# The Need for God’s People to Be Involved

Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Key Passage: Judges 5
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

Would you turn your Bible to Judges chapter number five, Judges chapter number five, in God’s word this morning? I’m excited about involvement day, but I would say this: It takes a long time for announcements, and I kind of hate that. I feel like I’m almost a salesman or something. I would want you to have information, opportunity to get involved in God’s word.

Now let me say this up front this morning. Some of you cannot get involved in one of these twelve different ministries, and I’m all right with that. I don’t want you to feel like I’m a salesman trying to buttonhole you into one of these twelve ministries. You do what God tells you to do. But every person here can be involved in some way. I do know that in some way. And you ought to be involved. I’m going to preach along that line. Don’t take offense. I’m not coming at you as an individual.

But I feel like in America we just need God’s people to hear the truth of the matter, that we need God’s people involved in the fight. There’s a war going on, and it’s not time to be on the sidelines. It’s time to be involved in the fight. So don’t take offense. Would y’all be mad at me if I just preach this more? Would y’all be mad at me? You can blame it on those. It’s all their fault that said, don’t blame it on me. But I do feel like we just need to face it a little bit: the need of God’s people to be involved.

Judges number five. Now let me just tell you, give you a little background. I haven’t told you the verse because you won’t listen to me; you’ll be looking at the verse. Let me tell you what’s going on here in the book of Judges. Israel had been oppressed by an enemy nation called Canaan. It’s not the one we typically think of, but they had been oppressed for twenty years by these enemies. They had just made slaves, if you will, out of Israel. The Canaanites, there in this passage, they had a mighty military. The thing they had, really—the Bible doesn’t tell us how many they had in their military—but the thing that’s emphasized in the Bible, in that time, the thing that was huge, they had 900 chariots of iron. Now, that’s like, you know, 900 of the best and biggest, the latest and greatest tanks or whatever helicopters are fighting, but I mean, nobody could touch them because they had 900 chariots of iron. That would wipe out any military in that day and time. So everybody feared them.

God had raised up another judge. In the book of Judges, there are thirteen different judges. God raises them up and delivers them, and then the judges go on the backslide. They get oppressed again; it’s just a cycle. This is one of them in the book of Judges. The enemy nation’s general was a guy named Sisera, right? And Israel—God was using a lady named Deborah, called a prophetess. That doesn’t mean ladies are supposed to be preachers in the pulpit. In our day and time, we don’t have time to get into all that, but there were, and in our day and time there are ladies God uses greatly. God wants to use you ladies. I think some of the best soul winners in the world are ladies. A lot of people don’t want to talk to us old ugly guys, you know, but a lady comes along—with two ladies. We always have them together, two ladies, never go inside, but two ladies—and they’ll listen to them. There are so many ways God can use ladies, just mission one. But God used this lady Deborah in a great way. She was a prophetess in Israel at the time, and she said, “God can deliver us. He can help us win this war.”

The military leader was a guy named Barak, or Barak—however you want to pronounce it. He said, “All right, I’ll lead this fight, but I won’t do it unless you go with me.” She didn’t lead, and we’ll read it—I think we have time—very specifically, God shows us that he led in the battle, but she was with him. And he said, “I won’t go out without her.” God was working, and she was a lady of God, and God’s hand was on her. So they went to the battle, and Barak led ten thousand men to battle the nation of Israel, and they won greatly.

The Bible doesn’t tell us this, but just if you read it—we don’t have time to look it up—it looks like they went down by this river and fought this battle. Wait a second; you’ve got 900 chariots of iron, very heavy. They go down by the river, and there’s a little bit of rain—you get a Tennessee flash flood coming along, we’ve got problems. It does tell us a little bit into the battle: all the men fled out of these chariots. I tend to think God sent some kind of a flood some way, maybe some dams broke or what, or just a flash flood. I’m not sure, but they fled out on foot.

The Bible says every one of them ended up dying by the sword, all besides the general, Sisera, and he’s fleeing away on foot. God used another lady in this instance. This is really just the instance, I think, a little bit where some men didn’t want to step up. God said, “I’m going to use some ladies.” He used Deborah in a great way. And then this way I always remember: Jael with a nail. Okay? And this lady named Jael, the general—you know, he’s running away, he’s getting away. She’s a little on the outskirts of the battlefield, and she sees this general getting away. She says, “Hey, big fella, you can come inside my tent over here and hide. I’ve got a big warm blanket for you, fella. Just come on in here and take it easy. I’ve got you covered.” He said, “All right,” and he went inside the tent. The Bible says she put a mantle, like a big coat, over top of him, and he said, “Can I get a little drink of water?” She said, “I got you, big boy. And I’ve got something better. Let me give you some warm milk.” She brought him some milk, and he fell asleep. Jael with a nail. He’s sleeping there, you know, and literally she took a big old nail and she put it on his temple, and she took a hammering. Boom. Jael with the nail. I mean, Sisera’s gone. She drove that nail through his temple, and it’s all over for that big boy. The battle’s over.

