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All right, we're here in 1st Peter chapter 2 and the name of the sermon is how to grow in year 2 how to grow in Year 2 and what I mean by that is how to grow Numerically as a church here in Pampanga in year 2 okay now obviously we have a lot of people here from Manila today And we're almost at our two-year anniversary So you kind of look at the sermon is how to grow in year 3 if you're from Manila, okay? So it's fitting no matter who you are in this crowd the name of the sermon is how to grow in year 2 okay? And I want you to look at 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 2 which is our text verse 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 2 Where the Bible reads as? Newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby and see the Bible tells us in this verse that as newborn babes Baby Christians they grow through the milk of the word and he's giving us an example we can understand Because if you've ever been around babies, or you've ever had children obviously they grow Milk when they are first born they survive off of milk, okay as Christians We need the milk of the word Okay, now as you grow It's good to get the lechon right as you grow and you know things you know more spiritually But when you're first newly saved you need the milk of the word and even if you've been saved for five years ten years Twenty years you never grow past the point where you do not need your Bible reading and the basics repeated Over and over and over again, okay now the name of the sermon is how to grow in year two talking about numerically But one thing I want you to understand is this point one if we're going to grow numerically we must retain our current members Retain our current members and what you need to understand is that when this church started It was not just started with the idea that there's 15 people coming to church The idea was there's 15 people that love soul winning 15 people that love Bible reading 15 people that love the Word of God 15 people that aren't going to quit when it gets difficult Okay, this church was not just based on having some people at church It was based on people that have already grown some Spiritually and see what I want you to understand in 1st Peter 2 to see a baby Grows in a set amount of time Nobody gets saved today and then a week from now, they're ready to be a preacher Nobody gets saved and then they're immediately ready to be leading soul winning and stuff like that. No, it takes time to grow Okay now unfortunately, you see a lot of Christians that get saved and they never grow They still don't know the basics of the Bible you ask them questions about the Bible. They don't know the answers to that They don't know anything about the Bible. They've never read the Bible cover to cover Well, how are you gonna grow if you're not reading the Bible because the Bible says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word Why that ye may grow thereby we grow through the Word of God and see what I want you to understand This church was not started with a ton of people but it was started with people that were committed people that love the Word of God people that love the things of God and we would not have started this church if it was just 15 people that Didn't really know much about the Bible They didn't really love soul winning you say why because they would be likely to quit after a little bit of time This church was started with people that love God turn to John 21 John 21 John 21 I still remember we had that meeting at our church in Manila with all the men and I kind of talked about the idea of starting this church plant and Honestly, it was something that I thought about even before I had moved here because you know my wife is kapampangan and I've gone so winning in here before I visited pampanga and everything and Honestly in the back of my heart. I said, you know what? It's I would love to have a church in pampanga, right? You know, I love this area. I've gone so winning in Astro Park, you know, I love the area and everything like that I love the people and so it was always in the back of my mind and the Necessity was that there'd be people ready for the church because you're not going to start a church plant with nobody there Okay, and then we realized that there are people ready when this church started I remember that meeting because basically I was going to come down kind of every other week on Sundays to preach the sermons and then there's other guys that are church that are capable of preaching that would go down from time to time and we said this is Like a three or four month trial to see how it works, right? Because we knew whenever you start a new church, it's going to be a little bit Magu low But given the way we were starting it it's going to be very Magu low, right? It's going to be Magu low not Magu low Okay, and so I was aware of that when this church started but you know We had people in Manila that were committed to coming down Right. This church would not have started if there weren't people in Manila that backed this church that said we're ready for this I still remember it's pretty similar to what we did in Sacramento, California starting sure foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver I remember the meeting we had to discuss the situation and whenever a new church starts You need the sending church to be committed to the work that's being done You need everybody to be behind and say you know what? I'm on board with that. How can I help? What can I do and we had people that were willing to help and I'll tell you what? Everybody in Manila who came down here to preach and everything. They like immediately just fell in love They're like man. I want to come down every Sunday Right, and so I'm glad that we have our church in Manila that is on board with this church It's exciting the work that's being done and I'll tell you what. There are a lot of bigger churches in Mabalaka and Pampanga, but I'll tell you what I don't think there's many churches that are doing more soul winning Even a small number of people are getting more people saved than these churches that are running 200 people They might say Baptist on the name, but what are they really doing? There's not a lot of churches that are doing the work and that's the world we live in Very few churches are doing so winning anymore. Very few churches actually love soul winning and My question would be well What what is your real purpose of going to church if you're not going to get on board with soul winning and try to do? Something and save people from hell. I mean if somebody told you how to go to heaven and you were on your way to hell Why would you not share that with someone else? you are Responsible for people dying and going to hell if you know the truth and you don't spread it to other people I mean imagine if in your pocket you had this magic cure for any disease that takes place Whether it be kovat or whether it be some other disease and you had this magic thing It would just completely get rid of it immediately, but you were just too lazy To actually spend 15 minutes to tell somebody about and give it to them because here's the thing so winning works You get people saved not everybody who hears the gospel gets saved, but certainly a lot do okay? We want to retain our current members you say why would anybody leave though a good church? Well, there's many reasons why people leave good churches. One reason is quite simply people get backslidden Sometimes people are part of a good church and they just get backslidden. Okay, notice what it says in John 21 verse 1 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples of the Sea of Tiberius on this wall and on this wise showed he himself There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus and Nathaniel of Canaan Galilee and the sons of Zebedee and two other of his disciples I mean these are kind of like the top dogs of Christianity at the time you got Simon you got the sons of Thunder James I mean the sons of Thunder James and John and yet they all just kind of quit on the ministry because it got too hard They got backslidden right and realize Jesus has already reappeared to them You would think it would just snap them back into reality But it didn't it still took time for them to get snapped back into reality Okay, because once you backslide, you know what it takes some time to actually climb that mountain again You fall