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Now the part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is the part dealing with the plague of the broths. And this is where Pharaoh is confronted by Moses, and Moses keeps telling him, let my people go, and he keeps hardening his heart, he keeps refusing to acknowledge God's authority. He starts out with the question, well who is the Lord? You know, it's the same attitude that a lot of people have today about God or the Bible. They blow it up, they don't think that there's any authority there. And so Moses is confronting him over and over again, and God keeps sending these horrible plagues upon the land of Egypt to punish the land of Egypt, and to punish Pharaoh and his household for not hearkening unto God's word. And this plague of frogs is sent, and if you jump down and look at verse 8, Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Intreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. So you can see from that verse that the plague of frogs was so bad, that even the hard-hearted Pharaoh who did not want to obey God, did not acknowledge God with the Bible, he's saying, okay, I'll obey if you'll please just take these frogs away from me. That's how bad this was. Now, you say, what's so bad about frogs? Well, the Bible's clear about just how infested they were with frogs. I mean, these frogs are everywhere. Now, if you've ever had any kind of a creature or critter infest your house, it's a bad thing. You know, whether it be mice or rats or cockroaches or bees or wasps or termites or flies or whatever it is. You know, this can drive you nuts, even just when it's on a small scale. One time, we got home from church, and we got into the house, and all the lights are on. We put on a giant scorpion in the middle of the house. You know, but imagine just frogs everywhere. I mean, you get into bed at night, there's frogs in bed with you at night. I mean, that's the kind of thing that they're dealing with. You go into the cupboard to get your food, frogs are climbing out at you. You know, everywhere you turn, you can't get away from them, to the point where Pharaoh is saying, please relieve me of this torment of frogs ever. You know, you try to put your shoes on, squish, you know, there's another frog. And these things are just everywhere, and it's gross. And imagine trying to go to bed at night and just having frogs crawling all over you. And then you look at some of the other plates that they were playing with, lice and flies. And I mean, a little bit of flies is just a nuisance, but I mean, swarms of flies, carrying disease and just blood. I mean, have you ever tried to take a nap and a fly keeps landing on you? Yeah. Yeah, you start beating yourself up. You know, trying to get rid of the flies. And so they're tormented with these frogs. Now, put yourself in the story here. You got frogs everywhere. I mean, your wife is just, she's freaking out. There's frogs in the food, there's frogs in bed, there's frogs in the shower, there's frogs in your clothing. It's just frogs everywhere, just these slimy creatures everywhere. And Moses said to Pharaoh, verse 9, Glory over me, when shall I entreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? And he said, Tomorrow. Now, what in the world sense does that make? Think about that for a minute. Tomorrow? It's so bad that he's saying, Oh, thank God, I'll do what you want me to do. Just please make the frogs depart from me. And he says, Okay, I'll do it whenever you want. Just name the time. Because he wanted them to know that it was God that was doing it. He didn't want them to think it was just a coincidence. Oh, well, the frogs were going to go away anyway. You know, it was just a temporary infestation. Now they've moved on. So he said, I want you to tell me when you want the frogs to go away. That way I can make them go away at that exact time. That way you'll know that it's God that's doing it. And he said, Tomorrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word, that thou mayest know that there is nothing like it in the Lord our God. But wait a minute. Wouldn't it make more sense to say today, right now, in an hour, in 30 minutes? Why would you say tomorrow? And so I think there's a spiritual truth that we can take from this story about people wanting to put things off until tomorrow. Now, the frogs, obviously these represent Pharaoh's punishment because of his sins. Pharaoh's in sin. I mean, Pharaoh's being told, let the people go. He's refusing to obey the voice of the Lord. He's hardened his heart. And his sin has brought the consequences of these frogs that are infesting his house and infesting everyone's house and defiling all of his food, defiling all of his clothes and his bedroom, and et cetera. And you see, this is the tendency to say, Well, I'm going to fix this problem later. I'm going to take care of this later. I mean, good night. We've had the frogs here for so long. What's one more night of, you know, rivet, rivet, rivet? What's one more night of sleeping with the frogs? But when we look at this, it looks ridiculous to us. Like, what are you talking about tomorrow? Get these things out of here right now. But you see, that's how ridiculous it is when we say, Oh, I'm going to straighten out thus and so sin in my life tomorrow. I'm going to make such and such a change tomorrow. You know, everybody is starting, you know, and I'm not into dieting, but you know, they're going to start that diet tomorrow. You know, they're just feasting and gorging on whatever. But the diet starts tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes. Now go to James 4. And I was thinking about this great phrase in the Bible, where Abner, go to James 4, but Abner said in 2 Samuel 3, Abner had communication with the elders of Israel saying, You sought for David in times past to be king over you. Now then, do it. And that's just a thing that I like to tell myself. Now then, do it. You know, we always want to put things off, do it later. We're going to fix things later. We're going to get the sin out of our life later. We're going to get serious about church later. We're going to get serious about serving God later. We're going to get serious about reading the Bible later. And how many times have I preached to someone or talked to somebody who said this, I'm just not ready to give that up right now. Who's ever heard somebody say that all the time? You know, I'm just not really ready to give up that sin right now. Here's the thing. You're not going to be any more ready tomorrow than you are today. Because when tomorrow finally came, was Pharaoh really ready to fix things? No. Because guess what? When tomorrow came and he decided he was going to let the people go and the frogs left behind, as soon as the frogs were gone, tomorrow, guess what he did tomorrow? He hardened his heart again. Because the person whose heart was right would have said, let's do it right now. I mean, if Pharaoh's heart would have been right, he would have just said, well, you can make the frogs go away right now because I'm letting the people go right now. I'm done fighting against God. I'm defeated here. I give in. I give up. But no, just the fact that he said tomorrow shows where his heart's at. And then I like how later Moses turns it around on him because later in the chapter when the flies are sent, he said, oh, make that go away. He goes, okay, I'll make it go away tomorrow. You know, it's like the same thing. Since you always like to wait until tomorrow. And then, of course, by tomorrow, his heart's in a different place. His mind's in a different place and he's hardening his heart again. He doesn't want to let him go. You see, people tell me all the time, you know, I'm just not ready to do that. I'm just not really ready to get all the way into church right now. I'm just not really ready to give up the sin of my life right now and really sell out for God now. But here's the thing. It's only going to be harder tomorrow. Think about it. If there's a sin that you have in your life and you tell yourself, you know, I'm eventually going to get rid of that sin, it's only going to get harder and harder because the longer you live in that sin, the worse of a habit you're developing. And you're getting used to living in that sin. And that just becomes a lifestyle to you. You know, smoking is a classic example. I mean, if you tell people that smoke, you're never going to quit. Sometimes they'll get angry and say, of course, I'm eventually going to quit. I mean, I'm not stupid. I've even had somebody say to me, I'm not stupid. I'm not an idiot. I'm not just going to smoke my life away and just die smoking. Obviously, I'm eventually going to quit. But then months and years go by and that person is just still smoking, still smoking, still smoking. But eventually they're going to quit. I mean, they're not going to smoke until they're great. But no, it's not obvious that eventually you're going to quit because some people do smoke all the way to the grave. And the longer you smoke, the harder it's going to be to quit smoking. I guarantee you, if somebody just smoked for a couple days, it probably wouldn't be that hard to quit. If somebody smoked for years or decades, that's going to be extremely hard to break that out. So whatever it is, whatever sin in your life, whatever habit or addiction you're dealing with, you might as well just quit it tomorrow morning. No, right now. You know, take one last long drag of that cigarette tonight before bed, right? And then just wake up with a new start. You're not going to smoke anymore. But that's what most people would do. I mean, if most people were sitting in the preaching right now saying, you know what, Pastor Aaron said, I need to quit smoking. My body's the temple of the Holy Ghost that is in me. I'm not my own. I'm bought with a price. Therefore, I need to glorify God in my body and in my spirit, which are God's. And you take care of my body. And so I'm done smoking, and that's why tomorrow morning, I'm starting tomorrow morning. Isn't that what most people would do? But in reality, you start right now. Right now, no more cigarettes. I mean, smash them up. And you say, nobody here smokes. Honestly, I can honestly stand up here and say, I do not know of a single person in our church that smokes. But I'll guarantee you that there probably is someone in our church that smokes. Because I remember one time in the early days of our church, I was preaching against cigarettes. I was preaching really hard about cigarettes. And somebody came on to my wife and said, oh, Pastor Aaron said it's really getting on me about smoking. And I didn't know that anybody in our church smoked. I was just preaching it as a preventative maintenance. You know, it's good to preach against problems before they happen. You know, so I'm just preaching against it just because I try to preach against all sins. Not just, oh, well, only this is the stuff people are into. It turned out there were four people in the church that smoked when I preached that sermon. And the church was small. This is in the really early days, the first year