to get guests in church or get visitors in church.
Our church is not one of those.
We don't have a problem with having guests.
In fact, we do a pretty good job at it.
373 for a church our size is a good number.
As far as keeping guests, every church has problems with keeping guests.
Even Rick Warren, who pastors probably one of the largest churches in America, obviously is a liberal pastor, seeker-sensitive, rock band, fund center type church.
But even a church like that, who's never going to offend anyone and who's never going to hurt anybody's feelings,
they talk about the fact that if they can have one out of 20 guests come back, they consider that a success.
So when you think about these big mega church, fund center type, seeker-sensitive type,
even they say if we can get one out of 20 visitors who come to their church, if we can get one of them to come back, they consider that a success.
So every church, of course, is going to struggle not only with getting guests, but also having guests come back in return.
And our church does a good job with that.
I mean, even this morning, I think we had several guests here this morning that it was their third week and fourth week and fifth week.
And of course, we track those things.
But 373 guests that have came to Verdi Baptist Church this year.
And I say that to you to say this, the harvest truly is plenteous.
And there is no problem with the harvest.
In fact, there's not even a problem necessarily with getting people saved and getting people in church.
And I just say to you that soul winning works.
It still works. It has worked.
The Bible teaches to go, Jesus taught, to go you therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
The Bible tells us to go out by two and two to get people saved.
And of course, we emphasize here at Verdi Baptist Church not only to get people saved, but to follow up, to do our best to follow up and bring guests to church.
And I'm here to tell you it works.
And you might be thinking, I don't know about this soul winning thing.
I don't know if it works.
Sometimes we have dry spells and people go out for a while and they don't have anybody saved.
And they don't have anybody come to church.
And I understand that happens from time to time.
And in fact, I'm going to be teaching lessons on Saturday mornings on things of this nature for a little while.
And one of the lessons I like to teach is on the subject of what to do when you're experiencing a dry spell, out soul winning.
But let me just say to you, soul winning works.
The Word of God works. It still works.
I remember years ago, Brother Jose and I were out soul winning.
And we knocked on a door.
And the lady opened the door and her name was Nicole Johnson.
Of course, you know Ms. Nicole.
And I remember talking to Ms. Nicole and leading her through the Romans road.
And she got saved.
And I remember asking her if she would like to be a guest at our church.
And she said she'd love to, but she had a problem with transportation.
And I said if we sent a van out to pick you up for church, would you be interested in coming?
And she said absolutely.
I don't know how many years ago that was.
I think she's been coming to our church for almost a decade now.
And she started coming to church.
And of course since then she got a license.
Since then she got a vehicle.
And now she drives herself.
But I'm here to tell you that soul winning works.
Getting people saved works.
Following up on people works.
I remember years ago knocking on Brother Salvador's door.
And getting him to come to church.
And having him come to church.
And I don't remember this.
He tells the story.
I'm not sure if he's making it up or not.
But he tells me that not only did I get him to come to church.
But I got him to come to become a three to thrive.
You know Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
That I walked up to him after a Sunday morning.
And I said hey it's good that you've been coming on Sunday mornings.
But you should come on Sunday night.
And he said alright.
And he started coming.
And he started coming on Wednesday night.
And he's been coming ever since.
And I'm just here to tell you.
It works.
It still works.
I remember years ago.
Getting Brother Montel Johnson saved.
And I knocked on his door.
And he got saved.
And it took him a while before he came.
In fact our church had to knock on his door.
He kept moving around in Natomas.
And our church had to knock on his door several times.
But eventually he got here.
And Ms. Lindsey got saved.
And the rest is history.
And they've been with us for a while.
And you say oh you're telling all these old stories.
How about something more recent.
Well just not too long ago.
I knocked on her door and Brother Warren got saved.
And look at this beautiful couple sitting here.
Brother Warren and Ms. Brittany.
If you don't know them you need to get to know them.
And I knocked on her door.
And I had my sons with me.
And Brother Warren got saved.
And it took a little bit.
Brother Warren and Ms. Brittany.
Ms. Brittany told me that after we knocked on their door and they got saved.
They actually were just watching sermons online for a while.
And then they started watching the live streams for a while.
And when they were watching the live streams.
I was preaching a series on how to help people reach their potential.
And it finally got to the point where they said.
You know what we need to just get down there.
And they came.
And Ms. Brittany got saved.
And they've been growing.
And they've been coming.
And they've been serving.
Following up on people works.
Loving people works.
I mean I thank God for all of these personal converts that I have here in our church.
I'll tell you the greatest convert I've ever had is my wife.
I got my wife saved.
As a 17 year old kid.
Got her saved.
And of course we got married.
And you know the story.
What I'm telling you is this.
Soul winning works.
Don't tell me it doesn't.
And it can work for you.
Many of you that are here.
And somebody knocked on your door.
I think we have a guest here tonight.
Came because somebody knocked on their door.
We had a baptism this morning.
Because Brother Johnny knocked on somebody's door.
Brother John got somebody saved.
And followed up with them.
Brother John actually.