a lot further than you can climb in the same amount of time It takes time to build back up verse 3 Simon Peter saith unto him I go a-fishing They say unto him we also go with thee They went forth and entered into a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing And so Simon Peter is kind of a leader in the early church Okay, now we know understand that the church was built on the Lord Jesus Christ But Simon Peter was kind of a leader in that early church and once he backslides, what does everybody else do they backslide? You say brother Stuckey. Is it a big deal if I quit Church? Yeah, because people are watching you even if you do not realize it if you backslide and quit on God it affects other people and The first thing you learn about Christianity after you get saved is your life is not about you It's not about you. It's about other people. I mean think about it when you get married Who's your life about the person you're married to laying down the your life for the person you're married to you have children What is your life about your children? Children take precedence, right? I mean your life is about your children. It's not about you and your whole life in Christianity It's not about you Going soul-winning is not about you. It's about the people whose doors we knock on and they get saved Right. Our lives are not about us and the amazing thing is this when you live your life for other people It makes you happy as a Christian if you know these things Happy are ye if ye do them. That's what the Bible says Okay, but here you see Simon Peter who is backslidden and he's taking other people with him Verse four but when the morning arose morning was now come Jesus stood on the shore But the disciples knew not that it was Jesus then Jesus saith unto them children have ye any meat they answered him No They don't realize this is Jesus Christ And he said unto them cast the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find They cast therefore and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes So now all of a sudden they catch all of these fish and what is that a symbolism of? Soul winning what's Jesus doing? He's reminding them about the excitement that they used to have Catching souls of men catching fish that are men and getting them saved, right? He's saying you've forsaken what you used to do now You're focused on this secular job and making money and look we understand we all have to make money and work our jobs But at the same time they were called to this ministry. They were hand-picked and chosen by God and they forsook it Okay, now they cannot even bring in the net because of the multitude of fishes you say what's your point? Here's my point when people get backslidden, you know how you revive them You do not revive them by screaming at them and saying, you know, you're lazy and backslidden get right with God That's not what works Jesus actually gives us the example. What does he do? He reminds them of the excitement of catching fish That's the reality Look people will backside in their lives You have ups you have downs and you know people get backslidden and many times you can tell when people are backslidden But you know you do not revive those people by just saying hey, you're lazy and backslidden You need to start going to church more and go soul winning more No, you need to pray about those people and just help them get reminded about the excitement of soul winning I mean you come to an event like this we go out soul winning we come back 42 salvations. Guess what? It's excitement and then all of a sudden the attitude is how foolish was I To forsake serving God Okay, so look when people get backslidden, what do they need? They need encouragement It's usually other factors that cause people to get backslidden. That is the reality. Nobody willingly says, you know what? I'm just deciding right now I'm gonna backslide and quit on soul winning and quit on God things happen on the outside and they affect us and We allow them to affect us too much Okay, but when people get backslidden, what do they need? They need to be encouraged You say why do you say that brother Stuckey? Isn't that what Jesus Christ does here? He doesn't rip them apart and say you're lazy and backslidden Peter No, he just reminds him of the excitement of soul winning go to Luke chapter 10 Luke 10 Luke 10 Now realize that when sermons are preached I'm gonna preach everything the Bible says Okay, but I'll tell you what if I'm gonna try to individually get somebody back into the excitement of serving God You know what? I don't think the best strategy is to just be you know Rooter bastos to them and just say you're lazy and backslidden. No, the best strategy is just get them on board with soul winning again Hey, why don't you come soul winning with us? And once they see somebody get saved, you know what they're gonna get excited in fact all of us we get backslidden from time to time and Then we go out soul winning and we get somebody saved and we come back and our attitude is like Why did I even think about skipping church this morning? Isn't that the way it works? We all have that time We wake up in the morning, man I don't feel like going to church then all of a sudden you go out so when you get somebody saved man How foolish was I right that is the reality? So look we need to retain our current members and one reason why people quit on a good church is they get backslidden All of us get backslidden from time to time. It is reality Okay But another reason is quite simply people get busy they get backslidden and sometimes they just get busy Luke 10 verse 38 Now it came to pass as they went that he entered into a certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house And she had a sister called Mary which also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word. So you've got Martha who is working She's cleaning and everything and then Mary's just listening to Jesus verse 40 But Martha was covered about much serving and came to him and said Lord dost thou not take care that my sister Have left me to serve alone bitter therefore that she helped me now look I believe Martha was a very godly lady Okay, sometimes we look at characters in the Bible We see them make a mistake and we just kind of rip them apart Martha was a very godly lady But she just gets a little bit busy here and she gets busy. She gets tired She's trying to get something done and she puts that above the importance of hearing Jesus Christ But you know if I would look at my life There are definitely times I wake up in the morning and I'm like, you know what man I got so much I got to get done. It's like I'll do the Bible reading later. I mean, isn't that true that we do that sometimes? It's like man. I know I got to do my prayer time. But you know what? I'm really busy right now I got so much going on. I'll just do that later on in the day You know what the problem with that is oftentimes it never happens Right, isn't that true when you say hey, I'll do my Bible reading later on and then all of a sudden it's like oh man It's 10 o'clock at night. What happened with the day, right? And it's just like we should always put God first, but you know sometimes when we get busy we get stressed out You know what we do we put God on the back burner and we say, you know what? I'll go back to God later on. But right now I have to worry about getting all this stuff done that's what Martha is doing. Okay verse 41 and Jesus answered and said under Martha Martha thou are careful and troubled about many things But one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her Now in these verses you do see that Jesus rebukes her, but he does it very softly He doesn't do it in a very rude way, right? He basically corrects her but he does it in a nice way and look we have to realize that you know what when you're part of a church Church is busy You got church You got soul winning and and you know even outside of that of course you should be reading your Bible and praying and sometimes you Get busy in the Christian life and you just want to break right and that's kind of what Martha is here Look when people get busy, we need to be understanding about that now. I believe you ought to be here for church I believe you ought to be soul winning every week I believe you ought to be reading the Bible every day, but if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we let things slip Sometimes people just quite frankly get busy. Okay turn to first Kings 19 first Kings 19 first Kings chapter 19 Why would why would good church members leave a good church? Well, sometimes people get backslidden Sometimes people get busy Sometimes people get burnt out They just get burnt out in the Christian life where they just feel like they need a break from serving God It's just too much. I'm serving God all the time. What reward is it getting me? They get depressed they get burnt out notice what it says in first Kings 19 verse 1 and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and with all how he had slain all the prophets with the sword, right? Elijah stood up to 850 false prophets. I mean, can you imagine 850 powerful men false prophets and Elijah stood up to all? 850 of them you read first Kings chapter 18 and your reaction is man. Nothing would ever get Elijah down I mean, he's like superhuman, right? I mean he comes across like he's just like, you know impossible to bring down and yet in the next chapter What do we see verse 2 then Jezebel sent a messenger onto Elijah saying so let the gods do to me and more also If I make not thy life is a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time So this woman Jezebel says, you know what? I am gonna kill you just like they were killed yesterday Now you would think that Elijah would be like this is only one woman I stood up to all of these false prophets but what is his reaction in verse 3 and when he saw that he arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba which belongeth to Judah and Left his servant there Notice in verse 3 he arises for his life. He is scared. He's gonna die in verse 3. He arises for his life He's scared He's gonna die and then don't miss this last part and left his servant there and left his servant there You know it this is not referring to like he's a rich guy who has like a servant who basically does the cleaning and stuff No This is a servant of God who also loves God and one thing you might not realize when you're reading the Bible All of the great men in the Bible. They have people right there with them, right? You read about John the Baptist It sounds like he's a lone ranger. He's not a lone ranger. He has disciples that are with him because nobody Nobody in this entire world could just be this one person Serving God so winning so winning so winning without other people to build them up Eliza has a servant John the Baptist had disciples every great person even if they're not directly mentioned You know what? They're there helping Nobody does it on their own you say why because you end up getting burnt out in the Christian life I mean, there's a reason why when God sends us so winning he sends us two by two You know why because when you go as a lone person and somebody mocks you at the door it gets to you Right now I realize sometimes, you know, we do our Wednesday soul winning There's there's you know a few of us and we will do like one person going so and we just kind of skip doors and everything Like that, I'm not saying there's not a place for that But the standard in the Bible is sending people out two by two You say why because you get depressed when somebody mocks you and you're by yourself You need other people to help you out but Eliza leaves his servant there he gets burnt out He gets depressed and he leaves his servant there verse 4 but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he Requested for himself that he might die and said it is not enough now It is now enough Oh Lord take away my life for I'm not better than my father's now It's interesting that in verse 3 Elijah is so scared. He's gonna die that he runs for his life Then in verse 4 he's saying God just take me. I'm ready to die It's like what in the world you literally ran for your life the next verse. All right, I'm done I don't want to live anymore. You say why did that happen? What happened because he left his servant there He's only gonna get more depressed not being around people right then he says this at the end Take away my life for I'm not better than my father's and you're seeing an honest statement from Elijah That before this event took place He kind of had developed this attitude on the inside where he literally thought that he was better than his father's Better than the characters like Moses like they got depressed. I never will Okay, and look the reality is when we're serving God and things are going well Even if we don't say it on the inside we kind of feel that way Sometimes we feel like nothing's gonna bring us down and Elijah's being very honest and even a man like Elijah says You know what? I had a little bit of pride when I took out all those false prophets. I outran the chariot I thought I was just you know, never gonna fall at all I was just never gonna have any problems, but then all of a sudden he realized when he got depressed You know what? I'm just a man like everybody else right notice what it says in verse 5 You say what do you do though? If somebody gets burnt out they get depressed well verse 5 and as he lay and slept under a juniper tree Behold then an angel touched him and said unto him arise and eat Now when he's saying arise and eat he is referring to literally eating food But you must understand that even stories that are giving us direct things that took place They also are teaching us things The symbolism is this when you get burnt out arise and eat This is our spiritual food. That is the symbolism that's being said. Hey, you're burnt out in the Christian life arise and eat Hey read the Word of God your life's not gonna seem so bad verse number six and he looked and behold There was a cake baking on the coals and a cruise of water at his head and he did eat and drink and laid him Down again, so he eats a little bit He drinks a little bit verse 7 and the angel of the Lord came again the second time and touched him and said Arise and eat Because the journey is too great for thee. He says, you know what Elijah you didn't eat enough food Why I got big plans for you Elijah, you got something big you got to do in your life So you must realize the determination of how far you go in the spiritual life is determined based on How much do you arise and eat the Word of God? How long you last in the Christian life how long you're energized? How long you have the ability not to fade out and get depressed? It's determined based on how much are you arising and eating the Word of God? That's what he's saying to Elijah, Elijah You're not a normal church member. You're this great prophet I need to use you need to rise and eat a little bit more then in verse 8 And he arose and did eat and drink and when in the strength of that meet 40 days and 40 nights onto Horeb The Mount of God he goes 40 days and 40 nights based on the amount of food and drink he has now Look if you're someone in this room and you say brother Stuckey My goal in life is just to kind of be a church member and Just kind of be kind of half in and half out. Well, you don't really need to read the Bible much for that But if your goal is to be a soul winner until the day you die Well, you need to rise and eat every single day You say my goal is to be a preacher one day. I want to be a pastor one day Well, you better arise and spend a lot of time in the Word of God Every single day you need to spend time why because the journey is too great to just spend five minutes with Jesus every day See if you want to go on a big journey You better spend a lot of time in the Word of God now look if you say I'm only kind of half in this thing Well fine, you don't really have to spend a lot of time in the Word of God But if you want to go on a big journey and do something big for God It's gonna take arising and eating a lot. That's what the Bible is teaching us turn to Psalm 92 Psalm 92 Psalm 92 Now if I'm I'm gonna be completely honest with you in my life I have been backslidden busy and burnout. I've been all those things before I Think if any of us are honest all of us have hit that from time to time Now hopefully when you get a little bit backslidden, it's just a little bit Right hopefully and this is the way I look at it because the Bible likens you know serving God to climbing a mountain just like Moses did in the Bible and What I want you to realize is this that when you're climbing a mountain, it's very difficult It takes a lot of time, and if you slip you're gonna fall a long ways backwards But you know we all slip when we climb mountains from time to time We all lose our footing and lose a