of our church. There were four people who smoked, and they all thought that I was just directing my sermon right at them. And this is when people get offended. Usually when people get offended and quit the church, it's because they think that the pastor is directing stuff right at them. When you talk to people who quit the church, they'll be like, oh, he was preaching against me. He just kept getting on me. He doesn't know what he's talking about. And he kept just, but honestly, everybody else is thinking the same thing. Because I'm not all over you. I'm not even thinking about you. I'm just writing a Bible sermon, and sometimes the shoe just fits. And four people thought he found out. He knows I smoked. And I'm the most non-observant person in the world. I don't notice anything. I'm just not a visual person. I'm more of an audible person. When I remember situations, I can tell you word for word everything about the conversation, but I can tell you what people are wearing, what people look like. I think I was married to my wife for a few weeks before I knew what color her eyes were. It's not that I don't love my wife and think she's beautiful, but I'm just not an observant person. I just don't notice things, and I'm partially colorblind. So I just don't really have a visual memory. Other people have a very visual memory. They can remember a face ten years later. I can't. I remember more like words and things of that nature. I just have a different memory. So, you know, people can go to this church for years and smoke, and I would never know. Unless they just come to me and tell me that, you know? And just don't even come to me and tell me. Because then when I preach, then you'll be like, yep, I told him, and then he started preaching about it. I want to be able to keep preaching it, so leave me alone. Don't tell me out of a sentence. Tell it to the Catholic priest. Don't tell me. So anyway, don't tell him either. But people are smoking, and I'm not smelling their breath to figure it out or searching their stuff. I don't know if they smell it. And four people respond. So what I'm saying is, you never want to just take for granted that, oh, this sermon doesn't apply to anybody. Because it could be someone that it applies to. And, you know, if you do smoke, or maybe you have another bad habit, that's, you know, smoking, chewing tobacco, drinking, TV, you know, whatever else you're into that's not of God, that's not right, you need to quit right away. It's only going to get harder. And you always have this thing in your mind, like, well, eventually I'm going to quit doing that. Eventually I'm going to clean up my life. Eventually I'm really just going to get all the way in and stuff. I'm just not ready yet. I'm just not there yet. And some people, they think because they're young that there's some kind of a stage in life where you're young where you're supposed to just go out and have fun and just be an idiot for a while, and sew your wild oats, party a little bit. And I remember I kind of thought that when I was a teenager. You know, before I get too serious about things, yeah, you got to go out and have fun. But I realized, you know what, that's foolish. That's ridiculous. Because, you know, the greatest fun in life is when you're serving God and doing what you're supposed to be doing. That's where the joy is. You know, just get married, just live your life, just have a family. Don't think like, well, you know, I need to wait on any of that kind of... Anything that's responsibility, like a serious job or a marriage or anything like that, I need to wait a really long time on that because right now I just need to go out and just have some fun. No, that's just a foolish mentality. And now is the time to serve God. You know, take that energy that you have as a young person, take that sharp mind and that strength and strong body and that youthfulness and channel it towards serving God. Harness it towards soul winning and preaching and serving God and doing something important with your life. And don't just think, oh, well, you know, eventually I'm going to get this sin out of my life. Eventually I'm going to get serious about serving God. And I've even had people quit the church before because they said, well, I'm the type of person where I want to either be all the way in or all the way out. And I can understand that. That's kind of like what God said about being cold or hot. And here's what they said. You know, eventually I want to get all the way in but I'm just not ready. But that person's still not in. You know what I mean? Because it's only going to get harder. You just put it off. Tomorrow never comes. Just tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Look at James 4. The Bible says, go to now ye that say, today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on tomorrow. You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and that vanishes away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live and do this and that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. So what the Bible's saying here is that people a lot of times, they're looking out in the future and they're boasting about the things that they're going to do in the future. Oh, someday I'm going to do this. And in a year I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this. And he says, you don't even know what's going to be on tomorrow. You should say, if the Lord will. That's what's going to happen. Because you can't even guarantee that you have it tomorrow. And he says, because of that, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Now, for