Chapter number five is a song of deliverance. Many times in the Bible, they have songs of praising and thanking God. By the way, God would be more apt to answer your prayers if you thanked Him after He answered, as much or some as a matter of you prayed, went in the middle of the battle. Great lesson to learn there. But they’re singing this song of deliverance, and in the middle of it, there’s a verse that caught my attention. I want you to notice that verse, if you would: Judges 5, verse number 23. If you’re able, would you please stand? We just try to show the Word of God respect, and we’ll read our text verse. We try to stand for it if you’re able to, just to show the Word of God. That’s God’s Word we’re reading from.

Judges 5:23. And the Bible says, “Curse ye Meroz,” said the angel of the Lord. “Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord.” Isn’t that amazing? Wow. This is God’s Word here. Can you help God? Well, according to God’s Word, you can. That doesn’t seem right—helping God. Well, that’s what God says. Yes. “Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Now, we’re just kind of using this as a springboard. I’m going to just—when we pray—go just dive at this thing and get involved.

Let me just explain a little bit. We don’t know a whole lot about this city. It’s really not mentioned, we think, because this curse is pronounced on it. So probably a little bit later on, it’s gone. It was on the inhabitants, and so probably it just diminished; it’s gone. But the reason for this curse is because when there was a battle going on against this mighty military, they said, “We’re not going to get involved.” For whatever reason—maybe they said, “We can’t do anything; 900 chariots of iron, we’re not going to get involved, we’re going to get killed.” Whatever reason, they would not get involved. “Well, we’ll just sit by and watch what happens.” And when it’s all over, those that were involved are saying, “Man, let’s sing praises to God.” In the middle of this song of deliverance, there’s a curse pronounced on this city. We don’t know anything else about it—the curse of Meroz. It’s a sad thing. I think a lot of America has that curse on us now. Let’s just, for a while, focus on that.

Would you ask God to work in your heart? Would you do that? He has to be the one that does it. Would you do that as I pray?

I want to be wise with the time of these people. I love them, Lord, and we want to be wise. But, Lord, also, we want You to do something while we’re here. Everything’s been good. Thank You, Lord, for the seat of tables. Everything’s been done. But, Lord, would You come now in power and might and speak to us clearly, not just to our heads, Lord, but to our hearts about getting involved in some way in Your work, Lord? Whether we’re here at this church or elsewhere, but involved in Your work, please speak to us today. Let us hear Your voice. In Jesus’ name, I ask, Father. Amen.

I think a little over a year ago, it was my sister. She lives in Michigan. They live out in the country now, but at the time, they lived fairly close to Flint. If you know anything about Flint, Michigan, Flint, Michigan was the murder capital of the United States for years and years. And if anything happens, it’s going to happen to my sister, by the way. You’ll learn that over the years; it’s just amazing. But she goes to Home Depot to get some paint. When she goes to Home Depot and pulls into the parking lot, and she goes to turn down a parking lot lane, she sees a commotion down there—just literally fighting going on and people screaming and yelling and all that. Of course, she doesn’t know what’s going on. She just stops, puts her foot on the brakes. She stops. About that time, she hears pop, pop. Then she sees a guy standing in front of his car and just bleeding out. So she puts the car in park and runs up there to help this guy; he’s just bleeding. She helps the guy up into the passenger seat of the car, and she gets him in the car. He’s just bleeding all over. The floorboard fills up with blood very quickly. She takes whatever she can find—a rag—and makes a homemade tourniquet on his leg; he had been shot in the thigh. Praise the Lord, he lived, but he was in critical condition for a while. She makes his turn. The whole time she’s doing this, she hears this fighting going on, this commotion.

