# The Testimony of RCBC

November 3, 2025

Psalms 145. Psalms 145 in God’s Word. And it’ll be different this morning. I’ve never done this exact thing. Never. My wife suggested it. I said, I don’t know about that. And I prayed about it. The Lord said, my wife’s going to like this part. The Lord said, do what your wife said.

Hey, I’m no dummy. My mom didn’t raise any dumb boys besides my brothers.

I felt like the Lord said, go this way. So it’s going to be a little bit of a testimony about our church. We can’t get it all in there, but just maybe some highlights. I prayed about what God would have us cover. And I hope it will be an encouragement to you. Hope it will build your faith. And maybe you’re just facing something. The devil makes you feel like there’s nobody can get past that. God can do that. He can bring you past that thing. And I also want to just brag on the Lord for a bit about what he’s done. And I like it if you know where we came from. Sometimes if you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you’re going.

And it’s easier to get off track. So I want you to know, I believe God has given us a good foundation. And I think it’s good for us to kind of hear it sometimes. So we can, as God blesses, we can keep our foundation right, easier. And so for just a bit, we’ll talk about really the history of your church that you’re in this morning. And I like for you to know it, to know at least parts of it.

History of your church that you’re in this morning. We’re going to be in Psalm 145. We’re going to start verse number one. Let’s stand if you would please as we read God’s Word together. Psalm 145 and verse number one of God’s Word. The Bible says: “I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name forever and ever.”

“Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever.”

“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another and shall declare thy mighty acts.”

“I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts. And I will declare thy greatness. They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness.”

Jump down verse number 12: “To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.”

And would you pray that this would be a true just building of your faith and encouragement to you? Would you pray that? Let’s pray together for that. Lord, would you give me the right words, convey at least some of the great things you’ve done?

Thank you, Lord, your greatness, your power, your mercy. How many times, Lord, I’ve deserved your judgment and you’ve given mercy. And then you’ve showed your power through your grace. Lord, you gift me and empower me to magnify what you’ve done here. And Lord, I pray that you would encourage people, build their faith.

Lord, maybe a young person, you would light a fire in their heart to see you work in their life in a mighty way also. And Lord, well, thank you for what you do. Father, I’m asking for that in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

The Lord had planted in my and my wife’s heart to start a church. We knew God wanted us to start a church.

And we prayed. We were living in Indiana at the time, northwest Indiana. We prayed and prayed and prayed about where it was to be. And the plant that I worked at had a two-week shutdown. And so two weeks, vacation. And we decided to do what smart people do. When you live up north, we decided to go south to Florida. Somebody say amen right there. And my parents lived down there. We went and stayed with them.

And we have told the Lord, “Lord, during these two weeks, would you show us where to start a church at?” In fact, during that time, my wife and I prayed together more than any time in our life. Together, we just asked the Lord, “Where do you want us to start a church?” We didn’t know. We wondered all across the United States in our heart and our mind where to start a church at. We went to my parents’ house, stayed down there for two weeks, and I’d disappoint me nothing.

We left a little early thinking, well, maybe we’re going to go here. We stopped by some other cities on the way back. But driving through Nashville, 65 over there were 65 and Old Hickory Boulevard. You know, coming this way, it turns into Bell Road. But anybody you know 65 and Old Hickory, if you know that, raise your hand. Yeah. We were there, and my wife said, “How about Nashville?”

Well, us men always know better, right? A couple of you said, we’re brave enough to say amen right there. Brother Jedediah, you’re going to get it when you go home today. I heard that over there now, you know. And I said, “Oh, Tammy, there’s a Baptist church on every street corner in Nashville.” But, you know, you got to keep them happy.

He’s trying to make up for it, isn’t he, Miss Patty? He is now, you know, you tell it. So we got off 65 at Old Hickory Boulevard. There used to be a Shoney’s right there. I don’t think it’s there anymore. I don’t even know if there’s maybe a few Shoney’s left. I don’t know there’s any left. Anyway, there’s a Shoney’s. This shows how old I am or that was. It was about 27 years ago. We pulled in that Shoney’s and there was a pay phone inside there and I had a phone book. Yeah, Brother Matt back there laughing. Phone books about that was back in the day, you know. And we went in there and we pulled that phone book out and when you looked in the Yellow Pages, man, can you believe that, you know? And in the Yellow Pages we looked under the categories of churches, under the category of Baptist churches.

And like in every large city, you know, there was a list of a lot of Baptist churches. And I said, “See there, this isn’t it.” And so she was the wonderful wife that she is, even today when I’m giving a hard time when I get home, you know. And she said, “All right, all right,” you know. And so we hopped back in the vehicle, drove to a couple of Cincinnati, I think, eventually Indiana.

