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Alright, we were there in Proverbs chapter number 11, and like I said this morning I want to preach a real short sermon, but I never want to have a service where we don't have preaching from the Word of God. So I hope that's okay, but I want to preach a sermon this morning, and again, very short sermon. I've got four points, but I'm going to give you four points, four verses, we're going to finish, alright? I want to preach a sermon entitled, What We've Tried to Do Over the Last Ten Years of Ministry. And if you remember on Wednesday night I preached a sermon about what we've learned over the last ten years of ministry. This morning I want to talk about what we've tried to do over the last ten years of ministry. And the reason I use the word tried is for a couple reasons. Number one, because we're not done. We're going to continue to try to do these things and continue to accomplish these things in this ministry, but also because we realize that we're not perfect. We've dropped the ball at different times, and we've not done everything we could have done and everything we should have done, but there are some things that we've tried to do over the last ten years of ministry. You can write these down if you'd like on the back of your course of the week. There's a place for you to write things down. Let me just give you four thoughts in regards to things we've tried to do over the last ten years of ministry. Number one, for the last ten years we have tried to win as many people to Christ as possible. Over the last ten years of ministry you say, what has Verity Baptist Church been trying to do over the last ten years of ministry? Well, Proverbs 11 verse 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. The reason that for the last ten years of ministry we've preached about soul winning, we've practiced soul winning, we've motivated and mobilized and trained as many soul winners as possible to go out into the community to knock doors, to invite people to church. Hey, why we've done that, because one thing that we've tried to do is we've tried to win as many people to Christ as possible. We're trying to get people saved, and even yesterday I was encouraged, go with me to 2 Peter if you would, towards the end of the New Testament. If you start at the book of Revelation and head backwards, you have the book of Jude in 32 and 1 John, and then you have the book of 2 Peter, 2 Peter chapter number 3. I was thinking about this yesterday, my wife and I were out soul winning, and we were out with Brother Mauricio and Miss Sarah and Thomas and Jazzy. Brother Mauricio gave the gospel in Spanish, first time I heard Brother Mauricio give the gospel in Spanish, and I'm sure he's done it many times. But I was encouraged to hear him give a clear, just a very clear and thorough presentation. I was with Thomas, and the last time I'd gone with Thomas he wasn't talking, and he said to me, I'm talking at the door now, and I got to see him talk at the door, and he did a very good job. And Miss Sarah is talking at the door with my wife, and my wife said, Miss Sarah did a good job, and I was thinking to myself, this is what we've given our lives to. Over the last 10 years of ministry we've given our lives to take people and get them saved, and then train them to get other people saved. You say, what have you tried to do over the last 10 years? Well number one, we have tried to win as many people to Christ as possible. The reason you go into the church office and you see a bigger map now, a laminated map with areas shaded, and we try to knock every door in the city of Sacramento. Why? Because we want to get people saved. That's what we're about. So what have we done? You know, we just watched this 10 year video over the history of the church, but what is it that you've been trying to accomplish? Well number one, we've tried to win as many people to Christ as possible. Number two, over the last 10 years of ministry, not only have we tried to win as many people to Christ as possible, but we've tried to work with as many new believers and help them grow in the Lord. Are you there in 2 Peter chapter 3, and look at verse number 18. 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 18, the Bible says this, But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. The Bible says that our job is to help you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. And look, I realize, and you watch it on the video here, and I realize that our church has made its name for itself through some controversial preaching, and through the Red Hot Preaching Conference, and being on the news, and even, this didn't make it in the video, but the L.A. Times reporting about us last year. We've done those things, but the truth is this, for those of you that are part of Area Baptist Church, you know that week in and week out, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, the vast majorities of the sermons that are preached from this pulpit are there to help you grow in grace. Are there to help you have a good marriage, and to raise good children, and to be a good Christian, and to walk with God, and to be a disciple of Lord Jesus Christ. Over the last 10 years of ministry, we've tried to win as many people to Christ as possible, but you know what we've also done? We've tried to work with as many new believers as possible, to disciple them, to help them grow, to help them