Literally, she found out later on, it was the fellow that got shot. His mom was trying to keep these guys that shot him from leaving; she was trying to keep them there. The whole time she’s thinking, “I’m going to get shot in the back; I’m going to get shot.” But this guy’s bleeding out; she’s trying to put the tourniquet on. She realizes now at this point what’s going on a little bit. She realizes her car, by chance, is blocking these guys; they can’t get out. She’s happy her car is there. But she sees a fellow coming out of Home Depot who is going to his car, and if he moves his car, it’s going to let these guys get out. So she yells, “Don’t move your car! They can get away if you move your car!” Think about it if you’ve got a sister like mine. What about that, you know? The thing is, the guy heard her; he knew what was going on, and he still got in his car and left. Sure enough, the guys got away. They called him later on, and he pleaded guilty, but the guys got away because that guy got in the car.

Then, of course, she’s calling 911, trying to say, “Hey, get over as quick as you can.” They want all kinds of details. My sister says, “I’m trying to save this guy’s life; I ain’t got time for you,” and she hung up on them because they wanted ten thousand details.

Later on, the police didn’t make it there quickly. She’s calling, “Get here quick!” A guy walks by, walks up to the car, and says, “Yeah, I used to be a paramedic; let me look and see.” She’s like, “Man, great, somebody that knows more than me can help.” He looks at the tourniquet and sees what she’s done. He said, “Boy, you did a good job. Good job,” and he walks away. She’s like, “Man, somebody help me here,” you know?

The trooper, State Patrol—they have an office right down the street from it. All of a sudden, they all start showing up, and they surround the parking lot; everything’s blocked off. The guy’s already gotten out, but she said, “I couldn’t get out of there for hours.” One of the police officers comes up to her after the ambulance takes the guy off and all that. He said, “Ma’am, we have counselors for people that go through trauma like this. We’d like to line you up with a counselor if you need it, if you think you need it. We’d like to send you through this.” This is what my sister said. She said, “Well, I think I’m okay. But if I need counseling for any reason, the reason why is because nobody helped. Nobody would get involved.” The police officer said this: “Yeah, we have it all the time. That’s what bothers us. It’s the new norm.”

Now, friend, we are in a battle. There’s a war going on. I’m not talking about a physical war; I’m talking about a spiritual war. I think it is the most important war that’s going on of all the ages because it’s not just about someone’s life for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty more years. It’s for their soul being in heaven forever and ever, or their soul burning in hell forever and ever. You are in the middle of this war, whether you want to be involved in it or not. It’s going on, friend, and there are people dying all around us. If somebody doesn’t reach them, they’re going to spend eternity weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. That’s what God said in His Word.

I went yesterday to visit an older man. David Jones had asked me to visit him months ago, and he’s not saved. David said, “Would you go by this guy’s house and try to lead him to the Lord?” I went by there months ago, and the guy wouldn’t get saved. I thought, well, if you go too often, you’re going to wear him out, so I’m going to wait for a while. He lives in my neighborhood. I went by there yesterday. He was an older man. He used to fix lawnmowers like Brother Dave Jones—that’s why David Jones knows him. I went by there yesterday, and I was praying, “Maybe today the guy gets saved.” I don’t know, but it just seemed like everything at the house was closed up. I walked toward all his old, junky lawnmowers and thought, “Man, I don’t see any movement here lately. Maybe the guy’s fine, I don’t know; maybe he’s in the hospital.” When I left, I had a little bit of that empty feeling inside me: What if that guy has died?

I grew up in church, and sometimes I can lose the realness of hell. I just heard it all my life and got numb to it. I’m just being honest with you, but yesterday it came back to me. Older man, been through a lot of issues. But what if that guy has—and I don’t know—maybe he’s in hell today screaming? Friend, that’s reality.

Someone said, “Hollywood makes things that aren’t real seem like they’re real,” and sometimes those Christians make things that are real seem like they’re not real. I’m simply saying there’s a war going on; there’s a battle going on. It’s the greatest battle that ever has been. It’s not time for us to be AWOL. It’s not time for us to say, “Well, I think I’ll just sit this one out.” Whatever avenue, whatever way God wants you, just be involved, because souls are dying and going to hell.

Not only that, friend, there’s a battle in time over the soul of America. Have you ever thought about it? Over in Sodom and Gomorrah, all that wickedness, but God said if you find just ten righteous—I’ve got to take my socks and shoes off—just ten righteous, amen, you know. He said, “If I find just ten righteous, I’ll spare it,” right? I’ve tried to study up what the population of Sodom and Gomorrah was and the population compared to America and all that. I’ve tried; you can’t figure it out. I’ve heard a lot of different numbers about that. But I wonder what the quota is in America: “If I find just ten righteous.”

