Unity
Category: Worship & Praise
Key Passage: Psalm 133
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: July 20, 2025
Psalm 133 tonight. Psalm 133 tonight. I am thrilled to see every single person out tonight. Amen for that. That’s just great. To me, Psalm 133, yes, it is penned by David, but ultimately it’s from the Lord. This is God’s word. And it is God describing or telling you what he thinks about unity. And the Lord’s description of unity.
I like it. It’s a great, great chapter. We’re going to read the whole chapter. Somebody just say, “Oh, no.” Just three verses. We’re all right there, you know. All three verses. And Psalm 133, God describing what he thinks and what he thinks about unity. It’s just an awesome, awesome chapter in how God describes unity.
Would you please stand if you are able to, just to show the Word of God respect? It is worthy of it. And praise the Lord, we know what God thinks and wants and doesn’t want, all from God’s Word. By the way, it’s a blessing to have the Supervilles with us: Brother Roger and Ms. Candace. Good to have them here with us. They were here at the Preachers Fellowship Wednesday night, this morning, and tonight. Good to have them tonight. That’s awesome. I’m honored to have them.
Psalm 133, verse number one, he says, “Behold.” Now, in the Bible, when he says, “Behold,” that means kind of stop everything. Look up. Look at this. It’s a big deal. Behold: How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now, that includes our sisters in austerity, all right?
Verse number two, he says, “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard.” See there? I preached at a beard. It’s all right for the pastor. Come on now. The Shanks were back at the funeral yesterday, and he said, “What’s going on with you?” I lost my razor, amen, you know? But anyway, I’m sorry. I’m getting off here tonight. It is like the precious ointment.
By the way, that represents the Holy Spirit. We could go back over to Exodus 30 and whatnot and describe all that, but what it represents: It’s like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s—that’s the high priest—even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. Notice how it’s describing that precious ointment, like the Holy Spirit, was poured on his head, went down, and then on all his garments. If you will, it just affected everything, all over him. Just about the Holy Spirit, kind of resembling being filled with the Spirit, as Ephesians says. The Holy Spirit moving and affecting everything, all of it. And, well, by the way,
You remember over there in the book of Acts when the Holy Spirit came in power—already indwelling, but empowered—those that were all with one accord in one place. And it’s talking here about how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It’s like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. Remember number three: as the dew of Hermon.
Now, the dew really represents fruitfulness. Usually this time of year around here, it’s dried up, and you can tell exactly—if you walk in this sidewalk up here, typically this time of year, you can look to the left as you’re coming in, and you’ll see exactly where a rock is underneath the ground because it’s brown right there. It’s not deep enough, you know, the roots to go down deep enough to get some moisture in the hot time. We’ve had rain, you know, just wow, over and above this year. But it’s still green. That’s the way it is when there is dew. If there’s no dew, it just turns brown, withers up, especially over in that part of the world. So this dew here is talking about fruitfulness. By the way, you get unity and you get the Holy Spirit moving, and there will be fruitfulness. Things begin to happen. Souls saved, lives changed. See?
The dew, as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.
Would you pray with me just a bit? We’ll talk about this thing of unity tonight. Father, Lord, I pray you would give me wisdom, help me to say what you want said, Lord, the way you want it said. And, Father, would you apply it to each one of us as we need? Thank you, Lord. I mean that, Father. Thank you, Lord, for the unity you’ve given to Rutherford County Baptist all these years. Thank you. It’s such a blessing. We praise you for it. We ask for more of that, and we’ll give you the glory for it. To God be the glory, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Notice he says this: He said, “How pleasant.” This is God talking here through David. He said, “How pleasant to God is just a pleasant thing for the brethren.” That’s interesting—for brethren to dwell together in unity. Anytime you get 100 or 200 people, whatever, three—however many it is—to dwell together in unity, it’s God’s work in there a little bit. It’s a good thing, and it’s a wonderful thing, but it does take some work for that.
