Excuses, We Are Full Of Them!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
ACTS 22:16
Well if I get to it I will get to it. I just did not feel like getting up this morning and going out to that church full of hyprocites, I mean who do they think they are? I just got in at 2 this morning and I know they will understand I have to get my beauty sleep. I go up and was just to tired to come to church today, but man that beach was nice…
Today we are going to dig a little deeper into the field of excuses. I have a phd in excuses and most of us do, right? What we will do over the next few minutes s take the idea of making and offering excuses to the next step. Especially directed towards those who do not believe Christ as their Savior yet and to those that do have Jesus as their Savior and offer excuses of staying out of church, etc., and to help each of us in witnessing to others.
The Scripture focus for today is pretty easy and comes from one verse. Turn with me as we go to Acts 22:16.
We see in this one verse of Scripture Ananias asking Paul “And now why are you waiting?”
Family why does one wait? Why does on wait until it is to late? Pretty simple it boils down to excuses….So let’s explore this idea of why people wait and put off the Lord.
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First the famous::Not now, but later, just give me a while
Did you know that procrastination or excuses is one of satan’s most powerful and greatest weapons?
Every time we offer up an excuse to the Lord, satan gets a kick out of it and scores a point. Satan loves to shout for joy each and everytime, and it is the devil’s goal to use his power upon us in the area’s of excuse making.
A 6 year old’s excuse…”I am to young to know about God.”
A 14 year old’s excuse..”I am to busy at school to think about God, besides that everyone picks on me if I go to your church.”
A 19 year old..”I am to busy at college and way to smart to think about Jesus, who did you say He was”
A 34 year old..”I am to tied up with my children, ball games, soccer, work, just to tired for Jesus right now and besides that you all are hypocrites.”
A 45 year old..”I am to tired after working all week, and I have a race to go to this weekend and a football game next weekend.”
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A 50 year old…”I am to worried right now, man retirement and grandkids”
A 62 year old….”God, well I don’t know what you want from me but tell Him I am just to tired.”
An 80 year old…”I did not need Him the past 80 years.”
And then comes death sometime unexpected in the 20’s – 60’s and then the excuses we have made turn into sorrow for family members as they know your excuse for not accepting Christ as Savior has turned to a firey ending of Hell.
Let me ask you these questions. Saved or unsaved….When it comes to making decisions about or for Christ, about or for your church relationship think about this…
Your house is on fire, do you stay in it or leave?
You have a deadly disease, do you treat it or not?
Most would answer to leave and treat. But when it comes to our soul we treat it like it is second class. Let me tell you what Matthew says about the soul. Matthew 10:28 states, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
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If you are not saved and you know that it will take Christ to save you from Hell why delay. If you are saved and church and God are second class, but you know that these two
combined will make life easier to live, why keep making excuses against both?
The second excuse we like to offer is..”I Don’t know enough.”
You know that statement is true. You don’t know enough when you are unsaved, but once you ask Jesus into your heart as your Savior, you gain instant knowledge of the saving power that Jesus has just performed in your life. I hear this excuse all the time. I don’t know enough about this or that. Ask someone else. It does not just apply to those yet saved, but even those saved who shun away God in areas of service in the church by saying, “I don’t know enough.”
Saved or not…being a Christian is a path that is in constant growth. A lot of folks may quote you scripture they may tell you something about the Bible and God, but you do not have the saving eternal knowledge of Christ and God’s Word until you become saved by Jesus Christ.
So preacher what you are telling me is I can be saved without much knowledge. That’s exactly what I am saying…Most people are saved after one Bible lesson, after
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one prayer, after one encounter with someone that can lead them to Christ either inside or outside of a church’s walls.
No phd or dr. degree required…
All you have to have is the conviction on your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, that He offered Himself upon the Cross so that each of us may receive the benefits of His Salvation and everlasting life with Him in Heaven.
It is simple – Believe in Christ
Repent of your sins
Confess your faith in Jesus Christ by asking Him to be your Savior.
That’s all, no exam, no book work, just you and God!
So what about those who know enough…?
-I want to wait until I know I can live that Christian life or I am not good enough to be a Christian so I will wait until I can improve….
How many have said this or know someone who has said this?
This is because some folks believe that they are suppose to be the most perfect and most mature Christian there is at once if they become saved. Unfortuantely they are looking at those who have been Christian’s for many years, one is
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not realizing that maturity of a Christian evolves over a lifetime once saved and is by no means instant.
Remember as a Christian one grows gradually and it takes time to develop into a mature Christian.
But the excuse to not ask Jesus to be your Savior because you gotta improve is crazy because you can not live the Christian life without Christ, therefore you never will have the chance to improve.
To wait until all is right to ask Jesus as your Savior is like putting the cart before the horse, or spending the paycheck before you have earned it.
Now, my favorite excuse for not becoming saved and for those who are saved that decide to stay home from church is …- THERE ARE HYPOCRITES IN THE CHURCH!!
Wake up – you are being a hypocrite and they exist everywhere. The exist at PTA meetings, they exist at the athletic clubs, they exist at the local coffee houses, they exist at the bars, and schools, they exist in your families. They even exist at the football and basket ball game arenas. But, does that stop you from watching the game?
Two wrongs don’t make a right. Calling one a hypocrite is just as sinful as being one…
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Like me ask you this if you are not saved…Is it better to be with a few hypocrites in the church a few years, or is it better to stay away and spend eternity forever in hell with all the hypocrites? I ask the same for those who use the hypocrite line to stay away from church that are saved as well.
Jesus did not stay away from the hypocrite and neither should you. If you are letting a hypocrite come between you being saved, or those saved from coming to church than you have let the hypocrite become bigger than God. And you have let the hypocrite block you from your joy of God.
And the final excuse that keep folks from being saved or coming to church is….-I want to wait for my husband, wife, or children.
Folks that is cool and commendable but,
How is putting your salvation on line for your family going to save you. And if you only come to church to worship God when your family comes how is that going to grow your relationship with God?
Are you really helping your family by waiting to come to Jesus for Salvation? NO, Are you really helping your family by waiting for them to come to church with you if
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you are already saved? NO. You are hurting your potential of everlasting life with Jesus if you put off Salvation for
sake of waiting for your family, and if you put off Church because your family won’t come you are putting off God!
Did you ever stop to think if this may be you that your family may actually be waiting on you to make the move to Christ first?
1st Peter 3:1-2 tells us what our obedience to the Lord by worshipping Him and following His ways could do for our other family members and those watching us.
“Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” (NIV)
And you could interchange wives with husbands as well.
But, a key to remember when we go to stand before the Lord, we will be doing so as an individual not as a group. We each will have to answer to God for our actions not those of our family or the one’s we were waiting on to make a move for God. And family as much as we each love our families, do not let them be the cause of you losing your soul to the devil, or you losing your fellowship with Christ and other believers here on earth and in church.
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Don’t make excuses, don’t wait on your family, don’t wait because of what people may think of you.
Yes, there is many more excuses we can add to this list for not obeying Christ. And what it all boils down to is the fact that no excuse can justify our ways and actions of putting off asking Jesus to be our Savior, or an excuse for not attending Church and other worship opportunities at this Church.
What are you waiting for? Why do you put off Jesus? Why do we make excuses for not attending?
The choice is yours, excuse Jesus out of your life, or invite Him to be your Savior? And if you are saved excuses you make for not being in church or following through with the commandments of Jesus are just that nothing but excuses.