And God, we didn’t have any leadership. But in the meantime, computers were coming to a thing, the personal computers. And my wife went to a yard sale. Somebody say amen right there, you know. Save a lot of money there. And found a disc. Now, it wasn’t the floppy disk. It was a little bit better than that. It was a CD disc. And it was called Phone Books of America. We thought, “Wow.” It was before Al Gore had developed the Internet, you understand that, you know?

And so on this disk, we pulled up, you know, Phone Books of America, the Yellow Pages. And I started to look at all the major cities in America and how many Baptist churches. And I was shocked. Nashville had fewer—not what I thought, probably not what you think—but it had much fewer Baptist churches than just about any major city of the United States. And I was shocked.

And God began to turn my heart towards Nashville. We started to study about Nashville and read and try to find why that was. We were shocked about it. We decided to take a trip down to Nashville, so we went on—this is still around—we went on priceline.com, amen. Now, back in that day and time, you would say, “All right, I want a hotel in the Nashville area.”

And we blocked off maybe one or two areas that we thought weren’t good. We really didn’t know, but trying to study that, we thought, “Well, that doesn’t look like a good neighborhood.” But for the most part, all of Nashville. And the amazing thing is, Priceline back then, you’d put a price, it would select where you’re staying at. And out of all Nashville, we stayed on Old Hickory Boulevard right across from Shoney’s.

And I thought maybe there is something to this thing in Nashville. I don’t want to say it again. My wife is—I can’t say it, you know. Maybe she is right. And I went to, got some counsel about whatnot, and the preacher gave me good advice. He said, “I want you to prepare everything to move to Nashville. I want you to take trips down there. I want you to do everything, but don’t physically move. Give God 30 days to either confirm Nashville as it or to say that’s not it.” And it seemed like a thousand different little ways over the next 30 days, God kept saying Nashville, Nashville, Nashville. We were shocked.

Now, as far as the part of Nashville, we didn’t know. We were praying about it all, and we had no idea what part of Nashville. Were we the North part or Franklin or Brentwood or Adonels? We just all over. The only thing I can say about LaVergne, Smyrna: when we came, when we drove into LaVergne and Smyrna, my wife and I both grew up moving around. And our early years of marriage were moving around, but when we drove into LaVergne and Smyrna, we both at the same time said, “Man, we’re home.” Just a peace came. We’re like, “This is it. We’re home.” This is the part of Nashville right here. Both at the same time, had no doubt about it. We knew this was where we were at.

Now, about too much later, we loaded up like the Beverlys, moved to Beverly Hills, amen. And it was in the rocking chair with a shotgun up top, you know. But we had a U-Haul and pulling the car. My wife drove the minivan, and we headed down to Nashville and began looking. Now, this is significant. I think it’s very significant. On the way down, I was—you know, your preacher—I squeak when I walk because I don’t like to spend money.

Any about there? No, come on now. You’re the same way. If you’ve got a pity of your pocket, you are, you know. And so we couldn’t make it all the way down. I was trying to get all the way down. You know how it is. We’re leaving at such and such time. That never works, especially when you’ve got little kids and whatnot. And so we had to stop in Bowling Green. We stopped in a motel there, and the next morning we woke up, and the lady cleaning lady is coming around.

And we got to share the gospel with her. And she asked Jesus Christ to be your savior. And many ways, she’s the first person ever gets saved out of Rutherford County Baptist Church. And she’s the first one. By the way, God will take care of a soul-winning church, pray. He’ll take care of that. They’re doing the main thing. God blesses that.

Well, we move down here. But we were struggling to get started because we couldn’t find a meeting place. And sure, we could find it, but it cost, you know, megabucks. And I watched videos about robbing a bank, but I have positive identification—that would know me. I mean, you know, I thought about wearing a glove, but they’d see those fingers flopping. No, he’s made. That’s him, you know. So we didn’t have enough money. You know, we had support, but we…

So many, we couldn’t rent them. They were so expensive. And we tried schools; seemed like every school that would let it. Someone’s already meeting there. We tried union halls. We tried the seven-day advantage where they’re meeting on Saturday; we’ll meet on Sunday. We tried it all. Nothing.

And we were struggling. We moved down, everything’s down, and had some support. And, you know, they’re supporting us. We’ve got to start a church. And you can’t really print tracts because you don’t know where to put the address of the church on it. And you can’t invite people because you don’t know where to invite them to the location. And we were just struggling about that and didn’t know where to start the church.