Sometimes just the common cause brings unity. Why, I miss—we don’t push soul winning in the summertime. Fall will be here before we know it. We’ll kick back up our Saturday. We still have it, but our Saturday organized where we’re pushing it. There’s something about it that it kind of just permeates the mindset of us, the church family, when you get back out there just, and you can so at any time, but just when the church families really just get focused around reaching people, it brings unity. We’re here for calls. Whether it be Saturday, that kind of rallies our minds and gets us going that way. But whether it be that time or the fall festival when we do it, or the radio station, really, or any ministry we have around here—all the different ministries—our goal, our ultimate goal is to see people saved. Whether the nursery workers, they try to keep everything just in place so people can come there and put their babies in there, don’t have to worry about it. They can kind of rest assured. Those are good ladies doing a good job at the nursery. They come in here and hear the preaching of God’s Word. All of us are just centered around reaching people and glorifying God, and that brings unity. Very important. It’s not about me or us or all. No, it’s about reaching people and God being glorified, and that brings unity—just the common cause, many times. Praise the Lord for that.
A fall festival, I mentioned it earlier, but sometimes we’ll have 25, 30 workers at one time at the fall festival. It’s wonderful when everybody realizes they—and they really just kind of rally around that—we want to reach people. And sometimes we’ll say, “Hey, how many have been saved?” you know? And I like to say, “Hey, somebody got saved that last hour,” whatnot. And we go out and we tell that because everyone’s like, “Hey, that’s what it’s all about.” And it rallies the troops. Hey, we’re here for a common cause, and it gets less about the individuals and more about the cause, and it brings unity. That’s very, very important. God says, “How pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in unity.”
Sometimes for that to happen, we’ve all got to kind of realize, “Hey, everybody’s a little different here.” I often talk about the spiritual gifts when we talk about this, but the two classic ones, kind of living on two different extremes, is one’s a prophet. You know, the prophet, typically that guy, he is so focused on truth. I mean, he’s just so focused on truth. He’s going to kill about 400 people to just run him, slap over, because he’s trying to get the truth as quick as he can. He’s not focused on anything but the truth. By the way, that’s important. Of all the lists of the spiritual gifts, all of them include—that’s the only gift included in all the different lists—is the prophet. How important. How we need that in our day and time, by the way. Especially since so many churches go and so worldly, man, we need some of the gift of prophets. It’s wonderful.
But then the mercy show over here, they’re just concerned about the individual. They show mercy to the poor individual. By the way, when you’re sick in the hospital, you don’t want a prophet to visit you; you want a mercy show-er to visit you. That’s just the way it is. I mean, they’re going to have compassion on you. They’re not going to mention anything about you should have worn a helmet or anything like that. They’re not going to care about that. And a little private joke there, they’re just going to show mercy, you know. And there are both views, but you get two people looking at the same situation. The prophet is going to be, “Well, if they hadn’t been”—and I’m not trying to point at anybody—“but they’re going to say, ‘If they hadn’t been smoking for 40 years, they wouldn’t have cancer.’” And then the mercy show over there, they’re like, “They don’t need that right now. They can’t change. I mean, it’s already done. They already got cancer. What in the world are you bringing that up for? They need mercy right now.” And if you’re not careful, those two individuals will be fighting because he sees it over there, “Well, no doubt, you’ve got cancer,” type thing, you know. Listen over there says, “They don’t need that. They need some love. They need some mercy.” Praise the Lord, God doesn’t always give you what you deserve, big boy over there, you know. And you get a fight going.
And so sometimes, just for the brethren to dwell together in unity, you’ve got to realize everybody’s a little different. We’re wired different. We’re gifted different. Sometimes it’s not a matter of right or wrong for him. They’re both right. He’s right; they should have been spoken to all those years, but he’s right over here; they don’t need to hear it. They can’t change it right now. They need some mercy right now. And you got to allow for that. They’re just different. And for the brethren to dwell together in unity, you’ve got to realize not everybody’s going to see it exactly like I do. And that’s all right.