Friend, that’s what God dealt with nations. America’s no different. I’m saying there’s a fight for the soul of America. By the way, you say, “Well, I wish more of them got saved or got in church.” I wish to say, by the way, if you’ve got some secret weapon, bring it out and show us how to do it. Amen. I beg one of you: show me how to do it better. If not, let’s just do the best we can, get on board, and try to win souls in it.

I think about a lady who came years ago, years and years ago. I think it was at the Vacation Bible School graduation, one of those, and a lady, a mom, finally came to one of our bus kids years ago. When I used to invite her to church, she’d get mad if you invited her to church. She had a teenage boy and seven kids that rode our buses. We used to call them the rallies back in the day. I think all boys, one girl. But she was like a boy because she raised all the boys, you know what I mean? She was meeting them in their ways. Anyway, I’m joking. I don’t know the family well. But anyway, finally she came. Before she came, I used to invite her to church, and she’d get mad. She didn’t want anything to do with it. She was tough—all those kids, seven kids, six boys. You had to be a little tough, and she was tough. I’ve heard her threatening with a knife. Now, I don’t think she was really meaning it, but one of her frequent statements was, “I’ll cut you. Don’t bother me, I’ll cut you.” She was one of those ladies. But before she came to church, she didn’t want anything to do with me inviting her. She was good to me; she was glad we picked her kids up for church and all that, but she didn’t want anything to do with it. She came to church that night, and God worked in her heart. She came down over here and asked Jesus Christ to save her. If I remember right, she was crying. It’s awesome to see. Wonderful.

Can I be honest with you? I’ve been disappointed. She hasn’t gotten in church like I wanted her to. She hasn’t gotten baptized like I wanted her to. Well, she tried. But there was a change. If you’re truly in Christ, the Bible says you’re a new creature. Old things have passed away; behold, all things become new. I’ll tell you this story to say this: No, she didn’t get in church and grow like I wish she would have. In fact, I think she’s gotten a little bit of God’s spanking in her life. She’s actually in a nursing home now, and she’s younger than I. Sad thing. But after she got saved, there was a difference. I go by and say, “Hey, why don’t you come to church with the kids?” She would say, “You know, I need to come. I know you’re right. I should never have come.” But it was a great difference from before when I invited her to church, “Get out of here,” to hearing, “I need to come.”

And it ought to be, if they’re truly saved, there’s got to be some kind of a change. It starts on the inside. God made me a new creature. But friend, here’s what I’m saying: In America, the more people get saved, the Holy Spirit moves inside their heart. We’re in a fight for the souls and the opinions and the mentality of the American people. The more folks that are born again, the ten thousand better chance we have of their minds being right than being saved. I’m just saying the involvement. By the way, if we got enough people that got right with God in America, God could give us good leadership. They can do that. You say, “Are you sure?” We haven’t got a whole lot of choices up there. God provides choices.

This battle—by the way, you realize America still by far finances more mission work than any other country in the world? The financing of it. There’s debate about who sends out the most missionaries, all that stuff. You’ll hear so many drastically different opinions on that, but the financing of it. You realize the importance of us being involved in the battle for the Lord in our country. What about the churches of America? This is a statement you often hear. I’ve been mentioning it here lately because there’s an involvement day thing. Most will say this: Ten percent of the people in a church do ninety percent of the work. I grew up in church, and I tend to think that’s pretty accurate. I think our church is so much better than the average—I’m not just saying that because this is the church of the pastor, but I really do believe that. And I thank God for that. But I think we can even be better. Sometimes that ten percent is doing so much for the cause of Christ that after a while they get worn out, and they’re tired of it all. God will refresh them, and there’s wisdom in all those decisions. But friend, you understand if more people carry the weight? You understand what I’m saying?

Friend, this is important for the church, but much more than that for you. You know, in Ireland—this is America, much of America. Are y’all with me here? Let’s just be honest about it. Much of America is at this point: They want to go to a big church where nobody knows if they come or not. They can hang out when they want to. They don’t have to get involved in any ministry because there’s a big church. They can go in there and feel good because they went to church somewhere and nobody bothers them. Is that not true or not? Praise the Lord, you’re not there. But we don’t want to be like that. We want to be involved, wherever, however God leads you. If not one of these twelve ministries, that’s fine, but be involved in the fight for the Lord. Pastors will say things like this: “Well, it’s hard to get people involved in ministries because nobody wants to commit nowadays.” And they run from that word. Ask pastors; that’s a common thing you’ll hear.