years and years I always heard James 4.17 just preached by itself. Just not doing something that you know is right to do is a sin. And that's true. And I always wondered that this verse was put together with this stuff about boasting about things off in the future. And I always wondered, what does verse 17 have to do with what he's talking about? You know, it almost seemed out of place. He's talking about people boasting about what they're going to do in the future. And then he says, therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And I was wondering, what does that have to do with it? Why did he pull that out all of a sudden? But it makes perfect sense because he's saying, look, if you know what's the right thing to do right now and you're not doing it right now, it's a sin. If you're saying, well, I know to do good and I'm going to do it tomorrow or I'm going to do it next week or I'm going to do it next year, he said, that's a sin. So it's a sin when you're planning to do good but you won't do good right now. And so putting off the good things in your life that need to be done is a sin. You know, I think of soul winning. Soul winning is one of the greatest things you can do with your life. It's the most important reason why we're on this earth is to win other people to Christ. I mean, that is the number one. It's not the only thing, but it is the number one thing. And a lot of people have a plan to eventually go soul winning. I think of missionaries often that they're going to go to some deepest, darkest jungle of Africa to go soul winning but then they won't go soul winning here. And I've seen missionaries come to our church back when I was in Sacramento and they'd come and they'd show the slides and they'd hand out the prayer cards and they'd play the gut wrenching music of Here am I, I will go People need the Lord And they're showing these African children crying People need the Lord Zooming in on the face of this seven year old child in Japan just looking sad and hopeless And they're trying to tell you like We need to shine the light of the glorious gospel of these places And hey, I'm all for that Praise the Lord, it's true Take the gospel to Africa, take it to Japan, take it to these places to the other most part of the earth But then that same person on Saturday won't be there for soul winning They're just sitting around, they're in their trailer and then they always have somewhere else to go, something else to do They're always busy And if you confront those same people and ask them, so tell me about your soul winning over the last few weeks Did anybody say? And all of a sudden it's Tell me a soul winning story from the past few weeks Can't tell them? They don't know? Because they haven't been doing it But man, when they get there, they're going to go nuts I mean they're going to be just a soul winning machine They're going to be on fire A lot of missionaries will get there They'll spend a couple of years sitting in language school not winning any souls for years But eventually, man, just wait until they get done with that schooling They're going to do so much soul winning But honestly, if they won't do it here, they won't do it there Save the money, save the plane ticket The mission field is right here Walk out that door, you're in the mission field I mean, whatever burden you have And honestly, you shouldn't have a burden just for a certain nationality Just have a burden for all love souls Red and yellow, black and white, their presence in his sight Reach everybody And honestly, but if you just really want to go talk to Africans I can direct you to a part of town Where everybody is African And I'm not saying they're black I mean, they're actually Africans Like, they actually are from Africa They're wearing the outfits You want to learn a foreign language? They speak Somalian, they speak Swahili Brother Segura and I went there We went soul winning We took all kinds of photos And then we made a slideshow Like the missionaries do Of us taking the gospel to Africa And we told, I told people I said, hey, this is us taking the gospel to Africa And they showed, and all, you know Everybody's wearing their African costumes and everything Or costumes, you know, their clothing What's the costume? But they're wearing their African clothing And, you know, I had all these photos of Chris Segura and I giving them the gospel Handing them a track And we told people it was in Africa And they believed us And then after we fooled them We said, you know what? Actually, this was beans And they're like, no way Because the pictures look like we were in Africa And I remember the days that we did that And we knocked every door twice Once with Segura And I went with somebody else And knocked it again And, literally, after spending four or five hours In that place knocking doors in those parking complexes It was almost weird to get back in the car And drive down the street Like, you felt like you were re-entering the United States In fact, yeah Didn't you kind of feel that way? I mean, you're just transported You're just warped to this other world And, I mean, it's kind of like when you go to Guadalupe You feel like you're kind of warped onto this Indian reservation Or warped onto, like, Mexico or something And if you want the mission field, it's right there But everybody just has these dreams It's a lot easier to dream About taking the gospel to these distant lands And taking it to all these foreign people Who have never heard the gospel But there are people in this city here that have never