I’m not talking about right or wrong right here. We’re talking about just seeing situations. They say that it’s so very, very important that a church—the church experts, whoever they are, you know, the “they’s.” When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask, “Who has it been all these years of ‘they say this’ and ‘they’?” Who has that “they” been, you know? I mean, really, you know. But they say that the church can have some arguments, whatnot, and that’s part of it. But if it gets—as long as the pastor, you know, they’re kind of around their pastor—then you can keep unity. If it gets there, then there’s going to be major problems. There’s a lot of truth to that. And I say that to say, you’ve been so good over the years. Brother Bobby, we had him years ago when I was a younger man, and he said this. He told me, he said, “Brother Paul,” he said, “a church can, in some ways, not fully, but some ways a younger preacher, you know, a church can either make him or break him.” And if it’s a young preacher, the church is always going against and going against him. I appreciate it. Our church has been very good over the years for that. I’m very appreciative of that. That’s important; it’s just for unity. By the way, I think our church overall is very good at unity. I’m not preaching necessarily because there are problems; I’m just saying it’s so important that we work at this thing of unity.
Look over, if you will, at 2 Corinthians chapter number 13 for just another thought on this thing of unity for just a minute here. Second Corinthians chapter number 13, and look in verse number 14. Amen. You’re turning, so we’ll get there just a second here. Amen. Second Corinthians 13. I like the turning of pages as long as it doesn’t last too long. Amen. If it lasts too long, man, just act like you found it. They’ll never know. Amen. We’re all right.
2 Corinthians 13, look at verse number 14. He says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, here I want you to notice, and the communion—not exactly, but very close to unity—the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” Amen. God’s working through Paul here, talking to the church of Corinth. In that first letter to them, boy, how they were all divided. And he is writing them towards the end of the second, and he said, “This communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” Amen.
He said, well, it brings unity. Look, if we had 10 pianos, I wouldn’t have any room for people to sit here, first of all, you know. But if we had 10 pianos and we’re trying to get them all in tune with each other, it would be hard for a man to come in here and tune them to each other. Well, okay, we’ve got one and two; they’re agreeing, but number seven over there, he’s way off. Or we’re going to go two and three to move them over to seven. We’re going to move seven over there and back and forth. It’s going to take a long time. It’s going to be really hard. They don’t do that. If they’re old school, I’ve watched him do it on this very piano: they’re going to bring in a tuning fork, and they’re going to tune that piano to the tuning fork. And then they’re going to the next piano, and they’re going to tune that piano to the tuning fork. That’s not a tuna fork; he’s not eating tuna fish, okay? And he’s going to go to every one of those pianos, and he’s going to tune them to that tuning fork, and you have unity among the pianos.
And when the brethren are in tune with the Holy Spirit of God, you have unity. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s the Spirit of God that can bring them. Now, let me just for a minute talk when you have unity among God. God says that’s pleasant to God. I like that. And it talks about this anointing all, representing the Spirit of God coming down in the head and the beard, and with the mouth and the words. That’s very important. You bring life or death with your words, by the way. But the Holy Spirit is all around that, and then it goes down to all over the garments. It affects everything when the Spirit of God’s working.
The world calls it synergy. I like this illustration: two horses. One could pull a load of 8,000, the other could pull a load of 9,000. So you say, “Well, together that would be 17,000.” But they put those horses together, and those horses together could pull 33,000 pounds. Because one horse was a little weak in this area, and that was the area where this horse was strong in. And that horse was weak in this other area, and that’s the area where this horse here was strong in, and you put them together: 33,000 pounds. And when a church gets under unity, the Holy Spirit is beginning to work and flow, that church can pull 33,000 pounds. That’s God’s plan. That’s why he brings a church family, a body—the local body of Christ—and every part is needed to make that body function as it should.
Way before there ever was synergy and all these things we hear about in our day and time, the Bible told us in Leviticus 26:8, “And five of you shall chase 100, and 100 of you shall chase 10,000. Your enemy shall fall before you by the sword.” Deuteronomy 32:30—one shall chase 1,000 to put 10,000 to flight. Well, you already mentioned, but that’s what’s going on. Acts 1:14: “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.” Acts 2:1: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” And the Holy Spirit gave us empowering, and 3,000 people saved and baptized. Amen? Wow. That’s what they nowadays call synergy. Now, 1,000 to 10,000. Yeah. And in the mouth of all these years, someone has said, “People coming together is a start; people staying together is progress; people working together is success.” God said, “Boy, it’s a pleasant thing when the brethren dwell together in unity.” Wonderful.