And I don't mean to put him on the spot.
He's actually really good at this whole follow up thing.
And I was talking to him this afternoon.
And I said Brother John.
Can you tell me the secret.
You know and I asked him.
I said what's your secret?
Tell me your secret to getting guests in church and getting them baptized.
He said here's my secret.
Two things.
Be nice and follow up.
You know what that means?
Here's what he was telling me.
Just do it.
It works.
Just get their information.
Call them up.
Send them a text.
Put something in the mail.
And we will continue to build this church together.
Soul winning works.
And I believe that in 2025 we can grow this church through soul winning.
Go to John chapter 1 just real quickly.
John chapter 1.
You're there in Matthew.
Mark.
Luke.
John.
And you know when I see these converts here.
At our church.
People that our church reached through soul winning.
We knocked on their door.
You know what it does for me?
It makes me think I want to go get another one.
I want to go find another one.
I want to go soul winning next week and knock on a door.
And who knows who we might meet.
And who knows who we might get saved.
And who knows who might come.
And look you ought to have a goal
as a soul winner at Verity Baptist Church
that in 2025 you want to have a convert
sitting here in church
that you got saved and you knocked on your door
because this works.
It works.
And the only time it doesn't work
is when we don't work it.
Personal evangelism still works.
There's no lack of people out there
that can be reached.
There's no lack of people out there
checking out churches.
There's no lack of people out there to do it.
What we lack as a soul winner
is to go out and knock doors
and do the work and get people saved
and maybe you need to get involved in soul winning.
Maybe you need to take the next step
and learn how to preach the gospel
I want to have a convert. You're getting saved.
Maybe you got to just make a goal this year.
I want to have a convert in church 2025.
I want to have a convert in church.
But I'm here to tell you it works.
Not only does personal evangelism work
but let me say this
inviting friends and family still works.
You know there's a biblical principle
in the Bible we actually see this
John chapter 1
if you look at verse number 40 the Bible says this
John chapter 1 and verse 40
one of the two which heard John speak
and followed him. Notice this
the Bible says was Andrew
Simon Peter's brother.
Now notice Andrew Simon Peter's brother
he hears about Jesus
and the Bible says in verse 41
he first findeth
his own brother Simon.
Simon of course becomes the great apostle
Peter. How did Simon
come to Christ? He came to Christ
because his brother invited him.
He first findeth his own brother Simon
and saith unto him
he have found the Messiahs which being interpreted
which being interpreted
the Christ. Notice verse 42
and he Andrew
brought him
Peter to Jesus.
Not only does knocking doors
still work but let me say this
inviting friends and family still works.
How's the great apostle Peter
brought to Christ? His brother brought him.
His brother invited him.
He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus beheld
him he said thou art Simon the son of Jonah
thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation
of stone. The day following
Jesus would go forth into Galilee
notice this there's a theme here
in verses 40, 41 and 42
we see that Andrew Simon Peter's brother
first findeth his own brother Simon
he goes to him and he brought him
to Jesus. Then in verse 43
we read this and the day following Jesus
would go forth into Galilee and findeth
Philip and saith unto him
follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida
the city of Andrew and Peter
Philip notice these words
findeth Nathanael. Do you see the theme here?
Andrew finds
Simon Peter his brother
Philip findeth Nathanael
and saith unto him we have found him
of whom Moses the law and the prophets
did write Jesus of Nazareth
the son of Joseph. And Nathanael
said unto him. Now notice here's
an objection
Philip finds Nathanael
and Nathanael said unto him
can there any good thing come out of
Nazareth?
And look when you're out and you're inviting
your friends and your family I think you
ought to invite your friends and your family
I think you ought to invite your co-workers
I think you ought to invite your neighbors
I think you ought to live
your life maybe at work with such a
testimony that you can invite your friends
and you can invite your family and look
you ought to invite them to church and they
say to you well can there any good
thing come out of Norwood?
You say how do I respond
to that? Here's how you respond
Philip saith unto him come and see
can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
come and see
when they say to you well I don't know
can any good thing come out of that?
come and see and I'm here to tell you
that soul winning still works
and personal evangelism still works
and knocking doors and preaching the gospel
and following up on guests
and praying for your converts
all of that still works and inviting your friends
and family that still works too
and we want to create an atmosphere here
at Verity Baptist Church where
you feel comfortable inviting
friends and family every week
of the year
that's one of the reasons why we stress
professionalism so much around here
one of the reasons that we
try to serve with excellence
now the main reason we want to serve with
excellence is because we're doing it for the Lord
and anything we do for the Lord we ought to do with excellence
if we're going to do something for God
we ought to do it right
whatsoever thy hand findeth to do
do it with thy might
but you know another reason that these musicians
and these song leaders and this orchestra
that they put so much work and energy
into the things that they do
one of the reasons is because they want your friends
and your family to be impressed
when you invite them to your church
we want them to walk in and say wow
we want them to be like the Queen of Sheba
when she walks into Solomon's Temple
and she says look at how this place
and look at how this place is rented
look at the ushers and look at the safety team
and look at the musicians and look at all
these different things hey we want to create
an atmosphere that welcomes
people so that you can feel
excited about inviting
your friends and family every week
of the year
but let me just say this as well
we also want to give you
opportunities to
invite your friends and family
and we want you to take these opportunities
this is one of the reasons why
at this church at least four times a year
we put on certain events
that are meant to help you
invite friends for example we have
I Love My Church Sunday coming up
that would be a great opportunity for you to invite
your friends and your co-workers, your family members
we of course have Easter
in April, we've got Family Friend Day
our church's anniversary in September
we have Christmas services
of course we just had that
for this year but for next year
we have all opportunities for you
to invite friends and look
you and I have been left on this earth
to reach people with the gospel
what is the purpose of this church?