And I never forget one day—I forgot some of this, but my wife and I were reminded about part of this—but one day I called a preacher, a good guy. He had wrote a book about how to start a church, and I was using that book. It’s very, very helpful. And I called him and said, “Hey, what do you think? We can’t find a meeting place. This is how much money we have,” and on and on. And he said, “Stop everything. He said, you need to go on deputation. You don’t have enough money. And you need to stop it all and raise some funds and then come back and start.” I thought, man, I…

We’ve got some funds. And what about God? I was battling. Yeah, I really was. Went to another preacher in there, a good man, but he said, “Don’t you start that church. You need to come to my church and be here for a while, and then a little bit later on, we’ll help you start that church out of this church.” And I thought, well, I’m already sent out of a church. And they gave us a green light to go start a church.

Well, my head was spinning. These are two older, good men. I thought, “Lord, do you want this?” You ever have opposition from Christians? Sometimes it can be hard. Just being honest with you. I was like, “Lord, is this you? If you don’t want us to, I’ll do whatever you want.”

And we went to South Haven Baptist Church, about an hour, hour and a half from here. I had a friend that was the assistant pastor there. He’s in heaven now, Brother Austin. And Brother Austin had told their pastor, “Well, this is Paul Chisgar. You’re going to start a church in the area.” So during song service, during the announcements, he said, “This is Paul and Tammy Chisgar. They’re going to start a church in the Nashville area.” It’s all he said.

And all this is going on—this guy says we don’t have near enough money, funds raised, and this other guy says, “Don’t do it.” One out of a thousand, I remember him saying, one out of a thousand just started church from scratch. And all that’s going through my head. And the preacher announced that. And then the next song, a man came to me—I mean, during the middle of song service—and he had a three or five. He said, “Hey, write your name and your address down, and I’ll support you $100 a month every month.” And it’s just a confirmation for the Lord.

Man, I’ll tell you what, man, the tears started flowing down these old cheeks. I mean, I’m battling this, and then God—isn’t God amazing at giving you what you need when you needed? I mean, just this gentle touch from the right person, he gives you what you need. And boy, I needed that. Man, to me, that was just God saying, “Paul, I got you. I’ve got people around you not of—we’ve got it all covered.” God just used that in a great way. By the way, he did support us for years. Good man. I got to know him a little bit, and he supported over 300 missionaries at one time himself. Very wealthy man, but he was working for the Lord. We were part of his team, and he wanted to make sure I was praying for his other missionaries. 300 are a lot to pray for, you know? And God gave us what we needed. He was so good to us.

Well, we still didn’t have a place to meet. We’re still struggling about where we’re going to meet at. We had been here maybe a month in the area at that time. And at that time, I was going out to Hurricane Creek. We lived in LaVergne. And how many of you know Hurricane Creek is a park, a boat ramp? I was going out there. There’s a little path in the woods. And I was going out there in the morning, just walking, praying. And I went out one morning and I was praying, “Lord, we’ve got to have a place to meet. You let us here start a church. You can’t start a church if you don’t have a building,” and on and on.

And you know how the Spirit of God can talk to you? Sometimes it’s a wonderful thing what he says. Sometimes it’s a little bit like you’ve got to swallow hard, you know. And this is what he said. He speaks through his Word, by the way. And he said this kind: “Cometh not forth by nothing but by prayer.” And what’s the next word?

I don’t like to hear that one out there: fasting. And I went back home. My wife, she says she’s cursed because she married a guy that likes breakfast, you know. She said yes over there. And she had breakfast ready to go. Amen. And I said, "Tammy, the Lord spoke to my heart.

And he said, ‘This kind cometh not forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.’ But since you have breakfast made for me, I’ll eat this, and you’ve got to fast." Amen.

It wasn’t like we did anything great for just a couple hours. My wife said, “I’ll do the same.” It wasn’t anything fancy, really, just a couple hours. That’s it. And I had rode down Murphysboro Road—really, literally, been here about a month, looking all over the—I’m sure, over a hundred times. But this time, that morning, after just an hour or so fast, that’s it, no big deal. We rode down. I rode down Murphysboro Road.

And I passed by a little—just, it’s kind of down in there. Nowadays, you had passed by the post office in LaVergne. Better than that, you would pass by—you can stop if you want to—pass by Dunkin’ Donuts in LaVergne. Somebody say amen right there. And right across the street, down in there, there’s a little building. At that time, it was called Little Angels Daycare. Now it’s a neon green real estate… little building. Anybody you know that brightest paint you ever saw in the world? I think it’s got batteries that power it or something. I mean, you know, just bright, you know, neon green. But it, anyway, I rode by there and I’ve never noticed it. It wasn’t bright green back then. It was white with red trim. But I passed by it and the Lord said, “Hey, you see that?”