Now, let me say something. We’ll look over, if you will, look over in James chapter 3. We’re going to kind of change tunes for just a bit. We’re not going to get away from the tuning, but we’re going to change tunes for just a bit, all right? James chapter 3, and I want you to notice something. The Bible is an amazing book. And he’s talking about wisdom here, and I want you to note how he describes it and the order of the description about wisdom. All right. Look over here in James chapter 3, and look in verse number 17. James 3, verse number 17. If you’re there tonight, would you say amen? Good deal. Verse number 17. Notice what it says: “But the wisdom that is from above.” He’s kind of contrasting worldly wisdom. He said, “No, no, not this worldly wisdom. This wisdom’s from above.” Watch what he says. Is first what? Pure. Then, after you get the pure, then peaceable. That’s very important. First pure, then peaceable. It goes on: gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy. But it’s first pure, then peaceable. I am not—I am not for unity at all cost. God’s wisdom from above is not for unity at all cost. It’s first pure, then peaceable. If someone were to come in here and they were to use a Message Bible or an NID Bible, I think you would—I hope, I have no doubt you would—but you’d say, “Hey, we want unity, but first, pure.” We can’t have unity right now. We’ve got to deal with a problem right now. There’s something that needs to be dealt with right now. We’re not having that in our church. That’s not us. We’re not going to do that. No, we don’t do that. First, we say, “Well, we want unity.” Yes, we want unity, but not at all cost. First, pure, then peaceable.
That’s God’s Word. Boy, it’s always a little bit sad when the mentality of the country wants peace, peace, peace at all cost while the communists are moving in on us. No, no, we want peace. But sometimes, friend, it is first pure, then peaceable. Can’t remind you as much as in me as is to live peaceably with all men, as much as within me. Yeah, yeah, not at all cost. Sometimes you cannot. We’re talking a lot about church tonight, but if we were to have worldly music come in our church, and we were to turn this into a stage and all kind of worldly, rock and roll music, everything else in the world, I hope you’d say, “Hey, we don’t have peace right now; we’ve got a problem right now.” Yeah, and I heard all that. I’m in the church, and I don’t want the world’s music in my church. Yes, we want unity, but not at all cost. First, pure, then peaceable.
Boy, it’s so much—well, you’ve got to do all that to reach young people. Friend, let me ask you what you’re reaching to, one thing. In my book, if you get the Holy Spirit flowing and moving and God’s Word being preached, you can reach people. Yes, we want unity, but not at all cost. Doctrine is the glue that holds us together. Why have we come to another—forgotten about the church? Well, first of all, they preach salvation by faith in Christ alone. Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus and Jesus alone—that’s the first thing. First John, take out what do you think about a church or a doctrine? What do they say about Jesus? Yeah. Then you start looking a little bit more. All right. What do they teach about eternal security? Do they believe you can lose your salvation? All right. They believe in eternal security; I can go to that church. Do they believe in pre-tribulation rapture? Well, they believe in that. That is going to take His bride out before He brings havoc into this old world. He’s not going to take His bride through all that when He pours His wrath out. He’s bringing His bride out, then He’s bringing His wrath down, you know. Well, I go to that church. They believe what I believe, according to the Bible. The doctrine is the glue that holds us together. What kind of Bible do they use? They use the old King James Bible. I go to that church. I go to that church. I go to that church. It’s the glue that holds us; it ought to be the glue. Do they have soul—or do they say they believe in soul—or are they practicing winning souls? Come on. And okay, I can go to that church. We want unity, but not at all cost. But when I find somewhere—all—they got the things that I believe, and I’m going there, I can go there and be involved and participate. You’re not going to agree with every—well, the color of that car, but I don’t know about that.
It is amazing. We changed some of these squares out that were stained really bad, and we’ve already had someone throw up on one of the new squares, and we’ve had some spilled coffee for sure, too, you know. Well, I’m going to leave the church. Now, that’s not part of the doctrine that holds us together, Fred. We do want peace, but not at all costs. First pure, then peaceable.