to reach people and to teach people
and the way that you and I can do that
is by going out there and knocking doors
and preaching the gospel and following up on guests
and inviting them to church
and bringing them to church and every soul
when I have to have a goal this year
I want to have a convert in church
I want to have a convert baptized
in church but you know you can also
say I want to invite a friend
I want to invite a co-worker
I want to invite a family member
we had 373 not counting today
visitors
come to our church in this last year
let me give you the breakdowns
how did these people come?
and again this is not including today
of the 373 visitors that came
to church this last year
138 of them
were invited by a friend or family member
138 of the 373
visitors that we had in church
138 of them were invited by
one of you
invited by a friend or a family member
a church member of our church
went up to their brother
their sister, their co-worker
their neighbor and said
come and see
praise the lord for that
let's make sure we keep doing that
173, 138 were invited by
friends and family
135 were invited by a soul winner
135 had somebody knock on their door
and invite them to church
or leave literature at their door
and they came as a result
138 came from
someone in our church inviting them
a friend or a family member
and 135 came
from soul winning
those are the two major ways that we've had
people come to church
in the last year and over the years
34 of the 373 came
as a result of our connection
to the new IFP
28 came from church mailers
21 from social media
16 just because they drove by
and saw this building and saw that there was
cars in the parking lot and children playing outside
and they said something's going on there
one came because they saw the church van
brother Shaw takes
full credit for that one
they just saw the church van drive by
and it says follow me to
Verity Baptist Church or something and they just
followed and we asked them
how'd you come to church and they wrote down
I followed the church van
I'm here to tell
you
that the things that have brought us to
this place will continue
to help us to grow
because we can grow through soul winning
personal evangelism still
works and you
say well you know my soul winning
doesn't go well and I don't get a lot
of people say well maybe you gotta change some things
go to Acts real
quickly Acts chapter 18 if you're there in John
Acts and
maybe you gotta work on some things
maybe you gotta change some things up maybe you gotta spend some time
in prayer
brother RJ just preached the great soul winning challenge
about how he led a soul winning marathon
in San Jose and he spent
every day leading up to that soul winning marathon
praying that the Lord would give
him some converts and he had 3 people saved
maybe we need to start
praying every day
4 converts and 4 are converts
maybe you need to
read how to win friends and influence people
be a little nicer and smile
we can work on those things
what I'm telling you is
we need to realize that these things work
soul winning works
we can grow through soul winning
let me give you a second thought tonight
not only can we grow through soul winning
we have grown through soul winning
but let me say this we can grow
through discipleship
in Acts 18 I think we find a story that highlights
this very well
Acts 18 in verse number 24
the Bible says this
the word instructed means
this man was instructed means that
he had some initial training
he had some things that he had learned
this man was instructed in the way of the Lord
and being fervent in spirit
he spake and taught diligently
the things of the Lord knowing only
the baptism of John
so Apollos the Bible tells us he was instructed
but his knowledge
was limited
knowing only the baptism of John
and he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue
whom when Aquila and Priscilla
had heard, notice these words
took him unto them
they connected with him
they provided fellowship
they took him unto them
and, notice these words
expounded unto him the way of God
more perfectly
and the word perfectly there means more completely
they provided
full instruction because remember
he had been instructed in the ways of the Lord
but knowing only the baptism of John
the instruction that he had received
had been limited so what Aquila and Priscilla
said they took him unto them
and they expounded unto him the way of God
more perfectly, notice verse 27
and when he had disposed to pass to Iki
the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples
to receive him
who when he was come, notice these words
helped them much
which had believed through grace
so they took him
they expounded unto him
the way of God more perfectly
and then the Bible tells us
that he became valuable
the result was that he was accepted
verse 27, they received him
and, verse 27
he helped them much
he became very valuable
to them
and what we see here
what is it that Aquila and Priscilla were doing
they were engaging in discipleship
they were taking this new convert
this young convert, Apollos
who had a lot of potential
he knew some things
but he needed
more instruction
they needed to balance him out
they needed to kind of fill him in on some things
and they expounded unto him
the way of God
more perfectly
and what were they doing?
