Divide and Conquer
Key Passage: Romans 12:3-5, 21
Date: June 7, 2024
Romans chapter 12, if you would please. I failed to mention Ms. Tabitha. Justin and Tabitha just got a text from Justin just a little bit ago, and she’s still in the ICU, non-responsive. And so keep praying for her, if you would, please, Tabitha. And here’s the neat thing, how God works.
We had prayer meeting. Men, we had a prayer meeting over at 520. If any of you would like to join, we’d love to have you. We were on our knees, praying for her and others. And my phone had dinged a time or two while we were praying. I got up, you know, checked the phone, and it was him, kind of giving the latest report on Tabitha. And I, praise the Lord, was able to say, “Hey, we were just on our knees while you were texting, praying for her.” And so would you keep praying? Keep praying for Tabitha? And…
I think he had said something about her having some heart issues also now. So pray, pray for her, if you would, please. Pray for the whole family, would you do that? And I know they appreciate it, and I do too.
Romans chapter 12. For a title, if we’re going to put a title on it, we’d just put on there “Divide and Conquer.” Would you put that on there, please? But Romans chapter 12, we’re going to start.
And verse number three, Romans 12, verse number three of God’s word. And would you please stand tonight? Romans 12, verse number three of God’s word. And the Bible there says, “For I say, through the grace given unto me, and to every man is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”
“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us: whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth with diligence; and he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation, without hypocrisy, if you will. Poor, that which is evil.”
Typically, we’ll think of the evil as sin that does others harm. That’s what’s typically thought of there. Poor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectionate one toward another with brotherly love; in honor, preferring one another. It’ll go down talking about really just our relationship with one another. Let’s just catch that last verse, if you would, please.
Verse number 21: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
And would you pray that God would just make us a little wiser to the wiles of the devil and more useful for Him? Would you pray that tonight as I pray the same?
Now, Lord, we do come. Lord, You said in one passage, “We’re not ignorant of the devil’s devices.” And so, Lord, I pray that You would give us a light on His working, Lord, in our lives, in our church, Lord, in our country. And then, Lord, I pray that You should grow us where we can be more useful for You. Lord, help me to just kind of bring the thoughts together that You’ve laid in my heart and Your word and the truths. And Lord, would You help me to kind of bring them together and deliver them like You’d want them delivered? Lord, help me to say maybe a little phrase You want me to say. Lord, I don’t have the best vocabulary. Lord, I preach, You happen to say the little phrase You want me to say, just the way You want to say it. And then, Lord, I do ask that You would speak to every hearer. And Lord, let them hear what You want them to hear, the way You want them to hear. I want to thank You for hungry people. Lord, let them be hungry for Your word tonight. And Father, we’ll thank You, praise You, magnify You for what You do, Lord. In Jesus’ name we ask, amen.
Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated. If you jump back to verse number three very quickly, let’s just jump back there for just a moment. And look at it. We just read verse number three there, Romans 12.
“Through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.” Not just not being intoxicated—we think of ‘sober,’ but ‘soberly’—serious about it, serious-minded. But to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Now here’s an amazing thing. When it comes to us humans, we tend to either go to one extreme or the other. One extreme is: “I can’t do anything for God. I don’t have the talent. I mean, I can’t sing; when I sing, the dogs start howling in the neighborhood.” Anybody here been on that? And “I don’t have a good personality. I can’t win souls. I can’t teach.” And I can… Oh, woe is me. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do. We tend to go to that extreme.
Or we’ll go to this extreme over here. We might not say it. It wouldn’t be kosher, if you will, for us to say it, but our thoughts are along the line of, “Man, I’ve been around for a while. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve got a lot of wisdom. I know what’s going on. Look at me.” And maybe not even that, but we just think we’ve got it all together, if you will. And the tendency is in our thoughts.
