"Are We Fulfilling Our Assigment?"

Matthew 28:16-20

Aww come on and bless the Lord in this house. He is worthy, is he not? Come on & bless God for our choir on this morning. Did they not sing to the Lord? Amen. amen. You may be seated in the prescense of the Lord. Amen. This text before us is a very familliar text, often being qouted in churches, and ussually, it doesn’t bother me. But for some reason, the Lord has been dealing with me concerning this text, and about what it entails. Jesus, in these closing words of Matthew, lays out the assigment for the disciples, and for every believer thereafter. He says that he "commissioned them", and in verses 19-20 it says, (Read passage.) And that’s bothering me. It’s bothering me because it is in fact, God’s assigment to the church, and i’m, and i’m trying to figure out WHY we’re not fulfilling it. Yeah, why we as a body, are not doing all that God has instructed us to do. Y’all ain’t gonna like me today I can see it already. Why aren’t we doing, what God has called us to do? hmmm. And so for a little bit of time, I wanna mess with ya real bad, and I want to ask the question, "Are We Fulfilling God’s Assigment?" "Are We Fulfilling God’s Assigment?" mmm... Help me Jesus.

My Brothers and my Sisters, if I could keep it real with you for just a few minutes on today, I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God indeed has a purpose, and an assignment, for the church. Jesus lays it out for us right here in our text, and I am convinced today that we’re not, we’re not fulfilling it. I said we’re not fulfilling it. We have been told to do some things by God and we’re just not doing them. We have become a "Convienent & comfort driven people" who are more concerned about being comfortable & convienced than doing the things of God. In the recent aftermath of Hurricane Katrina this has become evident. Y’all know the event. Y’all have seen the pictures. You’ve heard the stories. Mass destruction. An ENTIRE city wiped out! Thousands dead and many more displaced from what they’ve known all thier lives. And with all this & so much more going on, what have we done? And let me specify when I say "we" in this message, I am speaking of the church. I’m coming hard at "Us’s" today. What have we done? We shed a tear, dropped ten dollars in a basket, donated some things, but WHAT HAVE WE REALLY DONE? We are living in a modern day hell with modern day slavery going on, but WHAT HAVE WE DONE? We are in a society where people are dying daily, but WHAT HAVE WE DONE? We are in a world where drugs, sex, and money rule our culture & our way of thinking, but, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? We live in a city where 1 in 4 people are living in poverty, but, WHAT HAVE WE DONE? We have children dying daily, people going to bed hungry, people who are lost, dying, and who are on thier way to hell for an eternity seperated from Christ, AND WE SIT BACK & DO NOTHING! Ohhhhh, I wish I had somebody who could help me! We do nothing, we do nothing. The Lord has commissioned us to be a beacon light in this world & we’re more interested in trying to blend in with the world than to become a light for God. We’ve become silent about the wrong stuff & speak up about the wrong stuff. We have a lot of meaningless conversation. Who’s dating who? or, what car you driving? or what’s the latest tennis shoe fashion? Man, who cares. THERE’S SOME SERIOUS STUFF GOING ON IN THE WORLD & WE’VE GOT OUR HEADS STUCK IN THE CLOUDS SOMEWHERE!

I’ve got news for you. I’ve got news for you. Hurricane Katrina was not for the wicked! Hurricane Katrina was for the church! Because the truth be told if it was really to wipe out a wicked city, then Baltimore shoulda been gone too. And a whole lotta other places. And God doesn’t speak to the wicked. He speaks to the church & then WE are supposed to speak to the wicked! Katrina means "Purity". People were being prophetic when they named it & don’t even know it. And if it wasn’t for the church, then why are all the churches in New Orleans and Louisianna gone? Katrina was a WAKE UP CALL to the CHURCH! And we’re still sitting back with our feet propped up, sipping iced teas & lemonades like ain’t nothing going on. IT"S TIME FOR US TO WAKE UP! We need to stop talking so much brickkabrack & start speaking up about the things of God! We are God’s hands, his feet, his mouthpieces, and we are such poor examples of a loving God! God is coming back! With a quickness! And we need to begin to get real about the things of God!