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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good morning and welcome to Verity Baptist Church. Let's go ahead and find our seats Find the seats and find a hymnal close to you and turn to page number 449 Song number 449 And we will open the service with Dwelling in Beulah Land, song number 449 And let's go ahead We're gonna sing it out On the first Far away the noise, the strife upon my ear is falling Then I know the sins of earth be set on every hand Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling None of me shall move me from Beulah Land I'm giving a mountain, the cloudless sky, praise God I'm drinking at the mountain that never shall run dry Oh yes and we see from manna, from a mountain full of supply For I am dwelling in Beulah Song number 449 If you notice there's a praise God at the chorus So everyone has to say praise God, you have to shout it alright Like you're happy Song number 449 on the second Far below the storm, a tower of mine, the world is beating Sons of many, matter what the enemy will stand Say, am I within the castle of God's will be treating Coming down in between is Beulah Land Sing it out I'm living on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky, praise God I'm drinking at the mountain that never shall run dry Oh yes and we see from manna, from a mountain full of supply For I am dwelling in Beulah Land On the third Let the stormy breezes blow their cry and not alarm me I am safe, we shall to be protected by God's hand Here the sun is all, we're shining, here does not care for me I am safe forever in Beulah Land I'm drinking on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky, praise God I'm drinking at the mountain that never shall run dry Oh yes and we see from manna, from a mountain full of supply For I am dwelling in Beulah Land Let's finish strong on the last You may hear the works of God I sing in contemplation Here and now his blessed voice I see the way he planned Dwelling in the spirit here I will learn of whose salvation Gladly will I tarry in Beulah Land One last one I'm living on a mountain underneath the cloudless sky I'm drinking at the mountain that never shall run dry Oh yes and we see from manna, from a mountain full of supply For I am dwelling in Beulah Land Heavenly Father, Lord we do thank you for allowing us to gather together today We pray that you would bless the time that we have set aside for singing, of course for preaching, for fellowship Lord we pray that everything that's done today would bring honor and glory to your name I pray that you would help us to prepare our hearts, Lord, to receive the preaching and to be able to draw closer to you as a result of what we hear today In Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen, turn to page number 140 Son number 140 Will your anger hold in the storms of life? Son number 140 sing it out on the first Will your anger hold in the storms of life? When the clouds unfold their wings of strife When the strong tides lift and the cables strain Will you wake the drip of your name? We have an anger that keeps us so Sat by the shore while the billows blow Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love It is safe we walk till the storm winds stand Force is well secured by the Savior's hand Though the tempest waves show no upwinds blow Not an angry wave shall our mark foreflow We have an anger that keeps us so Sat by the shore while the billows blow Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love Sing it out on the last When our eyes meet low through the gathering night And the city and world are far from high We shall make the fast by the heavenly shore Will the storms all pass forevermore? We have an anger that keeps us so Sat by the shore while the billows blow Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firm and deep in the Savior's love We'll go ahead and take our bulletins this morning and we'll look at some announcements. If you do not have a bulletin this morning just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you. If you need a bulletin just put your hand up and we will get one for you. The verse this week, Psalm 50 verse 1, The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. And that's a good verse there. We like that. If you open up your bulletin you'll see our service time Sunday morning service 1030 a.m. Of course we're glad you are with us on Sunday morning on the Lord's day for church Sunday evening service 6 p.m. We do invite you to be back tonight for the evening service. The evening service is different than the morning service. Different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached. Just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people under the preaching of the word of God. And then of course our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. And we call it the most encouraging service of the week. We'd love for you to join us for the midweek service at 7 p.m. We have our soul winning times, our main soul winning times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. And then we have additional soul winning times on Thursdays at 6, Fridays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Soul winning of course is when we go out in the community, we knock doors, we invite people to church and we preach the gospel to anyone who's interested. So we'd love you to join us for any of those soul winning times. If you are a first time guest, if it's your first time here at Verity Baptist Church, we're glad you're with us. We have a gift we'd like to give you as you walk out of the church building this morning if you go out our main foyer or if you go out our secondary foyer you'll see a little table set up. And on that table you'll see these little gift bags. Please grab one on your way out as a gift from us to you for being our guest this morning. There are several resources in this bag that we'd like you to have. But the one I'd like to highlight is this documentary that our church made. It's called Being Baptist. It's very well made, very interesting. We think you'll like it. We want to give this to you as a gift. So please make sure you don't leave here this morning without grabbing one of those gift bags on your way out. And if you are a guest we ask that you please take a moment to fill out the communication card which is inserted in your bulletin. If you need a pen just raise your hand and one of our ushers can bring you by a Verity Baptist Church pen. You're welcome to keep the pen as a gift from us as well. And we'd love to have a record of your attendance. We actually would like to send you a little gift but we need your information to do that. So please take a moment to fill the card out. When we're done with the announcements we're going to sing a song. And when we're done singing we're going to receive the offering. As the offering plate goes by you can drop this card in the offering plate. If you notice there in the announcements we of course are a family integrated church. What that means is that children and infants are always welcome in the church service. We do not separate children from their parents for any reason. We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience. All of the rooms have comfortable seating. They have monitors set up so you can watch the service and listen to it. So if you have a child that's been distracting during the service or if you need some privacy we would encourage you to please use those rooms as needed. If you need to be baptized please let us know. We'd love to baptize you. You can let us know on your communication card on the back of the card. There's a place for you to check off that you'd like information about baptism and we'll follow up with you in regards to that. If you've already spoken to somebody you know you need to be baptized then all you need to do is at the end of the service while we're singing the last song. If you step out that door one of our staff guys will meet you there and we will get you situated for baptism. If you look at the announcements and upcoming events of course today is our Shriving Together New Members class right after the morning service. If you've signed up for the new members class then we of course invite you to stick around. After the morning service if you want to make your way to the fellowship hall we have a nice lunch catered for all of you that have signed up for the class. And we will have the class this afternoon. And then there's other things that we'd like you to be aware of. Of course the San Jose Solening Marathon is this Saturday June 17th at 9 30 a.m. And all the information is there. We do need you to sign up on your communication card. If you have any questions you can see brother RJ he's the one leading up this event for us. Next Sunday is Father's Day and we want you to be here of course on Father's Day. We're going to have the VBC t-shirts for all the men and boys in attendance as a gift and we'll have special music. We also have our discipleship class coming up on starting on Sunday June 25th at 5 p.m. They meet in the fellowship hall at 5 p.m. It's an eight week class covering biblical truths for new believers or if you've never been through a structured discipleship program. We'd love for you to be a part of our discipleship class. Also we've got our church picnic coming up on Tuesday July 4th at 3 p.m. The address is there for you and there are some opportunities for you to be able to volunteer. If you'd like to bring a grill or if you'd like to help with grilling you can sign up on your communication card. And there are some sign up sheets in the foyer as well to bring a side dish or dessert. And just make plans to be there. The ladies are going to be playing volleyball and I think the men are going to be playing softball. So make sure you make plans for that. And then choir practice begins today. They're going to start practicing for the Red Hot Preaching Conference. So today at 5 p.m. here in the auditorium if you'd like to be part of that make sure you are here for that. There's other things there for you to look at. Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off. Replace them on silent during the service if they're not a distraction to anybody. If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of June. Today is Onyx Othniel Johnson's birthday on June 11th. And I like that name. That's a good name. And Brother Ryan and Miss Sandra Gibbs have an anniversary on June 12th. Itziana Perez has a birthday on June 13th. Alina Roldan has a birthday on June 17th. And Brother Mike and Miss Diane Dipasquale have an anniversary on June 17th. Praise Report, Money Matters, all those things are there for you to look at. And I think that's it for all of the announcements. So we're going to go ahead and sing the chorus of the week as we prepare to receive the offering this morning. And we'll sing, his eye is on the sparrow. Why should I be discouraged, singing out on the first? Why should I be discouraged? Why should the shadows fall? Why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and all? When Jesus is my portion, my heart in heaven is he. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Sing it out. I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. For his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Amen. You can't sing about singing, and you definitely can't sing about singing about being happy without singing out. So sing it out on the second, and then let's sing it out at the chorus whenever I am tempted on the second. Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise, when suns get placed inside, when earth within me lies, I draw but closer to him, come care he sets me free. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. All right, sing it out. I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. For his eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Amen. Good singing. We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time. And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do love you. We thank you for allowing us to gather together today. We pray you bless the offering, the gift, and the giver. And, Lord, we ask that you would meet with us as we, of course, open up your word and study the Bible together. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please open your elbows to Hebrews 10. Hebrews chapter number 10. If you need a Bible, you can put your hand up and I'm not sure we'll come by and read your Bible. Hebrews chapter number 10. If you need a Bible, keep your hand up and I'm not sure we'll come by. Hebrews 10. We read the entire chapter as our custom. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. 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Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. Hebrews 10, making it verse number 1. The last sermon, the way it's worked out, the Father's Day one will probably be the last sermon. But let me just say this, that with the sermon series, I've been preaching some very specific sermons. And I keep telling you this every week. I began with some general sermons on untapped potential and how to reach your own full potential. And then we started dealing with some very specific sermons on how to help your wife reach her potential, how to help your husband reach his potential, how to help your children reach their potential. On Mother's Day I preached about how to reach your full potential as a mother. We talked about how to reach your full potential as a teen. Last week I preached on how to reach your full potential as a senior saint. This morning I'm going to kind of draw back to more of a general stance and a general sermon, maybe not as specific and something that should apply to everyone here. And this morning I want to preach on the subject of how to reach your full potential as a church member, how to reach your full potential as a church member. And if you're here this morning, then obviously hopefully you are a member of this church or you're moving in the direction of becoming a member of this church, or maybe you're visiting from out of town and hopefully you're a member of a good Baptist biblical church somewhere. But what I've noticed and what my wife and I have learned over the last 12 years of ministry is that some people get more out of their local church than others. Some people get more potential out of their church than others do. And what I'd like to do this morning is give you seven thoughts regarding how to reach your full potential as a church member. And let me just begin by saying this, and usually we jump right into the Word of God and we're going to get into the Word of God this morning. But let me begin by just kind of telling you a story. And I've told this story before, and I call it the tale of two families. And it's not a specific story. When I tell this story, I'm not talking about any one family specifically. I'm kind of just using this as an allegory of many experiences we've had, like I said, over the last 12 years of ministry. One thing I've learned in ministry is that church growth often seems to happen in clusters. It seems to be that whenever we have a growth and whenever one family joins, it's usually not one family that joins. It's usually two or three families that kind of join the church all around the same time. What's interesting to me, and I won't go into the details, but you can ask my wife, it's very interesting, is that it often seems that similar people join at the same time. And we'll have two or three families that seem very similar kind of join at the same time. Or we'll have several single guys kind of all join at the same time. Or we'll have several couples kind of all join at the same time. It just seems to work out that way, and I've always found it interesting. I don't know if God does that just to confuse us, because sometimes it's like, you know, are you talking about this family? I'm talking about that family. It's like, oh, they're so similar. You know, when you're new to someone, you don't know all the details in their life stories. Of course, as you get to know them, they become more of an individual in your mind. But oftentimes, it seems like church growth happens in clusters. And what we've learned and what I've seen is that we'll have clusters of people that will kind of join at the same time. And again, this happens over, I can take you back to, I remember being in the house and when we started this church 12 years ago in our living room, and I could tell you clusters of people that have joined at different times, and they kind of all came together. It's almost like a class, you know. We should have a class portrait of people that joined the church at different times. But one thing we've noticed is that sometimes we watch clusters join the church, and maybe, and like I said, I'm not talking specifically about anybody, but two families that are maybe very similar kind of join the church, or two sets of couples that are kind of similar join the church, or two sets of singles that are kind of similar join the church. And then what we'll see is that one of that set will become just a very thriving, involved, faithful member of Verity Baptist Church. And we'll see another of that set just kind of dwindle off, and die off, and not really ever reach the full potential that God intended for them. And what we've seen is that the people who end up sticking around, being faithful, being productive, happy members of not just this church, but any local New Testament church, they all seem to follow the same guidelines. They all seem to kind of go in the same direction, and I've kind of dwindled those down into seven principles, and I want to give those to you because number one, I want to make sure that you make sure that you are following these so that you don't die out. And for some of you, maybe it'll be a little bit of a wake-up call to realize that maybe this is why you're dying out, and maybe this is why your spiritual life is not as full as others' seems to be. It's usually because others are taking different actions than the ones that we are taking. So seven statements to help you reach your full potential as a church member. That's all I'll say by introduction. I'll give you these seven statements as quickly as possible this morning. If you're taking notes, and I do encourage you to take notes on the back of your course this week. There's a place for you to write down some notes, and I'll give you these statements. Number one, to reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to all the church services. You should show up to all the church services. Of course, that's where we've got to begin. In Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 24, the Bible says this, And let us consider one another. And let me say something, and something that you may not realize, or maybe you do realize it, but you haven't thought about it, that life is more than just about yourself. And the Christian life for sure, and I will say any life, was never meant to be lived alone. We were created to live within a community of people that believe the way we do, that are heading in the same direction we're heading, that can consider one another and encourage one another. And this is what the writer of Hebrews is saying. He says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And I'll just say this, it is not healthy to live an isolated life. It's not healthy to live an isolated life. And let me just go ahead and say this, and I'm going to talk about it later on in the sermon. Some of you may have found yourself through the instances of life, may be isolated as a result of age or health or just the way that things have worked out, but I will say this, that God has instituted a place called the local New Testament church so that no one ever has to live their life alone. And you can always be around other people that love you and care about you. So the writer of Hebrews says, let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And then he says this in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And the assembling of ourselves together there is a reference to the congregation, to church. The word church means assembly, congregation. The idea of a church is the idea that believers come together as a congregation to form a community of local believers. And here the writer of Hebrews is telling us, don't be the person who forsakes the assembling of ourselves together. He says, don't be the person who quits on church. Don't be the person who forsakes the assembling. Now, there's a couple of ways that you can interpret this, and I believe both ways are correct. One is the way to look at it is don't be the person who just quits church altogether, who just says, I'm done with church, I'm done with the Christian life, and you just go off into the world. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. And that's definitely the case. And that's what we're talking about when I tell you the tale of the two families. We don't want you to be the one who dwindles off, who dies off and forsakes the things of God altogether. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. But I think there's another way to look at this verse, and I believe both ways are meant to be seen through this passage, and it is this. How does somebody get there? How does somebody who's a Bible-leaving Christian who goes to church, how do they get to the place where they quit on church? Now, yes, sometimes it happens overnight. It's rare, but it does happen. And let me just say this. When it happens that way, it didn't really happen overnight. Something was going on in the heart of that individual that brought them to the place where they just said, I quit, I'm done, I'm forsaking the assembly. The truth is this, that usually the way that it happens, and what's so difficult about ministry, especially trying to pastor a growing church, is that it usually happens slowly. People don't just go from Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and being faithful to church, and then they just quit church. That's rare. Now that does happen from time to time, and again, usually there's something wrong, and there's been something wrong in their heart. Usually how it happens is they just kind of slowly begin to miss here, miss there, not as consistent. They come one week, don't come another week, come two or three weeks, don't come one or two weeks. And it just kind of slowly, it's less obvious, and it's harder to identify, and they just kind of slowly die off. This is how it happens. So the Bible says that we are to be the people that are not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. Notice these words, as the manner of some is. That phrase, manner of some, the word manner means habit or custom, and here's what he's saying. Some people have a custom, and some people have a habit of just skipping out on church. And if you allow yourself to be the person who just has this habit of just constantly missing church, eventually you will quit church altogether, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Let me just say this. I believe that as a Christian, and as a believer, we should have the stated goal of saying, let me just say the way I was told this when I was a kid growing up. My parents are members here at our church, and I grew up in a Christian home, and the way that it was just understood in our home was this. If the church doors are open, we're going to be there. If there's something going on in church, we're going to be there. We're not going to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Now I realize that sometimes you will miss church because you're sick, or your kids are sick, and I get that, but the point that I'm making is this. That should be the exception, not the rule. And the truth is this, that if you have it in your mind to say, you know what, every Sunday I'm going to be in church, it's just going to be my habit, it's just going to be my custom, it's just going to be what I do, then every once in a while when you're sick and you miss, okay, it's rare. But here's what happens when people don't get that determined in their heart. Like the Bible says about Daniel, that he purposed in his heart. When you don't purpose in your heart to say, I'm going to be faithful to church, then what happens is every little excuse to not go to church will keep you from church. And if you're looking for a reason to not go to church, let me tell you something, the devil's going to give you a good reason every week. So you've got to decide, and you've got to make the choice to say, I'm going to become a faithful church member. I'm going to be someone who is in the habit, who has the practice, who has the manner of being faithful to church, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. Now here at Verity Baptist Church, we have three church services. And sometimes this is odd to people because of the way that our world is, and I think sometimes we take it for granted and we have to explain to people. You know, a lot of churches today, a lot of liberal churches, they'll have two services on Sunday, but it's the same service. You know what I'm talking about? It's like you come on Sunday morning, and then you come on Sunday night, and Sunday night it's just a repeat of Sunday morning. Well, let me help you understand something. That is not the case at Verity Baptist Church. We have three separate church services that are in our three separate services, three separate sermons, different songs that are sung, different sermon that's preached. It's just one more opportunity. You hear me say this every week. One more opportunity being God's house with God's people under the preaching of the Word of God. When I was growing up, there was a preacher named Lee Roberson. He's dead now, but he kind of coined this phrase because independent formal Baptist churches by and large used to have three services, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and he coined this phrase, three to thrive. Three to thrive. I like that phrase. Three to thrive. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. Hey, we need each other. We need to be under the preaching of the Word of God. Now let me just say this. Some people might think, well, you know, three services a week. Isn't that a little much? Well, notice again there Hebrews 10 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. Notice his words, and so much the more. And so much the more as you see that they approach. Let me tell you something. As we get closer to the end, the world is waxing worse and worse. And in America today, we don't need less church. We need more church. We don't need less preaching of the Word of God. We need more preaching of the Word of God. If you say, what's your attitude towards church attendance? My attitude is this so much the more. If there's a Sunday morning service, look, I'm just saying I'm the pastor, obviously, so some of you don't believe this. But before I was a pastor, my wife and I went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And if there was a special service on a Thursday night, we were there. And if there was a special event on a Friday, we were there. And if there was any, and we just had this attitude that God is the center of my life, God is the most important thing in the universe, so His house will be a priority. God's house and God's Word and God's people should be a priority to the people of God. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to the church service. Go to Acts, if you would, Acts chapter 20. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Sunday night, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. And look, just think about it logically. Maybe you're here this morning and you say, ah, I'll only come on Sunday mornings. And look, I'm not attacking you. I hope you understand that. I love you. But let me just say this. If you come to this church on Sunday mornings, and maybe you don't even come every Sunday morning. You come every few weeks. But when you come, it's helpful. When you come, you learn. When you come, you're challenged. When you come, you leave here thinking, wow, I didn't know the Bible said that. I learned something. There's something applicable there that I can apply to my. That's going to help me in my marriage, or that's going to help me with my children, or that's going to help me in my personal life. And here's what I'm saying. If you show up here on a Sunday morning, once a week, and it's helpful to you. Imagine if you showed up twice. Imagine if you showed up three times. Let me let you in on a little secret. Every time we have a service around here, the Word of God is open. The Word of God is preached and it is applied in such a way to help you. Acts chapter 20 and verse 18. Acts 20, 18, the Bible says, And when they were come to him, Acts 20 and verse 18, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. Acts 20, 18, And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons. Why don't you notice the Apostle Paul? You say, what made the Apostle Paul such a great man? Well, there's lots of things that made him a great man. One thing he tells us here, that you know what manner. You see the word manner there? It's the same idea we saw in Hebrews. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. He says, you know what kind of custom I had. You know what kind of habit I had. He said, you know what manner I have been with you at all seasons. You say, would that include football season? That would include football season. What manner I have been with you at all seasons. Go to Acts chapter 11. And look, if you're here this morning and you say, well, I don't know about this three to five thing. Here's what I would say. Why don't you step it up? Why don't you step it up by taking one step where you are? Acts 11 and verse 26, And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. Acts 11 verse 26, And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church. I want you to notice this. I want you to notice this. A whole year they assembled themselves with the church. Why would you do that? Notice. And taught much people. That's why we have church. The teacher of the word of God. I've said it before. There are two things we do here at Verity Baptist Church. You can put what we do under two headings or two umbrellas. One is we reach people and one is we teach people. We reach people with the gospel and then we teach them to observe all that the word of God says to do. They assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. Notice. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. This is a very interesting verse because here the Bible tells us we're the source of a well-known phrase. We often are referred to as Christians today. But that phrase appeared first, the Bible says in Acts 11 and 26, in Antioch. Before this they were just called believers or they were called brethren or they were just called those weirdos. But what happened was that these people got together. They started a church. A whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And here's what happened. There was such a transformation in their lives. Their lives began to change in such a way that the community around them began to look at them and say, Those people remind me of that Jesus Christ. And they began to call them Christians or Christ, little Christ, little followers of Christ. It was probably an insult, a derogatory term. But that's where the term came. Where did the term come from? It did not come from people getting saved. It came from people who got saved and got faithful to church, got plugged into church, got taught the word of God, applied it to their lives. It transformed their lives. And people said, That's a Christian. I'm just here to tell you that if you got plugged into church, it would change your life if you got plugged in. Now that's not the only step. I've got seven steps. That's just step one. But you've got to start there. Three to thrive, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. You say, Okay, well, Pastor, you know, I don't know. That seems a lot. Remember, step it up by taking one step. Step it up by taking one step where you're at. Maybe you are at the place where you say, I'm not even faithful just Sunday mornings. I'm just kind of the guy that goes to church every few weeks or so. Okay, well, then why don't you just make the decision today? Hey, how about I'll just be Sunday morning every Sunday morning? I'll just be faithful every Sunday morning. And you say, Well, what if I'm sick? Well, if you're sick, stay home. But why don't you just be faithful every Sunday morning? By the way, let me just say this. So I'm going to go ahead and start, go from preaching to offending. But it's always funny to me how people, you know, they can't come to church. And look, obviously, if you're sick and you're contagious, if your kids are throwing up, they need to stay home. Look, I'm not talking about that. But what I am talking about is some of you are sick a lot. And I'm starting to think that you're not really sick. It's just what you always say. And here's all I'm saying is, you say, Well, Pastor, here's all I'm saying. If you go to work on Monday feeling that way, do you understand what I just said? Because if you were going to a baseball game and you had that little headache, you wouldn't skip it. If you had that little bug, but it was right before your camping trip you've been looking forward to, you wouldn't skip it. I told you, I'm meddling now. I'm just saying there's a little bit of character there when you say, Well, you know, here's all I ask myself. If I wasn't feeling well, I'd ask myself, Well, if it was right before something that I was looking forward to, something that I planned, my little camping trip, my little hiking trip, my little whatever, would I cancel it? No. Would I cancel it for work? No. Now, if you would cancel it, if you were not going to work, then please don't come to church. But sometimes it's good for us to kind of check ourselves and ask ourselves, are we looking for a reason? Because here's all I'm telling you, if you're looking for a reason to skip out on church, the devil will give you one every time. Here's all I'm saying. If I woke up on Sunday morning and my tire was flat, I wouldn't let that stop me from going to church. Maybe I'd show up late, but I'd show up to church. You say, Why? Here's why. Because if the devil knows that all it takes is a flat tire to keep me from church, he might get me a flat tire every week. If the devil knew that all it took was a little, and look, again, you start talking about sickness and people get all upset. I'm just saying that maybe you need to ask yourself, Would this keep me from work? Would this keep me from my vacation? Would this keep me from X, Y, and Z? Because all I'm saying is sometimes people are like, I don't feel well. I don't know what that means. I don't feel well every day. To feel well? Here's the one. I feel well if I slept all day long and had my wife feed me grapes or something. That would make me feel well. I'm not sure what I don't feel well means. Getting up never feels good. So maybe some of you just need to be taught this. Opening your eyes and becoming vertical doesn't feel good all the time. But we just do it because it's the right thing to do. So three to thrive. Maybe you say, I'm a Sunday morning holy. Well, I had an evening service. You say, I go to two evening services. Go to three. What I'm saying is, why don't you step it up? Wherever you're at, step it up. And decide that you're going to be faithful to reach your full potential as a church member. You should show up to all the church services. Number two, go to Acts 17. Not only should you go to all the church services, three to thrive. And again, if you're not there, I'm not picking on you. I'm just saying step it up a little bit. And by the way, look, if you're looking for a church service to go to, Sunday night. Go to Sunday night church. I don't know why we have this weird thing at our church right now where on Sunday mornings we'll run like 220. I think we've got like 210 or 215 here this morning. And then on Wednesday nights we'll have like 180. You know, like 180 show up on Wednesday night, which is a great Wednesday night crowd. But then for some weird reason, like Sunday night's like 150 or something lately. 150, 160. To me, I don't really, if you come on Wednesday night, why don't you just come on Sunday night too, you know? But anyway, I don't know what that is. But if you say, I'm looking for a service. We need help on Sunday nights. So show up on Sunday night. That'll be good. Well, if I show up on Sunday nights, then what? Then we'll ask you to come on Wednesday night. To reach your full potential, you should show up to all the church services. You should be faithful to church. Number two, to reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up ready to receive the preaching. Ready to receive the preaching. I keep forgetting things. Let me just say, let me just go back, retract real quick. Go back to the previous point. Let me say this. I think you ought to go to church when you're on vacation. And I just, look, I just believe. And sometimes, you know, you find yourself on vacation somewhere and there's literally no church to go to or whatever. And livestream, that's where the livestreams are there. But I just, look, if I was on vacation, and I don't ever go on vacation. My vacation is our church and stuff, you know. I go on vacation because I'm preaching somewhere. But if I was on vacation on a Sunday, I would stop and find a good church to go to. Because I don't want my kids to get this idea that we take vacations from God. Now, I'm not saying don't go on vacation. Because some of you are going to, pastor said, we can't go on vacation because we can't miss church. That's not what I said. I said, when you go on vacation, those of you that take those fancy 14-day vacations, find a good church to go to and go there. Say, pastor, that doesn't make you nervous? That never makes me nervous. Look, and you take this however you want and maybe this is pride on my part. But I usually, what happens when people go on vacation, they go to church somewhere else. Usually what happens is they come back and they're like, pastor, we're so thankful to be part of this church. We went to this church and it was horrible. And I'm like, yeah, I know, that's why I want you to go there, so you'll appreciate us. Let me tell you something. This is the greatest church in America, in my opinion. And I'm not just saying that because I'm the pastor. In fact, the worst thing about this church is the staff and then the pastor. But all of you are amazing. So to reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to all the church service. Number two, to reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up ready to receive the preaching. Acts 17, verse 11, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word. I want you to notice these words. They received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so. You need to come to church ready to receive the preaching. Don't come here. You say, well, I'm here. The whole time you're here, your mind is somewhere else. Or you're thinking about something else or you're distracted with something else. Look, when you come to church, you ought to come ready to receive the word with all readiness of mind. By the way, part of that is participating in the singing service. The Bible says that singing is a spiritual act. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs is an act of engaging with the Holy Spirit. That's why we sing before we open up the preaching. Why? So that we can prepare our hearts to receive the preaching. So when you show up to church, hey, why don't you participate and sing? And when it's time for the preaching of God's word, why don't you be attentive? Why don't you actually open your Bible and turn to the passages and take notes like we're constantly telling you and engage and listen and be ready to receive the word of God. It's not enough to just come here and sit here. You got to come here and be ready to learn, ready to be taught, ready to receive. Be careful about being the person who's just constantly trying to find something wrong with the preaching. I often say this, you know, if you're looking to find something wrong with the preaching, it's not going to take you very long. You can't preach for an hour three times a week for a decade of your life. It doesn't take a genius to find something wrong you're going to say. And by the way, if you did it, I could find something wrong with what you said, too. So look, just why don't you just come ready to receive the word? And by the way, let me just say this. If you ever find yourself, maybe you have to move for work or something, and you find yourself in a church that's not like Verity Baptist Church. I mean, I think you should find a good Baptist church and there's some things that should be non-negotiable, like salvation and the King James Bible and soul winning, salvation, scripture, soul winning. But if you find yourself in a church where maybe they have different doctrines that are not, don't just sit there and have a bad attitude the whole time. Try to figure out everything the Baptist is saying wrong. Hey, look, there's something you're saying right. Aren't you latch onto that? Why don't you bring that into your heart and ask yourself, how can I apply that in my life? To reach your full potential as a church member, you should not only show up to church, but you should show up ready to receive the preaching of the word. So don't just sit there messing around, joking around, talking in the parking lot during the preaching of God. So why are you even here? Get in the congregation, sit down, and be ready to receive the word of God. Number three, go to Acts chapter two if you would. Acts chapter two, you're there in Acts 17, go to Acts chapter two. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to all the church services. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up ready to receive the preaching. Number three, to reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to the special events and activities. Now again, let me say this, I'm not preaching a sermon called how to be a church member. You can be a church member and not do any of these things. I mean, you got to come to church at some point, you know. But this is how to reach your full potential. To reach your full potential as a church member. People who reach their full potential as a church member show up to special events and activities. Acts chapter two, look at verse 42. And they, this is Acts two, this is after the day of Pentecost when many people have been saved. Thousand people have been saved. But notice what the Bible says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Now that's usually what we emphasize, the doctrine. And we're all about doctrine. I think you should find a church that's doctrinally sound. Or a church that teaches the right doctrines and is right on salvation. Is right on the King James Bible, right on soul, like we've been talking about. And they continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. But notice, that's not the only key. The apostles doctrine and fellowship. You know, you can find a church that's right on doctrine, but if they don't have good fellowship, it'll hinder your growth. You can find other churches that are real good on fellowship, but they don't have good doctrine. That'll hinder your growth too. You need both. Good doctrine, the apostles doctrine, solid doctrine and fellowship. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayer. Go to Galatians real quickly, Galatians chapter two. You're there in Acts. If you go past Romans, first Corinthians, second Corinthians, Galatians, Galatians chapter two. Acts, Romans first, second Corinthians, Galatians, Galatians chapter number two. Look at verse nine, Galatians chapter two and verse nine. The Bible says that when James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas. I just want you to notice this little phrase. I like this little phrase, the right hands of fellowship. That should be the Christian line. The apostle Paul here is talking about the fact that he didn't even know these people that well, James, Cephas and John, but when they showed up there, he got the right hand of fellowship. That's what I love about Christianity. What I love about Christianity is that I can get on a plane right now and travel to probably any country in this world and find a congregation of believers and people that are saved and though they don't know me and I don't know them, as long as we both know Christ, we can give each other the right hand of fellowship. We have people that come to our church every week from different cities and different parts of the country and different parts of the world visiting and we can fellowship together because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked about it on Wednesday night. There's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither male nor female. Hey, we can all unite under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ. So fellowship is an important thing. Friendship is an important thing. Friendship and fellowship is used in discipleship. You cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ on your own. You cannot lead yourself by yourself. You must be part of a community of believers that helps you to grow in that direction. Now let me just let you in on some things because over the years, and again, my wife and I have been doing this for 12 years. We don't have all the experience like other pastors, but we're not new at this either. And one thing that people sometimes complain about when they quit a church like ours, they'll say something like, well, I didn't have any friends. And people sometimes have even made the request for me to assign them a friend. And here's the problem with that. I can't do that. I mean, and I don't mean this in any sort of disrespectful way, even God can't do that. Now if God was a Calvinist, he could, but God's not a Calvinist. That's a sermon for another day. We cannot create friendships. By the way, we cannot create friendships overnight. When you find yourself one day, Lord willing, this isn't the case, but if you ever find yourself one day on a deathbed or in a retirement home and upset that no one is visiting you, we can't produce these connections and relationships. That requires years. Now look, if you're lonely, we'll do our best. But what I'm saying is this, we cannot create friendships. I cannot create, look, I want every person at Verity Baptist Church to have a friend or two or 20 or 200. I want you to have friends. My goal is for you to have friends, but we cannot create friendships. Here's all that we can do. All that we can do is facilitate fellowship. We cannot create friendships, but we can facilitate fellowship. What does that mean? We can create opportunities for you to be able to mingle with others and fellowship with others and develop those friendships that naturally happen over time. And let me tell you something, I don't know of a church that gives you more opportunities to fellowship and to go partying with Baptist people more than this church. I mean, we have Married Couples, Sweetheart Banquet, we have I Love My Church Sunday, we have Soul Winning Marathons and Soul Winning Blitzen, we have the Next Generation Youth Rally, the Red Owl Preaching Conference, 4th of July Church Picnic, Ladies Tea and Home School Seminars, Home School Field Trip, Home School Peace Club, Sporting Events for the Men and Hikes, and Men's Preaching Nights, and Family Friend Day, Harvest Party, and Appreciation Dinners, and Pie Socials, and Christmas Eve Services, and New Year's Eve Services, and random any opportunity just to order pizza on a Sunday night. I mean, we got more stuff going around here, and then people come to me like, oh, I think I'm going to quit the church because I don't have any friends. And I'm like, why don't you show up to something? We can't make people be your friend, but what we can do is facilitate friendships. We can give you opportunities to try to help you develop friendships, which is what you need. But you got to do your part. You got to show up. You got to put a smile on your face. You got to talk to someone. Remember the tale of two families? Years ago there was a family that showed up, two families that showed up on the same week. This literally happened. Over the next several weeks we saw one family begin to connect, and thrive, and become faithful, develop friendships. They began soul winning, and they began serving, and they just became. And they're still here. Praise God for them. They're part of our church family, faithful church members here, and part of the Verdi Baptist Church family. We saw this other family struggle. And the difference was one family was like, hey, I'm just going to go to all the services. They came early. They stayed a little late. They were friendly. They were easy to get along with. Other family was hit and miss. When they did come, they'd come in after the service already started. They'd leave during the final song so they didn't have to talk to anybody afterwards. They wouldn't come to any of the evening services because they had to have their kids in bed by 6.30 or some crazy thing. Like 6.30, like the sun is still out for like three hours in the summer. I think that might be borderline child abuse. I don't know. But just these crazy things, and we were kind of concerned, and we were trying to reach out to them and call them. But look, there's only so much we can do. And I remember my wife and I finally convinced them to come to the 4th of July picnic. And my wife and I were really excited because we're like, this is going to be good for them. This is going to be it. They're going to come, and they're going to have a good time. They're going to get to know some people, and they're going to eat and fellowship, and this is what we need. And they said, yeah, okay, we're going to come. We're going to come to the 4th of July picnic. And we were excited. And I literally, you can ask my wife this. I remember just sitting there as we watched them pull up. We're like, there they are. Okay, good. Yeah, let's make sure that they connect with someone. We literally pulled up to the park, parked their car, doors open, family comes out of the car, get onto the sidewalk, little kid, you know, goes to bed at 6.30 every night. I'm not sure why. Little kid gets stung by a bee. I mean, we watch this, like, get stung by a bee. Mom starts freaking out, and we just watch them all huddle back in their car and leave. And I thought to myself, what in the world? I mean, like, that's like spiritual warfare, right? Like, that's got to be the devil. Within weeks, they'd quit the church. They couldn't connect. Yeah, you can't connect if you don't even try. I'm not minimizing your kid getting stung by a bee. I'm not minimizing it. I'm just saying all we can do is facilitate fellowship. We can throw the picnics. We can order the pizza. We can have the activities. But if you never show up, and then you never connect, and then you live this lonely life, and you think, well, I don't have any friends. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should consider showing up for special events and activities. Go to Philippians chapter 1, if you would. You're there in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Philippians chapter 1. Here's number 4. To reach your full potential as a church member. I said number 1, show up to all the church services. Number 2, show up ready to receive the preaching. Number 3, show up to the special events and activities. Number 4, show up for a weekly soul-winning time. Show up for a weekly soul-winning time. You say, I don't know what soul-winning is. Just show up anyway. Let me tell you something about Verity Baptist Church. This is a soul-winning church. It's actually, this church, for you conspiracy theorists, let me just give you something to latch onto. This church is actually just a cover for a soul-winning army we're creating. You say, what is soul-winning? Soul-winning is when we go out in the community and we take the gospel on the offense. We go out in the community and we open our mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. We're not rude to people. We confront people with the gospel. We're not confrontational. We go out and we knock on doors and we invite people to church. And anyone who's interested, we preach the gospel to them. You say, what is this? You know, it's sad that you have to explain this to churches. This is actually the reason why a church was created. It's called the Great Commission. The whole point of why God left us and Jesus left us was to reach people with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that the actual purpose of a church was not to facilitate fellowship? Now, facilitating fellowship is part of what we do because it's part of discipleship. What we do is under this canopy, reach and teach, reach and teach. The reason we have the 4th of July picnic, the reason we have the Married Couple Sweetheart Banquet, the reason we have the Pie Soul Show, the reason we have the Harvest Party, the reason we have this and that is because we know that you need friendship in order to be discipled. And again, going back to the last point, we can't make you be friends with anybody. We can facilitate friendship. We can facilitate fellowship. But soul winning is the goal. Soul winning is the purpose. It's the Great Commission, reaching people with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Philippians 1 and verse 4, notice what the Bible says, Always in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests with joy. Verse 5, that your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Why don't you notice how Paul, speaking to the Philippian church, he talked about their fellowship in the gospel. Look at Philippians chapter 4 and verse 3. He says, And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, those women which labored with me in the gospel. The Bible teaches and the Bible says that the gospel is the reason why we're here. The gospel is why we have a church. The gospel is the purpose for us meeting together. To reach people with the gospel and then to disciple them so that they would grow in grace and that they would reach others with the gospel. Now one great thing about our soul winning here at Verity Baptist Church, and one great thing about our church is that we are super organized. Everything's organized. So you say, I don't know what soul winning is. Great, just show up. We'll take care of it. Look, we will partner you with somebody. You can be a silent partner. You don't have to say a word. In fact, let me just say it this way. We prefer you not say anything. If you're new, we will partner you with somebody who knows what they're doing and you can just go and be their silent partner. You can fellowship with them and learn from them and it's a beautiful thing. And every week you show up for a soul winning meeting, we'll do our best to partner you with somebody else. You say, I don't know the whole showing up to a party and being friendly with people. That's difficult for me. Okay, then how about this? Show up for soul winning and we will partner you with somebody. Every week with a different person. That will make you meet new people. And you know what you'll find is that you'll start getting along with some of these people. And you'll enjoy it. So soul winning is a great opportunity. Now let me say this. Because sometimes, and look, however you do this, it's up to you. It doesn't really make a difference. But I will say this. The best thing would be if you're Sunday morning only to start going to Sunday night and Wednesday night. Once you're going to three to thrive, then that's a good time maybe to do the soul winning. Or do everything. Obviously. Or do anything you want. But I'm just saying, you can take it in these steps. But to reach your full potential as a church member, show up for a weekly soul winning time. You'll be glad you did. Say, I don't know soul winning. Look, on Saturday morning, you show up here on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. And you know what you'll find out at a soul winning rally? Is a hundred of our church people gathered together to go soul winning on a Saturday morning. I think we had 20 on Thursday night. And five or six or seven or something like that on Friday obviously at 2 p.m. That's a more difficult time. We have a group of like 20 or 30 that goes out on Sunday at 2 p.m. Any of these soul winning times. But I will say this. The best time, especially if you're new, is to show up on Saturday. Because that's when the biggest group is here and we can partner you with the most amount of people. And that's what I would encourage you to do. Pick a soul winning time. If you can't do Saturday because of work or whatever, we have other times. But I would encourage everyone to make Saturday morning their main soul winning time. It's the main soul winning time here at Verity Baptist Church. Go to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4. Number 5. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should... Ephesians chapter 4. We're talking about reaching your full potential. We talked about show up to all the church services. Be ready to receive the preaching. Show up to special events. Show up to weekly soul winning times. Here's number 5. To reach your full potential as a church member, find an area to serve in. Find an area to serve in. In Ephesians 4 and verse 11, the Bible says this, And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors. That's me. God gave me to you. That's what it says. Some of you are like, where can we return it? This isn't Amazon, alright? You don't get to just send it back. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why? Why did he give you a pastor? What is the purpose of that? Verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints. The word perfect or perfecting means to bring to completion, to mature, to maturity. He gave you a pastor because my job is to try to make you complete. Try to make you whole. Try to get you to grow into maturity as a Christian. When you got saved, you were saved and you were born again. You're a babe in Christ. You're a baby. But God gave you a pastor to feed you the word of God, to teach you the word of God, to motivate you and to mobilize you, to bring you to a mature Christian. For the perfecting of the saints, notice the word, for the work of the ministry. Why does he say perfect the saints and the work of the ministry? Here's why. Because you cannot be a mature Christian unless you are working in the ministry, volunteering. You have to serve somewhere. For the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Now notice, verse 13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, unity within the church, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto a complete, perfect not like sinless there. The word perfect means complete, unto a perfect, complete, mature man. Notice again, unto the measure of the stature, referring to being fully grown, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be, notice again, no more children. My job is to take you from a spiritual baby and try to make you a perfect and complete and a full measure and stature of the Christian life. Literally what I've been preaching about for the last eight weeks, my job is to try to help you reach your full potential. And part of that is through getting you to work, putting you to work, putting you to the work of the ministry. You say, I don't know, pastor. It sounds like a lot. Let me let you in on a little secret. The Bible says in Colossians that God is supposed to be our life and Christ who is our life. The Bible says that we are to love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy might. See, the problem with American Christianity is that we look at Christianity as something I do on Sunday mornings for an hour and then the rest of my life is my life. That's my life. And the God part is just Sunday mornings, if that, for an hour on Sunday morning. But that is not biblical Christianity. Biblical Christianity says this. God is my life. Christ is my life on Monday and on Tuesday and on Wednesday and on Thursday and on Friday, 24 hours a day, seven days a week and twice on Sunday. Like the Christian life is a life where we say God is my all. When you realize that, then you say, well, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, that's not that much. If every day belongs to Him. And for those of you struggling, you say, I don't know, I'm struggling with this whole like Sunday night thing. Okay, how about you ask yourself this question. On Sunday night at 6 p.m., you had to ask yourself, just ask yourself this question. God, what would you like me to do? Does God want me to stay home on Sunday night at 6 p.m. and watch Netflix? Or would He prefer I be in church where His word is being preached, the book He wrote for me, and fellowship with God's people? I'm just saying, sometimes we've got to ask ourselves questions to put things into perspective. And if God is our life, then this doesn't seem like a lot. Let me just say this. You should find an area to work in. Often, you know, you're not soul winning, working, all these things. A good illustration that I heard, I think it was Brother Jose who gave me this illustration. But it's that the church is like a firehouse, like firefighters. You know, when you're in the firehouse and the alarm goes off, all the firefighters go out to fight a fire. But when it's not time to fight a fire, if you show up at the firehouse, you know what you find? You find them all doing different things. Some are washing the vehicles, some are making lunch, some are cleaning the equipment, some are working out, you know, whatever. You find them doing different things. But when it's time to fight a fire, they all get in the truck, they go fight a fire. Well, you know, Verity Baptist Church is a firehouse. When it's time to go fight the fire, literally the fire of hell, on