couple feet and we have to work back up Here's the problem though. What if you turn around and say you know what I'm gonna walk down the mountain That's the big problem You see people Backslide and they fall a little bit and they need to get back up and they got some scrapes on their legs They're a little bit scratched up and they got to spend 20 minutes to get back where they were But the problem is when you willingly decide you know what I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna serve God less than I did last year That's the problem. You know why? You're gonna go down that mountain really quickly And you know what it's gonna be very hard to stop you and get you to go back up that mountain Notice what it says in Psalm 92 verse 12 Psalm 92 verse 12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing So in verses 13 and 14 was saying bringing forth fruit It's referring to getting people saved and the Bible is saying the person that gets people saved is just quite simply the person that stays in church You say why because if you're in a good church and there's other people going soul-winning When you do get a little bit backslidden when you do get a little bit burnout when you do get a little bit busy Your friends will motivate you to serve God because we all need friends to do that from time to time That's why we need a church. It's not just going soul-winning with nobody else around you You need a church that supports you need a church and people that love you and are helping you. Okay turn to John 1 John 1 It's also why you need preaching that actually will make changes in your life Not just you know, and I get it. There's a time to preach against false religions I preach against false religions and things like that But you know if every sermon is against a false religion, the reality is that's not really gonna help you grow very much You need sermons that are actually going to get to the root of the problems inside of your own hearts, and I need that too You say why because all of us need to fix our lives all of us have character issues we need to fix and we need Preaching that is like the Word of God just going to the inside like it says in Hebrews 4 and just piercing us And look when you see the Word of God and you hear preach you're like man. I need to make some changes but you know if you never hear preaching like that, you're never gonna make any changes and Unfortunately, there's a lot of people that are perfectly happy just walking into church feeling spiritual Not hearing anything because they get to walk out feeling spiritual and It's like you know in Baptist churches help them do that because I'll have this nice fancy altar call at the front We're basically you can be living a wicked life But you get to come down and feel spiritual after you confess all your sins at the altar show me that in the Bible I didn't catch that in any of Jesus's sermons in the Bible now the sort of preaching we need is sermons that actually caused us to make changes in our lives and Look when I'm preaching this I am NOT standing up here saying that I've never been backslidden. I've never been busy I've never been burnt out. We all go through that probably every single month. We go through that I Mean we all every single month. There's some days. You know what you're not quite serving God as much as you did other days Okay, we need preaching that gets us back on the right track, and it is sadly missing in most churches Number one to grow as a church in year two here in Pampanga We need to retain our current members, and here's the thing I love our current members I love our church I don't want to lose anyone you say brother second what if the church would double in size and you lose all the members you Have no deal. I like the members we have and just from a practical standpoint Just because you get a lot of new members. It doesn't mean that they're actually serving God Look, I mean you can you can you can artificially create a big church? By just changing the music changing everything changing the preaching and you can get people to come here but is that really the sort of church you want to be a part of I Would rather be at a church it has 20 30 40 people that actually love God than a church That's 200 people and look I get it there are plenty of Baptist churches here that are running 300 people 400 people But you know I I've heard plenty of stories Where they ask people who's read the Bible in those churches and like nobody raises their hand nobody's read the Bible cover to cover Look at our church most people have read the Bible cover to cover many of you have read it lots of times I mean, it's pretty sad if you've been saved for five years ten years twenty years, and you've never read the Bible It's like you know obviously you know we want our church to grow But you do not want to get rid of the quality as you add quantity you must retain the quality And then add more quantity and when new people come everything's new to them Most of them have not listened to online preaching for five years Right most of them have not listened to online preaching for eight years But you know you can get somebody saved door-to-door, and they hear this kind of preaching they start reading the Bible They're gonna grow just like anybody would why because the milk of the word makes you grow That's the way it works And we can reach people here that live near this church that are not saved that are Catholics that have never read the Bible That don't know anything about the Word of God and they can get saved and become a soul winner and start growing You say brother Stuckey. I don't know I feel like you need the online ministry to do that look I was going soul winning before the new I've ever existed I have been soul winning less than a year after I got saved when I was 19 years old and Yeah, I had a lot of changes I needed to make I needed to quit listening the music I was listening to the movies and the TV shows I was watching and things like that. You know I was going soul winning when I was 19 years old back in 2004 Right from the old IFB. I was going soul winning for years and years you say why because you know I was just in a church that preached hard against sin I started reading the Bible because the church encouraged me to read the Bible I had friends that were like-minded that that encouraged us to go soul winning and things like that look we could get somebody saved today and Next week they can start serving God and they could end up being a great great church member But everybody starts out as a baby Christian when they first get saved So it's gonna take some time which is why we need to retain the church members. We already have okay number one We need to retain the church members. We already have number two. We need to recruit acquaintances Retain our current church members and recruit acquaintances you say what do you mean by acquaintances? Friends family co-workers and people that you see from time to time notice what it says in John 1 verse 35 John 1 verse 35 Again the next day after John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked He saith behold the Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus verse 38 Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them. What seek ye they said unto him rabbi Which is to say being interpreted master where dwells thou he saith unto them come and see They came and saw where he dwelt in a boat with him that day for is about the tenth hour Verse 40 one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother So one of the two here is Andrew notice verse 41 He first findeth his own brother Simon This is Simon Peter the great Peter who was like a leader in the early church He first findeth his own brother Simon and saith unto them we have found the Messiah's which is being interpreted The Christ and he brought him to Jesus. So the first person that Andrew recruits is his brother Simon Peter Came after Andrew Andrew recruited Simon Peter. Look the best people you could bring to church are your family That's the reality the best people you could bring to church or your family now I understand for some people that might not be possible I understand for some of you your family or diehard, you know Catholics or whatever called or whatever They're part of and look they maybe they would hate this church But I'll tell you what, those are the people you ought to try to reach and get saved and try to invite to church That is what you see