Now, this verse here is saying, look, I don’t want you to think above what God’s given to you. I want you to be serious about this saying, but I don’t want you to think that you can’t do anything because God’s given to every man the measure of faith.
Every person here has something that God would like to use you to do. Every person here. And the temptation is to go either way. But God said, “No, I want you to be serious about this thing.” According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith—every person here has something. Every person here tonight, you’re a valuable asset to the Lord’s work and to Rutherford County Baptist Church. Every person here tonight.
I thought about the three ladies up here, the triplets—Ms. Shelby, Miss Louise, and Miss Sherry, you know. Now, honestly, they add a flavor to our church like nobody else can, and it’s a blessing. And then, second of all, they do a great job of keeping Brother Warren in line. Now, he gets them back, believe me; it’s an ongoing thing. But every person here is valuable. Every person here, you have something to give to the Lord’s work.
I’ve been driving the bus a little bit here lately, and I’ve had the privilege of picking up Montel. And Montella gets on that little shuttle bus in the morning time, and man, he just has a smile, and it kind of brightens it up a little bit. And Ms. Laura’s always there, ready to go. I mean, she’s just ready anytime you figure her. And I’m saying, every single person here has something to bring to the table. And he said, “Every man,” but don’t get on the other side. You know, you get this thinking, “Boy, I’ve seen this before. I’ve been around. I know.” And it’s all about us, well, all we are.
And by the way, did you notice that He’s given us the measure of faith, and that everybody has some? But you notice that word there in verse number three? Would you look back at it? It’s just about—I think it’s about the sixth word into it—He says, “For I say that through the grace given unto me…” Maybe you do have some talents somewhere. Friend, we’ve got no right to get proud about it because, first of all, it’s given to us. The spiritual gifts we talk about—we’ll mention them just briefly here—they’re given to us. By the way, just because you’re not gifted in a certain area, it doesn’t mean you can’t get good at it, but you can’t work at it. But I’ve got no right to get proud of my gift because I’ve been given that. And I’ve been given that by His grace.
It wasn’t that I did anything to deserve it. It was by His grace that He gave me or gave you those gifts. Everybody’s got some gifts, all of us. And so He’s saying, look, I want you to be honest and serious. Don’t follow these extremes, is what God’s saying. He’s sober; think soberly about this situation here.
Now let’s keep going. Would you look down in verse number four right there, verse number four of Romans 12? He says, “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office.”
We all have different areas of service, if you will, different offices. And that’s so important that we realize everybody’s got their office, if you will. And that’s crucial. If we’re not careful, we’ll always be looking at other people and what they’re doing, but God’s given you an area to work. And everybody’s got their office, and we must fulfill our office. You say, “What’s the most important office in the church?” The one where somebody doesn’t show up for. That’s an honest truth. You just let Ms. Bush not clean on Saturday, and now all of a sudden it becomes very, very important. You let a bus worker not show up, and especially if you’re a bus driver on that bus alone, that office just became very, very important, you know. Whatever it is, that person, if they don’t show up and do their role, it becomes very, very important all of a sudden. They’re all important. Honestly, if these three ladies, the triplets, aren’t there, our church is missing something. I mean, every office is so important.
Now, stop worrying about everybody else’s office. And our church is good about this, and I’m not doing this because I’ve got major problems and all the rest of that. Preventive maintenance is always the best maintenance, but don’t get hung up on who’s doing what and how they’re doing it, and think, “Let me tell them how to do it.” I’ve been there before. No, no, no, friend, let them fulfill that office. You stay in your office. By the way, if you’re over there in their office, you’re not in your office.
And so this is all this God’s giving me. I think about Brother Treber. And I don’t know the exact statement he uses, but he said in a large church—God’s given to the large church here in California, in the middle of the Silicon Valley, 3,000-seat auditorium—man, they just fill it up in the Spanish ministry on another set of property there. And they… I don’t know how many of them buses and all that good stuff, you know. But he says, he tells his staff, he said, “I don’t want anybody else doing anybody else’s job. You just do your job.” And God’s given us all an office. And the important thing is that we’re doing what God has given us to do. If God wanted you in that office over there, He’d put you there. He’s capable. And so we all got our office, verse number four.
