Just Do It…Now!
The Nike© commercials urge people to "just do it." They are encouraging people in the area of athletics and to quit being a couch potato. Of course, ideally if you "just do it" you will need shoes and hopefully you will buy their shoes. The more you "just do it" the more your shoes will wear out and they will be rich from the repeat business.
They do not say it, but they are implying that they want you to "just do it" now! That is not a bad thing because Americans as a whole are great at procrastinating. Often what we may think is an impulse buy is really our caving in to the constant bombardment of advertising that we still hear subconsciously and finally wears us down!
Christians are good at procrastination. I do not know an honest Christian that would not say that this country is in great need of revival. With as many Christians as we have in this country, why do we not have a revival? Partly, because we are really seeking a political solution rather than a spiritual solution to the problems. We place our trust in platforms and parties, which is really placing our trust in men rather than God. There is no political solution to a spiritual problem. Yes, we should be good citizens and vote, but it is far better to seek to be good citizens of Heaven and seek revival.
Another reason we do not have revival is that we have relegated it to occurring only when we have revival meetings, which in our age is once a year whether we need it or not. God only shows up on the revival train once a year and those who miss it just have to wait another year.
Sadly, God arrives daily at the station and no one is there to meet Him. The one day a year we actually show up we often bypass Him because He did not show up dressed the way we thought He would or He did not bring His own brass band. So we leave Him at the station and bring in some noted "revivalist" that gets us all wound up with his thunder but leaves us as spiritually dry as when he came.
We may talk about the wonderful program and great sermons for awhile, but only for awhile. We start reading and praying again but this activity is much like a New Year’s resolution that lasts for a few days and then we go back to our normal mundane selfish ways until our emotions are stirred up again next year.
Revival does not come in a meeting. It comes in the heart of the Christian. Revival is nothing more and nothing less than a return to obedience to God. When a Christian swallows the lies of the world and the devil to the point he is choked and unable to breathe the air of Heaven then he needs the Holy Spirit maneuver to get the airway open through confession of the sin and removal of the blockage. Then Jesus performs His CPR (Christ’s Personal Resuscitation) to fill the Christian’s lungs with pure air again and to get his heart beating correctly in the rhythm of salvation’s joy. Christ and the Holy Spirit are ready to do this on a 24/7 basis and there is no waiting. There is no need for an insurance card because the Lord knows them that are His and payment has been made in full.
Quit procrastinating! Be consecrated today! Start a church and national revival with you! "Just do it" now!!!
Exodus 32:29 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day. (KJV)
Consecrate means to devote yourself or dedicate yourself. In this passage, the words translated as consecrate literally mean to fill up your hands with God. I tried to get some background on this Hebrew idiom, but did not find it. Therefore, I will have to appropriate the phrase and give you what the phrase means to me.
In 1 Timothy 2:8, we are told to lift up holy hands in worship and prayer. This is an act of surrender and gesture of desire and willingness to receive from God what He would give. An old song speaks of God taking away all the things the writer valued most. This grieved him until He heard God say to lift his empty hands to Him. When the writer receives more of God’s eternal riches than he could store he realizes that God can not pour His riches into hands already full.
To fill up your hands with God you first have to empty them of all the vain and useless things that you are holding onto as if they were treasure. You may be holding on to habits that temporarily bring some pleasure to your mind and flesh, but rob you of being filled with God. Drop them like they were fiery coals before they burn you anymore. It may be places you like to go that you don’t want to be caught at if Jesus comes, but who knows when that is so you risk it. It may be friends you refuse to give up though they drag you down into this world’s muck and mire. If they are not helping you to get closer to Jesus then you need to get as far away from them as East is from West. It may be the time that you are wasting when you are commanded to redeem it. Whatever or whoever it is that has your hands full that you cannot receive from God dump it or them. Paul dropped all the things that he had in this world. What was treasure to him and this world before Christ became dung. What dung are you holding on to? Why smell that when you can smell sweet incense of Heaven as He communes with you and fills your hands with that which will be treasure forever and not just a season?
Empty your hands and filled them with God. How does that happen in the New Testament? We are to be filled with the Spirit. If you are filled with the Spirit you are obedient to God and a renewed obedience to God is revival. It happens today not when there are special meetings. Be revived today! Consecrate yourselves TODAY! Just do it... now!
I pray you will consecrate yourself this morning. However if you do, it should result in service. Revival in not just so you can feel good or have some guilt relieved. That may be a result of revival, but that is not the purpose. I said earlier that revival is a return to a life lived in obedience to God.
Josh 24:14-15
14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods, which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
(KJV)
Joshua did not say choose this day whom you will believe in though it is important to believe in the right Person. He did not say choose whom you will pray to or in whose building you will sit though it is important to pray to the right Person and be in the building He visits. He said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." Choose to serve Him this day!
To many people get saved and then sit, soak and sour. They are always going to serve Him someday. When I get my career together then I will serve Him. When I meet my mate and get married, we will serve Him then. When the children are grown, I will serve Him. When I retire, I will serve Him. NOT!