here in John chapter 1 one great way a church can grow is just that you and people invite their Family and look is that not true in Manila that we've seen that that many people have come to church and they've invited Family said hey, why don't you come and join our church and then they come and they check it out and they like it And guess what as you get new people, they all just invite their family and you know what that is how a church grows Okay. So what we need to do is this we need to recruit acquaintances and that starts with family if possible Verse 42 and he brought him to Jesus and then verse 43 go there verse 43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip and saith unto him follow me now Philip was a was of Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph and so look when Philip finds Nathaniel I think it's pretty obvious that Nathaniel is not just a random person that he just says hey Nathaniel we found the Christ It's actually somebody that he knows Whether it's a friend or whether it's an acquaintance. He already knows this person and he's exciting He says guess what Nathaniel we found the Messiah. We found the Christ. This is a friend This is an acquaintance. Okay, we need to recruit family and we need to recruit Friends and that's what you see here and it says Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph Verse 46 and Nathaniel said unto him can there any good thing come out of Nazareth you say brother Stuckey I don't want to invite my co-workers and friends and acquaintances and family because they might get mad I mean brother Stuckey, you don't exactly preach, you know the softest most encouraging sermons, you know your sermons You're yelling and preaching against sin and stuff I'm afraid if I if I invite my friends and acquaintances They'll get mad and they'll never talk to me ever again Well, let me explain something to you if somebody is your friends, but they do not like the God that you serve They're probably not the best friend to have anyway. I Mean, we've got a church full of people you got friends at church. So you say your church family There's already friends you can have at church. So look if somebody's gonna come to church say man, I don't like that I still don't believe Jesus is God you guys are hateful Is that the person you want to be best friends with you say brother Stuckey there? They've been one of my best friends for years. Yeah, but you know, once you start serving God, there's something that takes place There's kind of a change in who your best friends are. That's the reality Look the people that I was friends with before I was saved guess how many of them I'm friends with now none None of them and here's the reality. I didn't discard them They discarded me They didn't want to be friends with me anymore. It's like brother Stuckey I like playing basketball with you before you started quoting the Bible in between, you know games. It's like brother Stuckey I like playing soccer with you before you started talking about the Bible brother Stuckey I liked you a little bit better when I could use the Lord's name in vain and you didn't complain about it Right because the reason why some people were your friends and they're not now. Here's the reality they didn't change You changed That's the truth. They didn't change you changed and what's the result? They don't want to be friends with you anymore That's why again you need a church family that's serving God because you have friends at church You have a church family that supports you ends behind you why most of your friends will reject you when you start serving God Verse 46 and the thing will set onto them. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth you say brother Stuckey? I'm worried. This is what they're gonna say. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? I don't want to hear that preacher or whatever Phillip saith on to him come and see Would it really be that hard to talk to your friends and you tell them hey, you know, this is a great church Great preaching you'll love this church and they say, you know, I don't really know would it really be that hard to say? Hey come and see Come check it out one time. See what it's like Just give it a chance one time and see if you like the church I mean, it's not a hardcore reaction that Phillip says he just says hey come and see Come check it out. You're skeptical. Well, hey come and see find out for yourself and Nathaniel comes, right? That's all you have to do All you have to do is literally hand an invitation to your friend or your co-worker your acquaintance and say hey Why don't you check out our church sometime? Now look, of course if you get the chance to preach the gospel, that's better But hey, maybe you don't get a chance sometimes Maybe you go to the gym or whatever and you know, you only talk to someone for two minutes Just give them an invite say hey, we got our church anniversary coming up. Why don't you stop by church? Just come and see What's the reality most will not come? but some will come and Look, you might invite 20 people and one person comes but isn't that worth it? and when you have a church full of 30 people 40 people 50 people if Everybody invites five people. Guess what some people will come maybe not your friends Maybe not your acquaintances, but some people will come that's the reality Go to Matthew 28 Matthew 28 Matthew 28 Now you're always worried when you invite somebody new it's like man, I hope brother Stuckey doesn't preach this one sermon It's like man, I want my friend to come to church But there's this one thing that he's got an issue with in his life and says I just hope brother Stuckey Sermon has nothing to do with that and then you come and then usually find out that's exactly what the sermon is about You say why does it work that way? It works that way because that's what that person needs to hear That's the reality Right. I mean, I remember inviting my dad to church, right? I remember inviting him out when we're at faithful word, you know it and I was just thinking man I just hope and I grew up a United Methodist okay, and it's like pastor Anderson's never really preached against the United Methodist before and just he went on a rabbit trail in the United Methodist for like 15 minutes during the sermon and I'm just sitting in my seat like oh you got to be kidding me It's like, you know the one topic and what my dad got saved later that day and baptized We have this idea that oh if the preacher preaches something my friends gonna get offended but you know the way God has designed things is that you know sermons can be preached and Usually people aren't gonna get super offended you say why because I'm not preaching to one person It's not like I'm just looking at you know, one person say hey, you know, you're doing this wrong now That would be offensive But when you're preaching to a crowd of people you're just preaching a sermon and people are actually able to hear what they need to Hear without having to get rebuked and offended. This is how God designed it and Look, I get it. Sometimes they're gonna be mad. But the good news for you is they're gonna hate me more than you Okay, so they go away and they hate me that's fine. That's the way it is That's your job as a preacher, you know, people aren't always gonna like what you say, you know, usually usually they can take more than you think and The reality is if there's this one issue That they're struggling with and they come to church and that's exactly what I preach on. Look. I didn't plan that ahead of time It's not like I consult with members like hey, what do you want me to preach on this week? It's like look I write my sermons like a month before I preach them usually so they're already written and then sometimes I look At them and I know oh man, this is gonna be exactly what you know, the perfect timing for such-and-such person That's the way God designed it though. I Didn't design it that way God designed it that way and look if they have an issue they need to hear Well, it's good. They get to hear it from a man of God preaching the Word of God If they need to fix that issue Then they need to hear a sermon about it and they're gonna have the choice Are they gonna adhere to the Word of God or are they gonna reject the Word of God? Most people don't want to hear this kind of preaching most people would love to go to CCF Most people would love to go to victory That's fine. We're not trying to run a mega church We're