they were discipling him
and as a result of discipleship
their ministry grew
and you know our church has always engaged in discipleship
we've always had an emphasis in discipleship
and at times
we've emphasized it more than others
and at times we've gotten busy
and not done things and I understand that
but let me just say this
every time that we've emphasized discipleship
our church has grown
it's helped people
it's helped people to get connected
it's helped them to become valuable
and to learn and to grow
you know over the last few months
I've been doing this
my wife and I have been doing this
I don't know
it's not
I don't know what the right word is
it's not formal
it's not formal at all
but we've kind of been doing this little exercise
where we've been thinking about
people in our church
you know the good ones
and we've been kind of just
dissecting like
what is it that worked
with this individual
and we've been talking about different people
and kind of looking at
characteristics of things
that have worked and again
just kind of this informal
study
because what I wanted to
figure out is this
what have people done naturally
what have people just done out in the wild
that has helped them grow
that has helped them get connected
because if we can figure that out
what people have done naturally
to grow then let's try to
systematize that and
just try to get everybody on that same
agenda and you know as we've been doing this
we've been thinking about people
we've been talking to people
we've been kind of surveying certain people
and you know what we've learned
is that in one way or another
there's about three different things that have helped
new people get connected
in our church over the years
and grow I'm talking about people that are sitting here tonight
great church members that are here
you know these are the three things that we've
kind of learned
is that early on they binge
watched a lot of sermons
now for those of you that came
through the online ministry
a lot of you you know you just
watched a lot of sermons and watched a bunch
of documentaries and things of that
before you ever came to church
and that's been true of you
but you know it hasn't just been that
I mean I think about the people that we've
knocked on their doors even
the people that I mentioned I know
with brother Montel he tells me
when he first started coming to our
church and he had a
job where they would drive a lot and travel
and his wife
would go with him and his kids and they were just
they were just listening to every audio
sermon on the website of Verity Baptist Church
they just got a lot of knowledge
real early on in their walk
with the Lord I think of
brother Warren and Miss
Brittany and they said the same thing they were just watching
a lot of sermons at the beginning
and just getting a lot of
knowledge and that's you know
that's one thing that in
different ways people have done
this idea of kind of just getting a lot of sermons
binge watching not everyone
but that has been a characteristic and
if we ask the question tonight I think that a lot
of you would say yeah you know you're just
listening a lot learning a lot kind of
grabbing a lot early on that has
been one characteristic another characteristic
that we've noticed with people that have done well
is that they had some
sort of a connection already in church
you know this comes of course
when somebody invites a friend
or a family member but somehow they got
connected and they had
a connection and that helped
another thing that we've
learned is that
this has happened a lot and it's happened with
people that had a connection but it's also
happened with people that didn't have a connection
but maybe they just weren't shy
and they just made sure that this happened
but one thing that I've noticed is that
new people that got
connected early and are doing
well in the Christian walk is that
they found someone
that could answer a lot of
questions for them because
a lot of times when people started coming to our church
all of this was new everything
was new and they had a lot of
questions and depending on their background
if they grew up
Catholic they might have had a lot of questions
that had to do with Catholicism or they grew up in
some other type of religion or no
religion at all there was just a lot of questions
and just as we kind of surveyed people
and talked through the testimonies
of different people we just kind of realized
these are three main characteristics
that people have had
over the years that
do well they somehow
some way binge
watched or binge listened to or
got a lot of preaching into them
early on a lot of teaching
early on they had some sort of friend
or some sort of connection
some connection already in church
that helped them or they just
found someone
that they were able to
call and text and
get a lot of questions
answered early
in their walk
with the Lord
and you say why do you bring this up? I bring this up because
for our church for years
I want to say the first time we kind of launched
our discipleship program
I'm not sure
of the year exactly
but it had to have been like 2013 or 14
and I wrote
a discipleship course many of you have gone through
our discipleship course and of course we've revamped it through
the years
but what we did was we did discipleship
in a group setting like a class
setting and people came and that's worked
every time we've done it it's worked well
I feel like people that go through discipleship
they really just get
solid and stable and
it's been a good thing
but one thing that I
didn't like too much about the class
setting is that
when you've got several people going through
these lessons you know if somebody misses
a lesson we kind of we can't wait
for them we just kind of keep going
because we got a whole
group and also it
limits the amount of questions that people
can ask because obviously you've got
five or six people sitting in a discipleship class
they're not just going to sit here and ask
you know every question about everything
in the Bible so one
thing that I'd like for us to do in this coming
year and I'm just explaining to you tonight
you know how are we going to grow how are
we going to continue to expand here
at Verity Baptist Church well one way
is what we've always done soul winning
we're going to keep soul winning we're going to keep knocking
doors we're going to keep inviting friends
and family we're going to keep
creating opportunities for you to do that
but you know another way is that we're going to keep
soul discipleship but I want
to change our discipleship a little
bit in the sense that I want to
try to cover these areas
you know we've been
