Today, I want to introduce to you a powerful message from the Lord that gives us a PRIME DIRECTIVE! I am certain, due to the depth and due to the content of the upcoming messages I will be unable to complete this in one service time.
· This message will challenge you.
· This message will probably aggravate you. (That’s not always a bad thing, folks.)
· This message will hopefully change you.
· This message will hopefully elevate the church!
· This message will deliver a command of the things that we need to do in order to please our Heavenly Father.
· The command is simple to understand, but seems to be a little more tough to accomplish, due to the strong desires and will of man.
That command is: "Get off The Fence!"
I believe that it is time for the children of God to arise, and get ourselves up from the place of complacency in our Spirit and in our flesh, and ’get off the fence!’
I believe that it is time for the Church of the Living God to step up to her place and become what God intended for her to be!
I believe that it is time for “THE SANCTUARY” to ARISE FROM HER SLUMBER, GET OFF OF THE FENCE OF MEDIOCRITY, AND BECOME THE CHURCH OF DESTINY THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN OF SO MANY TIMES!
· If you want to get closer than you’ve ever been to the Lord, hang on, I believe a Rhema Word is on its way for you!
· If you want to get past the ‘spiritual wall’ that you are facing, get ready!
· BUT, IF YOU WANT TO STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE, just tune the Lord and the messenger right on out, like so many times before, and miss what He has for you, and then wonder what everybody else is so powerfully charged up about.
o Just go ahead stay the way you are.
o And oh, by the way, this message will probably make you mad.
If there’s anybody in the house today that is ready to “go on a powerful journey”, grab your neighbor by the hand, and say, “Come on, let’s go!”
Fence riding is not a new thing. It happened many, many times in the Scriptures, and I feel that I need to address a few of them to lay the groundwork for this series of messages.
Turn in your Bibles to Revelation 3
We see this command in the New Testament in the book of Revelations 3, where the Laodicean church had allowed itself to be lulled into a sleepy position.
Now I know that you have never allowed yourself to do that.
I am sure that it’s . . . .you know. . . . .those guys over there. . . .RIGHT.
Revelation 3:15-18 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. (16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. (17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: (18) I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see.
The church was found being ’politically correct’, that is, trying to please both God and man, and they were given a smack from the Lord in the manner of:
· ’since you were neither hot nor cold, I’m going to vomit you out of my mouth’.
· In essence, God was saying,
o "I can’t do anything with you while you are playing both sides of the fence.
· He was saying Get in, or get out!
o Since you won’t do either, I’ll make up your mind for you.
· Get away from me!
o You make me sick to my stomach!"
SHOUT - GET OFF THE FENCE!
Another example of people sitting on a fence is found in the book of Joshua chapter 24. Turn there with me if you will.
Let me give you some bio-background here: Shechem, is a location in the area of Canaan, that is mentioned several times in the Bible, 66 to be exact.
The word means ‘a ridge’ in Hebrew.
The best way that I know to describe a ridge is that place along the top of mountains, or hills that makes up the ‘backbone’ of the high place.
It’s not difficult for me to see that ridge as the ‘top of a fence line.’
So, in this series of messages, when you see Shechem, think about the FENCE.
Jos 24:1-25 And Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, (He called them to the fence line), and called for the elders of Israel, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers; and they presented themselves before God. (2) And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (3) And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. (4) And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau: and I gave unto Esau mount Seir, to possess it; but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt. (5) I sent Moses also and Aaron, and I plagued Egypt, according to that which I did among them: and afterward I brought you out. (6) And I brought your fathers out of Egypt: and ye came unto the sea; and the Egyptians pursued after your fathers with chariots and horsemen unto the Red sea. (7) And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your eyes have seen what I have done in Egypt: and ye dwelt in the wilderness a long season. (8) And I brought you into the land of the Amorites, which dwelt on the other side Jordan; and they fought with you: and I gave them into your hand, that ye might possess their land; and I destroyed them from before you. (9) Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and warred against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you: (10) But I would not hearken unto Balaam; therefore he blessed you still: so I delivered you out of his hand. (11) And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand. (12) And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. (13) And I have given you a land for which ye did not labor, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat. (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; (GET OFF THE FENCE! – DO YOU SEE THAT?) 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. (16) And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; (17) For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed: (18) And the LORD drove out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God. (19) And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. (20) If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. (21) And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD. (22) And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. (23) Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel. (24) And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey. (25) So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.
These cats sound like a lot of people today, don’t they?
They get delivered from all kinds of problems, situations, traps that they allowed themselves to fall into, and God delivered them time and time again, and they kept walking away, time after time.
Joshua gets righteously indignant – mad at the way the people were treating God, and He issues an ultimatum.
· “choose you this day. . . . (get off the fence!)
· Quit asking God for deliverance, and then, after He delivers you, you forget all about Him until you need His help again!
· Just stop it! God is getting pretty fed up with the way you are treating Him!
Again, don’t they sound like many of us today? Be honest!
Now, look to your neighbor and say, OUCH!
I THINK I NEED TO GET OFF THE FENCE!
Another time people were told to ’get off the fence’ was when Elijah called the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Asherah to come to Mt. Carmel to prove God, and he then challenged the people to ’get off the fence’!
1Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
The end result? 850 prophets dead, one TRUE prophet alive, and the Lord showing who’s side of the fence we need to be on!