Wonderful thing about it is that doctrine. Hey, in the military, they have a code of conduct or a manual, if you will, that they can go back in reference. And we have something we can go back in reference. We rally behind that. We rally together on that. Let me mention something else. We got to hurry along. Look over in Proverbs chapter number six. Proverbs chapter number six, real quickly here tonight. Proverbs 6. The Lord says it’s a pleasant thing. That’s God’s opinion. It’s in His Word. Oh, it’s a pleasant thing when the brethren dwell together in unity. He describes this wonderfully. Then notice what he says over here, just talking about unity a little bit. And I look for in Proverbs chapter number 6. Proverbs 6. And look in verse number 16, Proverbs 6 and verse number 16 of God’s Word. When you’re there, would you say, “Praise the Lord,” please? Good, you’re already there. I’m impressed. Proverbs 6:16, verse number 16. The Lord says, “These six things doth the Lord hate, yea seven are an abomination to him.” Now, he hates these six things, but you get to the seventh abomination, it’s like God saying, “I cannot stand that right there.” That makes me want to throw up that type of fault there. All right, so let’s list these things. All right, you’ll with me? Here we go. Verse number 17. What’s the number one? Number one, he says a proud look—that’s number one. Number two: a lying tongue. Number three: hands that shed innocent blood. Number four: a heart that devises wicked imaginations. Number five: feet that be swift in running to mischief. I’m glad it doesn’t go past eight. I’d run out of fingers, amen. I’d be in trouble. I got to be careful. Number six, number six: a false witness that speaketh lies. So those six things he hates. We’re getting to the seventh one. God says this seventh one is an abomination. I can’t stand this one. That’s what that is: abomination. Here’s the seventh one: “And he that soweth discord among the brethren.” Kind of reminds you of Psalm 133, how pleasant it is for the brethren. He that soweth discord, not among the world, but he that soweth discord among the brethren.
Now, I’ve learned a little about this saying. It’s interesting how he words that: “He that soweth discord.” Typically, you sow some seed. How many have a garden? Anybody have a garden this year? Bigger little, you got any kind of garden? Oh, we’ve got four or five of them around here. The rest of us are lazy. I used to have one, but we’re going to rely on y’all’s garden this year. Amen. But you don’t put a seed out there and get a… My daughter, I hope she doesn’t mind. She’s like, “Why do I have to be the preacher’s daughter? He always uses me as an illustration.” She has a small garden. We do not have unity, right? First pure, then peaceable. In her garden, she has one cucumber. How many say that was a garden? How many say that ain’t no garden? Oh, she says two. Excuse me. First pure. She’s ready to fight over there. She planted those a month or two ago, and now she’s reaping that great harvest, you know. Two. Not just one, but two. There’s my point, if I’d ever get to the point, right? I’ve learned that typically the seed of discord was sown months ago. Typically, the person that sowed it is about 10 miles down the road. So nobody knows, though. And God’s the one that said, “Hey, it’s an abomination to me.” He that soweth discord. It happened months ago. But whoever’s sowing, they’re just sowing these seeds. And sometimes you try to track it down, try to solve problems, and you can’t figure it all out because it was months ago. So often God’s feeling is on the nose, but God knows.
Now, here’s my thing: We can’t stop that. That is going to happen. You get a couple hundred people together. We maybe only had, I don’t know, 175 or something like that this morning. Who knows what we had this morning? But, you know, if you put them all together in three or four months, however many come—all individuals—it’s going to be. It’s like the Preacher’s Fellowship. Somebody said, “How many are you running?” “I’m running 500.” “I only called 150 this Sunday, though,” you know. That’s the way a church is, you know. Nobody asks. This is the way it works. And so you get all those people together, you’re going to have—it’s just going to happen—you’re going to have someone sowing seeds of discord. It’s just going to happen. But the church family and the core—this guy says, “You know what? I’m not going to allow that in my garden.” And instead of letting that grow down deep in their heart and their mind and, you know, forever—not if it’s doctrine, if it’s something that we ought to [address] first pure, okay, but it’s not. And you say, “You know what? This thing was sown here in my heart and my mind, but I’m not going to let it hang out there. I don’t want that in my garden.” And the people of the church—it’s just part of it because I don’t care. You get people together; it’s going to happen. I don’t like it; God doesn’t like it, but it’s going to happen. There’s going to be seeds of discord sown. And so you’ve got to come along and say, “You know what? I’m going to pluck that out of my garden.” It’s just part of it. If you’re going to have a church with unity, it’s just part of it. And it’s going to be kind of continual. Is it that Rutherford County Baptist Church is bad? No, every church in the world has that. You’ve heard it said, “If it’s a perfect church, don’t go to it. Mess it up.” It’s just part of it. And so you’ve got to come along continually, “I don’t want that in my garden.”