I’m not saying you can’t go on vacation and all that, and I understand people need breaks, and I’m for all that. The more workers we get, the easier it is for all that. I never say, “Don’t take vacation in summertime.” I say, “Take vacations in summertime.” I often say, “Go to church when you’re on vacation,” because when you come home, one or two things have happened: either God spoke to your heart, it was a great service, it’s good for you to be in another church service, or you come home saying, “Praise God for our church.” Both of those are good things, and I’m for that. Brother Bruce before, Brother Anthony now—I always tell them to take at least a week back. You need that; you need to get away. I’m for all that. But somebody ought to be willing to commit to the work of God in some ways. I’m willing to get up and do this and roll up my sleeves and get busy working for the Lord. The cause is just too strong. It’s sad when many churches across our land have a curse on them because people just won’t get involved. The Bible says, and it says it in 1 Corinthians 4:2: “Moreover, it is required in stewards…” A steward is someone you entrust with your riches. “Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” Just to say, “I’m going to commit if they’re going to pay me fifty bucks an hour, I’ll commit.” Come on now.

I’m for you committing to your work. There would be no great companies unless somebody was committed. There would be no great—whatever it may be. I’m not saying these are bad, but no great business, no multi-million dollar business—and we need that, oh, that’s important—but friend, much more important are the spiritual matters of our day and time and the souls of mankind in our country. Somebody needs to say, “I’ll commit to that.” It’s just vital.

Let me say this, and it has nothing to do with Pastor me. I messed it up. God could do a whole lot better work here if it wasn’t for me. I messed up a million times. I’m just glad He lets me have a part in it, and I mean that. I’m not just saying that; I mean that. Friend, I’m not saying this for me, but friend, God wants to use Rutherford County Baptist Church. God didn’t give us fifteen acres over there for no reason.

Many of you heard it, but I’m going to tell it again, just let it sink into our hearts and our heads. This is no credit to me; only God could do this. That land sold for almost $3.5 million about ten years ago. Some of it’s been sold off—Earl Riley’s in the preschool and places. But we bought that two years ago for 1.3 when everything was going sky high. Three and a half million, everything’s going sky high—we bought it for 1.3. And not only that, but we’re selling two of the fifteen acres. We bought the whole fifteen for 1.3. We’re selling those two acres. By the way, keep praying, but praise the Lord, as of right now, everything looks good. Next Monday, 8:30 in the morning, myself and the deacons are going to go sign to sell those two acres for $1.15 million. That’s only God. That’s the Lord. And we’re going to break ground after that. This is why I say all that: God didn’t do all that for no reason.

It’s not necessarily about a building. That’s just a means to the end. The end is some little bus kid that’s going to go to hell getting saved. Or a marriage that’s ruined getting fixed in a good church where they learn how to have a good, godly marriage and raise their kids for the Lord. That’s the end product God’s all about. But God didn’t give us all that just to sit around and do nothing. It takes people. It’s amazing to me how God works—that they did not help the Lord. I don’t want to belittle God in any way; He can do anything, but He lets you help Him. It’s amazing. I think sometimes God gets somebody so much better than me, but He wants you involved. He wants you doing something with Him.

God has done all this for a reason. We’re trying to start this school, and what a great need to raise children for the Lord and have a Christian education in our day and time. Praise the Lord for these young people. They go to public schools or maybe a couple are homeschooled, and they’re trying to stand for the Lord. Praise the Lord for them. I’m so thankful, and I want to be the best I can to cheer them on to stand for the Lord in a tough situation. But friend, we want to bring other children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and in this time, they need that. I’m just saying what God wants to do. There aren’t many churches anymore that just old-fashionedly go out and love on somebody and say, “Hey, can I tell you how to go to heaven?” I mean, whether you come to our church or not, the main thing we’re concerned about is, are you going to heaven? Just get down to where the rubber meets the road: “Hey, want to tell you how to go to heaven.” Not many are doing that anymore. We’re not the only one. There are seven thousand who will not bow the knee, but look, you don’t see that much anymore.

It’s just great. I thought about John and Maria Casey. They’re over in junior church this morning; they’ve got the twin boys coming. Years ago, two men knocked on their door. John Casey was already saved, and Emily was a little girl. But he wasn’t in church, and these fellows were knocking on the door trying to get people saved. He thought, “I think I’ll go to their church.” He came to the church. He and Emily used to sit over there; Emily was just a little girl on Sunday mornings. Eventually, Mrs. Maria got saved. Emily, as a little girl, got saved. Praise the Lord, he’s teaching junior church right now; he’s one of her deacons in her church. It’s all because somebody got involved.