Now let’s keep going, verse number five. We’re just kind of going down through here a little bit, systematically. And look in verse number five, if you would please. “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.”
Now, yes, we have our office to fulfill, but we are interconnected. We’re one body.
Isn’t it funny? Isn’t it funny? You’re hitting that nail and then you hit the wrong nail. Amen? You don’t know what? And you know what? Man, you just hit that one nail, but your whole body—right?—just everything, every part of your body, your eyes get huge, your mouth opens up and screams, and your vocal cords, and your leg, you know what I mean? Because one member got hurt.
You ever had a… I remember when I lost my fingers in the accident when I was in college, and just, you know, several thousand students there at the time. And man, I didn’t want anybody bumping that thing. It was very, very sensitive. So I would walk, and I kind of covered up. I’d give anybody dirty looks if they got close. “Man, don’t bump me right now,” you know. But I’m saying you baby that. If something’s hurting, you baby it. I mean, you protect it.
And it’s amazing how our body compensates sometimes without us knowing it. I hurt my lower back years ago. And I went to therapy several years back, and they said the muscles around that—a hernia—the muscles around that have just kind of froze, and they’re just hardened, and they’re trying to compensate. And so we’ve got to get moving again because your body’s just trying to help out. And at first, I thought these people don’t know what in the world they’re talking about. But I learned a little bit into it; they did know what they were talking about. And my body was that much. And your body compensates.
Now, that’s the way a good church family is. If someone’s hurting, we all hurt with them. If somebody’s maybe a little out of tune, we don’t try to point it out over there. We try to help them. We try to compensate. We try to love them. We try to encourage them. We try to help heal. We try to protect them. We don’t go around talking about them. We love them. We pray for it. The whole body is hurting. I mentioned Justin and Tabitha. I hope this way we are with them. The whole body’s feeling this thing. Man, she’s in the ICU down there, and he can’t get in there to see her, and all those things are going on right now. And I hope the whole body… And that’s the way that good church family works. Yes, we have our offices, but it’s a body, and we’re intertwined.
Let me say something about this: we’re one body. And I’m not saying our church does this, and praise the Lord it doesn’t, but sometimes there can be maybe a group that pulls everybody kind of into their group and away from the body. I remember when I was in Bible College, a young lady that had grown up in Chicago—our bus route was in Chicago. She grew up down into a little bit. But we had a ten-year-old girl that got on the bus, very faithful, and I think we put her in Christian school for a little bit and all that. But this bus worker kind of just took this teenage girl over to her side and really kind of away from the whole ministry a little bit, just kind of just her and her. And while I thought, my mind, I said, “Boy, that’s not a good system right there because she needs the whole bus and all the workers and the bus captain and all that.”
And sure enough, a little while later on, that lady bus worker and that teenage girl had a little falling out. And that teenage girl, if she had had relationships with everybody, she’d probably stayed. But because this girl that kind of pulled her over just her and her alone, well, when they had a little falling out, she’s out of there. Now, our church is good about this, and I’m not saying this to praise the Lord for it, but we don’t want this group just pulling everybody just to them. And that doesn’t happen.
Now, we have Sunday school classes, and we have, you know, different men’s breakfasts and fellowships and all these different ministries. That’s right. That’s proper, and it’s great to have smaller settings where we get to know each other. But we don’t want to pull that group just separate from everybody. It’s one body. And yes, we meet here and there. We have smaller groups and things. Men’s Fellowship is about to have a meeting at the range, I think, at the end of October, and ladies just had a fellowship. And praise the Lord for all those; they are great. I’m not saying these things are wrong; they’re wonderful. But we don’t want to ever get to where we’re just kind of pulling over here, not part of the body. See? It’s all one body. Very, very important.