I've been teaching through this series which I'm not
done on Rooted and Grounded
we've gone through about half of it
we've done 12 lessons in Rooted
and Grounded when we begin the new year we're
going to start it back up and we're going to finish it
up when it's all said and done it's going to be
about 20 lessons and the reason
the way that I've kind of came through these 20
lessons and these 20
sermons that I'm going to preach is
I wanted to be able to take an individual
who just got saved
and take them through these 20 lessons
and by the time they get to lesson
number 20 they're one of us
I mean they just they know everything
they need to know I'm not saying they know
everything about the Bible I'm not saying that they
have everything but I'm saying
they know everything they need to know
as far as what we believe what the
Bible teaches I mean and we start
gradually faith versus works
repent of your sins
eternal security baptism
Bible reading prayers
but I mean we're going to get into
separation and modesty
and standards
and you know all sorts of things
and that has been the goal
and one thing that I'd like for us to do
and one thing we're going to try this coming year
and look we ought to never be afraid
to try new things
we ought to try things and sometimes it works
sometimes it doesn't work but one thing that I'd like
to do is change
our discipleship from a class setting
to a one on one setting
where we can take an individual
that walks one of these 373
people that walk through these back doors
on any given Sunday and say hey
we have a discipleship program
we will connect you if you're a man we'll connect you
with a man if you're a lady we'll connect you with a lady
if you're a couple we'll connect you with
a man that can lead the
couple through this and we'll take you
through these 20 lessons and you say well
what's the point of that what are you trying to accomplish
we're trying to make them binge watch 20 lessons
binge learn 20 lessons
right up front
and we want to give them a friend
and a connection
and a mentor and someone who can be there
and try to answer questions for them
and for some people some things
are going to be more important
than others some people are going to go through
a lesson on eternal security and they're like oh yeah
no problem I believe that other people are going to
have a lot of questions because maybe they grew up in a church
that taught something different than that
and they're going to need somebody to kind of walk them
through that and talk them through that
and this is something that we
want to do we're going to start it
slow in fact just
starting out I'm only going to be
using brother Oliver Deacon Oliver
and my wife to help
us with this but if it goes
well and I'm hoping it goes well in the future
we can have lots of people
connecting with new converts
and helping them taking them through these lessons
teaching them these things creating
an opportunity for them
to have a connection
learn the things they need to learn
and get connected in the things of God
because discipleship has always
worked I think it will continue to work
and I believe that in 2025 we can grow
through discipleship
you're there in Acts 18
go to Acts chapter 2
Acts chapter 2
and by the way let me say this and part of me is
I'm telling you some of these things just so you can be aware
of what's coming
but you know I
don't want to burn people out so
honestly one of the things that I'd like
to do I mean we'll do discipleship
with anybody whenever they want
but one of the things I'd like to do
is even provide discipleship even
during a Sunday night service
and letting a church
a new convert come to church
and they can come in on a Sunday night
and they can sit there and sing
and go through all that but when it comes to the preaching
then maybe we could just dismiss
them and they can go with their discipleship
mentor
and they can go through these lessons
because honestly you know
what a new convert probably needs
more these 20
lessons that we've gone
through in the Rooted and Grounded Series
are going to need that more
urgently than whatever I happen to be
preaching on a Sunday night
now they need what I'm preaching on a Sunday night too
but you know what a new convert
needs? They need to just be really
thoroughly taught what the Bible teaches
about repent of your sins
and they need to just be really grounded on this idea
of eternal security
and they need to be taught about the King James issue
they need to be taught about the reprobate doctrine
they need to be taught about
Zionism they need to be taught these things
they need to be taught about dress standards
and music standards and what
fornication is and what the Bible teaches about
alcohol and honestly
I can't just preach these things every week
and we can't just afford for them to wait
three years or two years
until I get to that subject so we're just going to have them
binge watch it all in the first
20 weeks give it all
to them right up front give them a friend
and a connection give them a mentor to answer their
questions and look you say well what can
we do with that you know pray about that
and encourage
if you know of someone that's coming to church
once we launch this thing say hey you know we got a
discipleship program you ought to sign up
so we can grow through soul winning
we can grow through discipleship
but number three let me say this we can
grow through fellowship
in Acts chapter 2 and verse 42
I want you to notice these words
the Bible says this and they continued
they continued
and that's the goal
the goal is that new converts
would continue
and they continued notice these words steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine
so they continued in the doctrine
they got the teaching they got
the preaching they got the lessons
they continued in their doctrine but notice
it's not just doctrine they continued
in the apostles doctrine and
fellowship they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine
and fellowship and in breaking
of bread and in prayers look at verse 46
Acts 2 46
and they continuing
that's the goal
and they continuing daily
notice these words with one
accord they were united
one accord in the temple
breaking bread from house to house
they eat their meat with gladness
and singleness of heart
singleness of heart that is referring to unity
and I believe
that fellowship is an
aspect of discipleship
and for us
discipleship is and look discipleship
is not just a course you go
through obviously sitting
in church on Sunday morning and Sunday night
and Wednesday night and reading
your Bible at home and all
those things all of that is discipleship
but what we want to do is we want to create
a system if look if we're looking at the
greatest church members our church has
and we're thinking okay all of these people
just binge watch a
bunch of sermons they found
someone to connect with they
had a lot of questions they
asked a lot of questions they got a lot of
questions answered if they kind of did
this naturally on their own and
we see that multiple people who got
connected got rooted got grounded
and they were all kind of doing these same things
then we would be idiots to say well let's
just systematize that
let's just create a system that helps
people get all the 20 lessons
they need upfront get
a mentor and a connection
get someone that they feel comfortable asking
questions to answering questions
having questions answered that's
what we want to do with discipleship but then
along with that we want fellowship
it's not just the apostles doctrine
it's also fellowship
what does fellowship do fellowship
allows them to connect
and fellowship allows them to continue
they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine
and fellowship they continuing
daily with one accord in the temple
the bible says the result was
gladness and
singleness of heart
so we want to grow
through fellowship keep your place there
in in acts we're going to come back to it
put a ribbon or a bookmark there and go with me if you
want to the book of Ephesians Ephesians chapter 4
Acts Romans 1 second Corinthians
Galatians Ephesians Ephesians chapter 4
and look when it comes to fellowship we
provide a lot of fellowship opportunities here
I mean just on
Tuesday we're having our New Year's Eve
service but
when we get into the new year you know we're going
to have our homeschool
Valentine's Day party we're going to have
I love my church Sunday and we're going
to give out popcorn in the morning bags
of popcorn to everyone
who comes that'd be a great time for you to invite a
friend or a family member in the
evening we're going to have a potluck
we have our annual ladies tea
that my wife puts on for all
the ladies we have the annual church picnic
we've got family and friend day
we've got the harvest party and the pie
social and the hot chocolate and
Christmas cookie fellowship and the
senior saints breakfasts and
all the team events and all the events
that you guys have with
your teams and the different holiday
parties and the picnics and all those things look
we've got a lot of opportunities for
people to fellowship and we want to continue
to create
those opportunities here's the thing that I've learned
is I can't make anybody be friends
and I can't even make some
of you be friendly as much as I try
but what we can do is we can
create atmospheres where hopefully
connections can be made
and where people can
can be a part of these things you know
again this is maybe a little bit more
of like a state of the union
for our church address but let me just give you some things
that are coming back in the new year
this is something that we've
kind of let go a little bit but
in the new year we want to bring the youth activities
back and bring back
the teen activities for the young
people one thing that we'd like to do
in this coming year
is bring back the family fun nights
now you probably have no
clue I don't think I don't know that any of you
were here I mean other than like my family
obviously my wife, my family
brother Ray and miss Denise but
years and years and years and years ago we used to have
these family fun nights
and they were really geared
towards the kids and of course we're family integrated
we never separate children from their parents
so parents would come with
the kids but they were kind of like our
church's version of Vacation Bible
School and we would have
songs for the kids and a lesson
for the kids it was just a time to kind of
focus on the kids and we
wanted to bring that back we're going to bring it back
a little different but we want to
bring the family fun nights
and I hope you'll look forward to that
I hope that the young teenagers
the young people will look forward to
these activities what I'm saying to you is
these are all things we've done in the past
and we need to continue to do them because they will help us
to grow we can grow through soul winning
we can grow through discipleship
we can grow through fellowship
number four
we can grow through serving
Ephesians 4 and verse 11 the Bible says this
and he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
why? here's why
for the perfecting of the saints
the word perfecting
means the completing or the maturing
of the saints notice
the Bible says for the work of the ministry
and then it says for the church
for the edifying of the body of Christ
it gives us these three statements
for the perfecting of the saints
for the work of the ministry
for the edifying of the body of Christ
the statement for the perfecting of the saints
has to do with spiritual growth
and do you know that
serving is part of discipleship
and serving
is part of spiritual growth
and if you are going to grow spiritually
you need to find a place to get connected
find a place to serve
but not only
is serving part of individual
growth it's part of corporate
because it says for the perfecting of the saints
it says for the edifying of the body of Christ
what's the body of Christ?
it's the church
and in the middle of these two statements
the perfecting of the saints
the completing of the saints
the maturing of the saints
the growth of the individual saints
and the edifying of the body of Christ
the corporate growth of the church
in the middle of these two statements
is this statement
for the work of the ministry
What does that tell us? It tells us that the work of the ministry helps the individual to grow and the work of the ministry
helps the church to grow.
Serving helps you grow spiritually and serving helps the church grow as well.
Our growing capacity is limited by how many people serve.
See, oftentimes, I just I heard this recently. I thought it was interesting.
Oftentimes the church will think, they'll say, oh well, you know, we have 50 people serving and I don't, I didn't count it,
but our church has way more than 50 people serving. I mean, we actually have a lot of people that serve and praise the Lord for it.
But sometimes people will get this idea. They'll say like, oh, we have 50 people serving because our church has like 200 people.
But the truth is this, you don't have 50 people serving because your church has 200 people, you have 200 people because you have 50 people serving.
Because like we talked about this morning, if we're going to grow, we must grow our capacity.
