Blessed or cursed?

Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD deceitfully, And cursed is he who keeps back his sword from blood. Jeremiah 48:10

This is serious business. We have a job to do! As believers and followers of Christ we are commanded to love God and others, and we must take that job seriously. We have an obligation to lead others to Him. We were called and commissioned. It’s not for the faint of heart If we read the word and know the word, then we should know we are no longer of the world but called out of its ways and to follow Him! This requires fearing God and keeping His commands, and in this way, we follow and obey. We aren’t to hold back! To neglect, refuse or do His will with slackness doesn’t bring blessings but quite the opposite. That is doing His work deceitfully. It is clearly sin to hold back from doing what God called us to do.

Many are deceived because they don’t know the word. Good people! But many don’t truly and reverently fear God, and therefore they don’t truly and wholly follow Him. They may think they do but they don’t. He says that not everyone who says to Him “Lord Lord” is gonna enter in, but those who do God’s will. That’s true fellowship. We follow what we fear and what we fear, we worship. It becomes god to us, even if we don’t like it. It’s not what we say or profess, but what we do. We are even told not to love in word but in deed. Words are important but words means nothing without the action to back them up.

Do our words align with our action? Does God have our full commitment or are we just partly in? He doesn’t need more part time Christians.

Jesus called us out of darkness and into light. He showed us what it looked like to sacrifice it all for Him. He gave all… We are to do the work of the Lord with diligence, grace and effort. So many say that they love the Lord but the Lord says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” I have fallen short in this area so many times and still do but the important part is recognition and seeking to reconcile back with truth.

Remember the conversation that Jesus had with Peter when He was trying to get him to see the real point of the whole matter? It was all about His sheep. Peter meant well and was worried about many things, including defending Jesus because he really did love Him. But, he was forgetting the whole reason behind Jesus’s coming; His people (the lost and dying sheep of the world.) He was missing the point! That’s the heart behind everything that Jesus does. It’s why He came, why He died and why He rose. It’s His truest and only intent.

He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. John 21:17

I’m sure by the 3rd approach that Peter was surely catching on.

It’s not enough to just confess. There’s a lost and dying world out there that need saving and we have a job to do. If we don’t understand our part, the assignment and the severity of the situation, then we will not take it seriously and we will hold back. Sometimes our word and faith are tested to see what’s really inside. Does our way of living match our faith? Do our actions align? Is our whole heart in it and in the right place? The word says that cursed is anyone who does this work deceitfully (or with negligence). We aren’t called to be haphazard. We are called to give our full attention to what He called us to do. Nothing else pleases Him.

Peter was put to the test no doubt.

He had denied Jesus 3x, but Jesus didn’t give up on him, nor did Peter give in. This is the same man that walked on water then sank. We sometimes judge his faith or lack of, but the fact that he got out of the boat when no one else did to walk to Jesus, tells me that His faith was great. When we fall, we gotta get back up again! At least we tried. We only truly fail when we quit. Jesus knew that He could use Peter and Peter would be a game changer when he could just see things from Jesus point of view. Are we viewing things from the worlds lenses and what we want, or from the word of God?

God is looking for doers and workers, not just hearers only. He doesn’t need more benchwarmers. No offense but the church has plenty of ears. He needs workers willing (you and me) that’ll receive the message and then go out and apply it. That’s where our fellowship and our instruction come from, but the real work is outside in the field. Many are fooled! What goes on inside the church should equip and encourage us to go out and do, and it should be a light house where the lost can come in and find hope. He compared it to this: “The harvest is plenty, but the laborers are few.” It’s not a lack of work, but rather a lack of willingness. I’m preaching to myself! I don’t want to live deceived and not walk in the blessings that He has set before me. What about you?

All we need to hear is truth and sometimes truth is hard to hear. The problem with what the church became is that we blended in and looked no different than the outside world. People are looking for change! What are we giving them? We tended to cater more to the consumers’ needs than what God had commanded. How sad. We want everyone comfortable over convicted. We want people to come back, but wouldn’t we rather than leave changed and not come back but to rather go out changed, than come back unchanged and comfortable, or even worst: robotic??

