Division and deception are tools of hell to hinder the work of God. Let us beware of subjective ways and personality associations that are built on rapport that is superficial and carnal. The Word and anointing of God draws us together. (Psalm 133, 1 Corinthians 14:32-33)

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon 11791
6:30 PM on 11/24/2019

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P. Schaller –

Just a few words to set up our service tonight for our theme and subject. 1 Corinthians 14, I saw a photo of the folks
from Federal Hill in Tennessee. A huge group and a lot of smiles and sunshine. Good to see.
You’re going to work on this subject and many of you old veterans, old dinosaurs in the ministry
know the subject. Party spirits. What is a party spirit? Have you had that? Have you been in a
group where there is a party spirit? Have you seen a party of Christians in the flesh operating in
a party spirit? All the air just left the room.

1 Corinthians 14:32, you going to have to do a little work on this. This is just a warmup and by God’s grace we’ll give the message. Make a group of a few people or the person next to you. Do you know what he is talking about? What is a party spirit? What does it mean to be sentimental with a group of people and it becomes more important
than God and truth. The wound and the hurt and personalities involved has a lot of energy and
people are thinking and feeling and connecting but when it comes to God and the Holy Spirit,
the party spirit has more power than the mind of God.

I’m not speaking of this because it’s a problem in the church. Contrary, we don’t have it. The turkey dinner was great today…thank you Scotty Dubay, Harold Bogardus, Bobbie Barinski, Kathy Ryan and a whole team of people.
Great job! That wasn’t a party spirit that did that. And it was simple. It’s not complicated. I
don’t feel people are fighting or thinking why does he? The parking lot and ovens and turkey
and this isn’t fair and that’s not right and many other things that happen with people. We are
the most complicated things on the earth and the most dangerous. We can mess up churches
and families.

Has it ever happened to you? Have you ever seen a church ripped apart by party
spirits? Enough said about that from my point of view. Look at this verse. 1 Cor 14:32 we are
subject to each other, to God and Jesus said if a tree is good, it will bear good fruit. I would say
that turkey dinner is one expression of good fruit. When it’s done without complication or
accusation and people are sitting in the parking lot fuming and cussing. When that doesn’t
happen and the Spirit of God leads us in love and faith and simplicity, that’s a good church.
That’s the Spirit of God and the grace of God.

Have you ever had the other? Be quiet if you don’t have anything good to say. How many of you when you read the Bible, you know where it is in the chapter, but you don’t know exactly. I want to say the turkey dinner was awesome. Did I already say that? You guys are looking at me like you’re worried! Moses returns from a
mountain and in Exodus. 32:25 when he saw they were naked – there are leaders that will say I don’t
see anything. Don’t bother me. I don’t want to get involved. It’s a conflict. Maybe that’s the way
things are changing. They can be naked. This is the nature of the ministry we can never lose.
That we see it from God’s point of view.

I don’t care what our culture is saying. Moses is saying no, it can’t happen. You and I are to be Spirit-filled and that means we will be different. If you can’t stomach that, your fall back will be a party spirit. Your fall back is just carnality and there is no God in your life. Yes, you are saved. We hope so. You are, but if you can’t stomach the
battle. Oh, their nakedness. We have been having a party for many hours now. Moses, move
along. Go back up on your mountain. Let’s all go home if we are not seeking God here. I’m not
into playing games.

That’s a good point. Vs. 25-26. Who is on the Lord’s side? He didn’t say who
is on my side. He said who is on the Lord’s side? I’m not following Moses’ charismatic
personality. If he’s on the Lord’s side, I’m with him. This isn’t a party spirit. This is the Holy Spirit. Vs. 26-27. This is very severe. There is a sword between us. When P. Stevens in October
2003 asked P. Scibelli and I to be elders, he wanted to add us to the elder board. We went up to
his house. He asked us to do that. He said I’ll be back in a month. He said to me preach the first
two weeks and P. Scibelli the next two weeks.

We were looking for God. We became friends in the Lord. Of course, we were already. Just like we all are. We all are in the spirit. There is no personality rapport. We have a sword hopefully. I want to have a sword in my life. I want a
renewed mind. When it comes to P. Scibelli and I, I don’t want to have any personality rapport.
I want to have spiritual life and fellowship. If he is wrong, he could be corrected. And if I’m
wrong, I can be corrected. And if you’re wrong you could be corrected. And if I’m wrong, you
could correct me. Because we are subject to each other, and we’re looking for God. It means a
sword regarding our flesh. P. Stevens wrote in a devotional thought: Is that right, Jen? Is this a
devotional thought from his book? “The first hindrance against unity in the Body is the
influence of party spirits.

