The Curse Causeless Shall Not Come

No, the title is from the Old King James. So if you have an Old King James version, you will remember this from Proverbs 26 and verse 2. Proverbs 26 and verse 2, which I always like this version as well as any. The curse, causeless, shall not come. The curse, causeless, shall not come. What does that tell us? Well, if you're overweight, it's a good chance you're going to get diabetes or have blood pressure problems. Right? If you just got word that my uncle has lung cancer, serious lung cancer, the first thing I thought of, they said he had cancer. He smoked for all of his life. He may still be smoking to this day, but at least 50 years, I know, he smoked a lot. I was around him at different times. The curse, causeless, shall not come. You eat sugar all the time. You eat sugar more than you should. You eat so. Your body's gonna say, help! Because that's what happens. I, like the amplified, you probably don't have the amplified, but reading Proverbs 26 and verse 2 says, like the sparrow, it's amazing how many times God throws that sparrow in there. There's so many of them. Like the sparrow in her wanderings. Have you ever seen a sparrow? Wandering. Okay, they're just flying around. Like the sparrow in her flying, so the curse, without cause, does not come on the undeserving. Just like that sparrow may look like it's just flying around. No, it has a purpose. Knows where it's going and knows what it's doing. It's not just aimlessly, oh, that's a sparrow. No. So it relates that to us and how we live. So what am I talking about? Two words. Guess three. Cause and effect. Cause and effect. David stomped all over this message while he was giving it.

But that's good because it's from God's Word. Cause and effect. How many of us believe that? Where's your hand? I believe it. How many of us experienced it? I guess it would have been easier to say, who hasn't? The older we get, the more we see that that worked. How much smarter of man I would have been if I'd have listened to my father. Because he was exactly 20 years older than I was. But what would he know? I thought as a teenager. Doesn't know what's going on. But he knew, as most of us do now, cause and effect. Clive's got his son. He's going to be able to help him because of cause and effect. We, you have children, grandchildren, some even a great-grandchildren. One of the greatest things you can teach them is exactly what this word says. For every cause, there's an effect. Something's going to happen. You can't do that. My father told me, you cannot drive that car as fast as you drive it on the roads that you drive it without having wreck. I had three in one year. I was 19 years old. Told it out two cars when I was 19 years old. Two of the three I told.

Cause and effect. I'd like you to go with me to a few scriptures to prove this fact. You will go with me to the book of Galatians. Galatians 6, verse 7 and 8. Galatians 6, verse 7 and 8. Read from the New King James here. Verse 7. Do not be deceived. Are we? Have been in the past. Don't want to be. Want to be wise. He said, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. You can't get anything over on God. You can't say, ah, well, he'll not know. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Farmers, gardeners, you sow it, you're gonna reap it. You sow lousy seed. You're gonna get lousy food. You don't have enough water. Guess what? You're not gonna reap. But if you do these things, what a man sows he... Just like I like to think about it because I tell you, if you sow mean, you're gonna get mean. Right? If you're mean, you're cruel. You're gonna find your life is cruel. God says it right here. You want peace, sow peace. You don't want peace, don't sow peace. Be irritated. All the time. I can guarantee you, you'll irritate other people. You'll probably get the irritation. For whatever a man sows, that he will reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. It's just perfect. You can either follow God's way, or you can follow the world. This is what he wants to offer. This is what the world has to offer. Let me go down one more verse in verse 9. Let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. We need help, people. Do good. Let's just do good. You may say, well, that person didn't even... Well, yeah, I'm flashing back now. An individual I'm working with, Miami, and sometimes he just gets on my last nerve. He used to come to church 50 years ago, 40 years ago. No, no, about 30 years ago. And when the church had issues, he went off. And he got lost, and he's been lost for quite a while. I get a lot of lost people call me. Maybe you do, too. There's people who are looking. And no matter how, what a pain some of them can be. It's what we're here to do. We're to help the lost. As discussion went down, minister up at the GCE, he was talking about having new people. I said, well, you know, the problem with having new people is God said he's calling the weak and the base. So when they come in, they're not going to be just like this. Oh, wow, looky here. Look at these spiritual giants that just walked in the church. Can't say they're going to be spiritual midgets. There are going to be issues and problems that, yes, it's an issue, but that's why we're here. We're a hospital for the spiritually sick, and we also have a chance to be a light on Pine Street, too, to where people can go for help of all types because God takes care of this. God's going to direct this church. God's going to lead this church through Jesus Christ.

