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Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, Singing greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of Jesus, Praise His name. Right now the men are winning. Women need to step it up. All right, let's hear it on the third. Wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaching the Most Defiled. By His transforming power, Making Him God's dear child, Purchasing peace in heaven For all eternity. And the wonderful grace of Jesus, Reaches me. Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus, Deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the fountains, sparkling like a fountain, All sufficient grace for even me. Broader than the scope of my transgressions, Singing greater far than all my sin and shame. O magnify the precious name of Jesus, Praise His name. Amen. Thanks for coming out to our evening service and great singing. Brother Joe Ritchie, can you open us with a word of prayer? Lord, thank you for this day and this church. You preserve the word, Lord. Pray for any souls that got saved and the seeds that got planted, Lord. And just pray for the evening service and you do the pastor's prayers. Fill them up with your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. We're doing favors tonight. If you have a favor of him, raise your hand. I'll pick on you if I don't know it. Have another one in stock or I'll just move on to the next person. Who we got? Right there in the back. 228? 328? Page 328, I want that mountain on the first. I saw the giant of prayerlessness upon the mountain high. He laughed so hard at my unbended knee. No longer in the wilderness I'll stay and so I cry. I want that mountain, it belongs to me. I want that mountain, I want that mountain. Where the milk and honey flow, where the grapes of ash cold grow. I want that mountain, I want that mountain. The mountain that my Lord has given me. Annie, page 17. One day, page 17. One day, page 17 on the first. One day when heaven was filled with his praises. One day when sin was as dark as could be. Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin. Dwell amongst men, my example is he. Living he loved me, dying he saved me. Buried he carried my sins far away. Rising he justified, freely forever. One day he's coming, oh glorious day. Brother Kyle? 125. Page 125. The solid rock, page 125. On the first. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Brother Steven? 216. Page 216. Page 216, surely goodness and mercy. On the first. A pilgrim was high and a wandering. In the cold night of sin I did roam. When Jesus the kind shepherd found me. And now I am on my way home. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I shall feast at the table spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of my life. Brother George? 215. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Page 215. Page 215, on the first. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day. Day I will never forget. After I'd wandered in darkness away. Jesus my savior I met. Oh, what a tender, compassionate friend. He met the need of my heart. Shadows dispelling with joy I am telling. He made all the darkness depart. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. When at the cross the savior made me whole. My sins were washed away and my night was turned to day. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. All right, last one. You better have a good one. Sheila? 63 on the second. Page 63 on the second. Nope, you're going to have to pick another one. I'm just kidding. Page 63 on the second. What a day that will be on the second. There will be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear. No more sickness, no pain. No more parting over there. And forever I will be with the one who died for me. What a day, glorious day that will be. What a day that will be when my Jesus, I shall see. And I look upon his face, the one who saved me by his grace. When he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promised land. What a day, glorious day that will be. This time we'll have our announcements. Good afternoon. Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through them real quickly. If you didn't get a bulletin, I'm sorry we're out. Unless anybody else has a bulletin they're willing to give, you're going to just have to listen to them. So anyway, I'm sorry about that. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the divining asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4, verse 12. Great scripture about the word of God there. Our service times. Sunday morning service is 10.30 a.m. Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m. And tonight we have special guest speaker, Pastor Roger Jimenez here from Sacramento, California, Verity Baptist Church. And if you haven't heard him preach before, you're in for a real treat. And if you haven't heard him preach before, you're in for a treat too. So anyway, he's a great friend of mine. He's here with his wife, Ms. Joanne, and we're very thankful. We've got a lot of people visiting from out of town. We've got some of his church members up here and a lot of faces I haven't seen before tonight. So welcome to our service, and we appreciate you coming. Our Thursday evening Bible study is 6.30 p.m. We're going to be in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, and I'm going to be preaching about the rapture. Our soul-winning times are listed below, and we had soul-winning this afternoon. Did anybody get a salvation today? Is anybody the one over there? Anybody else? All right, so we had one salvation this afternoon, so praise God for that. It brings us up to 15 salvations for the month. And we have soul-winning times. Just make sure you check the new soul-winning times and the new days. We've minused Tuesday off and Wednesday, and we bumped up the times for daylight savings. And also we have regional soul-winning that you can get involved with if you're from the Seattle area. We have Brother Neb. There's a lot of people that traveled from up north today, and so if you want to do soul-winning up in your area or if you just want to join in and have some fellowship with them, then contact Brother Neb, and we can get you contact information if you're interested in that. And there's other leaders here. We have Brother Cody Chandler. He's here from Yakima, and he's our soul-winning regional leader in Yakima, Washington. So God wants His gospel to go out throughout the whole world, amen? So we're trying to make that happen. And if you look down, you can see our praise report, the salvations, baptisms, and attendance for last week. And we do have two baptisms this evening, so right after Pastor prays, then we're going to have the two people get ready, and we're going to have two baptisms. So that's great. We'd love to fulfill the great commission here at Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Don't forget for upcoming events, don't forget to sign up for family pictures with Ms. Kiley. She's right there, okay? And last chance is next Sunday. So Sunday at midnight is your last time slot. So she might not be here, but you can take your selfies back there or whatever. But anyway, you can have your picture taken. Just make sure you get with Ms. Kiley for a time that she's available. So November 14th, we already had pizza this morning, so if you weren't here, I'm sorry about that. There might be some leftovers afterwards you can chow down on. And again, of course, tonight we have Pastor Jimenez preaching for us. And the 17th, I'll be preaching at Sure Foundation Baptist Church up in Spokane Valley, Washington. And so I'll be preaching there Wednesday night at 6.30 p.m. and then be back here for Thursday to preach. And then next Sunday morning we have Brother Jason Graber from Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Spokane. He'll be preaching the AM service for us. And if you don't know who that is, well, he helped start that church up there. He was one of the two guys that I depended on to get that church going up there. And so he's a great preacher, so make sure you're here for that service if you can be. And Thanksgiving, we're having our Thanksgiving potluck that day, so all the goodies should be coming in. We're going to have a couple of turkeys, and that's Remy and Josh, and then a ham. No, I'm just kidding. A ham, that's Emmy. No, we'll have ham and turkey and all the fixings and stuff like that. So anyway, sorry about that, boys. But then we're going to have the kids' choir practice. That will be right after the service, so we'll try to make that as quick and painless as possible. And getting ready. So there will be four times that they can get together to work on the Christmas songs. So anyway, December 11th is the Ladies' Cookie Exchange White Elephant Game at 1 p.m. at the Bender Home. Please bring three dozen cookies or treats and a container for the goodies. And 10% for the pastor. That's always what you've got to do there, so give unto the Lord. Be gracious. Just kidding. But let's see. The White Elephant Game, so don't buy some super expensive thing that everybody's going to fight over. Just keep it $10 to $15. And not a Dollar Tree item, but like $10 or $15 or whatever. So just don't go past that or below that. So $9.99 plus tax. So also December 16th, we have a kids' cookie and ornament decorating at 2 p.m. here at the church building. See Miss Rachel Woods for that. She'll be here I think next weekend. December 19th, we have our Christmas service, Children's Choir and Prime Rib dinner. So you might want to be there for that. And then December 23rd, we have our candlelight service. And it's not with real candles. We use like the fake ones. We don't want to burn the church down with everybody in it. So I know how your kids are. So anyway, you guys are going to want Pastor Jimenez to be your pastor again before I get done with the announcements. But December 31st, we're going to pray in the New Year and have a game night. So bring your favorite game. It's appropriate obviously. And we're going to have a ping pong tournament and foosball. So we're a family integrated church. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. Please utilize the mother baby room located back there and then the dad baby room located back at that door there. If you need to use that for any reason, we still have the preachings pumped into the rooms via speakers. And you can still watch the services in the dad baby room. So please utilize those rooms for your convenience. If your child becomes super distracting or disruptive, please just take them out and then bring them back in when they're closing their right minds. And then let's see, we have all the rockers are for pregnant and nursing mothers and elders only. Please know men allowed in the mother baby rooms and vice versa. No unattended children in any area of the building, please. And no food in the assembly area. Please silence your cell phones if you would at this time or put them on airplane mode. Escorts to vehicles by the ushers are available should you need one. And our online donations are available on our website. Text giving number is also below. And the ties that have come in so far for November are on the bottom of the page there. We sing happy birthday and happy anniversary this morning to everybody else. And I think that's all I have for announcements. I do want to say thank you for our first-time visitors. If you're a first-time visitor or if you're just visiting at all, we appreciate you being here. But for each first-time visitor, we give out a bag and it has this film being Baptist in it. And it has a nice pen and some other items in there. So on that little table in the foyer there, you can grab one of these bags and take it if you're a first-time guest. And we just want to appreciate you being here. And it's just a token of our appreciation for you being a first-time guest. And if we can do anything to help you, we'd be happy to do whatever we can. Just send me after the service. Again, if you want to be baptized, it doesn't have to be the only two people being baptized. If you've never been baptized before, you're saved. That's the only prerequisite we have for being baptized. So the water's warm. It's ready. It looks nice. You know, you just take the plunge. And be baptized scripturally according to God's word. But you do have to be saved first. So if you're not 100% sure that you're saved, that's something else you might want to take care of before you get baptized. So that's all I have for announcements. Let's sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. Now let's turn our hidden rules to page 315. Page 315, Take My Life and Let It Be. Page 315. On the first. Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. At the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet and let them be, swift and beautiful for Thee. Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my King. Always only for my King. Take my silver and my gold, not of my word I withhold. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be Thy royal throne. It shall be Thy royal throne. At this time we'll have our offering. Brother Sean, can you bless your offering for us please? Lord, thank you so much for this day. Lord, thank you so much for the opportunity that we have to come to your house and hear your word of praise, Lord. I pray that you would bless this offering, Lord. That you would bless both the gift and the giver. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Amen. All right, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians 11, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring you one. 2 Corinthians 11. 2 Corinthians 11, the Bible reads, Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh, preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things. Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached unto you, preached to you the gospel of God freely? I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service. And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man, for that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia, supplied. And in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Arkea. Wherefore, because I love you not, God knoweth. But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion, that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. For such are false prophets, false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. I say again, let no man think me a fool, if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more, and labors more abundant, and stripes above measure, and prisons more frequent, and deaths oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeys often, imperils of waters, imperils of robbers, imperils of mine own countrymen, imperils by the heathen, imperils in the city, imperils in the wilderness, imperils in the sea, imperils among false brethren. In weariness and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who is offended? And I burn not. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not. In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me, and throw a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. Brother Bill, will you pray for us? Amen. Alright, well thank you very much for being here tonight. I want to of course say thank you to the entire Shure Foundation Baptist Church family for being here, for your hospitality. And then of course I want to say thank you to Pastor Thompson and Miss Sherry for their friendship and again just the kindness, the hospitality. We've had a great time while we've been here. I'm here with my wife and we of course, it's just us. The kids stayed back with grandma, so we can't leave them for too long. So we flew in yesterday and we're flying out tonight, but we've enjoyed our time here. This building is amazing and you guys are blessed to have this building and I'm very impressed with the building. And you guys have more bathrooms than we do, so that's good I guess. That's good for you, but you've done a wonderful job and I'm very impressed with the building. I think you guys have done a great job and it's a testament to your pastor's leadership to be able to get you here and get you to this place. I do want to say that we are very proud of Shure Foundation Baptist Church and the role that we got to play in getting this church started and established. And you guys are doing a great work here and we're thankful for that. I also want to say this, Pastor Thompson said this this morning. By the way, that was a great sermon this morning. And sometimes we as pastors, sometimes we travel and we preach, but I was blessed to be able to sit and listen to preaching and my heart was helped this morning by that sermon. So praise the Lord for that and thank you Pastor Thompson. This morning he said that Brandon ruined his life three years ago when he married me. I just want to say Brandon ruined my life too a few years ago when he stepped onto the football field at the Red Hot Preaching Conference. So anyway, Brandon has been ruining lives for a long time. But again, I appreciate you being here tonight. Tonight I'm preaching on a very unique sermon on a very specific topic. In fact, I'm preaching only on one word tonight and that word is tenacity. Tenacity. I'm preaching on the subject of tenacity. I'm sure you've all heard the word tenacity. I'd like to by way of introduction to just give you a definition of the word tenacity. It means the quality or fact of being able to grip something firmly, being very determined, continuing to be persistent. This is what the word tenacity means and just if you'd allow me just by way of introduction kind of just explaining what I mean by this and what I'm attempting to do tonight. Over the last many years of ministry, my wife and I have been in ministry now for over 11 years and people have often surprised me. And it's happened so much that I'm no longer surprised but especially towards the beginning of our ministry I was often surprised by people's lack of tenacity. And this is something that I've thought a lot about. Tenacity is something that's needed in ministry. It's something that's needed to serve the Lord and tenacity is needed to serve God. However, it's a word that you can look up in the dictionary and read the definitions but it's a word that in some ways it's hard to describe it. It's hard to explain it. It's hard to illustrate it. And I've kind of came to the conclusion that, and I've got the feeling that tenacity is something that you've either got it or you don't. It's either part of your character or it's not. In fact, I think that tenacity or the lack of it has a lot to do with how you were raised. And I feel like sometimes you just get to a point in life where you just look at a grown man and you think to yourself, he's never going to get it and he's never going to have it. However, tonight's sermon is my attempt to try to disprove that. I have the feeling that it's something you've either got or you don't. But I'd like to do my best tonight to try to describe it, to try to explain it, to try to illustrate it for you in the attempt that it may cause some of you maybe to identify that you don't have tenacity or that you don't have it as well as you should have it. And in some ways, the sermon, just the sermon itself is an act of faith because I'm hoping that maybe, just maybe, it will help some of you and encourage some of you and help you determine to develop tenacity if you don't have it or encourage you to stick with it if you do have it. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hoping that the sermon will be a blessing to you and help you in regards to this idea of tenacity. You're there in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. I actually preached this sermon to our church family last Sunday night. I'm glad that we have the McQueen family with us, Brother George and Mr. Dre and the kids from Verity with us. And of course, we always love having part of our church family with us when we go places. And I told our church family, I'm preaching the sermon at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, and they told me they're going to be up here. And apparently, Ms. Andrea thought Brother George needed to hear it twice. But no, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Brother George is a great worker. But anyway, they've heard the sermon, but they'll hear it again. Tenacity, and I want to help you understand it, and I would encourage you to maybe jot some things down. I saw in the back of your bullet there's a place for you to write down some notes. Maybe you can write some of these things down. Tenacity is, and I'm going to try to help you understand it and help you see it, identify it, illustrate it, explain it for you. Tenacity is what causes, and if you could write this down or if you're taking notes, I encourage you to write this down, is what causes you or causes someone to accomplish more than others. Whenever you see somebody and you think, wow, look at that individual, look at what they're doing, look at what they're accomplishing, look at what's being done in their lives, it is probably tenacity what causes them to accomplish more than others. See, tenacity causes you to work harder. Now we're there in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and I want to use the Apostle Paul as an illustration tonight because the Apostle Paul was a man of tenacity. If you look down at verse number 1, I want you to notice, and I want to bring you to a certain part in this passage, but I want to start at verse 1 to just kind of give you a little bit of the context. If you notice there in verse 1, he says this, this is Paul speaking, he says, What to God, remember he's writing to the church at Corinth, he says, What to God, ye could bear with me a little in my folly. Now, that sounds odd, but you need to understand that the church at Corinth has criticized, there have been people there in the church at Corinth that have criticized the Apostle Paul to use it in street terms, they've dissed him, you know, they've disrespected him, and they've tried to make it seem like maybe they're more spiritual, they're accomplishing more, they're doing more than the Apostle Paul is, and he's about to take some time to remind them about his sacrifices, his accomplishments, remind them about the things that he has done, and he realizes that in doing so, he may sound a little silly. So he says, What to God, ye could bear with me a little in my folly. He says, And indeed bear with me. Look down at verse 16, same chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 16, he says, I say again, Let no man think me a fool, if otherwise yet as a fool receive me, that I may, notice these words, that I may boast myself a little. And again, Paul understands that he's about to brag on himself, he understands that what he's about to say may come off a little foolish, or may come off a little silly. Notice verse 17, he says, That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, notice, in this confidence of boasting. He says, I understand that what I'm about to say may sound a little bit like I'm boasting, or a little bit like I'm bragging, and may sound a little bit like folly, or it may seem a little silly. Notice verse 18, he says, Seeing that many glory after the flesh, and this is the problem that he's having with the church at Corinth, there are many there who are glorying after the flesh. Paul says, Seeing that many glory after the flesh, he says, I will glory also. Now, I want you to understand that the Apostle Paul is doing this strategically, and when he's saying, you know, bear with me in my folly, I think it's tongue in cheek a little bit, because the Apostle Paul understands that we should not compare ourselves. But what he's doing, he's saying, look, I understand that we should not compare ourselves. In fact, there in 2 Corinthians, you're there in 2 Corinthians 11, if you flip back to chapter 10 and verse 12. In chapter 10 and verse 12, he says, For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves, but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. So, he understands that it's not wise to compare yourself, it's not wise to measure yourselves by yourselves, and he understands those things, but now in verse 11, in chapter 11, he says, he says, Bear with me a little bit in my folly, he says, I understand it's a little silly, but here's the thing, he says, if you want to compare notes, if you want to have a bragging match, Paul would say, he'd say, I think it's foolish, but we can do it. And let me just say this, sometimes pastors, evangelists, deacons, spiritual leaders, sometimes those who are ordained and lead in ordained ministry, they reach certain levels in ministry and then begin to get attacked by others because they've reached those levels. They might say something like this, I think you're traveling a little too much. They might say something like this, I think too much money is being spent. You know, you're spending too much money on this category or that category, and sometimes they make stupid accusations like you spent $400 on pizza on yourself. And it's like how, you know, for a self-proclaimed accountant, how big of an idiot do you have to be to realize that $400 spent on pizza is obviously a church event. And this idea that people would look at, you know, line items on a statement and just make assumptions of where that money was spent, these people haven't ran a hot dog stand. They've never built a dog house, but they want to tell the man of God how to run the house of God. But sometimes pastors, they get to these certain levels, and they begin to get attacked a little bit. Others begin to glory after the flesh, and sometimes pastors have to just stop for a minute and maybe remind people of the sacrifices of the work, because here's the point. The ministry requires tenacity. It requires a lot of work. You know, Pastor Thompson, and I love Pastor Thompson, obviously he's my good friend and close friend, and we've worked in ministry together, and Ms. Sherry has been our friend for my wife and I. And, you know, people want to attack him, but they want to forget about the fact that he's, you know, when he worked for us as a satellite leader, I never paid him a dime, yet he worked a full-time job, getting up at four in the morning to go work his secular work many times on a Monday morning, getting up at four in the morning, working 12 and 14 hours a day. I remember during those times there'd be all these sorts of blizzards and sorts of crazy things that happen in states that aren't California, and he was working while starting a church, while leading a congregation, while doing those things. He took the risk. He took the attacks. And this is what the apostle Paul's doing. He's reminding the church of Corinth. He says, allow me to remind you, and he says, bear with me and my father. Notice what he says. Look at verse 22, 2 Corinthians 11, verse 22. He says, are they Hebrew? He says, so am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? He says, I speak as a fool. He says, I know I'm being a little silly right now. Just kind of bear with me in this a little bit. He says, I am more. He says, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths off of the Jews five times received I, 40 stripes save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of my by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. That's quite a list. And I want you to notice verse 28. Don't miss verse 28. He says, beside those things. Beside what things? Beside the things he listed there in verses 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. Besides the stripes above measures, in prisons more frequent, in deaths off, besides the perils, in journeys often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea. He says, beside all the fights on the outside and all the false prophets and all the false friends and all the accusations and all the protests and all the lawsuits and all those things. He said, beside those things that are without, he says, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Here's what he's saying. He said, while I was fighting all those battles, he said, I was still taking your phone calls. I was still providing counseling. I was still writing the sermons that needed to be preached. I was still there when you needed it. I was still performing the weddings. I was still performing the funerals. I was still doing the things. He says, I had all that and besides those things that are without, he says, I still was not negligent with that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. And the apostle Paul, he makes this claim and I want you to notice it. Because remember, what's tenacity? Tenacity is what causes you to accomplish more than others. Tenacity causes you to work harder. Notice what he says there in verse 22. Are they Hebrew? So am I. Are they Israelite? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. Notice these words. I am more. Notice these words. In labor, more abundant. What does he mean by that? Here's what he means by that. Paul says, I worked harder. I worked longer. I got up earlier. I stayed up later. I did more. I accomplished more. You say, well, you shouldn't brag like that. Paul says, I understand. He says, just bear with me a little bit in my folly. Bear with me a little bit while I brag myself. I just have to defend myself a little bit because I'm getting attacked here. He says, in labor is more abundant. By the way, this is not the first time Paul says it. We read it there in 2 Corinthians 11. Go with me if you would back to the book of 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 15. Look at verse 10. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 10. He says, and look, first of all, understand this, we're reading the word of God. Even though the apostle Paul says, bear with me a little bit in my folly, you know, he's speaking the word of God. Holy men of God speak as they are removed by the Holy Ghost. And I honestly don't believe that the apostle Paul is in the flesh here. I do think he's defending himself a little bit. I do think he's reminding people of something a little bit. But I want you to notice in verse, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, he says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. I don't believe he's in the flesh here. He says, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. He says, the grace that God gave me was not in vain, was not wasted. You say, why, Paul? Here's why. But I labored more abundantly than they all. He says, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. You say, what is Paul saying here? Here's what he's saying. I worked harder. I worked longer. I got up earlier. I stayed up later. I did more. He's saying, I reached more people. He's saying, I started more churches. He says, I labored more abundantly than they all. What's he talking about? He's talking about tenacity. See, tenacity is what causes you to accomplish more than others. Tenacity is what causes you to work harder. And look, please understand this. Tenacity is needed in ministry. I remember when we started Verity Baptist Church eleven years ago. When we started Verity Baptist Church, my story is like the story of your pastor, like the story of many pastors in the new IFB. We started Verity Baptist Church while I was working a full-time job. And I would work fifty hours a week in my secular job and still go soul winning and still preach three sermons a week and still do all those things that needed to be done. I remember in those early days, oftentimes, I would be working on Wednesday night. Our Wednesday night Bible started at 7 p.m. and I'd be working on Wednesday night and I'd be driving straight from work to church and getting to church at around 6.40 and my wife would be standing there at the door holding up the hanger with my suit and my dress shirt and my tie. She'd iron it and get it all ready. She'd have it for me there and I'd walk in and grab the coat and go into the restroom and change out of my work clothes and into my preaching clothes and I'd come out like Superman, you know, just ready to preach the word of God. Those were busy days. It was hard. I remember those days I'd have to be at work at 7 in the morning, which means I didn't really need to start getting ready. I didn't have to get up and start getting ready to go to work until about 6 in the morning, but in those early days I'd get up at 5 in the morning so that every morning I would have at least one hour before work to work on the sermons that I needed to preach for that week. And oftentimes that one hour, Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, wasn't enough to get those sermons written. I would commute a lot and I would drive a lot in those days and a lot of those sermons were written as I was driving and those sermons are on our website and I do not encourage you to go listen to them. I'm not telling you they were good quality, but I'm telling you this, a lot of work went into it. I remember in those early days when the church was meeting at our house, I worked at an air conditioning company and during the summertime it was just mandatory pretty much that we work 7 days a week. And my boss knew that I was a pastor and I talked to him about it and we came to an agreement and during those seasons on a Sunday morning I'd be at the job site at 7 a.m. and this was something my boss and I agreed, be at the job site at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning, work until 9.30, would get off at 9.30, drive back home, my wife would have my clothes ready for me, I'd change into my clothes, we'd have church at our house starting at 10.30, we'd go from 10.30 to around 11.45 noon, my wife would have a quick lunch for me and I would get back into my work clothes, go back to work, be back to work around 12.15 or 12.30, work until 5 p.m., get off at work at 5 p.m., come back home, again change into my clothes, we'd have our Sunday night service at 6 p.m. and sometimes even on occasions would go back to work even after our Sunday evening service and those were busy times. Back in those days we had church in our house. I was too busy to help my wife so while I'm at work she's preparing the house to have 10, 15, 20, 30, 35 people in our house for church. We stayed in our house, we had church in our house for a year and a half. When we left our house the church was running around 35 or 40 and she'd set up the chairs and she'd get everything ready and clean up the whole house and make sure everything was ready and the hymn books were out and the bulletins were printed and all those things. Here's all I'm telling you is the ministry and serving God requires tenacity. It requires somebody saying I'm going to work harder, I'm going to get up early, I'm going to stay up late and I'm going to do what needs to be done. And I don't think most Christians have the tenacity that's needed to accomplish what needs to be accomplished. Would you bear with me a little bit in my folly? Do you allow me to boast myself a little bit? When we started Verity Baptist Church we had two little boys. Over the last 11 years we've had four daughters born to us while in ministry plus two dogs, one guard dog and one useless dog. During those 11 years we've gone through four pregnancies. I say we, I mean my wife has. I've just been the silent partner. During those 11 years we've gone through four pregnancies, four newborns, six children, two dogs and during those 11 years my wife has put on ladies' tea, my wife has put on ladies' Christmas parties, she's put on baby showers, she's put on bridal showers, she's put on home school field trips, she's put on home school activities while going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night while being faithful to soul winning every week, while taking phone calls from ladies in the church, while being faithful to God. While doing counseling for ladies in the church, while dealing with all the trials and tribulations that have came into ministry. You say why am I telling you this? I'm telling you this to help you understand that serving God requires tenacity. It requires somebody, it requires a man, it requires a woman who says I'm going to work harder, I'm going to labor more abundantly than they all. Sometimes, and I don't say this in, I hope you understand my spirit, I don't say this in a rude way, but sometimes I see some of the young moms in our church and I'll see a mom with one kid struggling to make it on time to a church service and I'm thinking to myself, you realize, you realize you have a pastor's wife. You can't make it to an event that your pastor's wife put on while she was pregnant or while she had a newborn and while she's home schooling five other kids and while she's dealing with all these things and I'm just telling you it's tenacity. And again, it's not just my wife and it's not just me. Pastor Thompson has worked hard while starting, just getting ready to go, go back and be working and having a big season of work here soon and Miss Sherry has her kids and grandkids and her life, her personal life to deal with while dealing with the ministry and again, it's not anything new or unique to us. Pastor Anderson at Faithful Word Baptist Church worked a full-time job with a very busy wife with many children, home schooling, all those things while starting Faithful Word Baptist Church. Pastor Bergen's worked a full-time job. Pastor Jones worked a full-time job. Pastor Pazarski worked a full-time job. I'm not telling you anything that's unique about us. I'm just telling you that if you want to serve God, you may have to be able to say, I labored more abundantly than they all. See the truth is this, keep your place, keep your place there if you would. In 2 Corinthians we're going to come back to it. Go to the book of Genesis if you would, Genesis 31. Here's the thing, people understand tenacity when it comes to secular work. I mean you can go to conferences and they'll talk to you, I'm talking about business, business conferences and they'll talk to you about getting up early, staying, working late, getting things done. I mean if it's in the service of the almighty dollar, then that's understood. But then you talk about tenacity for soul winning, you talk about tenacity for church attendance, you talk about tenacity for Bible reading, tenacity for Bible memorization, tenacity for prayer, tenacity for serving God and all of a sudden you're in a cult. Now let me say this, we should work hard. There should be tenacity in our secular work and in our business work and I realize that most people in the church are not in full time ministry and many pastors are not in full time ministry and when we work our secular jobs we should work hard. I'm not against that, I'm just saying if we work hard for the world, let's work hard for God. Let's accomplish something big for God. Genesis 31, we have Jacob. Jacob was a man of tenacity. Jacob, it's interesting because Jacob came from a rich family, Abraham, Isaac, yet left for issues and sin and I won't get into all that, left that family with nothing and then built his own wealth and his own business and I'm sure a lot of that had to do with growing up under Isaac and Abraham his grandfather and watching them work and their work ethic. But I want you to notice in Genesis 31 we have Jacob giving us his testimony as to how he worked to provide for his family in the secular world and again, I think this is all good. These are good things. Notice what he says, Genesis 31 verse 38. He says, this twenty years, this is Jacob speaking to Laban, this twenty years have I been with thee. Thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee. I bear the loss of it. Of my hand does thou require it. Laban was a cheapskate employer. Jacob says, when I broke something I had to pay you for it. He says, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. He says, thus I was in the day. He says, thus I was. He says, this is what my life has been. He says, in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from my night. And by the way, this ought to be the motto of every man in this room. Every man should be able to say, you know what, I've worked hard. I'm talking about your secular job and the work of God. And the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from my night. He says, thus have I been twenty years in thy house. I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six years for thy cattle. And now it's changed my wages ten times. This should be the testimony that characterizes every man. This should be the testimony that characterizes every young man. We should have and we should raise man of tenacity. Let me say to you young men, hey, you ought to learn to work hard. You should not stand around while others are working. Let me tell you something, you young men, just take this as a rule in your life. Never stand around while others are working. You see, they're setting up some event here at church and you see people cleaning up or taking the chairs out or stacking them up, whatever. Never stand around, young men, while other people are working. And never stand around while women are working. Always, always be willing to work. Always work. The Bible says it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. The Bible says, Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. Solomon said, I went by the field of the slothful