Dr. Dan Reed was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1951. He was saved at the Woodland Avenue Baptist Church in 1973 while studying engineering at Auburn University. Sensing the call to preach in 1973 he enrolled at Tennessee Temple College under the ministry of Dr. Lee Roberson. Finishing his B.A. in December of 1975 he was called to Emden, Missouri , a town of 61, to pastor the Community Baptist Church. Pastor Reed has started two churches and two Christian schools during his 33-year ministry. He is currently the pastor of Harvest Baptist Church of Acworth, Georgia. (Learn more about Dr. Reed HERE)Scripture Reading: Joshua 11:9-15, Matthew 23:23
Text: Joshua 11:15 “As the Lord commanded Moses His servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.”
I have so many things I want to do in my life. There are many books I would like to read and many places I would like to go. But life is very short and I can see that I am not going to get done all I want to do. However, that should not be my major concern. My major concern must not be to do all I want to do, but not to leave undone what I am supposed to do! Joshua “left nothing undone” of all He was commanded. Jesus told the meticulous Pharisees, “these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone.” He was speaking of their rotten attitudes and dispositions and said they had left out of their duties “judgment, mercy, and faith,” these are necessary things, but He added, they must not leave “undone” the other important matters of the law.
The quality that makes a great Christian is not so much what you do, but what you leave undone. You may do ten thousand things today, but what will you leave undone? If you go to work, get all your work done, speak kindly to people, come home and work in your yard and fix up your house and read the newspaper, you have done a lot; but you have left undone your time with God, your meditation on the Word, your soulwinning duties. If on Sunday morning you awake and spend three or four hours painting your house you have gotten much done, but you have left undone what God commanded which is to “not forsake the assembling of yourselves together” at the Lord’s house. If you treat people nicely this week, love and do for the needy, care for your family and friends, give to several some good things; but if you leave undone and unpaid your tithes, you are not a good Christian! Joshua is commended in our text not because of what he did but because he “left nothing undone of all that Moses commanded him!” The first things on our agenda must be to do what God says in His Word! If we have time for a game of tennis or golf, fine. If I have time to go sightseeing and take a vacation, fine.
People say to me sometimes, “Why don’t we do this or that at our church, have this activity or that?” None of those things may be wrong, but if you don’t go soulwinning and you can find time for many other matters, you are a disobedient Christian. It has been my experience that people will make time to do the big things in their life. If golf or softball or fishing is a big thing, they will make time to do it, even at the expense of church services or Bible study or soulwinning. Therefore, the big things in our life should be personal Bible study, the services at our church, and soulwinning times. If the little things, the not so important things, like softball, golf, fishing, tennis, yard work, etc. can be done without “leaving the other undone” then have at it!
If you and I desire to be good Christians like Joshua, we must not only examine what all we do, we must examine what we leave undone.
Questions to Ponder
1. List four or five things you believe the Bible commands you to do each week that you should never leave undone.
2. What excuses do you use to miss church or soulwinning? We make excuses to do what we really want to do!
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