Unity. We’ve mentioned it here recently, but pride—only by pride comes contention. And for unity among the brethren, there’s got to be humility, just people humbling ourselves. Satan’s root sin was pride. And the Lord’s blessed our church, and I mean that. You know, we’re a church, but overall, God’s been so good to us with the unity thing. I’m thankful for that. You’ve heard it said, but I want to mention it again as we enter into this building program. I promise you, the next year and a half, Satan’s going to attack us. Probably the number one way he’s going to try to attack is to take away the unity. And that’s divide and conquer.
I mentioned the place I was years ago when I was young—I hate to say that, when I was young. I tell you what, but we were fresh out of Bible college and went. I was a youth director there. And when we first went there, they were in a rented building, and we built a building. And during that time, it was amazing. So many people got mad and left. I mean, just one after another. I was a young guy; my head was spinning. I wonder if some of the people that left were good. Some of the people that stayed—it’s amazing. From the beginning to the end, it was, for the most part, a totally different church. Just people got mad about this and just left, left, left, left. And at the end of the day, it was amazing to watch God. He kept the numbers the same. We needed that to be able to build and sustain that building, and God kept the numbers steady; he’d bring someone in. But it was sad, on the other hand, to watch. It was basically a totally different church. And Satan would love to do that here. Oh, it’s been so good, and I want us to just kind of be aware of that. I’m not preaching this because there are problems; I’m preaching this because we’re going into a building program. And we want to be praying and watching for that. No, I understand if it’s a doctrinal issue, if it’s an issue like that, first pure. But, friend, we’d have to be foolish not to address the issue that he’s going to try, guaranteed. And there’s going to be some seeds sown of discord. It’s just going to happen. It’s not that it’s a bad church; it’s that it’s the church.
But when that church says, “You know what? We’re not perfect, but we’ve got the doctrines right. It’s the glue that we’re trying to reach people. Let’s work together to make a difference in, you know, Smyrna, Tennessee needs an old-fashioned independent Baptist church that’s growing and doing something for God.” It needs that. I don’t know our guests very much tonight. I know they’re King James only. I love that. And I say, man, we’ve been listening to radio stations. I love that. And, you know, people like that are out there that need to know there are other King James only people out there. And it would be wonderful if in this area here that someone says, “Well, they’re just kind of old-fashioned.” And somebody else says, “Well, I’m looking for that.”
Now, I forget years ago, we had a young man who got saved—we didn’t leave the Lord; he got saved—just off of YouTube, the internet, when he had learned about King James only. He was going to church. And this young Christian asked him, he said, “Is there any such thing?” The church he went to, they used all the other versions. And he went to them, and he wasn’t mad at them, but he was just being honest, a young Christian. He said, “Is there any such thing as a church that all they use is the King James Version?” And they said, “Yeah, you need to go to Rutherford County Baptist Church.” Praise the Lord, we had that reputation. He called the church. He said, “Hey, I don’t know if there’s such a thing or not, but is your church like a church that all they use is the King James Version?” I said, “You found the right church.” He came for a long time. By the way, praise the Lord, all these years later, they’re doing good, and I’m thankful for that.
But the Lord needs—you’re just saying the Lord needs a church like this. The devil’s going to do all they can. But boy, when the church says there’s a cause… I remember the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan played for them. Come on, we’re not going to talk about LeBron James. Come on now, you know. Jordan, yeah? Jordan is an amazing basketball player. By the way, I’ve learned we’ve got a new basketball player in the church, so we’ve got to get back to basketball. We haven’t been there for a while, you know, talk about it. But Jordan, he was amazing. Remember, they tried to win the championship, and the Detroit—Detroit Pistons always put him out. They couldn’t win. And Jordan would try so hard, but to me, it just seemed like he hadn’t quite learned synergy. One thousand, two thousand, ten thousand. Well, that next year they came around, and they were playing together as a team. Well, they wiped out Detroit, won the championship. But they had to learn, “Hey, we’re a team.” Teams that win championships—that’s God’s plan.