I turned around, went back in there, or went there. Just a small little daycare. And there was a sweet lady there named Virginia. And I was sick and tired of trying to talk people into letting us meet there or lower the price and all. And I was just sick of that. And she greeted me at the door. She said, “Sir, can I help?” And I walked in there. And I said, “Ma’am, I’m a Baptist preacher. I’m going to start a church in this area, and I’m looking for a place to meet.” That’s all I said. And she said, “Well, we’re here Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. She says, besides that, it’s yours anytime you need it.” She never charged us a dime. We ended up paying her because it’s right to do, but she never charged us a dime. Good lady.

The honest, simple truth is, for it was so small. Yeah, some of you were in that building there. It was so small, the auditorium was probably from here to the front row to the wall there. I mean, that was maybe, maybe here, I don’t know, just super small. And we’d been back there. And just to look at the size, but very, very small. And so for a week, I argued with the Lord. I was saying, “Too small. Too small.”

You know us young preachers. Someone said they’re the biggest when they’re hatched like a bee, you know. I mean, we just have to, you know. But God knew when you’re running 18, 20 people, you don’t need a big place. And 18 or 20 looks pretty full in a little bitty auditorium, you know, and that’s what we needed. And after a week, God hit me over the head enough times. I said, “All right, that’s the spot. Thank you for giving it to it.” That’s where our church started at. That little bitty daycare God gave us after…

I wonder if you were to fast about that lost grandson, if God might hear. Sometimes this kind comes not forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting. It’s amazing right now, just a couple of hours, and God gave us our first meeting. That was our first location. We met there for about 10 months. We knocked on about 4,000 doors. We were running out of time, about three weeks.

In a little book I was using, a man had said, “Get you some good soft-soled shoes.” And I thought, man, I’m young. I don’t need all that. Shoes I got to work. They’re probably Goodwill shoes, but they’ll work, amen, you know. But sun—I mean, sun up to sundown, and even after that, we were going. And after my first day going all day long, door to door as quick as fast as you could, I said, “Let’s go to Walmart and get some good shoes,” amen. And had our first service there; had 41 in attendance. Half of them were from out of town. We had about 20. For the first months, we ran about 18, 20 people. It was exciting because it seemed full in that little bit of the auditorium. God knew what he was doing.

That very first Sunday church service is over. We’re out on the porch there, my wife and I, and a fellow pulls up in an SUV, and he gets out. When he gets out, you ever see somebody get out and stand up and up and up? And I’m like, “Wow,” you know. He’s out there, and he’s got a tank top on. You talk about muscles. I mean, kind of built kind of a little bit like your pastor. What about that, you know?

I don’t know why you’re laughing so much on now and there, you know. And he started talking to the people in the parking lot, and they kept pointing towards me. I thought, “Man, this is the first day pastoring and my last day living.” This is it, you know. And he came up, and he just walked up, and he pulled out of his pocket like a wad—a wad of $50 and $100 bills. You say, “How do you know?” Because, man, preachers keep the aisle and money. We know what’s going on.

I mean, just a lot of them. And he said this—don’t ever ask a Baptist preacher this; it’s a standard answer—he said, “Do you take contributions?” I’m a Baptist preacher. Of course. Hand the whole lot over, bud, you know. And he pulled a $50 bill out and just that quick he took off. I mean, it caught me off guard to the point, really, I said…

I pulled the tract out and kind of chased him down and gave it to him, and he was gone. I don’t know if this is true. The Bible just talked about entertaining angels unaware. My daughter asked me recently, she said, “Dad, you ever saw an angel?” I said, “I do.” She said, “When?” I said, “I think that big old man that gave us that picture. I think that was an angel.” I don’t know that. Nobody knows where it came from, where he went to. He’s just gone. I wish you’d come back and visit again. Amen. Give me that whole while this next time. But it was God confirming the guidance. I got the—your needs, it’s not dependent on this right here; it’s depending on that right there. By the way, if you’re going through financial hard times, hey, economy might be rough here and there and government shut down right here, but it’s not shut down up there, friends. God’s just kind of saying, “We got you.” I needed that. It’s amazing how God gives you what you need when you needed.

We were in that little bitty daycare for about 10 months. I don’t want to go too long, but I will, amen. But a couple pulled in driving a Corvette. Now, that didn’t happen when you’re a storefront a little bit. That don’t happen. And first of all, I noticed the Corvette. I said, “We need to pray that guy comes and joins. Let me borrow that vehicle there,” you know. And I’m kind of teasing, but they’re very wealthy. If I remember, I was 39 years old, somewhere alone there, just a picture of health, owned his own construction company, very, doing great financially, picture of health. And he came and…

Our little auditorium, it was just so small. There were two chairs over on the side by the door. We were running 20, something like that, but it was full. And they sat over there in that little section. And through the song service, I led the singing. Yeah, you should start crying right now when I say that.