All right, this individual while I was in St. Lucia flying and staying over there for eight gone eight days, tell this individual who was needing help because he's older, his health is bad. And tell him I'm going to be gone. So I won't be here for eight days because he calls me every second or third day, and I try to visit him every other week. And he knows this Bible. He just has a hard time living with it, living by it. And so I get back and I don't answer my phone because it's two or four dollars a minute while I'm over in another country. So I told him I'll be there. What did I get? All these phone calls. Well, I guess eight days I got seven phone calls. I didn't answer them. So I got my voicemail when I got back. And first of all, where are you? And then the second one was, well, if you're just not going to talk to me, I guess I don't need to have anything to do with you. What a minister you are. I can play you the fields on my phone. Other ones, you're the most useless minister. When I need you, you're not here. You won't even return my phone calls. I guess you hate me. I haven't gotten to your phone calls yet. So guess what? To get back, I had to call him. And I said, I've been gone. You remember I told you? Oh yeah, you didn't listen to your voicemails, did you? See, yes, I did. And you still call me back? You must be a good preacher. Pastor. So it's this that, you know, this man, he has a hard time with his neighbors because he's not friendly. He has a hard time. I took him to the grocery store. I take him to various places. Oh, he came in contact with me because he was committing suicide the night he called me. And seven years ago. And so, I try to tell you, he said, why doesn't anybody like me? Well, he's not likeable. Mary knows that he just, oh, he does some things that just, you know.

I try to teach this. Well, you're right. But he really hates himself. He hates himself. He can't go to church. He won't go to church. Talk to him. Everything. But I, God didn't give up on me. He didn't give up on you guys. And he just brought him into my life. So I won't give up on him. So let's get back to this because it's just so that just popped in my head. But we all know Romans 6 23, don't we? We all know it. The wages of sin is what? Cause and effect. We continue to sin. This is what you're going to get. The wages of sin is death. It's this very scripture put in the New Testament. Cause and effect. Wages of sin is death. But here's another cause and effect. But the what? Gift of God. Can't buy it. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. There's a cause and effect. You can have it this way, or you can have it this way. It's up to you. Oh, I just I don't. Movie just came in my head. Don't say it. She said, don't say it. Cause I do say it at home sometime. Paul Newman prison. Was that movie? Koo Han Luke. Koo Han Luke. The old prison warden. He brought Luke up to the very first of the movie. No, that wasn't that one. But he told, he said, I'm the warden. Struther Martin, one of the great character actors. He said, Luke, I can be a nice guy. I can be a mean. It's totally up to you. Well, God's kind of pointed us the same way. God can be really great, and he wants to be, and it's his nature. It's just who he wants to be. But look what happened when he is just wanting to bless the children of Israel, and they just keep going the opposite way, causing grief and problems, causing effect. Go with me to Deuteronomy 30. Deuteronomy 30, everybody knows. Hopefully you know this very verse I'm going to. Verse 19, New King James. I call heaven and earth. Yeah, so interesting because these are the children. This is not the ones that left Egypt. This is the children of those who left Egypt. Maybe there were some alive, but this is the second tailing as they're about to enter the promised land after 30 and a half years of traveling around. And Moses gives them this because he can't go, but they're going into the promised land. And he said, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursings. Therefore, choose what? Life. Choose life. That both you and your descendants may live. Do we? Not always. And a lot of times, the problems show up because we chose the way of death in our everyday life. We make mistakes because we're human. We continue those mistakes because we're carnal. Because we choose. We choose. How all of us known someone from high school or even college high school that you knew they were going to make a mess of their life. And sure enough, they did. I would see them years later. And they were a mess. Cause and effect. But my father tried to tell me at 1718. I'm sure their parents tried to tell them, but they just weren't as smart as we were. And so we had to learn. We had to learn the lessons. And God looks at us sometimes because we're his children. We're his little babies. You know, we think, oh, well, I'm pretty smart. Well, I know quite a bit about the Bible. I'm like, you know, I got this thing. I got this thing called life down. And then God looks at you and goes, no, you don't. No, you don't. My thoughts are way up here. Yours are just below that ant that's crawling on the floor.

Isn't it interesting in verse 19? He says, I call heaven and earth. What's what encompasses heaven and earth? Or what does heaven and earth encompass? Everything. Everything. God says, I call heaven and earth as witnesses. Okay, everybody listen. Everybody get this. This is what? This is so big. Such a big issue that I call heaven and earth as witnesses. That I'm setting before you choice. You would think that would be easy. Life or death? Ah, let me think. Almost everybody's gonna say, I want life.