Now, let’s keep going, just getting some thoughts in here tonight. Would you look down at verse number six, I believe is where we’re at now? Verse number six. And I want you to notice, it says, “Having then gifts differing according to the grace”—remember that, the grace—“He’s given us these different gifts by grace. That is given to us: whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.”
Now let me just say a word about prophecy, or a prophet will often call this person, as someone who’s just focused on truth. I mean, they just are just all about truth. By the way, they don’t care if they have to hurt everybody’s feelings; they’re just focused on truth. By the way, there are four different lists of the spiritual gifts, and that’s one that is a very important gift. Churches need this gift in our day and time for sure, and that’s a gift.
Let’s keep going down where we’re at. Verse number seven: “Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering.” Ministry is more like a gift, or just somebody that enjoys working behind the scenes. They don’t like to be out in the limelight, but they want to make sure the job gets done.
That’d be someone, and boy, these are a blessing to any ministry in the world. Take Family Harvest Days. There’ll be somebody that’s not out in front of everybody else; they’re just running around making sure everything gets done, kind of running in circles, just making sure it all gets done. That’s ministry. They like to work in secret, just making sure the job gets done.
Verse number seven: “Or he that teacheth, on teaching.” Someone’s just good at… not just sounding good, but they transfer truth from the teacher to the pupil. And they’re good at keeping that flock together also.
“Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation”—encouraging someone to follow the Lord. They’re kind of like, “Come on over here by me as we follow the Lord together.” That’s an exhorter, with purpose in it so we can follow the Lord together.
He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. That’s someone just focused on the funds of the ministry and the needs being met financially.
He that ruleth with diligence. They’re very good at being over a lot and not pulling their hair out and going crazy, and they can organize and just keep things organized when a lot of things are going on at one time. They’re good at organization and running, ruling over.
He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. A mercy shower—they’re the opposite of a prophet. They just show mercy to people.
Now, here’s my thing. It’s where I feel like I’d just like to talk about this for a minute. Our church right now, God’s been so good to us. Wasn’t it a good morning, just Ronnie and Scarlett getting baptized? What a blessing! God’s been so good to us. And we got to announce this morning a signed contract. Now, what a blessing! February 28th is cut… and soul winning. You might have to look pretty far nowadays to find a church that’s just winning souls. You really do. And one that uses a King James Version and one that’s staying right and not going worldly in all that.
Now here, Satan would love to get us fighting with one another. If a church stays right, all hell can’t stop that church. Satan knows that. So Satan, he always—he’s working in his little schemes—and one of the things he loves to do is to divide and conquer. And Satan would love to get our church fighting with one another. He’s so crafty at it, and he’ll use anybody he can, any way he can.
You talk to not just pastors, but people that’s maybe been in churches for years, and you mention a building program, and a lot of them cringe, “Oh no.” I think of a pastor—not Baptist, he’s in our area, I know him a little bit from that, and I can’t remember the denomination he is. I don’t know him super well. But he went into a building program, had a lot of problems, and he’s not pastoring anymore. He just got burned out. And I’m not saying it has to be like that. I’m not saying that. But I’m just saying where God’s been so good and it’s an exciting time, and Satan would love to get us fighting. Building program time is such a prime time.
By the way, you’ve been so good about it. You really have. I appreciate it. We’ve not broke ground yet, but just the plans on it—you’ve been so good about it. And we still have more to do on that. We’ve not even discussed the colors yet. I dread that. I’ll be honest, I dread it. I’m not sure how we’re going to do it. I’m not sure. When we redecorated this auditorium seven years ago, whatnot, we put about three or four different colors on that back wall over there and asked you just to go by and mark off which one was your favorite—only do one—and the one that got the most votes, you know, that’s how we got this color here. I don’t know how we’re going to do it. I like for your input, but I don’t want us fussing and fighting. And I’m not sure exactly how we’re going to do it. But I’m just saying we’re about to enter into the potential for a lot of Satan just to get in there. And I just want to say, “Hey, let’s not let him get in there.” Pray—by the way, they’re just talking about the building—pray for Brother Glenn and Brother Joel, who are on the building committee. Me and Brother Glenn and Brother Joel, pray for us. We need your prayers. And I don’t know how we’re going to do all those things, but I’d rather have ugly green walls than us fussing and fighting with each other. Ms. Barb says, “No, we don’t want that.” But I promise you, Satan, one of his next things is going to be trying to get us to divide us.
And here’s the thing: talking about these gifts, we’re all wired differently. And we think a little differently. And we have to allow for them to think a little differently. They’re going to view things differently.
Let’s just talk for a second here about the COVID shot. Boy, that’s a hot item right now, isn’t it? I got three people just woke up all of a sudden. Look at that. Wow. And people are so divided. They’ve had it. It’s funny—people are against it, but they’ve had it. You know, that’s a funny thing. You just get everything in the world over there.
Now, I’m very big on all of us ought to have the right. That’s our constitutional right. I think something ought to stand on very firm: everybody ought to have the right. This is a free country, amen. By the way, if you believe the shot works, then you’re fine. You don’t have to push it on everybody. That’s your good, because you have the shot if you believe it works. I’m not trying to… But wherever you fall on that, we’ve got to kind of let them make their decision. If they decide to get it or not get it, we’ve got to let them make their decision. Now, if they come and ask your advice, okay. But friend, we’ve got to let them. They’re going to view it a little different than you, and they’re going to read a different article than you, and most articles disagree with each other nowadays about it anyway. But what I’m saying is, we’ve got to let people be different. And, oh, Satan would just love to get us fighting with one another.
I thought about years ago, Matthew and Jessica. Matthew had just gotten saved. And he had learned on the Internet that the King James Bible is the Bible. And he had studied it up. And he was going to another church, a Southern Baptist Church. He had just gotten saved, and he didn’t know any better. And he went to them and he said, “Hey, I don’t even know if this exists”—this is what he told them. He said, “But is there a church anywhere around here that all they use is the King James Bible?” And this young Christian… I don’t know how they knew it at this church, but they said, “Yes, you need to go to Rutherford County Baptist Church.”
Now, the reason I tell that is, hey, there needs to be a church around here that stands on the Bible. And Satan would love to get us fighting one another so there’s no church around. And there are some others—not many, though. And so that’s… well, there used to be churches like that around here, but Satan’s after a good church, a soul-winning church.
And so I’m saying, we’ve got to be aware; he loves to divide, and we’re going to see things differently. People are gifted in different areas, so they’re going to grow at a faster rate in certain areas. They’re going to need a lot of growth. See? Just take some of these ministries we’ve mentioned already. Let’s just take a scenario. Let’s just say that some of the bus kids or teenagers—this would never, ever happen around here, all right—but say they go in the kitchen, they just go in the kitchen, nobody, they haven’t asked anybody, and they’re getting all the cookies and chips and anything they can find out of them. That would never happen at Rutherford County Baptist Church, right?
Now, what’s this? You let a prophet catch that, and he says, “What in the world are we teaching these kids to steal? We’re just teaching them to be unruly!” And he’s got some truth on that. But then you let a mercy shower catch them. Oh, it’s going to be polar opposites. “Those poor little kids are hungry, starving to death!” Of course, they’ve got $200 pair of tennis shoes on, you know. “And starving to death? Oh, you need some more, just take whatever!” Two different, polar opposites. And the mercy shower is going to let the prophet—he’s got some truth there—and the prophet’s going to have to let that mercy shower sow some love and some mercy. But they’re going to be polar opposites in how they handle the situation. And Satan would love to get that prophet and that mercy shower divided. See, he’s good at that, and he’s always working at that.