trying to run a church that goes soul-winning and gets people saved. We don't need a mega church. Okay? Point number one. We must retain our current members point two. We must recruit acquaintances Point three we must reach new members and when I say new members I mean people that we have never met before people that we're gonna knock on their door. They're brand new We've never met them. We must convince people like that. We must reach people like that and bring them to church okay, Matthew 28 verse 18 and Jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Okay now he says teach all nations Obviously, you know, he's not saying that you're individually gonna reach every nation by doing all these soul-winning marathons Obviously God's plan is getting churches started all over the world. That's how you reach all of the world This church is never gonna reach people in Down or whatever country in Africa now, maybe through online preaching somebody listens But the reality is you need churches in locations to accurately reach them. Yes people get saved from the online ministry That is not a substitute for church. You need a bona fide church in every area. Okay, go ye therefore and teach all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever commanded you and lo I'm with you always even on to the end of the world Amen now there are several times where Jesus gives last commands to go soul-winning and Here is one of them and what we must understand is this the Great Commission is not just soul-winning the Great Commission is also getting people baptized and Teaching them to observe all things. It is not just so any now soul-winning is obviously the first step I mean, you're not gonna get somebody baptized Unless they get saved first. I mean, I guess you could and say well look at all these people we baptized like hey I'll give you you know 50 pesos if I can dunk you underwater right now Well, maybe you could do that if you want, but you got to go soul-winning and that's the first step But that's not the only part of the Great Commission If we're gonna really fulfill the Great Commission It means get people saved and get them in church and get them baptized and get them to stick around and hear all things That is what the Bible is saying teaching them to observe all things you will not teach them to observe everything in 20 minutes when you run into them in person and Look, even if you get them saved and spend five minutes afterwards explaining some things in the Bible You're not going to cover everything they need to hear The only way they're gonna get that is if they're coming and hearing hours of preaching every week That is how they're gonna learn and hear everything. Okay, so when it comes to the Great Commission It's not just about getting people saved We also want to bring them to church and teach them and then bring more people and more people that is how a church grows Okay You say brother sucky. How do we do that? He said I've been soul-winning for 10 years And you know what very rarely do people come to church and look that is the reality That most of the time people don't come to church I will say this though and look I am NOT the best person at bringing a peep people to church But I'm also not the worst person. Okay, but let me explain something There are certain people that are better than other people are bringing their converts to church. Is that not true? Certain people are capable of bringing people So look if we're honest with ourselves and we don't lie against the truth. There must be something they're doing Right if certain people are always the people that bring new people Obviously, there's something they're doing and look as a soul winner. I want to tap into that you say why I want to see my converts In church, I want to bring people to church and get them baptized and teach them these things Okay, so you say what do we do then brother stuck you to bring new people that we've never met before Well, let me tell you what you do not do you're not in the conversation and then just that's it say, okay Amen, and then just walk away and you don't know their name You know, you don't find out anything about them. You just got them saying then you're on to the next door No You have to actually talk to them for a little bit afterwards and what you need to do after they get saved is this first Fervently invite them to church Fervently means with great zeal be excited and tell them hey, you ought to come to our church, man This is the best church in town. It's the best preaching you're gonna hear great friends great church family You need to be excited to invite him to church if after they get saved you're like, oh, yeah, you know our church meets over there Anyways, I'll talk to you later. I'll see you up in heaven. Do you think they're gonna come to church? Probably not Right, you need to fervently invite them to church You say why do you fervently invite them to church you fervently invite them to church to find out if they are interested Because many people we get saved are not interested in church There are certain people that will listen to the gospel, but they will never set foot in church Right, especially now as everyone has fears about COVID and everything like that. That's certainly true Some people listen to gospel, but it's like oh man. I can't be around other people for Three years or something. I don't know you fervently invite to church in Order to find out if they're interested and you know what? Sometimes what you'll find out is this you say hey Why don't you come to church on Sunday? Are you gonna come would you like to come some will say well, you know If I'm not busy, what does that tell you they have no interest in church? Right when you fervently invite them to church and their reaction is yeah, I'll try to check it out sometime Translation I am never setting foot in that church Or if they say, you know, hey, you know, I I'd like to kind I work though. I don't know They're not gonna come they might come if they actually sound like they will come Right if they respond. Yeah, you know, I want to come to church I'm gonna come on Sunday if they say I'm gonna come on Sunday. Hey, it sounds good. I need to hear this You know what? They might come They probably still won't come but they might come Okay, but if they respond like I you know, I don't know I'll try to make it they're never gonna come you say Why do you want to do this? So because of the fact eventually you want to follow up you fervently invite you find out who's interested and you follow up with Those who are interested not with those who are not interested You say why because if somebody has no interest in coming to church if someone tells you, you know what? I'm just not interested in going to church right now. There's no need to knock on their door next week and say hey Have you changed your mind? There's no need to send them a text message or call them say hey, did you change your mind you say why? I mean, I'll just to follow up on everybody because if you follow up on everybody you're gonna get depressed Because it's gonna be failure failure failure failure failure, right? You find out who is interested and you follow up with those that are interested if they're not interested No need to follow up if they are interested though, you know what it's worth following up you say brother stuck here Are you saying I need to revisit their house and everything? Look, all you have to do is get their phone number and send them a text message All you got to do is add them on Facebook and send them a message on Saturday night and say hey I just want to remind you about church. I Mean, it doesn't take something extreme Right now I don't have it in front of me I should have had it But we do have follow-up cards and look when it comes to following up on people. This is something I've not pushed for the last Eight months in either church because of everything that happened because in Manila if you remember we had this big follow-up program I'd organized I was excited. We have three teams and you're gonna go soul winning with your team You're gonna encourage one another to bring people to church and then all of a sudden it's just like Okay, forget about that until next year Okay, I wanted to make following up on people exciting, right? But I want you to realize, you know, it's not really that difficult to just send somebody a text message Give them a call on a Saturday and just say hey, you know just want to