I try to go tell somebody about Jesus. I think about Tim and Mary years ago, at the beginning of your church. I’m not sure exactly who it was; we didn’t have many workers at the time. Somebody put a gospel tract on the door, just hung it on the door, and they put the tract in there. If we can figure out who it was, we might shoot them for bringing them in. No, I’m joking. I love Tim and Barry. You’re wonderful. Tim and Mary says, “I’m leaving,” right, Mrs. Barry? They’ve been a blessing over the years. Tim and Mary came because of the gospel tract. One of our people went to that neighborhood; somebody put a gospel tract on their door. Tim and Mary came, and God worked in their lives. They’re already saved, but they just needed a church to love them and guide them a little bit. All these years, they’ve been such a blessing.

Next door to them, there was a fellow that had a son and a daughter-in-law. They started inviting everybody in their neighborhood to church and everything, and their son and daughter-in-law, Donnie and Debbie, they got to come to church. Donnie, over here, he was going through Foundation’s class, and we say, “You need a day and a time when you got saved.” If you don’t remember the date, that’s fine, but you need a day and a time when you got saved. I remember him on his knees over there in the office, and he prayed and asked Jesus Christ to save him. When he got up off his knees, he said, “I’ve got a day and a time now.” And he got baptized up here. It’s God working. But it took somebody to put—just take a simple gospel tract. Somebody was involved.

Here recently we had our Family Harvest Days in the fall, and some of our men and some of our ladies—there’s a set of men—said, “Hey, let’s try to follow up on this.” They knocked on a lady’s house, and she was inside. She said, “I was just praying, telling God I need to find out how to get to You. I need to get my life straightened out.” They said, “Well, let me tell you how to do it.” They showed her, “Hey, we’re all sinners heading to hell, but Jesus died for you on the cross. He loves you. He wants to save you.” She said, “That’s what I want.” I think she was the last one baptized last year. But somebody had to go. Somebody had to do all the Family Harvest Days. Watching the bounce house is always one of those dreaded positions; you’ve got to watch kids bounce on that stupid house over there, you know. But the end result: somebody getting saved. She’s been saying, “Pray for me.” The devil’s time, you know, and there’s a battle going on. I’m just saying getting involved, getting involved. You can do something in the battle. We’ve got three other points; we only got through one point right now. Y’all want to stay for the other two? Y’all are lying. Oh, I don’t believe you. I’m teasing.

World War II. I wasn’t there. Some of you honestly could tell us a little bit about it, and I love to hear it. It’s amazing; it’s getting fewer and fewer. But World War II—I think a lot of the reason why we won, of course, was God—but we got all our resources to draft. Unless you’ve got some good reason, you’re going fighting, boy, you know. Even our factories at home turned from making whatever to making weapons. They had rubber drives: bring your tires and your inner tubes. Some of you know better; I think even the ladies’ nylons they would use—is that true? Yeah, nylon, whatever you call it. Yeah, yeah. Even here in America, the air raid wardens—we just got all our resources gathered. Everybody got involved and brought down the mightiest military the world ever saw. God’s people, just everybody, wherever God calls you.

You don’t sign up on one of these tables, and we won’t look down at you. We might shoot you on the way up, but we won’t look down on you. Not everybody can understand that, but be involved in some way. Nobody might not ever know about your involvement; that’s fine. Who cares what everybody else thinks? What does God think? The job’s got to get done for Him. It’s sad to see the curse of Meroz. We were going to go back and look at some of the details—how it looked like there was no way they could win—but God called them to win. Sometimes in our day and time, it seems like there’s no way God’s people can win in our day and time. Oh, friend, I’ve read it in the book: we win. We’re going home, friend. Involvement is so crucial.

Let me just give you a little glimpse, because I think this would be good for us to see, and there are so many other ways besides this church to get involved. Let me just give you a little glimpse, maybe, and then we’ll give the illustration, and we’ll be done. When a visitor, a guest, drives onto the property, the first thing they see is the buildings. Is the grass cut? Have they kept this thing up? Do they care enough? Do they think this thing is important enough to get the grounds looking good? Now, let’s just think about it. It’s a good day, and everything’s taken care of, and they look sharp. They might say, “Well, they don’t have the biggest and best buildings,” and that’s fine, “but they’re doing the best they can with what they’ve got, and that’s what matters.” They pull up—a husband and wife—looking for a church that cares, loves, and helps, and they don’t really know a whole lot about the Bible. They get out of the car, and let’s just say we have some greeters. Maybe one day we’ll have this, but for now, we have some greeters up here. They come in the front door and come to the sidewalk, and there are some people right there who say, “Hey, we’re so glad to have you at Rutherford County Baptist Church. Man, we’re thrilled you came. Can I help? You got some children? We’ll go to the nursery here and there.” They are there to assist. They walk in the doors; someone is at the door greeting them and handing them a bulletin. They think, “Wow, I thought this was a little podunk Tennessee church. This is for real. These people really care. They think this thing’s a big deal around here. Look at that.”