And we had this country couple from Waverly, Tennessee. They pumped side and light into Waverly. You know what I’m talking about, Waverly? It’s out in the boondocks, you know, and they were from the country, best people in all the world, but he could not sing. I mean, he could sing, but when the Bible says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,” God wrote that verse for that man. It was noise. But he would sing out. And we were singing a song. He was so off tune. Brother Adam would have been plugging his ears out. It’s just amazing. Country and off, but he was singing out. And then it hit a high note, and I couldn’t sing a lick either, and my voice started cracking. I know. And it was just funny. And I couldn’t help it. I started cracking up. People are cracking up. And this couple, this wealthy couple in our little—they lost it. They’re like laughing. Some of the people were crying, they were laughing so hard about it. I really think that’s true. My wife was back in the back with a nursery and children’s church. She said, “I don’t know why.” We just started laughing around that same time. It’s just weird. But God got a hold of that couple’s heart. In the imitation time, that man got saved. Five months to the day, he dropped. It just boom—to the exact day, five months. But he’s in heaven.

I think the greatest miracle Sunday our church, in my opinion, ever had was our three-month anniversary. We were running 18 or 20, and it was our charter membership Sunday, and the 18 or 20 filled up our little place, but they kept coming. And we had about 30, and then 40, and about 50. I was like, “Wow, what are we going to do?”

It was just a miracle day. We had adults sitting in little kids’ chairs. I think some of them maybe in primary church. We had adults sitting in a little bitty kid chairs. We had adults standing in the hallway, a little bit of the hallway in the back of the auditorium. It was to the point with children—we didn’t have children’s church—and so the older children, this is the first pulpit we used, but the children were sitting on the floor all… I mean, I could just move a couple of feet, and that’s it. We ended up with 72 people in that little bitty thing. I’ve never seen a day like it. It wasn’t anything I did. Sarah was sick, so Tammy—Tammy…

So Tammy stayed home with Sarah. And honestly, from the beginning of that day, my mouth was just like, “Wow.” People got saved. It was just the Lord. It wasn’t a great message. Just God. I went home and began to tell Tammy, and Tammy says, “I wasn’t at a days than I was at a days.” I was just like, “Wow.” You hear these stories about people just, you can’t fit them all in there and they’re hanging out the doors. That’s the way it was. People standing in the corner everywhere, that just 72 people in that little bitty room packed out. And God doubled our attendance. It wasn’t huge, but we started running around 40.

And just a little bit later on, we moved down to the next building in LaVergne. How many know where the vape shop is in LaVergne? How do you know where that’s at? What are you doing going there? Brother Marlins pointing out his wife. Not fair. They turned it into a vape shop down there. But that was our second building. We were there for a couple years. And just trying to tell at least one story in each building.

But in that building, we were having Sunday Sunday. You know, everybody says, “We’ll come someday.” So this is Sunday Sunday. This is Sunday Sunday. It is it. You come on. And we went out of our flyers, whatnot, and we were really trying to focus on getting people saved. I remember some of our people fasted and prayed for their friends Jack and Linda to come and get saved. And it was just… and we had already said everything, the message, everything will be about salvation. We didn’t have Sunday school. I believe at that point in that building we started Sunday school, but Jack and Linda came. This other couple brought them in, fasting and praying for them to get saved, and Linda got saved. It took years for Jack. In fact, it was in this building before Jack got saved, but they both got saved.

But our focus was on getting people saved. But that day that we’re focused on getting people to save, a man named John Fontaine came first time ever. How many of you know John Fontaine? He became one of the just great, great pillars of our church. And Brother Fontaine had been saying, “I’m going to go to that church someday, that little storefront. I’m going to go there someday.” And he walked in and someone gave him that little pamphlet, “Someday Sunday Sunday Sunday.” And he said, “Wow, God’s in this thing.”

He always tells this story. There’s little metal poles, part of the, you know, holding the foundation of the building, holding it up, you know. And invitation time, he raised his hand. He had a metal watch on. He said, “I’ll never forget that. My watch hit that pole, and it clink,” you know. No carpet in that building. And let you know you win souls and God builds the church. He’s the foundation. Jesus saves upon this rock, “I will build my church.” Someone said, “You tell them how to go to heaven, and the Lord tells them how to go to your church.” One of the best men in our church ever had came on a day we weren’t trying to get people saved. God builds the church.