heard the gospel And you talk about doing it in a foreign land But let me tell you something When you get there, it's going to be the same as it is here It's the same exact thing here as it is there Why don't you just do it here? And, look, I'm not against going and doing it over there But do it here first and then do it there Because if you won't do it today, you won't do it tomorrow And so we need to be a sole winner today We need to be a sole winner this week And maybe it's too late today because, you know, the day's already over But you need to be a sole winner right away And not put it out Now, some people will also use this excuse Well, I'm newly saved And I just don't have enough knowledge yet to go sole winning So I just don't think I'm ready to go sole winning Because I just don't know a lot, okay? But if you would turn to Acts chapter 9 Go to Acts chapter 9 Because part of the thing that doesn't make any sense about that Is that one of the ways that you learn how to be a sole winner Is by going sole winning and being a silent partner One of the best ways to learn is to tag along And so if you say, well, I don't know enough Well, you're not learning anything by not going Get out there, be a silent partner Tag along, learn the ropes And then you will eventually be ready But I would venture to say, if you're saved, you're ready to win soles Amen If you know how to be saved All you have to do is explain to somebody else how you got saved If you don't even know how to get saved, then you're not even saved Because think about it If you are saved, you must know how you got saved So are you saved? Yeah How did you get saved? I have no idea What did you have to do? What did you have to believe? I don't know I mean, if somebody gave you that answer, would you walk away saying, yeah, they're saved? I mean, if a visitor came to our church and you said, so are you saved? Oh, yeah, 100% sure Okay, well, what do you believe it takes to get to heaven? You know, I don't really know And has anybody ever got that answer? I've got that answer hundreds of times Where I ask people and they suggest And then you're like, well, how do you know? I don't know What do you think it takes to get saved? That's a pretty good question, I don't know You walk away saying, that person isn't saved They don't know anything about being saved, they don't know how to be saved Well, look, who here is saved? Raise your hand if you're saved tonight Alright, God bless you, I see that hand And let me tell you something That means everybody here is ready to go soul winning right now You're ready to go Say, well, I don't know, what if they ask me a really hard question? Just blow them off And guess what? I've been saved for almost 25 years I've been soul winning for over 13 years straight every week Virtually every week Unless I was sick for the last 13 some odd years And I'm going to blow off those dumb questions just like you are You think I'm going to answer every crazy question that somebody asks me? I'm going to blow it off You might as well blow it off, you don't know the answer I know the answer and I'm going to blow it off Because, you know, the gospel is the same for everybody And if they ask you questions, say, oh, I don't know Or just say, well, you know, let's come back to that Don't make me lose my train of thought here, but let's come back to that Let me tell you what I want, and then when you come back to it, say, I don't know Good question And so, if you're saved, you're ready to give somebody the gospel You're ready to give your friends the gospel You know, I even tell people, literally I already took all the indications out of my pocket But I literally tell people when I went into Christ I'll literally, when I hand this to them and if they get saved A lot of times, I'll literally show them the back and say, you know This is similar to what I just showed you This has some verses from the Bible about being saved You know, can you think of anybody that you know that's not saved That doesn't know this or that would like to know this Can you show them that, explain that to them? That's what you need to do I'll tell teenagers and young people, you know, you need to take that to school Explain this to your friends And I'll say, even if you don't know the Bible, go through this with them And show them these scriptures and explain it to them Just explain it to them the way I explained it to you And just show them these verses and so forth You know, you can do it You say, well, yeah, but I'm not going to be as smooth about it Well, you know what, be humble So what if you stammer instead? So what if you're a little embarrassed? You know what, God will use you And he'll use the stammering tongue He'll use the one who's shy He'll use you in a powerful way so that he gets the glory Even if you're not smooth But look at Acts chapter 9 Here's a great example of a guy who got saved and just right away started solely And that's the Apostle Paul Look at chapter 9 verse 17 And Ananias went his way and entered into the house And putting his hands on him said, brother Saul The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, have sent me That thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost And immediately there fell from his eyes that it had been scales And he received sight forthwith And arose and was baptized Notice also, he didn't wait around to get baptized He got baptized right away If you're saved and you haven't been baptized after you got saved You need to get baptized right away You say, I'm going to do that tomorrow, I'm going