Let’s take Family Harvest Days. The person that has a gift of ministry, they’re just running around trying to make sure everything’s in order and happening, and there are any loose ends here, they’re trying to fill in, just making sure they’re all getting done. And someone that has a gift of giving asks, “How are we paying for this?” Now, they’re not trying to be mean; that’s just their focus. “Do we need to take another offering for this? Do we have enough?” It doesn’t matter if you’re running around and doing whatever you want to do; if we don’t have the money for it, it’s not going to get done. And if we’re not careful, the ministry guy, he’s going to be like, “Well, that guy, all he thinks about is money.” And the guy who’s focused on giving is like, “I don’t care what you’re doing; we’ve got the money to pay for it. It ain’t going to work.” And we view things differently. And I’ve got to allow for them to be different. Not everybody’s like me. You said, “That’s a good thing, Pastor.” Amen for that. You didn’t… I said that, Brother Kevin, so loud! I’m teasing with you, brother. We’re all different, and you’ve got to allow them to be gifted where they are. Oh, I’m just saying Satan would love… He loves to get in the middle of this thing. He loves it.
I thought about Ronnie and Scarlett. Ron, the first time I saw it was Wednesday night. Scarlett came years ago—I don’t know, maybe 10 years ago—we had a pack of you on Sunday. I believe it’s one of those days where we’re feeding the people afterwards in there. The ladies do a great job doing that. And Brother Ferris was sitting beside his daughter this morning. Mr. Ferris, he brought 25—I mean, more of them were back here this morning. He brought 25 or 30—maybe more than any one person’s ever brought to him. Just huge! Filled up that whole section of the pews. And I was like, “Wow,” you know. And Scarlett was one of those. I haven’t seen her as far as in no sense. And God’s working in the heart, and it’s the Lord. The Lord’s just working. They got their hearts tender. It’s wonderful. And here’s the thing, though: when God was working in the heart, they’ve got some medical concerns and whatnot, and God’s just working in the heart. When that was happening, praise the Lord, they knew where to come. And what if the devil had gotten us fussed and fighting with one another? And they came Wednesday night to just a bunch of bickering and fussing and fighting.
By the way, the world knows how they know if we are disciples of Christ: if we have loved one another. Not necessarily, but if we’re a disciple, we’re serious about serving the Lord, we have loved one another. And I’m just saying it’s vital that we don’t let the devil divide and conquer.
Let’s just get that last verse in there very quickly, and we’ll be done for the night. Would you look down at that last verse of chapter number 12? We read it, verse number 21. We skipped over a lot of verses in there about relationships and wrath and don’t avenge yourself and all these things—feed your enemy in Psalm. Verse number 21: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Now, here’s the thing: when you get a bunch of people together and you start socializing and fellowshipping and working together, and all that is part of a church—it’s a very important part of the church—but you get all this interaction and activities together. We’re about to have that family… I keep mentioning Family Harvest Days, and that’ll be a lot of interaction. And you come to Sunday school, and Sunday morning, and Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and all these different programs. Buildings are going to start, and all the different things. And you know what’s going to happen? Somebody’s going to say something that’s going to hurt your feelings. And it’s not because you’re the worst Christian in the world; they actually said something they shouldn’t have said. And there’s probably going to be a time when you say something you ought not to say, because we’re all human. And you’re going to get hurt, and you’re probably going to hurt somebody else. It’s part of church. Have you ever thought about it? Church is full of a bunch of sinners? You’ve heard it said, “If you find a perfect church, don’t go there; you’ll mess it up.” And so it’s going to happen, friend. It’s just going to. And God, He’s kind of closing these things out about our relationships with one another. And He said, “Hey, look, overcome evil with good.”
Hey, if someone does hurt you, maybe send them a card. Pray for them. Go out of the way to shake their hand. Praying for them is great, but you overcome evil with good. Maybe somebody just gets on your nerves a little bit, and that’s going to happen when you get a couple hundred people together. Somebody’s going to get on your nerves a little bit. Overcome evil with good. Well, I’d be obnoxious too, you know. Beat them to the punch with love. Go out of your way—“Man, I’ve been praying for you!”—overcome evil with good.