And from there, we went to our third building, just a little bigger each time, not huge, but a little bigger each time. And…

You know where Woodfin’s funeral home is in Smyrna? Right across the street, there’s a long retail down at the one end over there. There’s a tobacco store. And then the other end is a cell—I think it’s a cell phone place. Maybe it’s changed. I don’t know what it is now. But it used to be a… oh, what’s the… Subway, Subway.

And about 11 o’clock, they would start cooking that bread. Nobody was listening to me after 11 o’clock. “Let’s go eat,” you know. And we were there for a couple years, a little bit bigger in that building. And thought about it, just trying to tell one story from me, just what God’s done in spite of us.

But a young man came in that building, and I kind of forgot some of this. My wife said, “If I remember, he had a little bit longer hair, had an earring, whatnot.” And he came, said over here, and God got a hold of his heart from the beginning. And at the beginning of that service, it seemed like he cried from the first amen, opening to the closing, he just cried the whole time, young man.

But unfortunately, that first week he went home and did the same thing he always did, and that was he’d go to work. On the way home from work, he’d stop by the liquor store. He’d grab two bottles—I can’t remember if Jack Daniel’s or what—and he’d grab those two bottles. He’d go home, sit in his big chair, turn the TV on, had two dogs, and he would drink until his feet went numb. Fall asleep, wake up the next day and do the same thing. And cried all service long, but he did the same thing that week, but he came back one more time. And that next week, God worked in his heart again. And God just transformed the heart of that man. In fact, he’s in the ministry today, serving the Lord.

I remember one time he brought in two big old trash bags—I’m talking about, you know, not the kitchen ones, but the bigger, more, the bigger black ones, you know—and trash bags full of dirty movies and sorry, good for nothing music. By the way, the world, the devil’s music and the devil’s movies. And brought it all in and said, “Pastor, I want to get rid of all this.” And I said, “Good. My wife’s been needing something to listen to and watch that,” you know. The dumpster. We got rid of it. God changed his life. God was so good to do so many things.

We needed more room, praise us all to the Lord. We needed more room there. And the people would come and say, “Pastor, we got to have our own building. We need more room.” And I would say, “God’s going to provide. Just rest in the Lord, it’s all right. God’s going to provide.” Pastor, “We got to have something,” you know. God’s going to provide.

Then anybody would leave, and I’d get along with God and say, “God, we’ve got to have something now,” you know.

And we were looking at buying some land, Old Nashville Highway in LaVergne and Jefferson Pike. There’s a gas station now there. Little V there. There’s a creek behind the gas station. That’s why they not built more than a house. We were going to buy all that. But with a creek, we went to the city, and FEMA had a floodplain there. And the city said, “Well, we’re not going to guarantee you can build it there.” So, man, my hopes were crushed.

We had been saving money. We were planning on buying that. We knew the man who owned it. He was going to give us especially us a great deal. I mean, I had it all planned out, and all my cards fell flat. And I went back to the office at night storefront over there in Smyrna. And back in my office. In a week or two before, I’d been to revival in Murfreesboro, but I wasn’t preaching; I just went to revival. And I met a couple named Bill and Debbie Dillon. They went to Tennessee Temple. That’s where my dad had went to. We talked just one time; we met, had a great conversation. That was it.

And went back that same day the city turned us down from building over there. Everything falls apart in my mind. And Brother Dillon called. And he said, “Hey, I heard your church is looking for land in the building. How about you come over here to Bible Way and we’ll merge?”

It was maybe a couple months talking, but eventually in the summer of 2005, that’s how we got to this location. By the way, there were some wonderful Bible Way people. I see Ms.—if you’re from Bible Way—I know Miss Mickey. By the way, any other Bible Way people here this morning? Good. Back there, Katrina. Good. Good. Ms. Catherine passed. By the way, there’s Brother Ms. Dillard’s daughter right there. And others, the Gates were part of that and others. But God gave us some great people also out of it.

We moved over here and just a great, great thing God did that. And when we’re here for years and years, we’ve been in this location, God’s been so good. He enabled us to add on. If you look, you can see right here, see this thing in the ceiling going right across here, all that right there. It used to be the back of the church. We were able to expand it out about 40 feet and add on to it, whatnot. And God allowed us the parking lot, all these things. God did those things and cleared out some woods, whatnot.

There was one day, I just wanted to get away and probably be lazy a little bit and pray a little bit, you know, and I went down towards Henry Horton State Park. You know where that is? And maybe about halfway down there and just went. There was an old abandoned church building and then a hallway and a trailer there. And I went there just to get away and pray a bit. And that trailer had a sign, a real estate sign. I thought, well, we do need more classrooms. I wasn’t looking for more work. I was trying to be lazy and get away from work, amen, you know.