to do that next week You know how to get baptized right away You say, well, you're not ready to baptize me I'm ready to baptize you anytime you want Because number one, I've got a giant horse trough Do you think I'd heat that horse trough in my office for my health? Do you think I'd just have the... do you think I'd just... I know what it is Do you think during the week I come down here to my office And just fill that thing up and just have a hot tub in my office? Why do you think I have a horse trough filling up half my office? Have you seen that heater that I built? I strapped a home water heater to a dolly And hooked it up to a propane tank And hooked it up to the hose And it spits out all the boiling hot water you want So we can have nice warm... And then we turn it down I'm just saying you could put out boiling water if you turn it all the way up And we put out nice warm water We fill up that trough We have everything ready I have a swimming pool full of water I have a horse trough in my office Ready to baptize people But get it taken care of Instead of just always just saying Tomorrow, tomorrow, next week, next month And then years go by and you haven't done it And that will hinder your spiritual growth by the way I've known a lot of people who got saved And they didn't really grow that much And then they got baptized And then they really start growing You know part of that is just because God blesses obedience And baptism is a command of God And so when he sees that obedience he likes that And he'll bless you for it I kind of got off on baptism Okay he got baptized right away immediately He said in verse 19 When he had received me he was strengthened Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus And straight away Straight away means immediately Right away Straight away because think about it What's the shortest distance between two points It's going straight there He's saying straight away He preached Christ in the synagogues That he's the son of God So what did he do instantly Number one, he got baptized Number two, he got something to eat Number three, he went out soloing I mean this is a guy Who was mightily used by God And part of the reason why is he didn't fool around I mean he did it right now He didn't wait until tomorrow It says in verse 21 But all that heard him were amazed And said is not this he that destroyed them Which called on this name in Jerusalem And came hither for that intent That he might bring about as a chief priest But Saul increased the more in strength And confounded the Jews which dwelled in Damascus Proving that this is very Christ So did he increase his strength Did he get better at soloing Did he get better at preaching Yes, he got better at soloing He got better at preaching He got more knowledgeable He got more skillful But he started doing it right away And he got better at it by doing it You know what the best way to get better at preaching is? Just preach a lot of sermons You know what the best way to get better at song leading is? Do a lot of soloing You know what the best way to get better at memorizing the Bible? Just memorize more Bible You learn by doing And Saul, later named Paul Was a great man of God Because he didn't put things off He immediately got baptized Immediately started soloing Immediately got the sin out of his life Immediately started doing what God wanted him to do Because putting things off till tomorrow Never makes any sense Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today The spiritual thing is now It's today, it's do it now Don't fool around with the Christian life Get serious about it Go to 2 Corinthians 6 Actually go to Acts 24 You don't have to turn to 2 Corinthians 6 Just go to Acts 24 Because not only that People put off salvation People put off changes in their life They put off quitting smoking Quitting drinking Quitting chewing tobacco Habits or whatever Sins they're on And people put off Getting into church They put off getting serious about serving God They put off I'm going to read my Bible cover to cover I'm going to start that in a few weeks Right now I'm busy at work I'm busy at school If you didn't read your Bible yet today You need to go tonight and read your Bible tonight And then read it in the morning And read the Bible every single day But he says in 2 Corinthians 6 You don't have to turn there Go to Acts 24 And this is what I quote to people When they say they're not ready to get saved I go, I'm going to think about it I'm not really ready yet The Bible says now is the accepted time Now is the day of salvation But look at this story in Acts 24 About a man who decided to procrastinate Getting saved Because we're talking about procrastinating tonight Procrastinating getting the sin out of your life Procrastinating like Pharaoh did with the frogs And you know what, when you procrastinate Doing the right thing, it hurts everybody else too Because think about it When Pharaoh said tomorrow That means everybody in the whole land of Egypt Had to wait until tomorrow Everybody in the whole land of Egypt Had to sleep with a slimy Sticking frog that night Climbing and slithering all over him Because if one man Said tomorrow You know, and while you wait to be a soul winner The world goes to hell And while you wait to quit smoking And you wait to quit drinking You wait to join the church And come faithfully And you wait to get baptized And you wait to do what you're supposed to do You know, your consequences are affecting other people also But here's a man who made the ultimate Fatal mistake of Procrastinating This guy