I think of a preacher. He had a practice he would do: if he heard of someone else talking about another preacher specifically, he’d send him a gift. He wanted to overcome evil with good. It’s going to happen. And God’s kind of given a closing thought: “Hey, don’t be overcome of evil. Don’t let that get you.” Satan would love for that just to get you. He said, “Overcome evil with good.”
Would you bow your head tonight? Would you bow your heads just for a moment? I’m going to ask a couple different things. A little different invitation tonight. I’m not going to ask you to raise your hand, but would you do this? Would you spend this invitation—in the first part of it—would you pray for our church? And then would you pray for one another? Would you spend this invitation just praying for the church and praying for the other members of it? I mean, pray for one another. Let’s just spend this invitation praying for one another. Would you do that? Maybe you want to come to the altar, maybe where you’re at, but let’s just spend this invitation tonight praying for one another, overcoming evil with good. Let’s do that, would you please? And then we’ll have something else a little bit later on the invitation. But let’s just spend this invitation praying for our church and praying for one another. Would you do that, please? We’ll pray. And would you just be obedient to the Lord as He leads?
Father, thank You for Your word and the wisdom of it. Help us, Lord, help us all to grow and learn. And Lord, I pray, would You let us be wiser to the wiles of Satan? Father, give us unity and harmony. Lord, help us to fill the office that You’ve given us. Lord, let us love one another and care for one another. Lord, let us be one body, members in the body, all for You. Bless this time together, Lord, please. We’ll thank You for what You do, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Would you spend this time just praying for our church, praying for one another? Would you do that? Maybe come to the altar, however the Lord leads you, would you do that as our instruments play?
Let me ask you one more favor. The invitation is still going on. Would you do this while our invitation is going? I’ll have instruments play again in just a minute here. But would you do this? Just during this invitation, would you tell someone else you appreciate them? I mean, if you need to leave your seat, just scatter out wherever the Lord leads you. Let somebody know you love them, you appreciate them, you think about them, maybe you pray for them. Would you do that? Let’s just kind of encourage one another. And just take a moment while the instruments are played. And we’ll take a minute or two—however long you need, a couple minutes—and let someone know you appreciate them. And then we’ll get back in our seats in a few minutes here. We’ll dismiss in prayer. But let’s just, let’s just as a church family, let someone know you appreciate them. Would you do that while our instruments play? Would you do that?
Brother Frank’s up here saying “timeout.” Look at him up, please. Amen! Praise the Lord. This is the way the church family ought to be. It’s awesome, and praise the Lord for it. And what a privilege it is to be your pastor. Great, great people, wonderful people. And praise the Lord for it. Glad you’re here in a great church family. I love it. I love to see God work, and I’m looking forward to the future. The devil’s a loser, amen! I mean, we’ve been talking about the devil a little bit; he’s a loser. And someone said, “When he reminds you of your pastor, remind him of his future,” amen. And we can make him flee from us. I like that. And so let’s just keep doing right the best we can. Let’s stay humble, stay right, and see what God will do. And I’m just glad you’re here tonight. Praise the Lord for Him. Amen.
Brother Tom Kent, what a blessing he is. Man, just faithful all these years, years and years serving the Lord. He’s… I’m going to tell more than I should—TMI about to happen here. He’s got a knot, my goodness, a big old huge thing on his leg. It’s sticking out about four inches—well, maybe not that bad—but on his calf. And one doctor says, “We don’t want to do surgery. We’ll send you to this other doctor.” You know how that goes. And he’s got to be in pastor out. You pray for that. Pray they’ll get that thing fixed before it gets worse. Brother Tom Kent, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer, please, brother?
Original File: Divide and Conquer - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday PM 91921