And I called that real estate agency. She said, “Let me talk to the owners.” She called back later on, and she said, “They’ll give you that building.” We just had Sunday school in that building, building, and they gave us that building. God did all that. I’m just saying, you got something, you just say, “No way?” Oh, there is a way by God. He’s the Waymaker. And he can provide. Someone said, “They got into rivers that seeming crossable, guiding the mountains you cannot tunnel through.” God specializes in things that seem impossible. He’s got a thousand ways to make a way for you.

He gave us that building and others and all. And on, just a couple more stories where we had done in school. God said, “Start a school.” Well, we couldn’t get past the Fire Marshal in Nashville. And we said we were going to start. We had students. I think we had five the first year. And one of them was Brother Donnie, Brother Donnie, Miss Debbie. How many know how big Brother Donnie is? You know, he’s…

Yeah, and it’s his grandson. You know how we like our grandsons, you know. He was signed up. But we could not get through the higher-ups. We had to get through them to get the local Fire Marshal. And we just… and yet you started praying. And, I mean, we just… we couldn’t even get to the local because we couldn’t get through the higher-ups. And so many regular—there’s no way we could do it. If I remember, it was… it was just maybe five days before school started. I had in the back of my head, “Brother Don is going to kill me because he’s got his son signed up and paid, registered to go to school, and his grandson can’t go to school.” And he’s a big fella, you know.

And Brother Frank and Miss Wanda were at Lowe’s. And they were in the garden section, going to get some plants and gardening and all that. And someone came up and said, “Hey, you look like good gardeners. Can you give me some advice about how to plant a gardening?” and on and on. And they began to talk to him. And Brother Frank looked over at that man, and he looked down at his jacket, and it said, “Fire Marshal” on it. In just a couple minutes, the Fire Marshal called me. Friend, how God can work. And he’s been so good.

And God started their school. I didn’t think we’d have a radio station for years. And Brother Bradley started, and we were going to have an online radio station. And every… once in a while, it’s always a 10 years, but it’s not a guarantee. Every 10 years there’s a chance they’ll open up a low-powered frequency in our area. We were going to start the online. Brother Bradley got the ball—it was all him getting the ball rolling. And just so happened around about that time, the FCC said, “We’re going to open up for applications of a low-powered FM radio station in your area.” Wow.

It cost—oh, I tried to look up the records—it cost, oh, $6, $7, $800, something of $1,000 just to apply. And nobody knew. And I said, “Well, I just can’t take the funds. It’s not my funds. The church is the fund.” We hadn’t voted on it. What we’re going to do? And about that time, someone that used to go to our church, they live a couple hours away, sent a check for $800 and a note saying, “Pastor, wherever is needed, wherever you want us to go to a special, wherever you think it’s needed.” So I called them. Said, “Would you mind?” And they said, “No, that’s great. We’re designating it to that.” But I’m just saying we needed the money for it. God boom, a couple of hours away, sent it in. Friend, God’s got—that’s why he says, “Call unto me, and I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not.” We don’t know about them, but God knows about them. And we have a radio station.

I’m just saying all those things, God, God. You’ve got time for one more story? If you’re going too long, get mad at them. They’re the ones that said amen. It’s their fault.

The greatest miracle of anything is someone getting saved. Going from hell to heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ paying for their sins. There was a lady coming, Linda. Good, good lady. I won’t say her last name, but Linda. People had—and she had been praying for her husband to be saved for 30 years, over 30 years. There have been times along that she would go to church and her husband would threaten to cut her tires, flatten her tires. But she loved the Lord. And that’s the way she was handling. He’d run off preachers.

One Sunday morning she came down to the altar. I mean, I have 56 years old. I was in church nine months before I was born. I’ve never heard her say anything like it. She laid out on the altar. I’m just… and was weeping and wailing. I mean, not just a little boo-hoo, you know, it was like weeping. You could hear a cross. I remember men standing back here and grown men just crying because this lady’s just weeping out loud, uncontrollable. It’s amazing.

And her husband got small cell lung cancer. If you know anything, you know how bad small cell lung cancer is. I’ve never seen our church bond together quite as much as at this moment, just this time period. I mean, just bond together in prayer for him to get saved. His name was Chuck. I remember people—not just one, but many people—came in.

“Pastor, he’s on my mind all day. I can’t stop thinking about him. I pray for him all the time.” I remember people saying, “In the middle of the night, I roll over and I wake up, and I’m praying for Chuck.” Even in my sleep. It’s just like all the time. And our people never seen it like that, but our people are just amazing. I mean, they’re just going to the throne of grace, saying, “You’ve got to do something.”

