"A Blessing And A Curse"

And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15). But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: (Deut 28:1-2,15). In this message I do not speak about God I speak for God. I am sure that what I have to say will not set well with the "user friendly, secret sensitive, purpose driven," but what I say must be said. The hour is too late and the need too great for the man of God' to hold his peace. There is blood on the hands of the 21St century Church; it is the blood of the unreached perishing millions. Two thousand years ago Christ gave the Church the assignment to disciple the nations, today two thousand years later there are over two thousand million souls who have not heard the name of Jesus. These perishing billions are seldom mentioned or thought about in most churches. There is little prayer for missions, and only one cent of every one hundred dollars given to religion goes to missions, yet more than fifty thousand perish without Christ every day. How God must weep over our incredible apathy. The Holy Spirit deals with our heart and in that moment of conviction we beg forgiveness for neglecting these perishing millions. We sometime enter into a solemn covenant to reach these people what ever the cost. In those times we commit ourselves to develop a simple lifestyle, and to sacrifice in order to reach this goal. Months and years later we look back and see it was just words. We have not sacrificed at all; we changed our lifestyle we made it more luxurious. In this age of broad mindedness it is a light thing for the Church and the individual to disregard a covenant with the Almighty God. The church for the most part does not teach or understand the fear of God. Not everyone is guilty there are those who have diligently worked and sacrificed to reach the unreached. But for the most part the church has only trifled with the command to disciple the nations. When confronted with her rebellion in this matter of the "great commission" many will say, "what harm has been done?" Don't we know that among the unreached billions thousands die everyday? Precious souls, for whom Christ died, brutally murdered by Satan's forces with none to deliver them. It seems that even as I write I can hear God say, " while my complacent sons and daughters waste their time and resources on things that have no eternal value millions fall into hell forever." What harm is done? While a selfish Church listens to stirring choirs and church performances in their air conditioned buildings millions are dragged into eternal darkness. God takes no pleasure in much of our activities for the screams of the helpless perishing drown out the sound of our merrymaking. In the last two decades two hundred and fifty million souls have been mercilessly butchered by the adversary, their blood is dripping from our hands. You can hear the response of the modern Laodicean Church, "but surely we are not responsible?" God's answer is; He has given us (the church) one hundred times the money needed to complete the assignment. He has given us one hundred times the young people the church needs for personnel. He has given us all the leisure time we would need for prayer, plus unbelievable technology. If the church really opened itself up to God we would hear Him say; "The job can be done! The job would be done if you ached to get it done as I do." But instead the church (for the most part) has robbed God and used the resources for her own pleasure and comfort. Unless we repent quickly, and turn from our own self will and begin to fulfill the purpose for which we were called, we are going to experience God's displeasure. Because we have used our God given resources for our own comfort and ease, and have refused to carry out His commission, God is getting ready to plunge us into severe financial distress. Every true economist will tell you he does not

understand why the financial dooms day has not already arrived. Taxes and inflation are the curse of God. The only reason it has not come God is giving His church a space to repent. Like Israel we stand between the mountains of the blessing and the curse, and we will choose which it will be. The second thing concerning God's displeasure is: because we have used our health and strength to do our will rather than God's; we will experience sickness and weakness that no prayer of faith can heal. We are already witnessing this very thing. I one time wondered why there is so much sickness in the Church and so few real healing miracles, I now understand. Repentance for this terrible waste of our God given health and strength must come quickly. Third, since we have used our leisure time for our own pleasure, rather than praying for the lost, God will make our leisure time a burden it will soon be taken away from us. The most common statement heard from God's people is, "I don't have time." Preachers don't have time to pray. We have a thousand gadgets to preserve time but we have no time. The most frightening aspect of God's displeasure with a church that has refused to obey His command to "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," (Mark 16:15), has to do with her most precious commodity. To that church wherever she is, God says; "Since you do not teach your young to give their lives to reach the world, they will be taken from you by the world. Without this commitment the young become useless to God, and a grief to parents and the church. There is a story in the Old Testament of a woman who came to the man of God and said to him, "the creditors have come and if I don't pay what I owe they are going to take my boys." The man of God asked, "What have you got? Her answer was, "a little bottle of oil." If you take that as God intended you will see that the woman is the Church, Elijah is a type of God, and Oil is a type of the Holy Ghost. Like this woman the Apostle Paul considered himself a debtor his testimony was; "I am a debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise, So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also," at Rome also," (Romans 1:14-15). The great commission is not a suggestion it is a command. Knowledge is responsibility. All you have to do to become responsible is to know. "He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him its sin." It is not what you have, it is what you know. You and I are responsible for the carrying of this gospel to every creature. We are debtors, it is not a matter of what we want, we, the church, have been commissioned to take the gospel to this generation. We owe this world the gospel, and they are knocking on our door demanding payment. They are saying, you owe us more than a hospital bed for our sickness, more than a straight jacket for the demon possessed, and if you don't pay the debt we are going to take your children. True to their threat, the world has taken our young. Many will say these are severe Judgments. If you had a son whose brother was drowning and the son had the means to save his brother, but simply preferred to enjoy himself on the shore, would you not deal severely with that son? Would not that son be guilty of murder? Why can't we understand that millions of lost brothers are drowning? Every soul on this earth is precious to Christ as you are, and you and I are God's only means of reaching them. To the degree that we have refused to give and to go that they might be reached we are guilty of murder. "But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand," (Ezekiel 33:6). Such guilt on the part of the Church will cause The Lord to hide His eyes when we lift our hands, for they are covered with blood. "And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers. I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." (Isaiah 1:15). Repentance brings pardon, there is hope. We must turn from the selfish use of resources that should be used for the harvest. We must turn from the murder of lost brothers, which results from our shameful indulgence. We must turn from the waste of precious time spent in wanton pleasure, to travailing prayer. We must begin in the primary ages to teach our children to give themselves to God and His purpose. God longs to pour His healing, His blessings, and His salvation, through His Bride.

God is calling upon those who truly love Him, to be relentless in pursuit of the lost. He is calling them to spend hours in earnest, militant, fervent prayer for all people. To live simple life styles and give regularly and sacrificially to the great cause for which Jesus died; to accept the responsibility to reach all people with the gospel. Those individuals and churches which make God's command to disciple the nations their priority will receive God's blessings on their lives, their families, their finances, their health, and all that pertains to them, but not without intense spiritual warfare. They must learn to fight, but in obedience they will have more and more of God's presence, joy, wisdom, and direction. Jesus is anxious to be united with His Bride, we as the Church must demonstrate how anxious we are to be with Him. His Word commands us to look for and to hasten His return. His return can only be hastened by our completing the assignment to disciple the nations. God has given His Church the resources to finish the task, but this requires an earnest desire on the part of the believers. The adversary, the devil, knows that his time is short; we can expect him to use every means at his disposal to stop us. The only thing that can stop us is our unwillingness, brought on by a love of ease.