We must grow our ability. We must grow. That's why I'm so excited that this, you know, the whole, these song leaders,
I mean everybody, the song leaders, the pianists, the orchestra, everybody's just kind of stepped up their game. You say, what's exciting about that?
Hey, when we, when we grow our capacity, it grows our ability to do more and accomplish more.
Growth is always a good thing. Growing personally will help our church grow corporately as well.
Our growing capacity is limited by how many people serve.
And if we can increase our capacity, then we can increase our ability to grow.
Now let me just say this because some of you have servant's hearts and I appreciate you and, but I, let me just be clear.
When I'm talking about getting more people to serve, I'm not talking about getting the same people to do more.
Okay, because I get that there are people out there that, they'll do everything and I appreciate them and their hearts in the right place.
But we're not trying to get, you know, the same 20 people to just do more.
But you know what we are trying to do is to get everybody involved in serving.
Everybody doing something.
Everybody serving in some capacity, somewhere.
We don't want the same people doing more. We don't want to burn everybody out.
And in fact the more people we can get to serve, then the more rest times that we can allow.
Obviously many hands make for a light load and the more individuals involved.
But what I'm saying is this, we want to have everybody serving, everybody doing something,
everybody engaged somewhere. Why?
Because serving will not only help you grow, it will help the church grow.
So we can grow. We can grow through serving.
We can grow through fellowship. We can grow through discipleship.
We can grow through soul winning. Go back to Acts real quickly.
Acts chapter number 6.
So I'm just saying to you, these are all the things that have brought us this far.
And I think these are things that will take us to the next level.
We can grow through soul winning.
Soul winning still works.
Preaching the gospel to people still works.
Getting their information and praying, obviously asking for permission to get their information and praying for them,
following up with them, all of that still works.
Inviting your friends and your family still works.
Discipleship still works.
Getting people connected, giving them someone to connect with,
giving them somebody that can answer questions for them,
getting them some important lessons right up front, all of that works.
Fellowship will help people get connected, it will help people continue, it works.
Serving will still help Christians grow themselves individually and it will help the church grow corporately.
Now you might be asking this question, with all that said,
what does that have to do with me?
Well, let me tell you exactly how you can help.
Because remember, we can grow through serving and we need your help.
You say, well, what are some things that I can do?
Here's some things that you can do.
I'm talking about just the average member here.
You say, I can't play an instrument and I can't, you know, do some of these things.
Okay, here's something that you can do.
Here's something everybody can do.
Number one, show up. Show up.
You know, in the New Year, you need to make a decision that I'm just going to be faithful to church.
Maybe you've allowed the holiday season to kind of take you out,
and I realize people are traveling, I'm not talking about that.
But one thing you can do is to just say, hey, you know what, I need to just be faithful to church,
I need to be a three to thrive, I need to have Brother Salvador walk up to me and say,
hey, you ought to be here on Sunday night, you know, and show up to church.
That's something you can do.
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, three to thrive, show up to church.
That's something you can do.
But, you know, here's something else you can do.
Not only can you show up to church, but you can show up early.
You can show up early or, you know, at least on time and not late.
You say, why?
Because it's exciting when you're here.
The party doesn't start till you get here.
So show up, be here.
You say, why should I show up early?
So you can talk to people, so you can fellowship with people,
so you can develop friendships, so you can grow.
You ought to show up.
You ought to show up early.
Let me say this, you ought to sit up front.
Now, I'm talking about those of you that don't have babies.
If you have babies, obviously, you sit towards the back.
We get that.
But if you don't have little children, you know, sit up front.
Sit closer to the back.
You know what human nature is?
Human nature is to just sit, you know, as far back as possible.
And look, I'm not mad at you guys sitting in the back, all right?
What I'm saying to you, if you don't have a baby, you know, I get it.
You have children.
You got a wife, whatever.
I'm not talking about that.
But if you're able to sit closer, sit up front, hey, that's good.
Because you know what that does?
Is that frees up the back rows for the moms with the young children
that needs to deal with those things.
Look, if you're asking how can I help, here's how you can help.
Show up.
Here's how you can help.
Show up early.
Here's how you can help.
Sit up front.
Here's how you can help.
You know a singing service is more exciting when you sing?
And you ought to sing.
You ought to open up your hymn book.
You ought to open your mouth.
You ought to sing and sing praises to God.
And you say, well, I'm not a very good singer.
You know what the Bible says?
The Bible says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord.
And if the noise that comes out of your mouth is not that, you know, nice, that's okay.
Just make a joyful noise.
But you ought to sing.
The singing services are exciting when you sing.
You ought to serve.
You ought to find somewhere to serve.
If you, and again, I'm not talking to those of you that already do a lot,
but if you're saying I don't really have a place to serve,
I don't have something I'm doing, you ought to figure out a place to serve.
You know in a couple of weeks we're having a training, an audio video training
for people that want to learn about doing live streams
and helping us with the live streams.
You know, if that's something that you could do, you're into technology or whatever,
you ought to sign up.
You ought to go.
Find somewhere to serve.
Here's something everybody can do.
You ought to go soul winning.