Conviction prompts people to change with an inner urgency, to give their lives over to God, to no longer conform, and to see things in the light of truth which they should be seen. No longer blinded by the wrong light and the false light. We shouldn’t want the outside world to stay in the state and shape that they are in just because we don’t want to make them uncomfortable. We should be worried more about souls than feelings. We shouldn’t hold back the sWORD of truth! Of course, everything we do should be done out of truth and love, not harshness, but we can love people in and out of their sin by offering them a better way. This requires truth! Speak truth in love and lead them to Jesus.

The church is actually the body united or it’s not. It’s a body of believers that aren’t confined to a house but rather having a training house or facility if you will, that we can come to, to equip and then to send out. So, the question is, what are we doing out there, outside of the house? What goes on in our hearts and everyday life outside of Sunday determines this. How we worship through the week, defines how we come in on Sunday and what we bring with us, we invite in. These last 3 paragraphs weren’t supposed to be part of the message, but I felt it needed to be said.

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1:22

We must not deceive ourselves by thinking that we please God by doing what He asked us to do by doing it negligently, lax or not at all. We can’t hold back and go forward. We will all give an account for what we did do AND didn’t do. (James 4:17) Keep that in mind. What we don’t do can be just as scary as what we do. Read about the men with the talents in Matthew 25. I talk about this parable often because it could easily be a trap that I could fall into unless I stay on guard.

The one man who didn’t use his talent didn’t use it because he was scared. Guess what, he didn’t get a rewarded for his lack of faith because without faith, we cannot and will not please God. It was all taken from him! Every bit of it, even that which he didn’t have. God has a multiplication of more stored up for you when you do what He asked you to do by using what has been given, not what hasn’t. He needs to see that He can entrust you with more. All He ask is for us to use the faith that we have been given for what’s in our hand to use at the moment. It’s using what we do have and doing what’s right in front of us. Nothing more! We need not worry about the rest, God will provide when and what we need, and His grace will be sufficient - but only for the here and now. Faith doesn’t worry about all that, it trusts that God will provide. We need worry more about holding back when there’s real lives (souls) hanging in the balance! It might get messy but it wasn’t suppose to be pretty. We must stop doing His work deceitfully.

It is possible to miss out. It is possible to live a deceived life, thinking we please God but yet not doing His will.

The man with one talent was considered wicked and lazy. He could have had more but refused to use what he had been given. This yields no increase. You can’t expect to grow a garden and reap a harvest if you’re not willing to till the ground and plant the seed. That tells me that to do nothing is equally as bad as doing it with the wrong motives. God says Himself that He’d rather us be hot or cold. It’s dangerous to be complacent and at ease but it’s also sinful to be on the opposite end of His will. Either way we fail. But at least the person on the other end did something, even if it was wrong. Complacency and luke warmness are an AWFUL taste to God. (Revelations 3:15-16)

If we’re faithful with the little stuff, we will be faithful with the larger things. If God can’t trust us to use what we have been given and we don’t trust Him enough to try, then there is no faith nor relationship. Relationships require trust or the “trust fall system”. Trusting that God will catch you if you fall or turn you around if you go the wrong direction. That’s faith in work, it’s not about perfection. That will come… For to do nothing is to have no gain.

The problem with Moab wasn’t fear of using what hed been given but too selfish to use. They trusted in their own works and in stuff more than they trusted God. Their treasure was their goods and their gods. It would soon be taken. They had been at ease since their youth. We used to hear they saying all the time “spare the rod, spoil the child.” Well, we actually choke out good cares and concern and we do more damage not putting a little weight on their shoulders. A person never corrected is a person out of control. And if we build and build on anything or anyone else other than God, we are bound to fall. In the same way, God corrects those who he loves and wills that they turn before it gets to this point. We are His children, and He loves us. He calls us to repentance over and over again BEFORE we perish in our sin. If our sin is destroying us, He wills to destroy the sin, not the sinner. It is sin to hold back what you’ve been given. It’s sin do hold back truth when it could be the very thing that saved another.

There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the LORD’s counsel—that will stand. Proverbs 19:21

Every single time. God’s word is truth, and it always stands and never lies.