remind you about church You know when I was in Sacramento because I mean things are a little bit different here But in Sacramento, you know, I would always get their address and their name and what I would say is this hey You know, do you mind if I just you know get your information? I just want to pray for you about something and then I just write down their information Get their phone number write down their address and my wife and I on Saturdays We would drop by with a bag of chocolate chip cookies and just a small bag and we would have like a note on it So if they didn't answer the door There'd be a note that they could read just inviting them to church and then that night I would call them to remind them about church It made it really easy to call them and you know re-invite them to church and it did work People came to church as a result of that now. I did not invent that I learned that from Pastor Jimenez who did the exact same thing and it works It does work when you just follow up on people and invite them to church Now most still do not come, but you know I've seen people that have gotten baptized and started coming to church just by following up a little bit And what you must realize is that if we get 30 people saved in a week 30 people say which is a really low number for a church in Manila But let's say you get 30 people saved Well, let's say we get 10 people saved here in Pampanga and we just send a text message to all 10 of those people Hey, maybe nobody's gonna come for the first or second week, but you know, you'll start to get some visitors because here's the reality it is intimidating for people to walk into a room where they know nobody and Just sit down somewhere and just start coming to church. That's intimidating. I mean, isn't that true? I mean when I visit churches when I'm on vacation, you know, it's intimidating even if it's a church That's just the same as the church. I'm at it's just like you know what? It's still intimidating because you're wondering am I sitting in somebody's seats, you know Are they gonna make me stand up and introduce myself or something that will embarrass me or whatever? It's just like, you know what? It's just a little bit intimidating So the reality is you might feel uncomfortable sending them a text message and getting their information But here's the reality They're gonna feel more uncomfortable coming to church and they probably are not gonna come unless you follow up a little bit You say brother Stuckey. What made you start coming to church? What made me start coming to church after I got saved is I met somebody on a Friday night I believe it was I don't think it was Saturday I think it was a Friday night and I was preaching the gospel to someone but I wasn't really in a pattern of Going to church and I was new at preaching the gospel So this person helped me and then all of a sudden he invited me to church and I said, yeah, you know come on Sunday He said yeah, I'll give you a ride because I didn't have a car in college and then on Sunday morning. He called me He said hey, do you still want to come to church? And if I'm honest I lied to him because I said Yes, I still want to come to church because the reality was I didn't still want to come to church I mean, it sounded good on a Friday night. I just got saved man. This is exciting man I'm gonna come to church then on Sunday. It's like oh man. I don't know anybody I'm a shy person and everything, but I was taught at a young age if you give your word you stick with it So I probably shouldn't have lied. I probably should said I don't want to come to church, but I will okay But I started coming to church and you know what? I've been going to church ever since that Sunday because somebody actually I mean It wasn't the exact same thing as follow-up because I'd gotten saved months earlier But sometimes you need people to just kind of encourage you to get in church because people are uncomfortable Okay now turn in your Bible to Matthew 16 Matthew 16 Matthew 16 Now I want you to realize we all have different personalities and when it comes to preaching the gospel The truth is that it's good to start off with like a set pattern of how to preach the gospel And after you've been doing it for a while you kind of just make that gospel presentation your own Right you change some things Explain things a little bit differently, you know Maybe you know you you move around the verses from Acts 16 to Romans 6 how you want to explain them and that's fine As long as you're explaining the same things as long as you're not preaching any heresy I mean nothing wrong with making it your own Well, I would encourage you with follow-up to basically, you know Because when you first started going soul-winning you didn't know what you were doing and you kind of just went out there And you know what? You probably made a lot of mistakes and got embarrassed and you kind of just work through that I would encourage you to do the same with follow-up when you first started. Here's a reality. You're gonna be nervous You're gonna make mistakes You're gonna mess up, but eventually you're gonna develop a pattern and it's just gonna be kind of come routine It's gonna come very smoothly because if you've been preaching the gospel for a couple years, it probably comes pretty smoothly, right? You know what? You're gonna say, you know what you're gonna explain, you know, what verses you're gonna go to But it did not start off that way and see in the Christian life We always should have a pattern of being willing to step out of the boat and go on Uncertain ground and be a little bit nervous That is how you accomplish things by taking chances and look, you know what if you start doing it after a little while You know what? You're gonna develop a pattern It's not gonna make you that nervous And if everybody at our church was making it a routine to try to follow up and I'm not saying you have to visit I'm saying you could just send a text message. Just send a message on Facebook. You know what people will start to come Now it's gonna take time It's not gonna be easy But people will start to come do not rely on the online preaching to build a church Don't rely on just us preaching sermons and somebody hears about our church We need to go out there and get them and bring people to church. Okay? Matthew 16 number one we must retain current members number two We must recruit acquaintances number three. We must reach new members and Number four we must receive God's blessing We must have God look down at us as a church and say this is a bona fide church that loves soul winning that I support that I'm behind Matthew 16 verse 17 and Jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee But my father which is in heaven and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it now when Jesus says upon this rock He is referring to himself. You know, I've talked about that in other sermons, but he's saying upon this rock. I will build my church. I Will build my church Do you notice that I will build my church? He's referring to himself Jesus saying you know what I am going to build my church referring to any local church So what do we need to do? Well, what we need to do is just follow what God tells us to do and if we have his blessing the church is gonna grow Right now look if we never win soul winning and we didn't preach the truth and we just sat here and said God's gonna build The church. Well, that's not gonna happen, right? So we do have to put in effort. We got to do the soul winning. We got to do the follow-up We got to try to recruit acquaintances But then we trust in God that if we have his blessing he will build the church go to mark 16 mark 16 Mark chapter 16. We'll look at a few more places Mark chapter 16 and Look this sermon is gonna be a little bit longer because we only got one Good luck getting a Baptist preacher to shorten a sermon. Okay. I mean you think my sermons are long It's like good night, man And some of the readout preaching conferences is like time limit you got 30 minutes to preach an hour and 40 minutes later It's like okay, they're done right my sermons aren't that long okay, mark 16 verse 15 and He said on to them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Right in mark 16 verse 15. God commands us to go and preach the gospel to every creature Now he says go ye into all the world ye is plural So what he's saying is I'm telling everybody just as in church I say hey We all ought to go out and preach