You ought to get involved in soul winning.
Remember when we used to go soul winning?
And by the way, when you go to soul winning, show up early and sit up front and sing and get involved.
Get involved.
Look, I'm just telling you that we're not going to come up with some new secret
of here's the secret of how our church is going to grow in the next year.
No, we're going to grow next year the same way we've grown every year.
Soul winning, discipleship, fellowship, serving.
But what we need is your help to get involved.
Are you there in Acts chapter 6?
Let me just show you one verse and we'll be done.
Acts chapter 6 and verse 7.
The Bible says this, and the word of God increase.
And the word of God increase.
I love that phrase because, you know, it might be a little bit of a confusing phrase.
And when the Bible says here that the word of God increase, it doesn't mean that they got more of the word of God,
although they were still writing the New Testament when this was being addressed here.
But what the Bible is saying here, when it says that the word of God increase,
the idea is this, that as a result of their ministry, more people were exposed to the word of God
as a result of what they were doing.
The word of God and the influence of the word of God increase and, notice this,
the number of the disciples multiplied.
So what's our goal in 2025?
For the word of God to increase and for the number of disciples to multiply.
How are we going to do it?
We're going to do it through soul winning.
How are we going to do it?
We're going to do it through discipleship.
How are we going to do it?
We're going to do it through fellowship.
How are we going to do it?
We're going to do it through serving.
And if you're sitting here this evening and you're saying,
Yeah, I've heard this sermon before.
I've heard all these things before.
Soul winning, discipleship, fellowship, serving.
I've heard you talk about all these things.
You know, maybe you're sitting here tonight and you're thinking,
brother you know here we go again with the soul winning discipleship and the
fellowship and serving you know let me say to you it's not here we go again
it's here we grow again because these are all the things that God has used
over the years to help us grow and they'll be the same things that help us
grow next year so how about you get involved how about you find somewhere to
serve and actually show up for soul winning and start singing start being
friendly and maybe connect with someone and invite someone and help someone and
pray for someone and get engaged in all these things because in 2025 I think
we're gonna be able to say that we grow again it's why I had to not go to prayer
Heavenly Father Lord we do love you Lord we thank you for these principles these
timeless principles for church growth and personal growth and Lord I pray you
to help us to grow what I pray that in 2025 there would be a revival of soul
winning at Verity Baptist Church that soul winners will get excited and get on
fire and start following up on their converts and and getting them in church
and getting them in the baptistry and getting them in discipleship Lord help
us to reach people and Lord we pray that as a result of the ministry of this
church at this area that it would be said of our church in this area that the
Word of God increase and the number of the disciples was multiplied Lord I pray
you'd help us help us Lord to keep the main things the main things and Lord
help us to continue to grow as you see fit in the matchless name of the Lord
Jesus Christ we pray amen we're now brother RJ come up and lead us in a
final song just want to give you a couple of reminders first of all don't
forget that if you'd like to bring a meal for Miss Laura Beth if you've not
signed up to bring a meal from Miss Laura Beth and you can see my wife after
the service she has a clipboard and she can get you signed up I think she has
some slots that are still open so if you're able to help with that we would
appreciate that and of course that's just part of loving our church family
and that's all of that is is connecting with people so if you can help with that
would appreciate it and then just want to remind you again that we have a New
Year's Eve service this week so no Wednesday midweek service the midweek
service is being moved to Tuesday 7 p.m. normal service like we normally have
singing prayer preaching at 7 p.m. on Tuesday afterwards we'll have a potluck
and of course we hope that you'll come be a part of that and please bring a
dish to share and then if you stay past that we'll have board games and a time
of fellowship if you stay till midnight we're gonna sing songs we'll pray in the
new year and we'd love for you to participate but even if you don't want
to stay till midnight we have church that night you can come to church come
to the potluck head out after that but just be aware of that that is on Tuesday
December 31st at 7 p.m. that is a Tuesday for the New Year's Eve service
and then of course if you wouldn't mind looking around if your kids made a mess
or anything like that if you could pick up your row or put your handbooks back
we'd appreciate your help with that we hope you know my wife and I hope you
know that we love you we're praying for you and if there's anything that we can
do for you please let us know why brother RJ come up and lead us in a final
song
a mouse carver songbooks and turn to page number three hundred and forty-three
you heard pastor this evening right so we ought to be involved and one way you
can be involved is by singing all right song number three hundred and forty-three
by bus again sing it out on the first we praise the Oh God for the son
for Jesus who died and is now gone
again song number 343 on the second we praise the Oh God
our Savior and scattered our night
hallelujah
revive us again see it out on the third
and that was saying who has born all our sins and has cleansed every stain
a man hallelujah
revive us finish on the last revive us again
fill his heart with thy love may his soul be rekindled with fire from above
hallelujah thy name
amen great singing before we dismiss if anyone here has questions about
salvation baptism or church membership pastor will be at the door and would
love to talk to you directly to someone who's trained to do that as well I'll
ask brother Matt would you dismiss us with the word of prayer
God bless you you're dismissed