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I Kings 6:7 gives some tremendous wisdom about building the house of God. Listen carefully to this verse, “the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither.” Did you catch that? The materials were brought in, ‘ready’ for their place. This means that when God is building a house, or in this case, leading you to a new church and new pastor, God will fit you for that Church before He sends you there. Many today join a Church and clamor and gossip and hinder the work of God. They don’t understand that God calls you to a Church, not a Church to you? You are there to learn and to serve. Over the years I’ve seen three very distinct groups of people that don’t understand what I’m talking about and they end up never fitting in any church.

The first group that won’t fit in any church is the Aggressive group. You aggressive folks out there want to run things. You want to be in charge. You want to be in control. You want folks to know what you think, but you have a long track record of not being able to follow. God will have to knock some of the rough edges off of you. You need to learn humility! You need to learn to follow God’s ordained leader - the PASTOR then maybe you will start being able to fit.

The second group that never fits is the Assertive group. You assertive folk will never fit until you learn to stop bucking the Pastor and thinking you know everything. You don’t know everything. If you would be quite you would learn something. Get a servant’s heart. Quit your assertive behavior in the house of God.

Finally, there is the Alter-the-Vision group. You folks will never fit until you understand that in the local church the Pastor is the man to whom God gives the VISION. When there are two visions there is DIVISION. When God sends you to a church you need to learn to adopt the vision of the Pastor or you will continue to cause division. No brick-mason tears down the whole house to get one stone to fit. Some of you dumb pastors need to learn this. You want new members so badly that you are willing to tear the whole church up to get someone to fit. Our text says the stones were made ready before being brought thither.

In conclusion, let me say some folks never have fit and never will. They are not willing to change. They are not willing to hold their peace. They are not willing to stop reacting and overreacting to problems they see in the church. This group will toss from church to church every couple of years. They will always give the same ol’ excuses about why they won’t settle. For the record, I am NOT going to tear the whole church apart just to make you FIT!!!

Dr. Dennis Carter,
Trinity Baptist Church, Spartanburg, SC.