What I will be sharing in this post this afternoon is from the message that Wilkerson gave. He titled the message "One more night with the frogs." The scripture that the message was based off of came from Exodus 8:1-10.
Exodus 8:1-10: Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs on your whole country. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading trough. The frogs will come up on you and your people and all your officials.'" Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and cancelsand ones, and make the frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'" So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land. But the magicians did the same things by their secret arts; they also made frogs come up on the land of Egypt. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord." Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those who remain in the Nile." "Tomorrow," Pharaoh said.
I am not sure how familiar you are with the plagues but it took 10 plagues to change Pharaoh's heart. The plague of the frogs is the second plague. It's really quite something to think about. Frogs? Why frogs? Can you picture God getting all the angels together and trying to figure out what type of plague He was going to send? Of all things, he chose frogs. I think it's kind of funny. There were frogs everywhere!
Three of the most important verses from that scripture come from 8-10 which says: Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Pray to the Lord to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the Lord." Moses said to Pharaoh, "I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those who remain in the Nile." "Tomorrow," Pharaoh said.
Tomorrow. That was Pharaoh's answer. Why not right now? Why couldn't he pray for the frogs to go away right at the moment? The point. We put too many things off for tomorrow that should be done today. When are you going to start reading your Bible...tomorrow. When are you going to start praying for other people...tomorrow. When are you going to get rid of the things in your life that shouldn't be there? What kind of frogs are in your life? Maybe it's laziness. Get rid of the frogs! Don't wait until tomorrow to do it. Do it today.
Pastor Wilkerson walked us through three points.
1.) Ignorance is not bliss
We pretend that the frogs are not there in our lives. We know that there are things that we are doing that aren't right and we just push it to the side like "yeah, it's cool." Well it's not. We try to ignore them like they're not a big deal. You know what? You can't change what you fail to name. Name what you struggle with, there is a good possibility that there are a lot of other people who struggle with the same thing. Proverbs 28:13 says: "Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy." It's simple, confess and you will find mercy.
2.) Breathing polluted air is common
Once we start to get used to the frogs in our lives we adapt. Think about this, if you are from the city, and decide to drive out through the country, there is a good chance that you are going to take in that great smell of the country air and everything that comes along with it. If you live in the country you don't notice it. That happens because you have adapted to the way things smell. Just like when we have the frogs in our lives. When we keep them in, we began to adapt and then it becomes harder to change. Romans 12:1-2 (MSG) says: So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. It sucks to say this, but we have adapted to the unhealthy environments in our lives. I think a big question you need to ask yourself is, what are you up to in your lie? What is lying going to do about the frogs in your life and what are you trying to cover up? Because your lie isn't going to conquer anything. It will just cause you to adapt more and more. If you don't address it you can't contest it.
3.) Tomorrow is so much easier than today.
That is the biggest excuse ever. Think about it. How many things did you put off today that you are just going to do tomorrow. What type of sins are you keeping in today that you think will be easier to confess if you wait until tomorrow. It's Sunday too, the sabbath. A day of rest right? I view it as a day of doing work for the Lord. Don't wait until tomorrow to get your week started. Get it started today. Also, tomorrow isn't promised. The Word states over and over again that tomorrow not promised and we need to focus on today. God's favorite word is today and the enemies is tomorrow. The frogs today are only going to get worse tomorrow.
I encourage you all, don't spend another night with the frogs. Get rid of them! It will change your life. Jesus came more for just getting us to heaven he came to give us fresh air. I believe the next step you can take to experience the fresh air is getting rid of the frogs TODAY.
- if you are ever down in Miami and are looking for a church to go to, you really need to check out Vous Church, it is an incredible experience.
~ you are loved ~
No comments:
Post a Comment