People are so happy and friendly, walking by, shaking their hand; they get a bulletin. Somebody says, “Let me show you where you can take little Susie here. She’s a ten-month-old baby.” It’s up to you, but we have ladies in there—their moms are in there. We have a first-class nursery, and they’ll take care of your child. “Let’s take little Susie down there.” You get a little pager in case Susie cries, a little page, and you leave the service and go back there. They’ll text you, whatever it is. They say, “Well, that’s pretty awesome. Man, we need to come here more often. We got free babysitters, amen! Now let’s go out to eat while they’re watching the baby in the nursery.” They kind of relax—I’m glad they got pagers and they can text. The mom relaxes. Then they say, “You know, Junior over here to Primary Church, and over here to Junior Church, little one.” They come in and sit down. People are friendly. People are talking to them. That matters so much; that’s huge right there. “Well, I can’t believe they’re friendly.” I often tell people, “If you come to church, they’ll shake your hand off. If they’re jerks, I’ll see—see, they did it to me.” They’re like, “Man, people are friendly here. Wow, this is neat.”

Mrs. Barber is playing a lively, peppy song up there, the prelude, and that creates a great spirit. They’re happy. These people are happy here; they must have something here. We come out over here, and we come up here in the choir. We’re going to dream—we might as well dream right, amen. There are about thirty people up there, and they stand and sing a lively song: “I’m on the winning side.” Wow, these people have something. I wonder what they mean by a winning side. I like it. I don’t know what it is, but I like it. If the brother gets up here, he leads us in his songs and says, “Come on, sing out,” and boy, he gets singing. I don’t know these songs, but these people aren’t just singing; they’re into this thing. Then shaking hands, and everybody goes by and shakes your hand during the next song. Before I ever say a word, the vast majority has already—they typically don’t know it necessarily—but their decision, whether they’re coming back or not, has already been made. I haven’t said anything, the ushers haven’t done anything, I haven’t said a word. I’m just saying the involvement of God’s people is crucial.

A man walked into a church out in the country. It used to be a beehive of activity. It used to be a church that loved the Lord and loved people and tried to get people saved so they wouldn’t go to hell. It used to be a church that helped marriages. They always had something going on. Little boys running around, and girls running around all over the place, and children trying to grow up, learning about Jesus, knowing about the Ark and Moses and the Ten Commandments and Moses and the Well and all that. Were you listening there, folks? When he walked in, he saw dust all over everything. Spider webs. It looked like the church hadn’t been used in years. It was an older country church, so it wasn’t a slab; the floor creaked. Stone books were laid over there; it looked like dust covered everything. It was so sad because of what the church used to be. There was a curse on that church. There was a sign—they say there was a sign hanging up here. It used to say this (this is a verse in Proverbs): “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” It was hanging by two chains. One of them had broken; it was just kind of hanging. The ‘W’ had fallen off, and now it said, “Here, there is no vision. The people perish.” Friend, just be involved in the vision for God. It’s vital.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes, please? Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. You say, “Preacher, I want to be busy, involved in the work of God. However, whether anybody knows about it or not, I don’t care; I just want to be busy for God. Wherever, however God wants to use me here, Lord, just use me. I want to be involved. I want to be right in the thick of it. I realize the cause is too great. I want to be involved in the fight for good and right.” God spoke to my heart. I just want to be. Maybe you already are, but I just want to be involved. I want to be there and stay there. I want to live my life involved in God’s work in some capacity. If that’s true this morning, just lift your hand up; just lift it up. My hands are up with you—just involved in the work of God in some capacity. Many, many hands. Many hands.

Maybe there’s somebody else. Maybe you say, “I need to get involved. God’s working hard. I need to get involved.” Anybody else? In some way, some capacity, whether these twelve ministries or another way, I need to get involved in some way. God bless you. I need to get involved. Anybody else? Just lift your hand. God bless you. Maybe one more. God’s just burdening my heart. I need to get involved. Anybody else? Just lift your hand. God bless you. Thank you so much. You can put your hands down.