I tried to witness to Chuck. He wouldn’t get saved. And Linda—he wouldn’t get saved. But our people are just praying, just bombarding continually. It reminds me of Acts 12, the church for Peter. And at one night, in the middle of the night, Linda woke up. God woke her up. And she’s laid in her bed, and she rolled over in time to see her husband, Chuck, on his knees, in the middle of the night, asking Jesus Christ to be a savior. He came to church. My wife and I both said we’ve never seen anybody’s countenance change as much as his. It was just a mean, grouchy, hard man to a loving man. It’s like, “Wow.” Totally different. He’s in heaven now.

Friend, you got a lost loved one. Don’t give up praying for them. You got a neighbor not saved. Don’t say they can’t get saved. You say they’re hard. He was one of the hardest, 30 years. Yet God did it. It’s always God that does it.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Heads bowed, eyes are closed. You know, God’s a God, not a respecter of persons. He’s a mighty God. He can work in your life. His hand is not shortened that it cannot save. His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear. Oh, He’s a mighty God. He’s a mighty God. I’m going to ask this morning, would you just believe in Him? Trust in Him. Maybe get back into your prayer closet believing it. Maybe there’s a circumstance in your life. Oh, don’t get discouraged. He can bring you through that. He’s a mighty, mighty God. Let’s believe in Him today. Would you stand? We’re going to have a word of prayer. You come spend some time with Him. However He leads you, you do business with Him. You do that.

Father, thank you. You’re so mighty. Lord, thank you. You put up with me all these years. Lord, I don’t want to act like it’s me. I’ve messed up a million times. You’re just a wonderful God. You’re powerful. Thank you. You take us messed up, broken-down people, and you use us. You reveal your plan. You help others through it. People saved. Lord, would you encourage your people through the things that you’ve did? Would you encourage this morning through it? Lord, build our faith. Help us to draw an eye to you during this time. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Would you come to spend some time with Him? Draw an eye to Him. What’s going on in your life? He can work. You’ve got sin you can’t overcome. He can help you overcome it. I can name man after man used to drink, not drinking anymore. Not me, it’s God. God’s not…

Remember a lady coming one time saying, “Pastor, I was an immoral lady. God’s changed me. I’m a clean lady now.” It’s a mighty God. Pour your heart out to Him. Spend some time with Him right now. Pray about that lost loved one, that grandchild. Pray for their salvation. If you’re there and you’re not sure you’re going to heaven, today’s a great—it’s the best day for you to get saved today. Don’t wait till tomorrow. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” Today’s the day of salvation. Get saved today. If you’re not saved, would you come down an old-fashioned way? Just look up at me. I don’t know. I’ll get someone to deal with you. You need to get saved. We’d love to be a help. We want to be a help. That’s what it’s all about: people get saved.

Finances, God, He’s Jehovah Jireh; He is our Provider. Help to Jehovah Rapha; He’s our Healer. Rest in Him this morning. Praise Him this morning. Love on Him. Thank you for letting me share with you just a little bit of our history of our church. I hope it did just encourage and build your faith.

We got Ms. Dot. Miss Dot, can I get you to stand up here just for a minute? I’ll tell you what, I’ll come down here with you. This is Miss Dodd and Brother Johnny’s mom. And I won’t think you mind. Eighty-eight? She’s 88 years young. Well, about that. And she’s been saved, been baptized by immersion, and she wants to come be a member of Rutherford County Baptist Church. And amen for that. Thank you.

Just a sweet, sweet… Brother Johnny, can I get you come down and stand with your mom? That’d be great. And she’s got some great stories. And I love just to hear stories. And just a godly lady. And she’s asked she’d be a member, but she’s got three children, five grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

Yeah. And I want you to pray for her family. She wants that. And just a dear, dear lady. I got to tell one more thing about her to show you how good a lady. She brought some Dr. Pepper Pork and Beans. Come on now. You have to check that out. You have to ask her where to buy them. But yeah, sure not, but I can. What about that? That’s uptown for sure. And we’re glad. You’ve already clapped when we said she wants me a member. And if you’re for her being a member, would you say amen? Amen. Good deal. We’re excited about just a dear, dear saint of God. And the praise Lord for Brother Johnny and Ms. Kelly, they’re just a blessing. Faithful, a great spirit. I appreciate it so very, very much. Let’s come by, welcome this Dr. Church. We’ll pray and be dismissed. Come by. I’m not sure which way it is. We’ll go this way. All right. We’ll go this way. That way we don’t have a roadblock right there. And so glad to have Ms. Dot as a member of our church. What a blessing that is. Brother Paul Scribner back there, would you mind dismissing us in a word of prayer? Would you please, sir?

Original File: 2025-11-03 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂The testimony of RCBC＂ - Sunday AM 11⧸2⧸2025