Party spirits reveal the influence of personalities instead of the person
of the Holy Spirit Evidence by cliques. These spirits hinder unity in the body. In the early church, Paul
reproved the Corinthians. Party spirits have outward conditional unity based on sympathetic,
sentimental relationship. There are people that don’t want to be with others unless they feel
their same wound sentiment and have the same understanding. These sympathetic feelings of
understanding people that are hurt.

We say to these people that we love them and understand
that because we have all been in that category. I feel a little bit afraid of being in a group of
people. I may be taken advantage of. I may be hurt, feeling afraid of being rejected. We are
saying to all the people of the world today that so often when you are born of God and start to
eat at the table and God feeds your new man and you start to understand I have a life and this
life is a new one.

I can actually afford to be vulnerable because my internal identity and my
sense of who I really am is healthy. I’m not a hurting person. I’m actually a minister. To go from
a person who turns inward and feels offended that people don’t understand them and to
become a minister to minister to others. But party spirits are different. They have outward
conditional unity based on sympathetic, sentimental relationship. This is superficial unity. Of
course they can get together and all feel one another’s pain and understand how they are
feeling and how they are wounded and how unfair it is. They can all talk about it and all
congregate in a party.”

Let me make a point here. We have Grief Share with P. Tom Sliva. He
does a great job. People are hurt because they lost a loved one. They need to come together
according to however they want to do this. It’s up to them. But grief is something different
from what this is referring to. This is a pain and a feeling of inferiority or even contrarily pride
and superiority and both are wrong. I’m inferior. I’m superior. The superior people can get
together and the inferior people can get together.

This contradicts what happens in the Body. One other part here: “Guarding against disunity. Satan is constantly doing everything in his power to divide the unity among members in the Body. First he tries to divide hearts and then
he tries to divide the mind. He knows if a man has two masters or is double minded, he will be
unstable in all his ways. The second major hindrance to unity is the person in the Body of Christ
is personality appreciation or personality rapport in relationships rather than Christ centered
doctrinal rapport.” Let me explain that. There is a brother.

He’s not particularly outgoing but he’s humble. He doesn’t talk much but he’s wise. He’s not a strong leader, but he’s very persuaded in his heart as to what he believes. Maybe he tends to be timid and shy and
withdraw but he doesn’t. He lives by faith. That brother, you can discern his spirit. He has the
Spirit of God. That brother is a blessing and you can see that. This is a beautiful thing in the
Body of Christ. We are not professional people. We don’t climb the ladder. We’re not looking
for positions. We are people looking for God and to be filled with the Spirit and to be led by the
Spirit.

And many times these amazing servants of God who are spiritual become the whole
thing. They edify in the Body. They are quietly serving. I said to someone recently what is it you
like about? I love being here. They said these people. They used different words. I can’t
remember exactly but I knew what they meant. These people are so awesome. They are sweet,
humble, serving, available, kind, and faithful people. It is like that. It’s beautiful. Psalm. 133, then
the personality rapport. I like him. You should hear Apollos. Man, his language. He is so
articulate. No, you should hear Cephas when he preaches.

No, my favorite is Timothy. Amazing! Fine. The Corinthians had this thing and they would talk. In Finland, we had maybe seven different overseeing pastors in Helsinki. Mika and Samantha are here from that church. So good
to have them here for a few days. I was a pastor, P. Morrison. Matti, I might be missing
someone…the last change P. Huya said I’m retiring in January and one year I’ll let you know
ahead of time. And he isn’t retired. He moved to a smaller city and he’s pastoring and loving
people and he’s active so in one way he hasn’t retired.

But he did from the church in Helsinki.
We said to the church pray about who your new pastor will be but don’t talk to each other
about it. Seek God. That’s a great word. I’m going to pray to God. God, who do you want the
pastor to be for the church? I’m not going to make a group. We have our guy, rah rah and we
have another group over here. Don’t talk about it. When you go to God you don’t have to talk
about it. You don’t go to each other. You’re quiet. You pray about it. You ask God to give who
he wants, and he did it. P. Risto is the pastor. Isn’t that beautiful. That makes a lot of sense to
me. In politics, in our church, we don’t talk about it.