Maybe you hear this morning, and you say, “Preacher, I’ve been involved, but I’ve been tempted to be AWOL.” I’ve been tempted, maybe just by trials, maybe the burdens and trials of life, maybe the deceitfulness of money—I don’t know—but I’ve been tempted to get out, and I’m determined that I’m going to stay in, however and wherever God wants. I’m going to stay involved. I’m not walking out. I’m staying involved in the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. God spoke to my heart. I’m going to stay involved for the Lord. If that’s you this morning, God bless you. Satan’s always trying to discourage God’s people. He’s a liar. He’s trying to hurt the cause of Christ. Let’s stay in there, all of us. Don’t yell, “Whoa,” in the middle of a mud puddle.

Maybe here this morning you say, “Preacher, I’m not even saved. I can’t be involved, winning souls or making a difference for God, because I’m not saved myself.” If that’s me, you’re talking about visiting that old man—that’s me, and if I were dead, I’d be in hell. Or maybe you say, “I don’t know where I’d be. Man, I need to get saved myself. I want to settle this thing, know for sure my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that I’m headed to heaven. I need to get saved.” If that’s you, with your head bowed and eyes closed, would you just lift your hand? “I need to get saved.” Would you just lift it up? Young person, older person, man, lady—it doesn’t matter. I need to get saved. God loves you; He wants to save you. He’s so excited about saving you if you just come. I’ve seen someone slip a hand up. Maybe there’ll be somebody else. “I need to get saved.” I see that. I see that. Anybody else that needs to get saved? Anybody like that?

In just a moment, we’re going to stand, and when we stand, we’re going to say a word of prayer. As soon as I say Amen, I’m going to finish a song. At that time, if you’re not sure you’re saved, you need to get saved, step down to the end of your aisle, to the road there, and would you come down front? There will be a man standing right up front here. You come, just shake his hand. He’ll take the Bible and show you from the Bible how you can go ahead. If you’re a lady, they’ll get a lady, but would you do that? God loves you; we love you. We want you to get saved. These people will be thrilled about it. Maybe you just need to come and realize this morning, “Would you come? Let Him know that. Say, ‘I want to stay involved. Lord, You’ll use me.’” Let’s let the Lord know that. Would you please stand? We’re going to pray. As soon as we say Amen, if God has spoken to your heart, you raised a hand—would you come spend some time with the Lord? If you’re not saved, would you come? There will be someone down here standing. We want you to come. Thank You, Lord, for Your goodness. It’s amazing that You let us be involved in Your work. Let those that raised their hand—it seemed they did about salvation—I know we love them. Let them be bold and strong enough to come forward and get saved today. Help us, and You make it happen, please. Bless our people in Jesus’ name, and we pray. Amen.

Would you come? God spoke to your heart; would you come? No way from anybody else. You step out and you come. We want to be a help. Would you come? “I want to get involved. I want to get involved. I want to get involved. I will be involved in the work of God.”

Would you bow your heads? Just as our instruments are playing for just a moment here, if you’re not sure you’re saved, would you come? Everybody’s heads are bowed, their eyes are closed. You come. I want to settle this thing. Make sure you’re going to heaven. You’re not sure you’re going to heaven. God loves you; you can make sure of it today. Would you come? Would you come as we sing? That’s right. Let’s sing.

How many of you have ever needed to drive a nail? You need to drive a nail in the wall to put a picture up. Look right this way. You need to drive that nail in the wall, and you needed a hammer, right? But you were too lazy to go get a hammer. How many like that? Come on now; more of you are lazy than me. Come on now, we’ve all been there. How many have ever used a shoe before? How many have ever used a rock before? How many tried to use a screwdriver before? How many of you cut your finger trying to use a knife before?

Here’s what I’m saying: Those people just go to God over and over again: “Lord, here am I. Not the best hammer, but I’ll do whatever I can.” Those are the ones God uses. Availability: “Here am I, Lord. Would You use me? Would You use me?” I’m so glad you’re in church this morning. Amen. We’re thrilled you’re here. Please do take time to check out all the tables. One of these might be the way God wants to use you. These are great tables, great opportunities. Maybe some other way, but would you consider them? Stop by these tables and just check it out, at least. You’ll be happy to be involved in the work of God. There’s nothing like it in all the world. We’re thrilled you’re here tonight at 6 o’clock; be back in your place. Looking forward to a good service tonight. We’re thrilled you’re here today, every person. Praise the Lord for you.

Original File: The Need for God’s People To Be Involved - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday AM 22022