the gospel get people saved right go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to Every creature Okay. Now this does not include dogs and cats and birds. Okay, it's referring to every human being Okay, animals do not have a soul. Okay, go to verse number 20 verse 20 so Jesus commands us to go soul-winning but notice verse 20 and they went forth and Preached everywhere notice this the Lord working with them See God commands us to go soul-winning but then he says in the last verse the Lord working with them Did you realize that when we go soul-winning we're not doing it alone We're not going out there in our own power There's a reason why we pray before we go soul-winning because we pray for God's blessing upon our lives We're not going out there by ourselves. It's not like this church is being run by ourselves We don't have God's blessing. It's just what can we build? No, we're not the ones building the church We are following what God says and he is working with us Okay, and if we want God's blessing we need to do what he said and as a church what is the first love soul-winning It's the first works. It's the first love soul-winning is the first works of a church So look if we want God's blessing upon our church We must always stay soul-winning until the day we die as a church go to Acts chapter 1 Acts 1 One thing we must realize is that our timing is not always God's timing and if it was our choice If it was my choice, you know in one year from now at the two-year anniversary We're gonna have this many people as members not even including visitors If I had my choice But you know quite honestly sometimes if the quantity increases too quickly, it's gonna destroy the quality And you must understand there are a lot of things that grow very quickly. They have no value like weeds weeds grow very quickly and They have no value Right, you can artificially make something grow very quickly But you know what? There's a proper timing for everything and look I do believe a church is preaching the truth We are gonna grow as a church But it is in God's timing and our timing might not be the same as God's timing The last thing we would want to do is to is to destroy the quality of this church By trying to increase the quantity and look many Baptist churches are doing that right tomorrow That's part of my sermon one of the sermons in Manila We're gonna be preaching different sermons, but they are artificially making churches bigger by changing what the church is about We're not gonna do that here. Okay, Acts 1 verse 6 When they when they therefore were come together They asked of him saying Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel And he said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power, but he shall receive power after that. The Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses on me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth and So basically he commands them. I want you to get this church going and I want you to be witnesses everywhere. Okay now go to Acts chapter 2 Acts 2 Acts 2 And What we're gonna see in Acts chapter 2 is you know what you see the result of soul winning You're gonna see that they obey God's commandment you're gonna see how the church just flourishes. All right Acts 2 verse 41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized in the same day they were added on to them about 3,000 souls Okay, now in verse 41, it is a mistake to say that 3,000 souls got saved 3,000 souls got saved and baptized more than 3,000 souls got saved though Because it says then they that gladly received his word were baptized and when you look up, you know And I don't have time to go into this, you know receive receiving God's Word is salvation But as many as received him to them gave me power to become the sons of God even in them that believe in his name But some people receive the Word of God with gladness and some are just kind of like Maybe I'll come to church See those that gladly received his word Those are the ones you want to follow up on because these are the ones that get baptized and guess what many people get saved Don't get baptized. Does anybody think you're gonna get 3,000 people saved and everyone gets baptized Does that ever happen? No more than 3,000 souls got saved, but 3,000 gladly received his word and they got baptized They didn't just get saved. They actually because the point of Acts chapter 2 is church growth not soul-winning numbers It's talking about how the church is growing and 3,000 people heard the Word of God They got saved they received it gladly and they got baptized in the same day they were added on to them about 3,000 souls verse 42 and They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers Now isn't this what we do at both of our churches? The Word of God is preached and then we have a time of fellowship around food We're just you know fellowshipping with one another getting to know one another building friendships We're doing exactly like they did in Acts chapter 2 and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers verse 43 and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believe were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart verse 47 Praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved And so God is the one who's adding to the church Certain people are getting saved and then they continue in the doctrine and the fellowship. Okay, go to Acts chapter 4 Acts 4 Acts 4 You say why did God add members to this church because it was a church that was doing something Right. I mean if there's somebody who is here that is nearby our church Let's say he's just five minutes walking distance from here And there's someone that wants to hear the truth and they want to serve God with their life I just believe that that's the sort of person God's gonna send here. You say why you know I don't think that the Catholic churches around this area are gonna get it done and Sadly many Baptist churches aren't getting it done And so look if we want God to add members to our church, how does that happen? What happens when we're getting God's blessing when we receive God's blessing God will add to the church in his timing Okay, Acts chapter 4 verse 1 Acts 4 verse 1 and as they spake unto the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them Being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead and they laid hands on them and put them And hold on onto the next day for is now even tied How bad how be it many of them which heard the word believed not everybody who hears the word gets saved, right? Many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the men was about 5,000 Okay, and throughout the book of Acts what you're seeing is just church growth popping up now, obviously The the Lord Jesus Christ rising from the dead was kind of a big monumental event And I do believe it was easier to build a church during that time period But it's not impossible in today's world. I Mean churches all over the world for centuries and centuries. They built churches from scratch They started with nobody and people got saved. They wanted to hear the preaching you say well, how do we do this? We do this by Retaining our current members by recruiting acquaintances by reaching new members And always making sure that we receive God's blessing now I can say this that as a church when I think back to the last year of ministry here This was probably like the worst time ever to start a church. I Mean literally we could not have picked a worse possible time to start church. I mean, right? I mean I given everything that's happened over the last year and and just not being able to come down here and not having live Service. It was about the worst possible time Here's the reality if it were possible for this church to close it would have already closed Because I can't really imagine a year being that much more difficult in the ministry because we're starting out I mean, we've met it I'm not going to give you the answer because it's on the quiz, but we've met at a lot of different Locations for church services and everything like that I mean it has been we expected it to be a little bit modulo But it became a lot more modulo based on everything that's happened last eight months the church didn't close though And we have double digits soul winners every single week at this church This church is going to grow but you know what it's gonna grow in God's perfect timing. Let's close in a word of prayer dear heaven