The Bible says that CURSED is the man who does the work of the Lord with negligence. Cursed! It can be taken if we don’t honor God in what we do and with what we do have. Whether it be riches or a position, God is to be first place and out of that love and honor for God, it must drive everything else we do.

One thing is for sure, whether exposed here or there, you can’t take any of it with you. You can only take what you’ve given away, as my dad reminded me this week. Have you given your time, talent and tithes rightfully so that when God does call you home, there will be nothing left to use? All else will burn, all of our deeds will be tested by fire and it’s only our deeds that’ll be remembered, for good or for bad. Whatever wasn’t done with the right heart and intent will not be rewarded, it’ll be burned up. We will be rewarded or punished accordingly. God knows every intent and every why. (1 Corinthians 3:13) This sounds harsh but it’s truth and I’d rather know truth now than to be deceived and denied, and pay for it later!

I don’t want the blood of any other to be on my hands because I was too scared, too unbothered or too lax to do what God put in front of me to do. Don’t know what to do?! Just look around. Opportunity is everywhere. The world is full of lost and dying souls. Just pick one. God will do the rest.

If you are at ease, it might be time to get down on your knees or bow your heart before Him. We all have areas in our lives that we need to work on. Every single one of us. None of us are perfect, and we ought not fear perfection. We must fear not doing at all and not putting our whole heart into what we’re doing. But we can ask ourselves this question: “Are we pleasing and living to please Him? Are we on active duty or on standby?” We are all to be active in and on duty doing what He has called us to do. Not to worry about what they do (whoever they may be to you and your concern for them) but what He has called you and I to do.

Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked— Revelations 3:17

This was the state that Moab was in. Full of self and they thought they had no need, yet were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. They had it all yet had nothing. Our treasure defines where our truest heart is. Many are deceived. We can think we have it all together yet can be falling apart at the seams. This is why we are to store up eternal treasures that can’t be stolen, lost or destroyed. Like doing work for eternal benefits in others’ lives, for souls. We aren’t to conform to the world or to look like it. We are to be salt and light. Full of fervor and flavor or not at all. If salt loses its flavor, what’s it good for? Nothing. We must not let the world weigh us down, get the best of us, dull our light or to be choked out by the cares of this world. This requires that our minds and eyes be set on Jesus. He is the author and perfector of our faith.

We will all give an account! Are we not perfect and should not fear being perfect. That’ll lead us to more sin. We are human and to be human is to err, but we were also created in God’s own image. Jesus not only set the example and way but He is the way. The more we follow and obey Him, the more we will begin to look like Him. His work on calvary made it all possible when He put His Spirit inside of us. We do not walk alone. So stop waiting on perfection or fearing missing the mark, or you do anyway. He is with you. May your heart be right before Him.

We should strive to be more like Jesus every day in every way. We should honor God in the best way that we know how each and every day! Every day we should be growing and gaining knowledge, even in the setbacks. Every day that we get to wake up is an opportunity to set out to live for and to please Him. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow we may not have. It’s all for Him; His agenda and His kingdom come. The actual kingdom is within. He works in and through us (His people) if we will let Him. He is Creator and we are creation and that is why He created us, for work and fellowship. Many good people with good intentions are perishing everyday. I don’t want to live cursed but blessed and to do that, I must follow Him fully and every day. He is the way, the truth and the life. There is no other way.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. Ecclesiastes 12:13

That’s what it’s all about. Simple as that. We make it too complex. We must dedicate our hearts and lives to God and commit to see it through. Commitment, work and heart go a long way. Every day that we have to wake up, we must ask God to be first and center, and to lead us where He would want us to go. His Spirit will lead but we must follow. His nudge will happen, but we must be open to feel and willing to respond. His voice will speak small and still but we must quiet enough to listen and be receptive to recognize His voice. He’s waiting on me and you. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture and this is what He’s set us apart for and called us to do, to follow Him and to feed those in need.

“God, what do you want me to do today? I’m ready and willing and know that with Your help and power, I can do what You call me to. You said You’d be with me and I don’t wanna miss Your will for the world. May my sights be set on You and not the world, or it’s point of view.”