decides he's going to put off getting saved And it says in verse 24 After certain days When Felix came with his wife Drusilla Which was a Jewess He sent for Paul and heard him concerning The faith in Christ So he's listening to Paul preach about the faith in Christ Paul's basically preaching him a gospel message Now we don't really have a record Of what Paul's sermon was But we know that it covered the faith You know, putting your faith in Christ You know, that was basically the theme of the sermon And it says As he reasoned of righteousness Temperance And judgment to come Felix Tremble So while Paul is preaching This sermon He begins to wax eloquence about righteousness Temperance And judgment to come Basically he's talking about hell And he's talking about the final judgment And as he preaches about righteousness As he preaches about temperance And judgment to come You know, basically you can picture the message We don't know exactly what the message was But you know, when somebody's preaching about righteousness You start realizing you're not as righteous As you thought they were When you start reading a bunch of Bible verses That talk about what righteousness really is And condemn a lot of sins People don't feel as righteous as they used to feel And then you start talking about the judgment to come And Felix is probably thinking to himself That hell could be his destiny And that perhaps what Paul is preaching Is the truth And so he's actually shaking That's what trembling means Shaking I mean he's scared When Paul's preaching this sermon He's scared to the point where he's shaking So would you say that he's Probably in a really good place To get saved right there? Because he's got the fear of God And the Bible says The way of the Lord Is above to the wise To depart from hell and evil You know, the fear of the Lord Is the beginning of knowledge By the fear of the Lord meant to depart from evil You know, when you begin to fear God And fear hell And fear the judgment to come And realize that God's holiness And God's righteousness is so much higher than yours That you're condemned to hell As a sinner That's a great time for you to get saved Because you're in the perfect frame of mind Right there to get saved Because the problem with people who don't get saved Is number one, they either just don't fear God at all They don't believe hell is real They don't believe they need to be saved from anything Because they don't believe it Or number two, it's because they think That they're too righteous to where they don't need it Oh, I'm a good person God would never send me to hell He'll send so and so But he won't send me Or number three They just think to themselves Well, I've already been saved I've already taken care of that Even though they believe the wrong doctrines and so forth Well, Paul's fixing all that Because he's preaching about the faith in Christ He's giving him the true doctrines of salvation He's clearing up this thing of maybe he's righteous enough He's talking about hell And Felix is hitting home with it He's not blowing it up He's not laughing No, it's hitting home He's scared And I'll tell you, when I got saved This is the kind of things that were on my mind I remember getting saved thinking Man, I don't want to go to hell I need to get saved, I'm not good enough I'm not going to make it, I need to ask Jesus to save me And I remember fearing hell And anybody who's smart Will be able to fear hell Now, I don't fear hell anymore because I'm already saved But I'm talking about the unsaved world They need to fear hell He's in a perfect frame of mind to get saved Now is the time when he should have just said You know what, Paul? You got me, Paul I want to settle this right now I'm going to call upon the name of the Lord right now I believe what you're saying I give up You're preaching the truth, Paul I'm going to get saved right now But instead It says That Felix trembled and answered Go thy way for this time When I have a covenant When I have a convenient season I'll call for thee So notice, he doesn't say no He doesn't say Paul, I'm rejecting the gospel I'm rejecting the plan of salvation He's trembling He's right there on the brink All he has to do Is just go through that door And he's saved And that's what the Bible likens getting saved Just opening a door, eating bread, drinking water I mean, he's just right there His hands on the doorknob And he's just right there He's just shaking You know what, come back at a better time I'm just not ready I just need to think about it It's just too much You're just hitting me with too much I just need to digest what you're saying It's just too much right now When it's a little more convenient Let me call for you But you know what, that convenient time Never came for Felix Look what happens next So first he's trembling, scared At the preaching of God's word He's in a great frame of mind to get saved Look at the next thing Oh, at a convenient time I'll call for thee Look what happens next He hoped also that money Should have been given him a Paul That he might loose him Wherefore he sent for him the offener And commuted with him So next time he calls for him to talk to him Is he in the same frame of mind, he's trembling He's calling for him, he's commuting for him He's trying to get a bribe and let him out of jail His mind's in a totally different place No longer is he trembling No longer is he on the verge of being saved Just right there, so close Now it's just Hey, can I get the money out of you And you can bribe me to let you out And then in verse 27 But after two