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