I try not to. It’s hard not to, to be honest. Some of it is so obvious. But if it’s obvious, it doesn’t need to be talked about. You know, ungodliness, unrighteousness and so on. Why? I would like everyone to come here and hear
about God and not be offended. Because we don’t have, we’re not representing a political
party. We are making the effort that Jesus Christ would be seen and heard and God can take.
care of people with regard to how they vote. They stand before God as to how they think and
feel and live, like we all do. In many ways that’s all private. It is. You have privacy. People are
not in your business.

That’s also a great point. God has promised us to fill us with his Spirit so we could know who Jesus is. When we know who Jesus we is love Jesus. And when we love Jesus, we love the book. We are loving each other, and we have this amazing spirit that we drink, the Spirit of God and not a personality rapport. Another little point. I feel this all relates. I’m happy to speak about it. It’s beautiful. When we were living in Hungary, I said to the
Hungarians something I can’t say so easily here. It’s this. I am here but I’m also leaving. I’m
going but I’m here. I’m a pastor that says hello and also a pastor that says goodbye.

When I say goodbye, I expect you to be mature people and get over it. And you receive whatever God is
giving to this local congregation whether I am part of it or not here and someone else is here.You are to discern the spirits. You are to recognize when the Spirit of God is leading and
speaking to us. We recognize that because we are a spiritual group of people. In our previous
pastorate with Dr. Stevens when he was gone, people couldn’t process that. Why not? He’s my
pastor.

Yeah, but aren’t you following God? Don’t you have God? Isn’t the Holy Spirit showing
us who Jesus is? Are you following God? Are you able to live through difficult times? Are you
able to be Spirit filled? Is there some party spirit that divides and sows discord? Yeah, that
happens. Doctrinal rapport. What does that mean? I love P. Steve. I love all these guys over
here on my right. I love all the GG pastors at Convention. The only way we survive is doctrinal
rapport. It’s not personality. I only hang out with P. Steve.

He’s my buddy cuz I feel warm and fuzzy. He’s the guy. He loves me. He will never say anything to me that will offend me. Really? The cross is the basis of our relationships. The cross means you can’t offend me. You actually
can but I have to get over it by taking up the cross. I have to process what you are saying.
Maybe what you are saying is true and my flesh is reacting. I stay away from you because I
don’t like it. That’s not maturity. That’s not spirituality. That’s not edifying. We are the Body of
Christ that should take a rebuke.

We are the Body of Christ that should be built up in truth. We
are the Body of Christ that does not have personality rapport. I don’t care who you are or who I
am. I mean, that’s the principle. In reality, I do get hurt and do care but on the other hand like
so what. It’s not about you and me. Is it? It’s not about you and me. It’s about something
greater, isn’t it? That’s why we have assembled. That’s how we live and grow. The maturity is
possible that we would live many years feeding and drinking the Spirit of God and being
reproved and corrected.

One of the Finnish people were talking to me today. There is a contest
in Finland with a Finnish politician who is a Christian. There was the gay pride in Finland. This is
general information, but you can find it out by googling it and reading about it if you want to. I
want to say just the little knowledge I have. Gay pride. The Lutheran church is for the gay pride.
The bishops and the people there. They are embracing it and for the homosexual thing. This
Finnish politician in her speech at the gay pride, I think it was at that event, she read from Rom.
1. And she got in a lot of trouble for it.

Now there is a court case about hate speech and what she has done. She did something the bishops couldn’t do. She just read the Bible. Now she’s in trouble. On the other hand, the country is divided. Of course it is. Homosexuality is a sin like adultery and lying and gossiping and many other sins in the Bible. “You offended me.” It’s like whatever. Of course I did. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m not looking to provoke people or
offend them in that sense. Love cares about people. We care about people. We are not hateful.
The best way to care about people is be Spirit-filled.

I’m not looking for a fight. Marijuana. Smoking marijuana. I don’t speak about it often, but every once in a while. Or alcohol, every once in a while. I don’t see any good in it. Many successful people don’t touch it. Jewish people
generally don’t drink. It’s not useful. You get in trouble when you drink by how you talk and car
accidents and many other things, and besides, it cost a lot of money. Okay. So leave me alone. I
don’t drink. Why are you so sensitive about the thing. Sin is sin. You got a problem with that so
take it up with God. I’m saying it from God.

That’s interesting because the world wants us to conform to the world. Be not conformed to the world but be transformed with a spiritual mind. And a spiritual mind. I’ll know Steve Andrulonis. Almost I don’t even see him, but I know him.He has the same spirit. I don’t even see him. One time I met P. Satellite in China many years ago
when Jeff and Nancy where living in China. I met him 22 years later and we’re the same. It’s like
I was with him five minutes ago. I don’t even see him, but I see him. That’s the Spirit of God.
That’s in the body. That’s our fellowship.