But what kind of life do we want?

Go with me, too. Another verse. Proverbs 22. You were all over Proverbs, so I just knew you were gonna stomp on this one. But David didn't, thankfully. Proverbs 22 verse 3. A prudent man, a wise man, a prudent man foresees evil, and he does what? Hides himself. Yeah. We're reading the Bible study. We'll be done in another, you know, what, six weeks, five weeks in our six studies about Joseph. Joseph had changed. What would a 19, 20 year old guy think today? If he was put over everything and a boss's wife says, I want you, big boy.

And what did he do? He ran. He fled.

He foresaw evil, and even mentioned her about his God. Wow. That's something.

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself. But the simple pass on and our, what's your word? Punished. Cause and effect. But it's our job to also try to help other people. I was in St. Lucia. There's a woman I'd met a few times. She came to church one time. She sells stuff out on the beach. And she, you might remember Liz, she actually came to services.

So she had a, she asked me if I would come over because I was by the beach. And she said, well, I said, well, just taking a day off. I got most of my work done just laying there by the beach. The good. She says, would you come and pray for my son? And she had mentioned something to Mary about it earlier, I think.

He came and asked me. That's right. The young boy came and asked me, would you pray for me? And she had said something before to me about it. And I said, well, yes. So I went over where he was. And two weeks before he had been shot twice. And he still had the bullet. And still could see where the bullet had entered right up here by his throat, or right here.

And then one entered down here and came out. And so before I prayed for him, I asked him, I said, do you believe in God? He goes, I do after this one. Because he could have. I said, man, you know, a few inches up would have taken your head or your neck or anything else. And it went through without hitting any vital organs. And he said, I do after this. And I said, maybe God is trying to get your attention that you're not giving him enough attention.

I said, so I think I need to pray for you to start helping your mother and hanging around wise people. Because he knew some of the guys and they wanted to rob him. And he, they did. And he grabbed a hatchet and he went after them and they shot him. I said, is this the kind of life you want to live? I said, not only am I a pastor, I'm a life coach.

And I just said, tell you, because my book tells me how to live. And I want to tell you that the way you're living, you're not going to live very long that way. And God's not pleased with the way you're living. He doesn't like the way you're living. You're not taking care of your mother. Your mother's taking care of you. You're 31 years old.

And I said, it's time you wake up. And I said, I'll pray for you. But only on the condition that you pray to God. So if you don't start. So, of course, he's just like, yeah, pastor, yeah, pastor, yeah, okay, we'll see. I'll see down the road. Because, in effect, he was he was getting exactly sorry to say what he deserved. And I don't want to get what I deserve. I want to get what I don't deserve. And that's grace. But I still get it anyway. So I pray that he will find grace. And I gave him some life tips, work tips, other things I could do to help him.

But whether that's just not my job, that's your job, too. Right, Jonathan? Your man was experienced in Jamaica. And there's people in need there need your help. Right? Whether they listen to it or not. Whether young men in the church, young ladies in the church. That's why God gives us this. So that people don't have to find out the hard way that is cause and effect.

James actually says another one of these causes, resist the devil and he will what? Flea from you. Resist the devil, which we all know when he's throwing things up in her face. We all know when that thing, that thought, that visual, that whatever comes that way and we have a chance to resist. Resist the devil and it says he will flee from you. He's going to leave because he's like nobody's opening the door.

Nobody's letting him in. That's what we don't do when we resist the devil. He will flee from us because he knows there's somebody else out there that'll open the door and he wants to go there. Let me hang out with them. They're a lot cooler people, his view, but it also says resist the devil and he will flee from you. So the return of that is if I don't resist the devil, he's not. He's going to be hanging around. So if you got an extra bedroom, you can let him know because he'd like to hang around us as long as possible.

So he has influence. You know, this this causing effect. It went way back, even back in Genesis, right? Way back in Genesis.

After Adam and Eve eating the fruit, even though God said, don't do it or what's going to happen, you're going to die. They had the opportunity to live forever if they never ate the fruit. Isn't that amazing? Way back there, he said, I set before you life and death. They would never have had to taste death. But then up pops the other one. Genesis four and verse seven.

God said, what's wrong? See, God was knocking on the door here trying to get Cain's attention. And he's like, why are you so upset? But if you do well, won't you be accepted?