become followers of Jesus Christ. So let me give you a third one, and you can go to the book of Ephesians if you would, Ephesians chapter number 6. You've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. While you go to Ephesians 6, I'm going to read to you from Ezekiel chapter 3. You don't have to go to Ezekiel, you go to Ephesians, I'll read to Ezekiel chapter 3 verse 15. This is the prophet Ezekiel, he says this, Then I came to them of the captivity, and this is Ezekiel during the time that the children of Israel had been put into captivity with Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar. And the Bible says about Ezekiel, he says, Then I came to them of the captivity of Tel Aviv, and dwelt by the river of Kibar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished. Among them, seven days. And you know, the truth is this, over the last ten years of ministry, not only have we tried to win as many people as Christ as possible, not only have we tried to work with new believers and help them grow in the Lord, but over the last ten years of ministry, we have tried to walk alongside people during their difficult seasons of life. Over the last ten years, we've tried to sit where they sit. My wife and I have sat where they sat. We have remained there. We have visited, and we have written cards, and we haven't been perfect at it, and we've made phone calls, and we've been there in the hospital, and we've been there in the funerals, and we've been there for their weddings, and we've been there for the big events of their lives, and for the difficult events of their lives, and I'm not saying we're perfect, and I'm not saying that we couldn't have done a better job, but we've done to the best of our ability, we've tried to walk alongside people during the ups and downs of their lives. The fourth thing that we've tried to do here, and I'll be done here in one minute, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12. We have tried to win people to Christ, we have tried to work with new believers, we have tried to walk alongside people during their difficult times, but lastly, I'd like you to just notice that we've tried to, we've done everything in our power to, wage war against the devil and his demons. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12, the Bible says this, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, and I'm here to tell you, and I'm not saying this in a condescending way, and I hope you understand my spirit from which this is coming, and I realize we have many guests with us this morning, we've got 215 people here this morning, and I praise the Lord for that, but let me just say this, maybe you're here this morning and you say, I'm thinking of maybe making Verity Baptist Church my home, and I hope you will, and if you do that, we're going to try to win you to Christ if you're not saved, and we're going to try to work with you and help you grow, and we're going to walk beside you during the difficult seasons of life, but please understand this, this church is not for everybody, because this is not a church where we just play church. We are actively engaged in a spiritual warfare, you say, you know, you try to engage in spiritual warfare, how have you done that? Well, by motivating, mobilizing soul winners, by planting churches up and down this coast and trying to help people. Over the last 10 years, we planted five churches and tried to create groups of assemblies of believers and other places to do what we're doing here through hard preaching, through preaching and taking the advice from the apostle Paul, when he said preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, he said to preach it, whether it's popular or not, whether people like it or not, we're going to preach the truth, why? Because for the last 10 years of ministry, we started Verity Baptist Church to say, this will be a place where we will uphold the truth and to the best of our ability, we've tried to uphold the truth at Verity Baptist Church. So in our 10 year anniversary, I just want to kind of remind all of us, what we've tried to do over the last 10 years, win as many people to Christ, work with new believers and help them grow in the Lord, walk alongside people during the difficult times of their lives and to do everything we can to wage war on the devil and his demons, you say, why do we need to be reminded? Because I'd like you to just realize in our 10 year anniversary that nothing has changed. And for the next 10 years, you say, what's the plan for the next 10 years? Win as many people to Christ as possible? Work with new believers and help them grow and disciple them in the Lord, walk alongside people during their ups and downs of life and we're going to continue to wage war against the devil. So I hope you'll be excited and I hope you'll say, hey, I want to stick around and I want to get involved and I want to jump in and I want to do what we can to continue to do what God has called us to do here at Verity Baptist Church. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Thank you. And Lord, I pray that you, I realize the sermon was short, but I pray that you just help us to remember that there are certain things we're trying to do here and we're going to continue to do those things and we want to try to continue to do those things. Lord, I pray that you would bless our church and help our church. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen.