Time to check the stitches

Book of Exodus, please. Just for one or two verses in the Book of Exodus. On another note, glad to see I'm not the only preacher like that.

People have been saying to me, you've got a cold. I said, I told my wife when I left home, she told me I had a cold. I said, no, I don't have a cold.

I met Mr. Skates and I said to him, I said, she's got a cold. No, no, I don't have a cold. I needed to talk to Athena.

The boy's got a cold, okay. So if you ever hear us preaching about facing facts, sinners should face facts, just sit down. Exodus chapter 35, verse number 21.

Exodus 35, and verse number 21, And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, everyone whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord's offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation for all his service and for the holy garments. Now verse 25. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun, both of blue and of purple, of scarlet and fine linen.

And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goat's hair. I've never really purchased for myself a first-class ticket, but I've had some friends that have bought me first-class tickets. One occasion, it was Mr. Allen Hill, a very good friend of mine that's home in heaven.

I took his funeral, and I was flying back from Chicago to the East Coast, and I was on an American Airlines first class, and the stewardess came along with the Chicago Tribune. I'll never forget the caption on that newspaper that day. It showed the picture of a fairly, relatively young woman stooped over the American flag, and her name was Betsy Ross.

And the caption of the paper was, now this is 20 years ago, okay, 20 years ago. It was talking about this country. No other country are the same way.

The caption was this, Time to check the stitches. Time to check the stitches. You want a caption for what is before me this afternoon? That's what it's going to be.

Time to check the stitches. Betsy Ross might not mean a lot to Midwestern people. Maybe some of the students in school know this.

But Betsy Ross, taught by her aunt Sarah, was the first ever to knit together your American flag. And over the years where it has waved its way, old glory on battleships, armament forces, whatever it might be, here's the caption, Time to check the stitches. Now the Betsy Ross Bridge, by the way, it connects two states together.

The state of New Jersey and the state of Pennsylvania. You might not know this, but those were two states a number of years ago that didn't get along that well. In fact, I was thinking, reading one of your papers the other day, that if things don't go too well this fall, you might want the Betsy Ross Bridge between Georgia and Florida.

But anyhow, those states weren't getting along. That bridge I've gone over at different times, down below is all those swirling waters. And so this bridge that connected those two states together was called the Betsy Ross Bridge.

Brethren and sisters, let's face it, I'm not here on a COVID kick this afternoon. I don't have to labor it to tell you that it has had a drastic effect on the fabric of testimony assemblies. Sadly, it has divided us whether we want to face it or not.

It's been hard on the sensitive fabric between family members. In some cases, a husband and wife. Sunday morning, I've been in the assembly.

Assemblies, plural. Where the overseer will partake of one emblem, and his wife won't take of the other. How do you get along with that? On two occasions.

Both of them, leaders in the assembly. It's divided families. Divided oversights.

And divided assemblies. So what am I saying today? I'm saying just what I've read here. Time to check the stitches.

Moses was a very qualified and good leader in that he gathered the people together, not to divide them. When you get to the book of Ezra, you'll remember that Ezra calls all those people together in chapter 3. Remember, he assembles them. It's very significant what he says.

The people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem to build. We're going to build. We've got to be together on it.

So what I'm asking you to do, what I would like to do personally, what you should do as an assembly, corporately, let's have a look at the stitches. How we make it out. I am a lover of sweaters.

And some of you boys have got Kimber blood in you this afternoon. Don't you smile. You do too.

Most Kimbers, if you see them without a sweater, it's going to be a very hot day. I have more sweaters than I've got life left to wear. And my wife laughs because the ones I like best, I wear them out, she says.

One particular case, one I really liked, I don't know what happened, but one of the threads came out, one of the stitches came out. So I had a sister in our assembly, Ruth Gallagher, I just took her husband's funeral a while ago, and I said, Ruth, my sweater. Oh, she said, that's easy, done, Murray.

So she fixed it. You know, I looked back over the work of that sister. I couldn't find one.

I wanted to be able to show Shirley, my wife, just where it had gone. Couldn't see it. Just perfectly done.

Isn't that what we need in the assembly, brothers and sisters? On other occasions, sweaters have been brought to another individual I know of, and that person loved that sweater very much, but it had been literally torn. However it happened, I don't know. But do you know what she said? The person that brought it said, I'm sorry.

I can't do anything for you until I see the pattern. Aha, there's your secret. What's the secret with David? I mean, he can't build the house.

But go to 1 Chronicles 28, I think it is, four times in that chapter, you get the word the pattern, the pattern, the pattern, the pattern. I mean, the kingdom was in good order. It was a united kingdom when Solomon came.

It was handed to him. But if he's going to keep that in good order, if he's going to be able to check those stitches, he's going to have to go by the pattern. Now I know there's brethren out there today, and I've had them come aboard me about calling it the pattern.

They're reading a different Bible. It's there, brethren. I'm sorry.

There's a pattern given to us, and that which we seek to do as God's people gathered to His precious name. It's not really my subject. But even go to, later on, it reads about the carpenters and the masons and all those that are gathered together.

This one, they're building the temple. And there's one thing. They had to be together.

They're different trades. They're different people. And so are we.

But we've got to work together. We've got to check the stitches. They make it out your home.

Your children know there's a division between you and your wife. Other people in the assembly know that. You tried to minister to them.

You tried to lead them. Just put me in the place of an overseer. And my wife, for whatever reason, if I'm an overseer, that overseer just made the decision how they're going to handle the emblems, and she won't take one of them.

She has literally disqualified my work, whether I like it or not. Got to go back to the stitches. Got to go back to the pattern.

Brethren and sisters, we have a pattern given us in the Word of God. Isn't that what those lovely words, I love to quote them, that God said concerning Abraham, he said, I know Abraham, that he will command his house, no, not after me, after him. He was the head of that home.

How did Abraham guide his home? After the pattern. After the pattern. Did God just leave him go and say, well, Abraham, that's fine, you know.

Just look at that man. Follow him through his life. Finally, the ultimate test came when that moment he had to offer up his son.

And that he did, and according to the Word of God. So I want to think just very quickly, three things. I want to think of checking the stitches personally, already touched on that.

The family and the assembly. Isn't that what Matthew 18 is about? I mean, somewhere along there, there's been a disagreement. Somewhere there's somebody that's been offended.

Somewhere there's somebody maybe going down one side of the hall, because they can't go down the other side, and so on. I don't know, but it's about forgiveness. Why is it the principle of forgiveness? Why do we forgive, brethren and sisters? Because we want to maintain that pattern that is given to us.

The beauty of it. The beauty of it. Time to check the stitches.

So let me ask you today, brother, young or older, or in between. If you've been in the assembly for 62 years, you've seen not everything. You've seen a lot.

When you think you've seen everything, older brethren here will tell you, say, you'll see something else that'll break your heart. But there is nothing more heartwarming, nothing more encouraging, to see a couple who have been so faithful all these years, coming in and taking their place in the assembly, and they have poured their life into it. It's their life.

It's everything to them. You can take away whatever you like. Oh, don't take that place that is so close to their heart.

And they are determined. They are determined to protect the beautiful fabric found in local testimony. And that's what you see them doing.

Forgiving them? Well, I just read it this morning in my own reading. Even if you're not, even if you are falsely accused, forgive them. Go ahead.

What is it to saying you're sorry? I have to confess to you a couple times I've had to go and apologize to people. I had to go apologize to the Lord because the confession was kind of empty. I didn't change my mind.

Let's be honest about it. But that's just the way it is. Don't get any high ideas about what haloes are on the heads of preachers.

They're not there. Anyhow, but that's really a Matthew chapter. Take, for instance, something personally.

Isn't that what Paul is doing in his relationship with Philemon? Here's Onesimus, this runaway slave. Nobody else has been in the house to see what has taken place. Maybe his son, Archippus, did, and that's why he was going to leave because, you know, was Paul overruling Philemon by telling him what to do with Onesimus? Not at all.

He says, if he's wrongly put that on my account. I will repay thee. I don't think the man had a penny in his pocket.

What was he doing? He was seeking to maintain the stitches and the testimony at Colossae, and he won the day. That testimony rose or fell on that one man, what he did. I have seen situations, very testy situations between families come to a head.

I know other brethren here have too, and the whole thing has literally hinged on what one man might or might not do. But he's done that which is right, even though it hurt, even though it affected his family, even though he went home and they said, why did you cave in? If it's against him personally, he'd be glad to take it. Okay? But when it comes to the things of the Lord, there's something that's worth standing for.

And that's exactly what Paul is doing. He's checking the stitches. He's in prison.

Philemon's out there. Onesimus has joined. He's been saved and changed.

Just check the stitches. That's again what's happening with John, Mark, and Paul. You know, that got testy, to put it in words.

But listen, before he lays his pen down, he says, bring John. Bring John, Mark. Bring him.

Bring Mark. He's profitable for the ministry. He adds to that too.

What's he doing? He is making sure that when he dies, there aren't loose stitches. Now listen, brethren. Oh, you say, I'm not your age yet.

You tell me you couldn't die tomorrow? Is there some loose stitches that you need to give some attention to in your relationship with fellow believers? Maybe not even in the same assembly. It's just worth pointing out. I mean, when it came to, I like what David says, that when it came to an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David.

In other words, there was a double weaving there that was just perfection. That's how we are to be viewed as believers. That's how the New Testament teaches it.

Is that how you feel in the assembly? Really? Your brethren could commend you happily any time? I don't mean to full-time work. I mean, just do anything. They'd be glad to do that.

Why? Because you've given your life to protect the harmony and the unity and the blessing of that local testimony, whatever aspect it might be. So there's a need to check the stitches personally. What about the family? Isn't that Ephesians chapter 5? Absolutely.

Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church. I speak to someone today and you want to know how your husband-to-be, I don't know if they're going together like this here in this large number this afternoon, take a look at how he treats his wife. That's how you'll be treated.

It searches us, doesn't it? Some of us get very careless at times, very indifferent. My way or whatever. So there's family stitches that have got to be checked.

Let's check them. You've got a daughter, a boy, not going the way you want them to go. I know that.

I know that. None of us here today haven't had somewhere along the line family breakdowns. But brethren and sisters, try your best.

Try your best to just minimize the pulling apart of that fabric of those stitches. So these women here in Exodus chapter 30, what's to say? They're wise-hearted. I don't want to put the gun totally on our sisters today.

We all owe a lot. We owe so much. Brethren, we don't understand how much we owe to our sisters who have done exactly what I'm talking about.

Isn't that why Paul is writing to the Philippians about Eutychus and Synthica? The whole assembly was watching it. What would take place? What would they do? What's Paul interested in? Not taking sides. He's interested in the fabric of that testimony being maintained.

Just go back to the pattern. That's Ephesians chapter 5 again. As Christ loved the church.

That's the perfect pattern. So let the husband love his wife. And then I want to speak of the fabric of the assembly.

That's really a big one. You know, it starts with the leaders. Starts with the leaders.

A divided oversight, brethren. I've never been an overseer. I couldn't do it.

Let's be honest with you. I couldn't take the guff. Okay? Put it plain.

You need a united oversight. You don't need the kind that a brother come up to me at a conference before the conferences were canceled in our part of the country, calling him by name. I've known him for a while.

He's a little older than I am. I said, how's it going? Well, he said, I said, I'll tell you. He says, it's three against one.

Three against one. And some of the ones that are against them, I'm sorry to say, are my relatives. Three against one.

How are we doing here? How are we doing in the assemblies represented? Well, he said, it's kind of even. It's two against two. No, no, no.

It's nice. That's why Paul appeals to the Acts chapter 20. Brings those Ephesian elders together and warns them that there's going to be men arising among them, among the oversight.

Not just the church level. Among you overseers. Speaking perverse things to draw away disciples unto them.

What are they going to do? Rip the fabric apart. Listen, there's some of us here today, younger people, and you put very little, let's be honest about it, put very little into assembly testimony in a very practical way. I appreciate what a brother said a few years ago now.

Usually if I say something that's five years ago, it was ten years ago. He said, you know, it just came to me. I'm sitting in this nice hall and I didn't drive a nail in it.

And he said, I didn't pour any concrete. He's not kind of appreciated. I thank the Lord for it.

You know what he said? I'm sorry it took me ten years to wake up. Good for him. Better late than never.

Brothers and sisters, we've come upon in on the good of the labors of others upon which we have bestowed no labor. But let's contribute. And I know I'm speaking to believers here that know exactly what I'm talking about.

You've done your best to maintain it. It's been your goal in life. That's what you want.

Not your betterment. Not your position. But to see that wonderful testimony preserved for the honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus and whatever it takes.

You might not know a lot about stitching. One of our boys married to one of your Iowa girls. I won't say more than that.

But he didn't want to go to school one day. He's about grade four or five. I said, why do you not want to go to school? His mother told me to talk to him.

Dad, he said, it's that stupid stitching, he says. And he goes like, I remember this. He goes like this.

He says, it's women's work. Oh, I said, that's so... So I said, well, I tried to think of the worst job I could give him at home. And they were just starting to attempt this.

It was painting steaks. I said, was you painting steaks? Yup, I'm painting steaks. He painted steaks.

Didn't go to his sewing class. I think it was two years ago. And I walked into their plant and he's down in the sewing pit instructing a lady how to sew.

Oh, I said, I told my neighbor, I said, where did you learn your sewing? He said, never mind. But the point is this. Listen, dear sisters, keep at it.

Keep at it. I talked to a young mother the other day, a young son the other day, and her mother kept, his mother kept patting his back to keep him cool because he was starting to lose it. Keep doing it.

Be an Abigail. Whatever it takes to cool a situation, nobody knows your husband better than you. Do it.

Do it for the sake of the fabric. Do it for the sake of the testimony. That's what these, it wasn't just anyone.

They were wise. They'd spend, notice, with their hands. Okay? It's not automated.

We live in the day of automation. It's not automated. It's hand-to-hand work.

And I would think at the end of the days those hands would give evidence of what they've been doing. And I love it to think of sisters that do things that they don't even think of doing. They've baked this, or they've made this, or they've gone and done this, or whatever it might be.

And what were they doing it for? All the women that were wise-hearted with their hands that brought that, which they had spun both blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen. There's a subject in that, but we're not going there. All the women, here's the secret, whose hearts stirred them up.

Okay? Their hands did it, but their hearts stirred them up in wisdom. And they spun goat's hair. Ah, that's sweet.

That's sweet. Nice to go into a testimony. It doesn't matter to me whether it's large or small or whatever it might be.

But you just go in and you can sense it. Okay? You can just sense it. There's something here that's sweet.

There's nobody trying to pull things apart here. You just don't have to move too far. You can easily find that out.

So, in conclusion, all I'm appealing to you to do, yes, I've come this far to make this appeal. Yes, this was on my heart before I left home. Time to check the stitches.

Personally, in the family and in the assembly, I will never be, you've heard it so many times from better men than I am, there will never be, you'll never be in the assembly which are not in your home. So God, give us grace and help. We seek to go forth from this conference with the ministry we've already been given, searching our hearts, remembering it's time to check the stitches.