The Task Unfinished – The Present State of the Lord’s Testimony – Introduction

This is the most important conference I have ever held in my life up to this day. And it is. One day, I saw my dad in a lot of trouble, and I said, “Dad, are you scared?” And he said, “No, I’m nervous,” although he put a few other little words in between that. I’m not nervous. I’m scared. I have been ever since I called this, but the last two or three days have really been difficult for me.

We have met today at more than crossroads. We have come to a dividing place. Whatever I ask of you this week will be the most demanding thing as a Christian you’ve ever had asked of you. And I’m going to ask for a decision. I’m going to ask you to make it clear and clear-cut. And more than that, I’m asking you to make the decision that you will not back out on from now to the day you die. I’m going to read this passage of scripture to you, and I think I can promise you that no conference has ever begun since the day this was written.

One passage of scripture. It’s out of Deuteronomy 31:14, and this is what it says. Talk about beginning on a positive note. And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, the time for you to die. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the tent of meeting that I may charge him.” The main point is, and the Lord spoke to Moses and said, “Behold, the time for you to die has come.” That’s a passage of scripture concerning my life. Now, you have all been so kind…oh, Gene, you’ll live and so on, so forth. But the truth of the matter is, if you’ll do mathematics, the truth of the matter is, there is no way I’m going to live much longer. People don’t live much longer than I have lived. And quite frankly, the way I have been feeling, I don’t really want to live much longer.

There’s a passage that goes with this in the New Testament because I don’t want us to get hung up on Joshua. It’s a passage of scripture by Paul when he said goodbye to some men, and when he said goodbye to Timothy. But I’m not going to read those now. I do want to move this to the New Testament and say it was not one who was being charged, such as Joshua, but a group of men. And for you, everybody in this room has been called together to receive a charge. I will deliver that charge this weekend. The only people who are exempt from it are unmarried young men because you don’t know who you are yet. You really don’t. Your wife will explain that to you. Is there anybody married who would like to disagree with this?

Now, Gene, what do you do from this point on? And that’s where it gets scary. I don’t know how to start talking to you. I really don’t. I suppose it’s because we exist, we have a hard time identifying who we are. Whereas we can turn around and look at the past, and we can clearly figure out who we are. You’re going to get your chance to figure it out now.

Now, I don’t think this will be any surprise to Fran, Alicia, Jean, or Paul. Gary, I’m not really sure about. But today, tonight, this week, something ends, something closes, possibly forever, or it goes on. But right here, right now, look at this sign. There’s a task that’s not finished. I have looked into the face of it, and I am aware that it is not finished. And it is a big task. It’s a big, very big task.

Tonight, you will either abandon the unfinished work or carry it on. And when this week is over, I can pretty well guarantee you it will continue…if, or it will die…if. I would like to see it continue, but there are reasons for wanting to see it continue that I’m not sure all of you are really familiar with, or grasp, or understand. How do I put this in context? How do I reach your heart? How do I demonstrate to you that I’m brewing-well mean business? I pause for the British. They’ll be very glad I didn’t say what I was about to say. I’m not fully sure I know if I can reach you, but I can tell you what I’m going to do before this weekend is over. I’m going to do something I’m certain of. I’m going to be calling on you, as individuals and as churches, to do what is essentially impossible, because what I’m going to ask you to do is many things. For instance, I’m going to ask some of you who never dreamed of writing a word in your life to become authors because it’s “a task unfinished.”

I’m going to ask you who have never spoken to speak. Those of you who have never gone to go, those to minister who never ministered, to travel who never traveled, to live who have never really settled whether or not you’re part of this humble, pitiful, microscopic, little work. I’m going to ask you to make this the rest of your life and stretch you beyond any stretch you ever thought of in your life. I’m going to call on you to do things that you never could imagine doing.

Sacrifice…I’m not really sure this will be a sacrifice. Sacrifice is when you give your money. The Jacksonville saints laugh at this. And on the other hand, it will be a call to give up, a good part of your life. It’s going to take some husbands and wives sitting down and talking to one another really seriously. We’ll finish it. Now, what are you? How am I going to do this? How am I going to start? I’m going to start by telling you how you got here – all of us.

Our story actually goes all the way back to the Old Testament. I guess you know that, don’t you? And if you ever read it or even parts of it, or you know the story of it, you get some idea that somebody came before Jesus ever got here. And Paul stood in that lineage of prophets and suffering and death. And all those men had at one time or another some reference to their heritage. We have a New Testament heritage. I don’t know, sometimes it’s more difficult to get a hold of that heritage than it is anything else because it’s in a quagmire of verses and teachings. But I’m going to start at what I think is the best place to begin.

We know very little about second- or third-century Christians. We know too much about the fourth century period because of what Constantine did to us, making the Christian faith not only legal but also political, wealthy, and easy. I don’t want to dwell on any of that because preachers love to talk about what happened and how everything has been since then. I do want to talk to you about the people who didn’t take it easy. Now…you know this story, but we’re going to hear it again in context.