and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding. He says, Lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. He said, I saw and considered it well. I looked upon it and received instruction, yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the head, so shall thy poverty come. He said, So shall thy poverty come as one that travelth and thy warmth as an armed man. The Bible speaks against laziness. The Bible says we ought to work hard. The Bible says we ought to have some tenacity. See, it is tenacity that causes you to work harder. And look, I'm telling you, you ought to work hard at work, but you also ought to work hard for God. You know the Bible says if a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired the good work? The Bible says he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. You know how the ministries work? You know how this doesn't just happen? Someone like me, I show up and I understand because I've done this for 11 years. Someone shows up and says, Oh, this is just a beautiful building. Look at this beautiful building. I know this. It took work to get this building set up. This doesn't just happen. It took work to get these things situated. It takes work to run a church like this church. It takes work to mobilize and motivate soul winners. It takes work to all those announcements. You like all those announcements, all those activities. You're like, Oh, that sounds like fun. I'd like to show up to that one, that little cookie making thing. I'm going to go to that thing. That sounds good. Let me tell you something. Somebody organized that. Somebody has set it up. Somebody is going to clean up afterwards. It's work. See, tenacity is what causes you to accomplish more than others. Tenacity causes you to work harder. But let me say this. Tenacity not only causes you to work harder, tenacity causes you to go the extra mile. Go to Matthew chapter five if you would. I'd like to show you this passage of scripture. I know you know it, but let's look at it. Matthew chapter five. I apologize for my voice. I've been fighting something for like a week and a half now. My voice, I feel fine, but my voice just hasn't completely recovered. Matthew five verse 41. Notice what Jesus said. The Bible says, And whosoever shall compel, see that word compel? The word compel means to force, to oblige you, to make you, not a volunteer. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. The word twain means to. He says if someone makes you go a mile, then go with him twain, go with him to. This is where we get our phrase, going the extra mile. My brother-in-law, Jose, who's a hard worker and a faithful man in our church, he told me a joke about going the extra mile. He said the last time I went the extra mile, it was because I missed my exit. And he was joking, of course. But I think that's the truth for most of us. He says whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile. Now the history books tell us this. The Bible doesn't necessarily tell us this, but I think it's probably true. That the Roman Empire had laws that said that they could cause you, if there was a representative of the government, and this was usually done more with the military, if a soldier would often be told that he would have to travel from one place to another place, and of course in their travels they would often carry big packs with them and bring all sorts of equipment with them. And the history books tell us that in the Roman Empire there was a law that if a soldier or some sort of a government official, they could compel, any sort of Roman subject could be compelled to help them. You have a soldier who's been traveling a long ways, he gets to town, he needs to keep traveling because he needs to be at a certain place at a certain time. He could choose a subject and compel them to carry the pack, to give him a break and go with him. And they were forced to go at least a mile to help them carry that burden for a mile. This is what Jesus is alluding to when he says whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile. Now the Bible doesn't necessarily spell that out for us, that's just what the history books tell us, but the Bible does kind of insinuate that the history books are probably right when it comes to that, because if you remember when Jesus, remember when Jesus was being crucified, and he was carrying the cross, Matthew 27 verse 32, you don't have to turn there, I'll read it for you, and as they came out they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. Remember Jesus carrying the cross and he was so weak after being beaten and staying up all night, he could no longer carry the cross and they compelled, he didn't volunteer, they made him carry the cross for Jesus. So the Bible seems to kind of allude to the fact that this was a practice that was done in the Roman Empire where you could be compelled, hey you come here, carry this, and you would have to do it for at least a mile, but Jesus says, whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, he says, go with him twain. But I'm not, I don't have to go twain. I'm not obligated to go two miles. I'm only obligated to go one mile, I'm only obligated, the law only requires that I go one mile, but let me tell you something, tenacity not only causes you to work harder, tenacity causes you to go the extra mile. He says, whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. People often, they want to ask this question, whoa, whoa, what is required, what do I have to do, what is required of me? You know, I always think it's funny when young men tell me, I want to go into ministry. When a young man tells me I want to go into ministry, the first thing I do, and I don't tell him this, first thing I do is I look, okay, well, where are you working? I'm not talking about your secular job, although you better have a secular job. Thank you, sir. I'm saying, where are you working in the ministry? What are you doing in the ministry? What do you, and people say, well, I go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Okay, you're hitting the basics. Well, I go soul winning once a week. Okay, you're doing your duty. But the ministry requires you to go the extra mile. To go, but am I required to do that? Well, no, you lazy bum, but tenacity causes you to go the extra mile. Tenacity causes you to do more than you have to do. Hey, I'm thankful, and I know this church has it, and I'm thankful for people at Verity Baptist Church who go the extra mile. We've got people, we don't pay them to do this. We don't force them to do this. They do it out of their own volition, but people understand. We've got a group of people. It's funny to me how when you've got an event, like a wedding, a baby shower, a bridal shower, a ladies tea, whatever. It's pretty much the same group of ladies that show up to set up the event, that stay afterwards to help clean up. It's the same group of guys that show up. See, some people realize, hey, these tables aren't going to fold themselves. They're not going to fold and stack themselves up. These chairs aren't going to stack themselves up. The trash isn't going to take itself out. The place needs to be cleaned. The trash needs to be taken out. The floor needs to be swept. The carpet needs to be vacuumed. The tables need to be wiped out. See, some people, they see the need and they take the lead. They go the extra mile. They realize that there's work that needs to be done. I tell the people at our church, and I don't know how you guys do it here. I tell people at our church, you know, you bring, you have a potluck and everybody loves potluck, right? Baptists love potlucks. Pastors call me and say, how do you get people to show up on a Sunday night? Have a potluck. Show up to a potluck, you bring your food in a potluck, you're like, I've done my duty. Somebody hands you that dish at the end of the night and it's clean. That dish didn't clean itself. You know, somebody, my wife, some staff wife, some lady, was in the kitchen while you were fellowshiping, was in the kitchen washing those dishes. You bring, we're having a pie social here in a couple of weeks, you bring a pie to the pie social, I've done my duty. Well, somebody has to take that pie out of the package, somebody needs to cut it into slices, somebody has to prepare it and get it ready. Here's what I'm saying, is some people, some people, you say, what do those people have? Tenacity. It causes them to work harder, it causes them to go the extra mile, it causes them to do more, to accomplish more. It's pretty much the same people. Look, the ministry is work. Somebody needs to print the baptism certificates. Somebody needs to write the bulletin and print the bulletin, somebody needs to lead the sowing time, somebody needs to lead the ministry. People sometimes, they like to complain. Have you ever noticed people like to complain? That's a sermon for another day. And people, people, through the years, people have said things like, about me and my wife, insinuating that we're a respecter of persons. Well, how can I get close? Why can't I get close to Miss Joanne? Why can't I spend extra time with Miss Joanne? You know, Miss Melody, our deacon's wife, she gets to spend all this extra time with Miss Joanne. Why do I get to spend time with Miss Joanne? You know why Miss Melody gets to spend time with Miss Joanne? Because she helps her wash the dishes, that's why. So when do they fellowship? When they're washing dishes after an event? Why, why, why, why do you, pastor gets to spend, you know, Brother Oliver gets to spend a lot of time with Pastor. Why don't I get to spend time with Brother, with Pastor? Well, you show up and help us work, you show up and help us set up events, you show up and help us clean up afterwards. Hey, there's a reason. Have you ever noticed that the Apostle Paul, as he's writing the letters in the New Testament, he keeps talking about his friends and he uses these adjectives, my fellow laborer, my fellow servant, my fellow helpers, I want to get close to Pastor Thompson, help him, you'll get close to him. I want to get close to Miss Sherry, show up early, help her set up some events, you'll get close, sir. Hey, tenacity is what causes you to accomplish more than others. You say why? Because tenacity causes you to work harder, tenacity causes you to go the extra mile. But let me say this as well tonight, secondly, go back to 2 Corinthians