But if you don't, sin lies at the door. It's right there. You can't help. You're going to walk right through that door. And what did he do? We don't know how much time was involved, but the next scripture says he did what? Went out into the field, lured his brother out there.

Killed him. Cause and effect.

I know that when I am confronted with something that I know, I shouldn't say or do or think.

I take that to bed with me too many times. But I'll repent of it. Then what happens?

Wake up in the middle of the night. What am I doing? Because I'm not me. I'm not me. And you know the same thing when things happen. You're not you and you just can't have peace. And God wants us to have peace. And so we have to think about this great. The curse causeless shall not come. It's going to be there. Now, do some things happen? Yes. But if you even heard the sermon I gave this morning in my key scripture, it was Matthew 10 about the what?

The hairs on your head. All the hairs on your head are numbered. What does that tell you?

Tells you he knows everything. He knows it all. He's so involved with us that nothing passes by him that we say or do or get ourselves into. You know, after I wrecked my third car in a year, you know, I did learn some stuff. I did slow down and I didn't have a wreck for a very, very long time. It's like David said, experience is a it's a harsh teacher. God doesn't want us to do that. That's why he gives us this loaded book. So so that we become very wise. Not of our own doing, but because of God being with us. So I have one more scripture. One more scripture like you go with me. Because this is one of our keys. If you'll go with me to the book of John. John, because I always like to when it comes to wisdom, when it comes to various things that I talk about, I always if I can, I try to end on the words of Christ. Because he walked on this earth for thirty three and a half years. He went through temptations. He went through troubles, trials, heartache, pain. And he just kept going. They finished his job, finished the race. So I like to leave words with that. So go with me to John chapter eight. And verse 32.

Because it says, as you all know, you shall know the, what is it? Truth. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Do we know the truth? Christ said, I am the truth. I am the way. I am the life. His word is truth. That's why it's so important for us to know that. For you shall know the truth and we do know it. And that truth that we know will set us free from what? From what? Death. Yes. It also sets us free from worrying about things that everybody else in the world worries about. One of our people attended Fort Lauderdale. His mother died Thursday night. She's 55 years old. He's been coming for a while now. Hope to be baptized soon. And he knows the Bible. And he called me when I was just visiting Richard and then I was driving home and he called me. He called me when I was there and I said, catch me at two o'clock and I'll be able to. And he was pretty shaken up by this. And so, like I told him, you know, you know, because none of his other family, none of the family knows the truth. I said, you know, this is not the last time you're going to see her. Your family doesn't know that. They need, they need your help. You're the oldest son. You set that example. Because you know the truth about life and death, don't we? That is something that's very big. We know, yes, it's just, so it's like we're not feeling like those who have no hope, as Paul talked about. We're not one of those. How much is that worth? And my Uncle Bill, who I love to death, is not sitting there being roasted every day for the rest of his life because he wasn't a Christian. You know, these are things that's worth. That's, that's some truth.

You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. The great questions of life that many people have. Is there something, is there aliens out there? Is there life on other planets? We know there's not. Okay, Scripture tells us there isn't. Okay, UFOs. Are we going to have to worry about an invasion of little green men and the movies, a show, where's it going to be destroyed? No, because it starts right here. And, and this, this story is going to end right here when God brings his kingdom. Revelation 21, 22. We know. We don't have to worry that, that the world's going to be blown up. And we're going to wake up tomorrow morning and, and nobody's going to be here. We don't have to worry about that. We know the great questions of life. That is the truth and the truth shall set free. So why, why this, this sermon? Because cause and effect is important. But it also teaches us by looking at this. Not that, not that you do, but I have. I can't blame God for everything. Because that can become a habit. Guess God doesn't want me to have this job.

Even though a master's, master's degree is required, and I hadn't even been to college. Can't have that. That's all. God just didn't want me to have this job. Yes. And we've been on this property over here, and I guess he doesn't want me to have it, even though I bid 100,000 less than what they're asking. Guess he doesn't. See, there's cause and effect, and people will use that. And say, I guess God didn't want me to have that.

We cannot blame God, and neither can the world. Because most of it, now God does work with us, and we ask for his blessing that he would give us a place. Okay? Jeff and everybody that's been involved in here, we've seen his hand in that. And so, I don't like to blame God, and I don't think you want to either. But I do want to give him credit, because there is cause and effect. So, anything that bad happens to me, most of the time, I can look at the problem, and it's right in the mirror. But when the good things happen in my life, I just need to look up. All good things come from above.