When a person becomes a child of God, they are given at least one spiritual gift. Often they are given many more and sometimes they are called upon to serve in a capacity that is not within their gift. Paul told Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. That was not his gift. He had the pastoral gifts of shepherding, teaching, and administration, but he still had to work outside his comfort zone. He may not have been called to be an evangelist or especially empowered for that type of ministry, but it had to be done and he could do it. Why, because in Christ we can do all things.
I am not called or especially gifted to be a youth worker, but I have done it. I have worked with youth from nursery to college/career folks. Why? Because there was a need and I was standing there with no real reason why I couldn’t do the work of a youth worker. Ladies, I spent a year in the nursery when I was in college. I worked with both bed babies and toddlers. At times, I had a dozen toddlers all trying to ride the horse at the same time. It t’ain’t my gift, but they needed someone. Also, now if I ever pastor no lady can come up and tell me, "Bro. Ron you just don’t what it is like in there." Oh, yes I do! Those that do this work deserve medals, but the work needs to be done. I could tell you some war stories about my times with the kids. Some of you are saying nice things in your head about me, but I tell you the truth that I am an unprofitable servant for I have only done what was my duty to do. (Luke 17:10)
Too many Christians are not serving. When you ask them to do something they say, "Well, uh, sorry, but that is not my spiritual gift." Trouble is they seem to think they have no spiritual gift because they say that about everything. Brethren, I tell you the truth in Christ that are no such gifts as pew warming and sermon or music listenin’!! All of the spiritual gifts are proactive. You will be doing something.
If you tell me that you are sold out to the Lord and not doing anything I will try not to be rude and call you a liar, but I will have to ask you to explain your definition of consecration to me. If you are consecrated and your hands are full of God then tell me how can you remain on your sanctified sacroiliac? In our Experiencing God sessions on Wednesday nights, we are learning that God is always at work in the world. It stands to reason that if a person has their hands full of God they will have to be moving with Him to keep up with Him. God is not into spectator sports. He calls no one to be an armchair quarterback.
Christ came to do the work of God and we are in Him. When we are in right relationship with Him, He will invite us to work with Him. We have declined too many of His invitations and we wonder why we have no blessing or experience with God. Disobedience will never bring you blessing. If you do not want to be involved in the work God is doing, you cannot experience Him!
Quit putting off serving Him. Listen to that still small voice today and see where God wants you to serve. You may not get to serve Him on the schedule you are planning. That day you were waiting for may not arrive. He may come back first or you may leave Earth first. Then what will you say about that someday that never came? Give God your schedule! Choose this day to serve Him! Just do it ... now!
Too many folks put off consecration and service and that is bad. They miss blessings and rewards in this life and the next. However, there are some folks that procrastinate in an area that will wreck their lives and destroy their eternity. They hear the Gospel and they know they need to be saved, but they want to put it off for some of the same reasons as those who put off serving God.
They also have some other excuses. My friends will think I’m a crazy Jesus freak. They will desert me. I can’t live the life so I will wait until I am on my deathbed and get saved so that I don’t mess up. I want to make a lot of money and I can’t be a Christian and make it as easily as if I stay the way I am. I’ll get rich first and then I’ll get saved and have a bigger tithe.
Friends that hang together here don’t hang together in Hell. It will not be a party. You will not see your friends. You will endure the flames alone! I had many friends in my lost days, but none of them were worth going to Hell for. I remember one civilian coworker when I was in the Air Force that would say to me often, "Shultz, you’re number one in my book!" Well, when I was saved April 6, 1975, I was out of his book. I was not even on the last line of the last page. I was out! I was sorry that he felt that way, but I knew whom I have believed and was mighty grateful to be saved. It is much better to lose a friend or a mess of friends than to lose your soul.
You that think waiting to the last day of your life is a good thing to do what makes you think you will have time to call out before you die? I can assure you that you cannot live the life so do not let that stop you from being saved. As you develop your relationship to Christ and are filled and led by the Holy Spirit, you will see His life being lived in you. No one can hold out or hold on. You are born into a family and God treats you as a child. He will work with you. He will correct you when you are wrong. He accepts you knowing everything you will do until the day you die. That is why you are saved eternally. He did not buy a pig in poke. He knows exactly whom He is redeeming and all the work ahead of Him. He will hold on to you because you cannot hold out.
Mr. Materialist, I have a news flash for you God takes no stock in your wealth because at your richest you are but a beggar. He wants your love and your life. You only assume that by being honest in a crooked world that you cannot make your fortune. If God is your CEO, how can you not profit? The type of wealth may well be in something more stable than currency or real estate, but you will have wealth untold.
2 Cor 6:1-2
1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of
salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) (KJV)
When do you need to be saved? Now! I am at the end of the message. There is no reason to hold back. The altar is open and we have people that can show you the way to Christ. Do you want Christ to hear and accept you? Now is the time! There may be no tomorrow. In this day, you can leave here and if you are not killed in a car accident then you can be gunned down at your favorite restaurant. Today is your day of salvation! By hearing God’s offer you have received of His grace. Do not let it be vain! Be saved today!
For those who need to consecrate themselves do it this day. Today choose who will serve. Today is the day of salvation! Just do it … now!!!