if you would, not only does tenacity, not only is tenacity what causes you to accomplish more than others, but number two, tenacity is what keeps you from quitting and makes you reliable. Tenacity keeps you from quitting. Tenacity keeps you from being a quitter. Tenacity makes you reliable. Tenacity keeps you from quitting. Let me tell you something, tenacity keeps you from quitting when things get hard. By the way, let me say this, anybody can do anything if it's easy. You say why? You know, we have a struggle right now. We have more potential church plants than we've got guys qualified to take them. You say why aren't there more guys in ministry? Because it's hard. See, tenacity keeps you from quitting. It keeps you from quitting when things get hard. Was the ministry hard for the apostle Paul? Notice there, 2 Corinthians 11, look at verse 23. He says, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more and labor is more abundant. Notice these words. I already read this to you, but I want you to notice it. Does this sound difficult? In stripes above measure. He said, you want to compare? You want to compare? Okay, stripes, that's not about getting whipped. He says, I've got more stripes than you do. In stripes above measure. In prison, he said, I've been to prison more frequently than you've been to prison. In death, I've came closer to death more often than you've came closer to death. Of the Jews, five times received thy forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. How many times would you have to get beaten with rods before you quit? Oh, that's right. You quit because somebody slammed the door on your face. Paul says, thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day have I been in the deep. In journeys often. In perils of water. In perils of robbers. In perils of robbers. In perils of my own countrymen. In perils of heathen. In perils of the city. In perils of the wilderness. In perils of the sea. In perils of one's false brethren. In weariness and painfulness. In watchings often. In hunger and thirst. In fastings often. In cold and nakedness. Let me tell you something. The ministry was hard for Paul, but he did not quit. Why? Because he has tenacity. Tenacity keeps you from quitting when things get hard. By the way, this is the same apostle Paul who said in 1 Corinthians 15, if you want to turn back there, in verse 58, he says, Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast. The word steadfast means firm, unwavering, unmovable, obviously means unable to be moved. Notice, here's tenacity, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Tenacity is what keeps you from quitting when things get hard. Go to Luke, if you would. Luke chapter 9. Let me give you an example of this. Luke in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Luke chapter 9. Let me just say this while you turn there. And I hope you understand my heart. It may sound sarcastic what I'm about to say or it may sound rude. Like the apostle Paul said, I'm rude in my speech. I mean this, I'm not saying this sarcastically. I hope you understand that. One thing I've learned in 11 years of ministry, I've learned this at our church, I've learned this at other churches, and I'm sure it's true of this church. And again, don't take this the wrong way, and I pray the Holy Spirit helps me to communicate this in the proper way. Some of you were failed by your parents. Your parents failed you. I'm not saying they didn't love you. I'm not saying that their heart wasn't in the right place. But they failed to teach you some things that they should have taught you. This is one of them, tenacity. What I've learned in ministry is that my job as a pastor and your pastor's job is to often help you learn the things, I'm not saying all of you, but for some of you this is true, help you learn the things that you should have been taught when you were growing up. And by the way, we're also trying to help you parents make sure you're teaching this to your children, the next generation of Sure Foundation Baptist Church. And here's what I'm telling you. What should I be teaching my children? Here's what you should be teaching your children. That you should not quit. You should not quit. You should not quit just because something is hard. Tenacity keeps you from quitting when things get hard. Notice Luke chapter 9 verse 57. Why don't you notice the story? The Bible says, And it came to pass, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, this is a man speaking to Jesus. Here's a volunteer. He says, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. Doesn't that sound great? I mean who doesn't want a church member like that? I will follow you whithersoever thou goest. By the way, let me tell you something. I've often learned the people who are the loudest are usually the ones that do the least. I mean I've had people show up to our church. I've preached some sermon and some guy's just like came from out of town and he's just like, I was watching you preach and I just saw the Spirit of God upon your life and I just knew that God wanted me to be part of this church. I'm going to follow you and I'm going to help you and I will follow you whithersoever thou goest. And I think to myself, I'm probably never going to see you again. And I never did. And it came to pass that as they went on the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest and Jesus said unto him. Now I don't know why Jesus felt the need to say this. I understand that he's the Son of God. I understand that he's God in the flesh. Maybe he just understood this or maybe he saw him in his skinny jeans. I'm not sure. But this guy said, this guy said, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay his head. He says, I'll follow you whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said, what if I'm not going to the Hilton? What if I'm not staying at the Hyatt? What if foxes have holes and birds have nests, but I don't know where we're going to sleep tonight? Mr. whithersoever thou goest. And what was his response? Well, look at verse 59. And he said unto another, you said, pastor, there's no response there. Exactly. He says, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. He says, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man shall not have where to lay his head. And his response is crickets. Conversation over. Next verse, talking to another guy. Because he's like, well, I didn't sign up for that. Well, yeah, I wanted to come to this church, but then, but then, you know, you start having protests. But then, then it started getting difficult. Let me tell you something. Tenacity is what keeps you from quitting. From quitting when things get hard. Tenacity will keep you in the ministry. Tenacity will keep you being a soul winner, not for three weeks and not for three months and not for three years, but for 30 years. Tenacity will keep you faithful. Hey, tenacity will keep you married. When marriage gets hard, tenacity says, I'm not quitting. Tenacity is what keeps you from quitting even when things get hard. Hey, it keeps you from quitting when things get hard. It keeps you from quitting when things are difficult. It keeps you from quitting because you're tired, because you're not feeling well. We're all tired. None of us are feeling well. We all have coronavirus or whatever. One of the biggest events that we put on at Verity Baptist Church is our annual ladies' tea. It's one of the biggest, most expensive events, the nicest events. I mean, if you've ever been to one of our ladies' teas, it's the event of the year. And obviously, we spend more on the Red Hot Preaching Conference. You know, I'm talking about an event we put on for our church family. And it's one of the most frustrating events for me. And not because of the amount of time, energy, or work that goes into it, because I don't do anything for it. My wife does it all. And I don't mind spending the money to do the events. What frustrates me is that we'll put on this ladies' tea, this elegant afternoon tea. And we'll have 120 ladies show up, put on this nice event. The next day is Mother's Day, and about half of them don't show up for church. Because they're so tired from the ladies' tea. I often joke with my wife, you know, people can only do one thing per weekend. They'll come to the ladies' tea, but they can't come back to church on Sunday. They'll go to the baby shower, but they can't go sobering on Saturday morning if they're going to go to the baby shower on Saturday afternoon. If you put one more event, one more thing, one more whatever, then all of a sudden it's too much. It's too hard. Oh, we have a baby shower Saturday afternoon. Well, I can't go sobering on Saturday. Oh, we have the ladies' tea. I can't go to church on Sunday. Oh, we have the Red Hawk region conference. I better not come back to church for the next three weeks. And look, if you got coronavirus, we understand. That's a different thing. And look, I'm not upset. I've been in ministry for a long time. I understand this is weird. All I'm saying is this. Have you ever stopped to consider that there were ladies who set up for that event on Friday, showed up to soul winning on Saturday, ran the event on Saturday, stayed after the event to clean up on Saturday, and still showed up for church on Sunday, still showed up for church on Sunday night? Still went soul winning. You say, what do you call that? What is that? It's tenacity. I don't know all the work that went into the remodel of this building. I can only imagine. We've remodeled several buildings over the last 11 years of our ministry. We just remodeled the fellowship hall. And several years ago, we remodeled another, our main auditorium we're in right now. I remember when we moved into that auditorium, it was 12 to 14 hour days every day for about 28 days. You say, did you ever take breaks? We took breaks for soul winning and church services. And there was some men, some men say, Pastor, I'm with it. I'm sticking with you. And we're going to get this done. I understand men have to work and go to work. I get that. I'm not talking about that. But some people say, we're going to get this done. And then some people say, good luck. Hope it works out. And here's all I'm saying. If that's your mentality, I always think to myself this, if everyone did what you did, nothing would ever get done. Some people have tenacity. That means they don't quit even when things get hard. But let me say this. You're there in Luke. You're there in Luke chapter 9. Tenacity, not only does it mean that you don't quit when things get hard, tenacity keeps you from quitting even when you have a good excuse. You say, okay Pastor, but what if I have a good excuse? Luke 9 59. And he said unto another, follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me. The word suffer means allow. He says, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Now, I don't know about you, but that sounds like a good excuse to me. And again, you say, why did Jesus say what he said? I don't know. Maybe because he's the son of God. Maybe because he's God in the flesh. You know, based off Jesus' response, I'm wondering, is this guy's dad even dead? But Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go and bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the plow. What's a plow? It's a tool. It is an instrument of work. He says, no man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. Jesus was not taking excuses. And the excuses seem pretty good. You say, what's the problem with excuses? Go to Ecclesiastes, if you would. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Keep your place right there in Luke, but if you open up your Bible right in the center of your more than life and follow the book of Psalms, right after Psalms you have Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. I've already preached as long as I preach the same sermon back home, but I'm not done. I can only imagine that the spirit of Pastor Thompson has came upon me. And I'm just going to preach a little longer. Fortunately for me, you're used to it. Hey, I'm not going to quit even though I have a good excuse. You say, what's the problem with excuses? Here's the problem. Here's the problem with quitting anything when you have a good excuse. You know, I'm of the belief. I believe that Christians should just make a decision. I'm going to be faithful to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. I'm going to go sowing every week of my life. You know, our family, our main sowing times on Saturday, I knew that I was going to be traveling this Saturday, so I went on Thursday. You know, and I understand sometimes you can't go, you're sick, the kids are sick, whatever. I understand, I'm not talking about that. But I am saying this, you ought to make a decision. Come hell or high water, I will read the Bible every day. Come hell or high water, I'm going to be faithful to church. I'm going to be faithful, soul winner. I'm going to be faithful in my giving. I'm going to be faithful in my ministry. And here's what I'm saying. You say, but what if I have a good excuse? Here's the thing. Here's the problem with excuses, even when they're good. Is that as soon as you give in to a good excuse, then the devil says, well, I've already found what I need to keep you out. See, some of you, I can't go sowing because my car keeps breaking down. Your car keeps breaking down because you don't go sowing. The devil's like, well, I know what I got to do. I just got to keep him sick. Just keep him sick to keep him out of church. Hey, if the devil has to keep you sick, he can keep you sick. He'll send a coronavirus for two years, keep you out of church for two years. Because you're so afraid of getting sick. Here's what I'm saying. And look, I understand sometimes, sometimes you just, I was in a car accident on the way there. I didn't make it. It was out of my control. I understand that I'm actually sick. I've got a fever. I can't get out of bed. I get that. I'm not talking about that. But I'm saying when you miss, when you quit, when you fail, when you don't go, you ought to be able to say, I tried. I did everything in my power. I didn't give in to just an excuse. Because as soon as you give in to an excuse, then the devil says, well, I can give you more excuses. I'm talking about don't quit even when it's hard. I'm talking about don't quit even when you have good excuses. Tenacity keeps you from quitting. When it's hard, it keeps you from quitting. When you have good excuses, tenacity keeps you from quitting because you have the that's good enough mentality. Are you there in Ecclesiastes 9? Look at verse 10. Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 10. Whatsoever the Bible says, thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. If you're going to do it, do it well. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Work hard at it. Do it well. Don't have this. Oh, that's good enough. Recently my niece got married. I of course performed the wedding. My wife and I did all the things that are required of us to do or that we do for weddings and things of that. Like we do for anybody else. But on top of that, because she's my niece, there was other things that my wife did. We had our daughters were in the weddings. We had four of our daughters were flower girls. So, you know, everything that goes into that. And my wife was asked to bake 200 chocolate chip cookies. Now some of you may not know, but my wife has these world renowned famous cookies. And she was asked to bake these 200 cookies. And she got it all scheduled out. Because baking 200 cookies is a big task. I'm going to do this on this day and get started on this day and at this time. And she got it all in shifts. I'm going to do this and this and this. Plus all her other responsibilities. Well, we got to the night before the wedding. And we're getting ready to leave to go to the rehearsal. And she finished 170 of the cookies. And we went and I ran the rehearsal. We did the rehearsal. We had a rehearsal dinner afterwards. We had the dinner. We're coming back home. And, you know, our girls are flower girls, so my wife has to do their hair and has to do this and has to do that and all these things. We're coming back home, you know, after that rehearsal dinner. We're tired. And my wife says to me, when I get home I've got to make one more batch of cookies. And I thought to myself, that's tenacity. You know, the average person would have said, well 170, that's good enough. I mean, I did 170. Yeah, but you committed to do 200. But I said I'd do 200. You say, Pastor, I think you're making too big of a deal of cookies. Yeah, but this is how you live your life. This is what you do with everything. Well, I said I would be there at this time. I said I would take care of their responsibility. I said that I would do this. I said that I would do that. But then it got hard. Then I got excused. And then I thought it was just good enough. Let me tell you something. Whatsoever by hand finding to do, do it with thy might. Tenacity keeps you from quitting. But let me say this. Tenacity makes you reliable. You know what it means to be reliable? Go to Genesis 39. I got to finish up. We're going to look at a few more verses and I've got to be done or I'm going to miss my flight. Genesis 39. Here we have the famous story of Joseph. Remember Joseph? This was a young man with tenacity. I mean, he did not quit. They lied about him. They sold him into slavery. Potiphar's wife lied about him, got him thrown in prison. The Bible says the Lord was with him. Genesis 39 verse 22. Notice what the Bible says. And the keeper of the prison, notice this, committed to Joseph. Joseph is a prisoner. The keeper of the prison is the guy in charge of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did, here's a statement of tenacity, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord was with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. You say, what was Joseph? He was reliable. He had tenacity. I mean, the keeper of the prison put him in charge of all the prisoners. And looked not to anything that was under his hand, meaning he didn't have to micromanage him, he didn't have to check in on him, he didn't have to check up on him. He just was a reliable man. You know what tenacity does? It makes you reliable. It makes it so that you can be, you say, what does it mean to be reliable? It means you can be counted on. It means that when you're given a task, your pastor can have the confidence that it will get done. And if it doesn't get done, it's because they're like in the hospital. They're in a car accident. Brother so-and-so didn't show up to do his duty here at church. And then you're just like, he must be on the side of the road somewhere. Because he's reliable. Because he's a hard worker. Because he has tenacity. Proverbs 25, if you would, look at verse 19. Proverbs 25 and verse 19. What does it mean? Confidence in an unfaithful man? What does it mean, what unfaithful man, what does it mean? It means unreliable. You can't rely on him. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint. Now I've never had a broken tooth or a foot out of joint. But I can imagine, here he says, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble, meaning when you need him, is like a broken tooth. It's like, you can't use it. I've got this great, you know, carne asada burrito, but every time I bite, it hurts because of this broken tooth. It's unreliable. And by the way, not only is it unreliable, it's annoying. You know what tenacity is? It's reliable. By the way, the Bible says, if you go back to 1 Corinthians, if you look at 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1, 1 Corinthians 4 verse 1, Let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Do you know that God has made us stewards of the mysteries of God? Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful, be found reliable. Tenacity keeps you from quitting when things get hard. Tenacity keeps you from quitting when you have a good excuse. Tenacity keeps you from having the that's good enough mentality. Look, tenacity keeps you, it makes you reliable so that you keep your word, you keep your commitments. You decide, I'm going to do this. Look, some of you need to decide, I'm going to be in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And come hell or high water, I'm not going to miss it. You know what tenacity does? Tenacity keeps you from traveling when you should be in church. You say, well, but it's easier if I'm shocked how many Christians will travel on a Sunday morning during church time. Well, pastor, you don't understand the flight was cheaper or travel on Sunday night during church time. Yeah, but if I don't fly back, then I'm going to have to miss, you know, the next day of work. Yeah, but you know what tenacity does what's hard? Tenacity goes the extra mile. Remember that? Tenacity doesn't take the path of least resistance. I remember years ago, before I was a pastor, before Pastor Anderson was a pastor. This was before he was Pastor Anderson. He was at House Anderson College. This was before we took a stand against Bible colleges. He was at House Anderson College studying for the ministry and my wife and I, we lived in Sacramento at the time and we were going to a church that we both attended in. We were considering going to House Anderson College. We did not end up going there. We actually went to a different Bible college. But we were considering going to Bible college at House Anderson, so we were going to fly out there and check it out. And while we were there, we were going to spend time with Pastor Anderson and Mrs. Ana. And again, he wasn't a pastor at the time, but we're going to spend the weekend with them. We're going to stay at their house. And he was going to take me to all the different ministries that he had and we're going to go soul winning with them and go to the church services and whatever. I was on the phone with him and we were talking and kind of talking about how this is all going to work and the day we're coming in and whatever. And I said to him, I said, yeah, we're flying back on Sunday night. And then I kept talking about something else or whatever. And he kind of came back and he was very nice about it, very tactful. And he said, I just want to make sure I have all the details. So you said you're flying back on Sunday night? And I kind of laughed. I said, well, let me explain. We're not missing church. I said, my wife and I are going to fly back on the Red Eye at like 11.45 p.m. It actually costs us an extra $100 to get on that flight. So we're going to go to church Sunday night. Then maybe after Sunday night church, maybe we could go through a drive through or something and then maybe you could drop us off at the airport. But we're not going to miss church while we're traveling. And I remember he said this to me. He says, I'm glad to hear that. Because I was about to say, if you're going to miss church on a Sunday night, you shouldn't even be going in the ministry. And you know, here's the truth. You know what that is? Yeah, you think if you're going to be a pastor, you want to skip church? That pretty basic? I'm here to tell you, you say, but it's harder. It costs more. It's going to be more difficult. This is tenacity. This is what tenacity does. Tenacity looks at your vacation time and says, OK, family, we're going on a vacation. But while we're on vacation from work, while we're on vacation from our jobs, while we're on vacation from a school, we're not on vacation from God. We're never on vacation from God. So while we're on vacation, we're going to go to church on Wednesday night. While we're on vacation, we're going to church on Sunday morning. While we're on vacation, we're going to church on Sunday night. While we're on vacation, we're going to read the Bible. We're going to pray. We're still Christians. This is what tenacity does. Tenacity does what's harder. Tenacity does not take the path of least resistance. Tenacity accomplishes what it says it's going to accomplish. Pastor Thompson talked about it this morning. Paul was a hard charger. Jesus, the Bible says that he set his face as a flint. What is that? It's tenacity. It's saying, here's what I'm going to do. And I understand, other than by God's providential hand, if God just keeps me from doing this, I'm going to do it. Come hell or high water, I'm going to be there. I'm going to keep my word. I'm going to get it done. You say, why are some people like that and some people are not? Here's the word, tenacity. Some people have it, some people don't. Here's the question I have for you. Do you have it? And if you don't, I'm not mad at you. But I'm telling you, you ought to develop it. You ought to decide I'm going to get it. Go to Psalm 127, we'll finish up right here. Because tenacity is going to keep me from not preaching longer than Pastor Thompson. I can at least hold that over his head. Psalm 127. I've been telling you all the good things about tenacity. Let me just conclude with one kind of warning about tenacity. In Psalm 127, verse 1, we have this very famous verse. I know you've heard it. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wake his butt in vain. Don't we like those verses? Those are great verses. Verse 2, here's an interesting verse. It is vain. It is vain for you to rise up early or sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows. For so he giveth his beloved a sleep. And by the way, I do think that you should try to get a good night's rest. I understand that there are seasons in life when we work harder and get up early and stay up late and whatever. You should be watchful of your health and those things. But here, this verse, Psalm 127, 2, almost sounds like it's speaking against tenacity. It says, it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late. Some of you young guys, that's your life verse. Why do you sleep in? Well, it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late. Unless you're staying up to 3 in the morning on YouTube. You know, so you have this verse and it sounds like it's against tenacity. And if you understand other passages of scripture, you say these things don't really jive. Because like for example, Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous woman who gets up early, stays up late and works hard all day long. Men of God throughout the Bible, the Bible often says about the prophets and the men of God that they rose up early. So God is all for hard work and tenacity, but you have Psalm 127 verse 2 and you're like, well, what's the problem here? What's the contradiction? Well, here's the problem. You can't take one verse out of its context. Verse 2 is in the context of verse 1. So it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late in the context of, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. You say, what does that mean? Here's what it means. Tenacity is great. Getting up early is great. Staying up late is great. Working hard all day long is great. Being able to say like the apostle Paul, I labor more abundantly than they all. All of that is great. But if you're doing it outside of God, it's vain. See some people, they say, oh, I'm going to have tenacity to become a millionaire. That's vain. Hey, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. You can go ahead and get up early, stay up late, work hard all week long. But if you're not doing it for what God wants you to do, if you're not doing it in the will of God, if you're not doing it co-laboring with God, it's vain. So tenacity is great. But it is vain for you to rise up early to sit up late if you're doing it outside of God. Because except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. But you know what I say? I say that we decide we're going to have tenacity. We're going to work hard and we're going to work with God to build this church, to build your families, to build even your secular work. Work with God to build it and then it won't be vain. Then it won't be empty. Don't turn tenacity into a confidence of the flesh. Because remember Paul said, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. Say, Paul, you labor more abundantly than they all. He says, yes, but before you understand that, he says, by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. So that's our word, tenacity. Do you have it? If you have it, I want to encourage you, don't quit, don't give up. And if you don't, if you don't, I want to encourage you to develop it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you Lord for these examples in the Bible. Lord, thank you for these dear people. I know they love you. I know they work hard. I know they're faithful. Father, I pray you'd help. Lord, the truth is this, all of us can do more. All of us can accomplish more. All of us need to try to do more. And Lord, I pray you'd help us to do it. I pray that the sermon tonight was received in the spirit in which it was given. Lord, we all have areas where we need to just develop a little more tenacity, help us to do it. But Lord, help us to never do it in the flesh. Always working hard, laboring more abundantly than they all, but doing it with the Lord. Co-laboring with God, except the Lord build a house, they labor and rain that building. Thank you for this church. Thank you for the hard work that's gone into it. Thank you for Pastor Thompson and Ms. Sherry, and the labor, the sweat, the tears that they've poured into this ministry. Lord, I pray you'd bless my wife and I and our ministry in Sacramento for thanking for our dear people that work hard and love you. And Lord, I pray you'd help all of us to decide to have a little more tenacity. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. Let's go to moment by moment, page 222. Let's sing it on that first verse. Dying with Jesus by death reckon mine, living with Jesus unto my Divine, looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above, looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. Never a trial that He is not there. Never a burden that He doth not bear. Never a sorrow that He doth not share. Moment by moment, I'm under His care. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above, looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. Never a heartache and never a groan. Never a teardrop and never a moan. Never a danger but there on the throne. Moment by moment, He thinks of His own. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above, looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. Never a weakness that He doth not feel. Never a sickness that He cannot heal. Moment by moment, in woe or in woe, Jesus my Savior abides with me still. Moment by moment, I'm kept in His love. Moment by moment, I fly from above, looking to Jesus till glory doth shine. Moment by moment, O Lord, I am thine. Song 63. Page number 63. Page 64. Let's sing that one. Shall We Gather at the River, page 64. On the first. Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have drawn, with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God? Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God.