years Portia's Festus came unto Felix's room And Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure Left Paul bound And that's where it's over Because first he had that Great opportunity to get saved I mean, God's dealing with him He's trembling, God's word Is ringing in his ears, the Holy Spirit Is just pounding him with these scriptures Through Paul's preaching He's right there, he's ready to get saved He says, come back at a convenient time And by the next day rolls around He's completely in a different place mentally And he says, you know what Give me money Which is a wicked thing to say I mean, he's got this guy He should have been letting him go Give me money, give me a bribe And he gets worse and worse Until eventually he leaves office He's no longer in charge And he just leaves Paul in prison for good Just leaves him stuck in prison For good There's no way this guy got saved And he missed his chance He missed his chance, he missed this opportunity It's a sad story Because he was so close You know, it's frustrating when people are so close to getting saved And they don't get saved This is why later isn't going to work Procrastinating isn't going to work Now look, you can't make people get saved You know, Paul couldn't make this guy get saved Paul did the best he could and moved on But you know, you ought to encourage people to do it today And if they say, you know, I have to think about it later You know what I mean, what can you do, right You try to tell them, but sometimes And you know what, by the grace of God, hopefully They will get saved down the road Some people do need a little time to digest And will eventually get saved But you know what, if it was my soul I wouldn't be playing with it No, not even for a second I mean, if it was me and I understood the Gospel And it made sense to me I'd be calling upon him right there I wouldn't want to waste a second Because you know, the Bible talks about That when anyone here at the word of the kingdom Will understand it or not Then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away That which was sown in his heart I often tell people, you know, if you don't get saved now You're going to forget about this You're going to move on to other things The cares of this world and things will distract you And you'll forget all about it And you'll get sucked into something else And you'll get a bunch of false doctrine told onto you You know, you need to just pull the trigger right now That's what I always tell people Just get saved, just do it And so I want to encourage you in your life To not be a procrastinator Not to put things off in any area of life But especially when it comes to spiritual things Whatever sins that God's been dealing with you on And you've been thinking about Just make that change tonight Make that switch immediately You know, maybe God's been dealing with you about being more faithful to church You know, and you say You know what, in 2013 Let me tell you In 2013, I'm not missing a service I'm going to be there Sunday morning Said that way Now this year I'm going to continue to come You know, three times a month Or Christmas, Easter But man, in 2013 And then in 2014 That's when I start soloing That's nonsense You know, get in right now Three to thrive, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night It's only going to get harder If you haven't been baptized Come to me immediately Tell me, yeah, I need to be baptized Let's do it You know, people have said to me before, literally I was in a distant part of the country one time And somebody said, hey, I've never been baptized I'm saved And they knew for sure they were saved And they just said, I've never been baptized I said, I'm going to baptize you right now And they said, why, where, why You know, I said, it doesn't matter I said, you know, I'm a pastor Of Faith Word Baptist Church And I'm going to baptize you And I literally Baptized them in a river You know why? Because it's important to do it now Because that same person who's saying Yeah, I really need to be baptized right now You know, they might not be saying that weeks from now When their mind's in a different place And they're not really as zealous About wanting to serve God And then they start just getting into other things And, you know, it's so easy to get distracted And this world is designed to distract you From serving God They got all kinds of other things going on To get your mind off of important things And to get it on things that don't matter And so whether it's being baptized Whether it's starting soul winning You know what, just decide this week Let's go soul winning this week Let's do it right away Whether it's reading your Bible Whether it's getting saved Whatever it is Just don't procrastinate And if you're not saved Quit fooling around with that You know, I don't think there's anybody here who's not saved But if there is somebody here who's not saved You know, that's the last thing you want to put on And don't put off giving the gospel to your loved one You might kick yourself You'd never get another chance That'd be a sad story And so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Father, thank you so much for your word, dear God And thank you for your people that have come to your house And it's just a blessing to be gathered together With your people And to be able to have a fellowship And have such a good communion with your people, dear God And I just pray to you Please just help us not to be procrastinators But to get serious now And to make the changes necessary now In Jesus' name we pray, amen