Summer of the Parables Part 4 - June 7, 2026

good morning to you brothers and sisters my name is david rice i'm the brother of calvary's pastor thank you you shouldn't be that impressed that i know my own name but i'll take it I'm the brother of our senior pastor, Dr. Willie Rice, who is this morning preaching over at the First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach in preparation for this week's meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention.

And I hope you'll be praying for him because the Lord has placed an awful lot upon his shoulders.

You may not be familiar with this, but the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination of Christians that has ever existed in the history of the world.

with 47,000 churches in the United States and more than 12 million members between them.

If that number doesn't sound impressive to you, let me put it in perspective.

If you add up the total number of Subway restaurants, I'm not done yet.

The total number of Subway restaurants, McDonald's restaurants, and Starbucks restaurants, all of them together, it's less than 47,000.

There are more Baptist churches in America than there are all three of those chains put together.

Almost all of them own property, have a group of people.

Sometimes it's a very small group of people.

Our church is unusually large for a Baptist church.

Most are much smaller than this.

But imagine what God could do.

with 47,000 pulpits on fire with the gospel of Jesus Christ and 47,000 churches led by spirit-filled pastors calling our people to holiness and repentance and a bold witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know all of us in these days are worried about the future of our great and beloved country and the extreme divisiveness that has settled in between our people.

And I'm telling you right now, the only possible way out is a spiritual revival that will come from the pulpits and the churches.

There is nothing else that will solve our dilemma.

So let's pray for our pastor.

I'm going to pray in just a minute and pray that the Lord will bless the preaching of his word.

And we'll pray for Pastor Willie, and I hope you'll be praying for him this week that God's will will be done in this matter and that Jesus will be glorified through all that we do.

So let's join our hearts together right now, if you would, and let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for the unique privilege that we have to be called out of this world and gathered together as a church.

With your Holy Spirit here amongst us and your sacred word open before us, I pray, Lord, let your spirit fall upon us.

Speak to your people.

Through the fog and confusion and distraction of the world, let these next few minutes be Be a sacred place where you deal with your people.

And we do pray for our pastor, Lord.

I pray that you'd grant him victory on Tuesday.

I pray that you would anoint him with your spirit on Monday as he preaches to more than 20,000 people assembled, not to mention those watching online.

with a prophetic word for the future of our convention of churches.

I pray you'd grant him victory if that is your will on Tuesday and that you will use him to accomplish your glory and the preaching of your word all around the country and all around the world.

We pray this in Jesus' name and all God's people said.

good morning to you brothers and sisters my name is david rice i'm the brother of calvary's pastor thank you you shouldn't be that impressed that i know my own name but i'll take it I'm the brother of our senior pastor, Dr. Willie Rice, who is this morning preaching over at the First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach in preparation for this week's meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention.

And I hope you'll be praying for him because the Lord has placed an awful lot upon his shoulders.

You may not be familiar with this, but the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination of Christians that has ever existed in the history of the world.

with 47,000 churches in the United States and more than 12 million members between them.

If that number doesn't sound impressive to you, let me put it in perspective.

If you add up the total number of Subway restaurants, I'm not done yet.

The total number of Subway restaurants, McDonald's restaurants, and Starbucks restaurants, all of them together, it's less than 47,000.

There are more Baptist churches in America than there are all three of those chains put together.

Almost all of them own property, have a group of people.

Sometimes it's a very small group of people.

Our church is unusually large for a Baptist church.

Most are much smaller than this.

But imagine what God could do.

with 47,000 pulpits on fire with the gospel of Jesus Christ and 47,000 churches led by spirit-filled pastors calling our people to holiness and repentance and a bold witness for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I know all of us in these days are worried about the future of our great and beloved country and the extreme divisiveness that has settled in between our people.

And I'm telling you right now, the only possible way out is a spiritual revival that will come from the pulpits and the churches.

There is nothing else that will solve our dilemma.

So let's pray for our pastor.

I'm going to pray in just a minute and pray that the Lord will bless the preaching of his word.

And we'll pray for Pastor Willie, and I hope you'll be praying for him this week that God's will will be done in this matter and that Jesus will be glorified through all that we do.

So let's join our hearts together right now, if you would, and let's pray.

Father, I thank you so much for the unique privilege that we have to be called out of this world and gathered together as a church.

With your Holy Spirit here amongst us and your sacred word open before us, I pray, Lord, let your spirit fall upon us.

Speak to your people.

Through the fog and confusion and distraction of the world, let these next few minutes be Be a sacred place where you deal with your people.

And we do pray for our pastor, Lord.

I pray that you'd grant him victory on Tuesday.

I pray that you would anoint him with your spirit on Monday as he preaches to more than 20,000 people assembled, not to mention those watching online.

with a prophetic word for the future of our convention of churches.

I pray you'd grant him victory if that is your will on Tuesday and that you will use him to accomplish your glory and the preaching of your word all around the country and all around the world.

We pray this in Jesus' name and all God's people said.