Saturday morning or on Sunday afternoon or on Thursday at six or whatever, then get in the firehouse, the church van, and go fight the fire, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garbage spotted by the flesh. But, you know, but also you should show up to Verity Baptist Church and find people serving in different areas doing different things. Because we're spiritual firefighters. And working and serving helps you to get connected. And look, again, we've got areas for you to serve in. I mean, we've got a prison mailer's ministry that meets every other Wednesday, I don't know what time, at five or six. What time do they meet? Four thirty. Four thirty, good night. Really taking over their lives there, you know. You meet at four thirty, and what do they do? We've got like 300 inmates that we send sermons to throughout the state of California and the rest of the U.S. And what, a group of people gathers together and they assemble those things and get those things ready and get them all labeled and they fellowship in the process and they have a good time in the process? I mean, we have cleaning crews and we've got safety teams and we've got ushers and we've got orchestra. Look, you don't even have to play an instrument to play in our orchestra, I'm just kidding. They're good. When we first started, you could have made that argument. But no, they're good now. You've got to play an instrument. But hey, you know, choir? We've got choir today at five. You say, I don't know how to sing. Look, let me tell you something. Let me let you in on a little secret. Some of you, it's going to hurt your feelings. Half our choir is tone-dead. So you don't even have to sing well to be in our choir. Now the good thing is that the other half sing really well. So, you know, we play with the mics and we try to, but let me just let you in on a little secret. Just you say, I don't sing well. You know, can I just show up in lip sync? We'd actually prefer it for some of you. But what I'm saying is find a place to serve. Find a place to serve. This whole tone-dead thing, I don't really understand how that works. But apparently they don't know they're tone-dead, so don't let them. I'm not talking about you. Go to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should show up to all the church services. You should show up ready to receive preaching. You should show up to special events and activities. You should show up for weekly soul-winning times. You should find an area to serve in. Find somewhere to serve. Get connected somewhere. Look, in October we have our worker appreciation Sunday, where we acknowledge all of the workers and volunteers of our church. And at that time, we open up different opportunities for people to serve in different capacities. And all I'm saying is this. You should be looking maybe for an area to get connected. And especially during that worker appreciation weekend, be thinking about maybe I could serve somewhere. Maybe I could do something. And if you're already serving somewhere, I'm not trying to get you to find ten places to serve. But there are some people who don't serve at all. And you should find one place, some place, where you can get connected, get plugged in, and serve. Number six. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should get financially invested. Get financially invested. Now, we don't spend a lot of time on talking about finances here at Radio Baptist Church. In fact, if you come to our church, you'll notice that you can go weeks and weeks and weeks without me even talking about finances or preaching about finances. And I don't necessarily want to preach a lot on it right now. But let me just say this. It's part of discipleship. Matthew 6.21. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. So you should get yourself financially invested in the things of God. Because where your heart is, there will your treasure, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And we could, if you would allow us to, and I'm not asking you to, but we could, if we could take a look at your checkbook, or if we could take a look at your bank statement, or we could take a look at your credit card statement, it would tell us where your heart is. Where you spend your money tells us where your heart is. For some of you, it's in stocks. For others of you, it's at Krispy Kreme. It's at different places and different people. But where you spend your money is what you love. So make sure the house of God is represented in that. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Go to Proverbs chapter 18, if you would. In the center, if you open up your Bible, just write in the center. You're more than likely following the book of Psalms. Right after Psalms, you have to look at Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 18. Proverbs chapter 18. Here's number seven. How to reach your full potential as a church member? You should show up to all the church services. You should show up ready to receive the preaching. You should show up to special events and activities. You should show up for weekly soul-winning times. You should find an area to serve in. You should get financially invested. Number seven. To reach your full potential as a church member, you should make an effort to be friendly. Make an effort to be friendly. We kind of already talked about this, but let me just hit it again. Proverbs 18, 24. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. You don't have to turn here, but in Malachi 3.16, last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 3.16, the first part of the verse that says this, Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another. I love that. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another. You know, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And if you want friends, you have to be a friend. I always think it's funny when people go, nobody called me. This has happened. Nobody's called me. And I think to myself, is there some sort of weird technology that you have that no one else has? Where you have this phone device that only receives calls but cannot make calls? Because whenever people say, nobody called me, I think to myself, well, can you dial and call someone? Nobody said hello to me. Can you say hello to someone? I came to church, nobody said hello. I stood there, nobody said hello. Well, maybe part of it is because you stood there like this. But maybe, maybe you can get up and say hi. And all I'm saying is this, it goes both ways. Nobody called you. Okay, did you call anybody? Nobody said hi to you, but did you say hi to anybody? Nobody was nice to you. But have you been nice to anybody? Nobody's had you over. But have you had anybody over? I'm just saying that a man, I'm not even saying it. The Bible says that a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that's sicketh closer than a brother. See, here's what we want. We want the friend that's sicketh closer than the brother. We want the friend that's connected. We all want that connection with someone. Then we're saying like, this is my friend. This friend's sicketh closer than a brother. But you can't get there without first being friendly. Do you understand that's why the verse is worded that way? Look at it, Proverbs 8 and 34. Step one, a man that hath friends must show himself friendly. Step two, and there is a friend that's sicketh closer than a brother. You cannot get the friend that's sicketh closer than a brother while being unfriendly. Let me just help you out with something. Some of you need to learn this. Be agreeable. You understand that you don't have to give your opinion about everything? You understand that you don't have to argue about everything? You understand that you don't have to correct everyone about everything? Nobody likes that guy. Nobody likes that gal. Nobody likes the person just like, I got to tell you you were wrong about X, Y, and Z and that's not right and I read this line. Look, just be agreeable. Just be nice. Just get along with people. Somebody said something and it wasn't right. You don't have to tell them you're not right about that. Just be nice. A man that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there is a friend that's sicketh closer than a brother. And that's what you want. The deep, strong relationship, but you cannot get there until you start being friendly. Start being agreeable. Start being kind and generous and you say hello and you reach out. I'm going to go ahead and say this. I'm sure I'm going to get myself into trouble, but whatever. I'm already in trouble. If you're lonely, you need to lower your standards for who you will spend time with. Here's what's funny. I've seen this over 12 years of ministry. And honestly, I'm not thinking about any one particular person, but I've just seen this in general. Where people come to this church and because the way that life has played itself out, they find themselves lonely. And then I will say to them, like, hey, so-and-so's lonely too. Why don't you go spend time with them? I don't like them. Well, so-and-so's lonely too. Maybe I don't get along with that person either. And it's like, well, maybe this is why you're lonely. And here's what I'm saying. And here's what happens. Look, I'm not trying to pick on you, but I am trying to tell you something. People come to church like this and there's 200 people that they can be friends with. And there's all these other people that are widows or widowers or don't have kids or are empty nesters or are lonely. And they can be friends with. They don't want to be friends with any of those people, but they want to be best friends with my wife. And I want to say to them, like, she's a pastor's wife that puts on half of those events that I read off to you, she puts those on. She has six kids. She homeschools. But you want her to be like, you spend hours and hours and hours. Like, that's not going to work. That cannot work. It's unsustainable. And look, please don't misunderstand me. We love all of you, but we cannot be everybody's best friend. We just cannot. It cannot happen. But there are other people in this church that could use a friend. You say, but they're not agreeable. You're not agreeable. How about you both start being agreeable and just start getting along? There's a friend that's closer than a brother. Look, and look, I'm not trying to pick on you. I'm trying to help you. We find ourselves in seasons of life, and I'll be very honest with you. The season of life that my wife and I find ourselves in right now feels like we're doing everything in our power to keep our head above water. And I'm not saying that as a complaint. I'm happy with my life and I'm content with my life. But it's just where we find ourselves, we've got 200 problems called Verity Baptist Church. You say, well, why don't you have the time to talk to me on the phone for an hour? Maybe because we spend every day talking on the phone with people who have problems. And again, I'm not complaining. I hope you understand my heart. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that you need to just decide. You've got to lower your standards a little bit. I'm already in trouble, so let me just go ahead and say it. If you're single and you're lonely, maybe you need to lower your dating standards a little bit. Maybe your standards are just a little too high. I'm just going to go ahead and – I'm offending everyone. Here's all I'm saying. Make an effort to be friendly. Make an effort to get along with people. Make an effort to be agreeable. If people do things that bother you, be nice and tell them, like, hey, I don't really like that, or I don't appreciate that, or let's not talk about that. But what I'm saying is this. You cannot expect for one guy and his wife – and I feel bad because usually it's put on my wife because nobody likes me, which is fine. I'm okay. I'm okay, okay? Because I don't need therapy. I tell people, like, I've got more friends than I need. Look, and here's the honest truth. I love you, but I don't need to be your friend. I need to be your pastor. I don't need to be your friend. If you're mad at me, but I told you the truth, that's okay. I can live with that. Now, I want to be your friend. I just don't want to talk to you every day. What I'm saying is this. You need to find other people that are in your season of life because the truth is, if you're like, oh, I'm trying to be friends with this lady. She's got seven kids. She's like, she doesn't have time. Sorry. It's just the way it is. It's just the way of life. It's just reality. So men that have friends, let's show them self-friendly. And I want you, and we all want you to have the friend that gets closer than a brother. Go to Hebrews. Go back to Hebrews where we started, and we're going to finish up, okay? We'll be done right now. How to reach your full potential as a church member? Show up to all the church services. Show up ready to receive the preaching. Show up to the special events and activities. Show up to the weekly soul-winning times. Find an area to serve in. Get financially invested. Make an effort to be friendly. Let me just say this because I preach this, and then people take this the wrong way. Look, if you need our help, we're here for you. I'm not talking to you if you're like, right now my life is falling apart. My marriage is falling apart. You call us. We will make time for you. I'm not talking to you. I am talking to some of you who just need to say, look, I need to just make the effort to get, maybe I don't have any friends. Okay, well, nobody's talking to you. I'm sorry about that. Honestly, I feel like Greater Baptist Church is the friendliest church in the world, and I feel like we do a lot to try to create a culture of friendship and fellowship, but if that's the case, you can be friendly. You need to find people, and then maybe you need to lower your standards a little bit, and maybe they need to lower their standards a little bit, and maybe two lonely people can just not be lonely together. Hebrews chapter 10. You will get out of church. You will get out of this church. You will get out of any church. If you don't do some of these things, and to be a thriving member of any church, you should do all of these things. So here's a question I have for you. Remember the Tale of Two Families? Which one are you? The Tale of Two Couples? Which one are you? The Tale of Two Singles? Which one are you? Are you the one that's getting invested, getting connected, being friendly, showing up, coming early, staying a little late, smiling, finding areas to serve in, joining the choir even though you're tone deaf? Or are you just slowly getting disconnected and drifting away, and then complaining and saying, No, nobody reached out to me? The worst part about not getting invested and connected in church, you know what the worst part is? It's not that you're missing out on us, although that's bad. I don't want that. You know what the worst part is? It's that we're missing out on you. Look at it again, Hebrews 10.24, and let us consider, notice these words, one another. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is but exhorting, look at the word, one another. One of these days I'm going to preach an entire series on all the one anothers in the Bible, all the one anothers, what we're told to one another, one another. And the truth is this, that if you do not put these things into practice, it'll be terrible for you because you will miss out on the opportunities of Verity Baptist Church to develop friendships and to be discipled and to become a soul winner and to give your life to do something that matters for eternity's sake. You will miss out on that and that's terrible. But you know what's also terrible is that we, those of us that are not missing out on the benefits of church membership, those of us that are being faithful and are connected and are soul winning and are developing friendships, we will miss out on you. And you're unique. We cannot replace you. If you fade out and don't serve with us, then we will never have an opportunity to serve with you, the individual that God created you. So why don't we just one another, one another? Consider one another and exhort one another and love one another and pray for one another and fellowship with one another. Romans 14, you have to turn around, just read this for you. It says, For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. Christian life is not meant to be lived alone. It's meant to be lived within community. So if I were you, I would do everything in my power to reach my full potential as a church member. Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the Bible. Lord, thank you for these points. And Lord, I do pray that they were received in the spirit which they were given, which is a spirit of love. I can honestly say I love every member here at Verity Baptist Church and we only want to see the best for them. We want them to reach their full potential. But they've got to do their part. It can't just all be one-sided. They've got to decide to show up and to get involved and to be friendly and to get connected and to serve and to become a soul winner. They've got to do their part. And Lord, I pray you'd help each and every one of us to do that. We love you. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen. We're going to have Brother RJ come up and lead us in a final song. I just want to remind you a couple of things. First of all, don't forget that we have the 4th of July picnic sign-up sheets in the foyer. You can apply this sermon right now. And you can go ahead and sign up to bring a side dish or a dessert to the 4th of July picnic, which if you do that, it means that you're going to show up to the picnic, right? So we'd love for you to do that. Don't forget about that. If you are signed up for our new members class, then we want you to know that after the service, you can go ahead and fellowship and talk for a little bit. But at some point, make your way into the fellowship hall. We have a nice catered Italian lunch from a nice Italian restaurant here in town. And we'll have a good time of fellowship. We'll eat together and we'll have a class together. So please make sure that you don't forget about that. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. I want to encourage you to be back tonight at 6 p.m. for the evening service. And it's just one more opportunity to be in God's house with God's people and to preach in the Word of God. We'd love for you to join us. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. My brother RJ will come up and lead us in a final song. Amen. Let's grab our songbooks and turn to page number 145. Song number 145. If you're new to our church, the way we sing it here is at the chorus. The first it is, well, the ladies will sing it and then the guys will answer. We will echo the ladies. So just follow me. Song number 145, sing it out on the first. When peace like a river, Attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea, Will turn, Whatever my love, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well, With my soul. Sing it out, ladies. Guys. It is well, With my soul, It is well, it is well, With my soul. Sing it out on the second. No Satan should offend, No child shall come, Let this blessed star show, Rise unto, That rise as you guarded, My helplessest state, And hath shaken, His own blood for my soul. It, it is well, With my soul, It is well, It is well, My soul, sing it out on the third. My sin, all the bliss, Of this holy upstart, My sin, not in part, Not in part, There's mail to the cross, And I bear in the morn, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, My sin, It is well, It is well, With my soul, It is well, It is well, My soul, sing it out on the last, And, Lord, raise again, When my faith shall not fight, We will bow as a stone, But the bones shall reside, And the bones shall be seen, Even so, It is well, With my soul, One last time, One last time, It is well, With my soul, It is well, It is well, My soul, Amen. Great singing. If anyone here has questions about salvation, baptism, or church membership, the pastor will be at the door. He would love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to do that as well. Brother Joe, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer? Darren and Father, thank you so much for giving us the blessing of this treatment this morning. You allow us to commit that to our lives and just get better as a church member. Help us to continue to improve, do the hard thing, Lord, even though he's going to be lazy and just sit at home and not be here. Help us to all be present and to communicate with one another, to become friendly with one another. We're together in Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Amen.