The Danger of Doing Nothing

You might say, “Well, Brother Prince, I don’t have many gifts. I’m not a preacher. I’m not an evangelist.” You’re in great danger, do you know that?

You take the parable of the talents. There were three kinds of people. The man who received five talents worked with them and made five more. He doubled. The man who received two talents worked with them and doubled. Their increase was 100%. But the person who received one talent didn’t think it was worth bothering with. So he just hid it in the earth. And when the master came back to check, and he said, “Here’s your talent. I was afraid of you. I hid it in the earth.” Remember what the master said?

“You wicked and lazy servant.”

Do you realize that laziness is wickedness? And then he said, “If you couldn’t do anything with it yourself, you ought to have taken it to the bankers and deposited it and got interest on it. And then you’d have been able to give me my interest.” And you know what he said?

“Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

See, it’s the one-talent person that’s in the greatest danger. Because the attitude is, “Well, I don’t have much. What can God expect of me?” Well, let me suggest to you, if you don’t have enough to run your own operation, put it in the bank. Invest in another ministry that is doing the job. Everybody can do something.

You say, “Brother Prince, what should I invest in?” Well, there is a ministry called Derek Prince Ministries. We’re not a large ministry, but we are, by the grace of God, totally committed to the reaping of the harvest. But suppose that isn’t what you feel led to. Let me just mention just a few, and I’m not paid by any of them.

There’s Youth With A Mission, a group of people mainly sold out to the vision of the harvest. There’s Operation Mobilization, another group with a worldwide outreach, the same vision. There’s Brother Andrew’s Open Doors that aims to reach the unreached. There’s Maranatha Ministries that aims to reach the students of the world, worldwide.

And that’s just a list of what, four or five? I’m not suggesting you should get involved in any, but you should not sit in church and do nothing. Because when the Lord comes, you’re going to have to answer for that one talent. And it would be tragic if He were to say to some of you, “Cast him out into outer darkness.”

In Matthew 25, there are three pictures of people who were totally rejected from God: the foolish virgins, the unfaithful servant who didn’t make use of his talent, and the goat nations who didn’t show mercy to Jesus’ brothers. And all of them were finally rejected from God’s presence without an option. And you ask me, “Well, what was there in common? What did they all do that caused them to be rejected?”

And I can answer you in one word. Guess what the word is? Nothing. That’s all you have to do to be rejected is nothing. Now, I didn’t intend to speak like this, but I sense, if I know the Holy Spirit, and I’m not laying claim to inherency, but if I sense the Holy Spirit, He’s very much in earnest here tonight. He wants to get through, and I think particularly to churchgoers, that that’s not where it’s at.

Now, I believe that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. I thank God for every church which takes care of God’s people and looks after the sheep. But when you’ve gone to church on Sunday and sang the hymns and followed the prayers, you haven’t discharged your duty.

I believe personally, and I say this not out of emotion but of intellectual conviction, I believe every Christian is responsible to be involved some way in reaping the harvest. I don’t believe there should be a single Christian that isn’t in some way involved in this glorious task of reaping the harvest.

“The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.”

What did He say next?

“Pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into the harvest.”

I like the word ‘thrust’. That is a very powerful word in Greek. It’s the same word that’s used when Jesus drove demons out of people. Pray the Holy Spirit to drive people into the harvest.

Jesus knew what He was talking about. You don’t saunter onto the harvest field. It’s not something you do casually. It takes a push from the Holy Spirit. It means giving things up. You know, two idols of the modern church: security and comfort. They’re idols that are worshipped every Sunday morning.