We pray for each other and I just happen to be the guy in the pulpit tonight and I’m able to say the things that you know resonate in your spirit and in your heart because you have a renewed mind. That renewed mind is the Lord’s mind. Be careful of this. One last thing in this devotional booklet. The third major hindrance to godly
unity is subjectivity Many Christians are plagued with subjectivity in their frame of reference. It
happens when an individual voluntarily allows the unknown and invisible impressions from the
psychological environment to overtake his emotions rather than depend on the divine standard
of objective truth.”

That has happened to me. I find myself very emotional and that’s an indicator to me that I need to kind of quiet down and draw near to God and say God, I don’t know why but I’m emotional. I’m sad or I’m emotional or I’m worried or I’m afraid. I know about it. I’m a human being like all of us. There are times maybe it’s just not right. In my heart, I
can quiet down and seek him in simple prayer and say God, help me. Teach me. I might read a
psalm or quiet down or focus or concentrate or be quiet and not talk. If you are talking out of
your subjectivity, you may be energizing the emotion.

You may be provoking the subjectivity and provoking the emotion and you get more and more disturbed by the things bothering you. When you make a complaint, it might be the power, the thing that you say in your complaint. I
don’t mind you make your suggestions and talk but do it in the Spirit of God. Do it with a
renewed mind. A lot happens with a renewed mind and how we are able to talk to somebody.
Yesterday, I was with the Bible college students in Washington, D.C. and I had to make a phone
call. I wasn’t in a good state of mind to make the call. It was bothering me. I needed to make a
call. I couldn’t. I said, no.

I said it’s not good for me to call right now. I can’t do it. I’m too
emotional. I can’t make that call. I put it aside. Isn’t that interesting? Sending an email. Save it
in your drafts. Put it aside and do not send it and wait and pray about it. Have a renewed mind
and look at it again and think about it again. Too much talking. Too much reaction. Too much
emotion. Too much subjectivity and because I get upset now I produce that kind of thing in my
own heart and I might find other people that agree with me.

That’s not a bad thing. It could be a good thing, but I’m just trying to cover the whole subject and think about it and help us understand it. I hope that’s happening. Lastly in Psalm 133:1, when we dwell in unity, it is so
beautiful. We can feel it. We can feel the simplicity of it, the beauty of it, the presence of God in
that unity. We are blessed people. There God has commanded a blessing. He commanded a
blessing. Why? I got my life before God and I found love in the Body and the unity. There God
said, you folks have the renewed mind, and this is my nature and I’m commanded a blessing
there.

I don’t think I ever went through anything more terrible than a church split. I never saw
anything like that, never in my whole Christian life I never say anything more terrible than a
church split based on personalities. By the way, I’m a pastor and the spirit of the prophet is
subject to the prophets. I’m trusting my elders and the Body of Christ to help me and we would
walk right on and live because this is a huge thing that God has entrusted us with. It is not a
personality rapport. It’s not a charismatic thing.

A lot of subjectivity or emotion. It’s rock solid and mind renewed with God’s love and peace and spirit. And there he has commanded a blessing. When he says I bless you, you are blessed and that is real. When we are blessed, we
are blessed. It takes a personal cross and wisdom and humility and trust and faith. When you
see something else start happening, it may happen one day, just get really wise and walk before
God. We are not there, praise God! But we are only a little ways away from it to be honest. I
would never think out there in that parking lot there would be such hatred, emotion, violent
speech.

Some carnal expression. I’d never think that can happen by Spirit-filled people. It
cannot. But it happens. It grew and developed by carnality. That’s not going to happen in our
watch hopefully by God’s grace and it didn’t happen with Pastor Stevens until the end. And at
the end it was crazy, and we know that. We’re not talking about it. We go years without saying
anything about it. I don’t care about it. It’s over and gone. But it’s a good lesson and great
warning.

There are by God’s grace there is not any of that party spirits but if we are Spirit-filled
and loving, then we are going to be, we’re good. I’m not saying it because I expect to be leaving
here either. I’m just saying. One day maybe we’ll pull the tape out. We’ll go remember he said
that? him. Remember him? Remember what he looked like. I can’t even remember him. Okay.
Welcome P. Steve. Praise the Lord! And God bless you.

 

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