URGENCY
We
live in a society that wants immediate gratification. (microwave
ovens -vs- stove;
TV
-vs- reading; credit cards -vs- layaway; etc.)
Delayed
gratification is good -BUT- sometimes urgency
must prevail.
Acts
16:23-34 Because
Paul cast an evil spirit
out of a possessed slave girl and
cost her masters their means of
profit - brought them before
the
magistrates under a false charge -
they were beaten
and put Paul &
Silas in prison.
vs.
33 "And
he took them the
same hour of the night
and washed their stripes. And immediately
he and all his family were baptized."
CONTRAST
Lk.
12:16-21 Rich
fool was not so urgent.
LIFE
IS TOO SHORT TO WASTE IT
Jas.
4:13-15 "Come
now, you who say, 'Today or
tomorrow we will go to such and
such
a city, spend a year there, buy
and sell, and make a profit'; [14]
whereas
you do not know what will
happen tomorrow. For what is
your
life? It is even a vapor that
appears for a little time and then
vanishes
away. [15]
Instead you
ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we
shall
live and do this or that.'"
DELAY
CAN CAUSE INDIFFERENCE & STAGNATION
Heb.
3:12-15 Exhort one another TODAY so as
not to harden
your heart.
Eph.
5:15-16 "See
then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools but as wise, [16]
redeeming
the time,
because the
days are evil."
Heb.
5:12-6:2 By this time have we grown as we
should have (Teachers?)
Rom.
13:11-ff "...Now is the time..." We have
wasted enough
time
Let's
ACT (LIVE
RIGHTEOUSLY NOW)
PAUL'S
CONVERSION - WITHOUT DELAY
Acts
22:16 "And
now why are you waiting? Arise
and be baptized, and wash
away
your sins, calling on the name of
the Lord."
ETHIOPIAN
EUNUCH'S CONVERSION - WITHOUT DELAY
Acts
8:36-39 "See, here is water, what HINDERS
me from being baptized?"
He
could have waited until he got home. He was in the DESERT
(vs.26)
2
Cor. 6:1-2 Don't
receive the grace
of God in
vain.
(Tit
2:11)
TODAY
is the day of salvation