Brother Howes used to tell us a story about two churches that had had a big fight, a knockdown, drag-out fight, and it split the church. About half the church went across town and started another church. It was so bad that the police were called in. The local papers, back when paper was a big thing, it was in the local papers. Everybody knew about it. It was a horrible smear against the Lord’s name. Man. Well, that’s what Christians are: all they do is fuss and fight. By the way, the Bible says the world will know we are disciples of Christ if we have love one for another.
A little while later, on that new church, that pastor got convicted. He said, “This is not right. We’ve been a horrible testimony. Awful shame.” And he called the other pastor. He said, “You know, this is so wrong. I’m sorry. I was far from perfect in what I did. I didn’t handle it all right. Shame on me. I just want to call and say, ‘Brother, I’m sorry. I wasn’t right. Please forgive me.’” And the other pastor said, “Well, I didn’t handle everything right either. I’m sorry, too.” They reconciled.
That other church—both churches had buses now at this point. That other, the new church, on Wednesday night, they loaded up all their people, all their people, on church buses. I’m not sure, but I doubt it was in the middle of July when it was 104 degrees. Amen, on the bus. I don’t think they had air conditioning back then. They loaded up on Wednesday night. The pastor here knew. Here in the song service, those buses pulled up. Those people got off those buses, and they came in the back of the auditorium. The pastor knew. Both pastors got up in front of everyone, both congregations, and said, “We apologize. We’re so sorry.” The people began to tell those people they were sorry. Those people began to tell those people they were sorry. It brought unity. They took ads out in the newspaper—full-page ads out in the newspaper—telling the whole community, “We’re sorry. We were a sorry example of Jesus Christ. We’re asking the community, would you forgive us? We were not what we should have been, and that is not what Christ is like. We apologize for being a poor testimony to the Lord.” You know what happened? God said, “That’s pleasant right there.”
How pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together. That’s when the precious ointment is poured down, and it affects what we say. And it begins just all over; it just affects every part of the body of Christ. And then you get to do—you get the fruitfulness because the Holy Spirit’s working.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Our heads are bowed, our eyes are closed. You’re here tonight. You say, “Preacher, I’m going to pray. I’m going to pray in the next year and a half, two years, to be in the new building. I’m praying for God to protect, give wisdom, give unity. I’m going to make that special on my prayer list. I’m going to be praying for that, for God to keep unity in His church. I’m going to be praying about that especially.” If that’s you tonight, you slip up your hand. I’ll pray about that. I’ll pray about that. Pray for unity, not at all cost, but just yes, unity. God bless you. We need that. We need that. Good, good, good.
Maybe you’re here tonight. You said, “God just spoke in my heart in a different way. Maybe I didn’t even apply it the way that God spoke to my heart tonight.” That’s you tonight. Just lift your hand. “God spoke to my heart.” Anybody like that? God bless you. God bless you. Me too, me too. God bless you.
Would you please stand? Let’s have a word of prayer. Let’s spend some time. Let’s get in tune with the Spirit of God. Would you do that? Father, thank you for telling us what is pleasant to you. I sure would like to have that. Lord, I pray you continue to bring unity to your church. Thank you, Lord, over the years how you have brought that. Give us wonderful people that are after you and glorifying you and reaching people, standing for the truth. Lord, keep us unified in those things for you. Lord, we’ll thank you for what you do in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
Let’s just spend some time for the Lord. “Lord, would you bring unity? Keep unity in our church.” Oh, we can use that. That’d be a good thing. It’d be a good thing for a lot of us just to pray, “Lord, bring unity, bring unity, keep unity.” How foolish I would be, and we would be, if we didn’t think the devil’s going to fight that. Oh, yeah, he will. Yeah, well. In your home, you need unity. Your uncle or someone, your neighbor elsewhere. God said it’s pleasant with a brother. That may be a family there: mom and dad, children. He says it’s pleasant for the brethren to dwell together in unity.
Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂Unity＂ - Sunday PM 07⧸20⧸2025 [-mUfTLWrIcg]