Pharaoh The Frog Lover

Happy Sunday. Our lesson today comes from the eth chapter of the book of Exodus. You may know this story pretty well. I am still baffled by parts of it.

In chapter 7, Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and demand he let the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. To show that God really meant business, Moses called down the first of 10 plagues in chapter 7. All the water was turned into blood. Today, as we continue our focus on personal revival, we look at plague number two.

I begin in Exodus 8:1. Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go back to Pharaoh and announce to him," This is what the Lord says. "Let my people go so they can worship me. If you refuse to let them go, I will send a plague of frogs across your entire land.

The Nile River will swarm with frogs. They will come up out of the river and into your palace, even into your bedroom and onto your bed. They will enter the houses of your officials and your people. They will even jump into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

Frogs will jump on you, your people, and all your officials. Yuck. It all happened as promised. Frogs invaded Egypt.

Can you imagine the sound, the smell, frogs everywhere, no escape. In verse 8, Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron to please take the frogs away. He promised he would let God's people out of captivity. Moses asked Pharaoh when he would like to be frogfree.

And we find the answer in verse 10 of Exodus 8. Now, you may want to look this one up yourself to make sure that I'm not making this up. This is one baffling section of scripture to me. What was Pharaoh's answer to the question?

When do you want the frogs gone? Pharaoh said, "Do it tomorrow." Can you believe the answer? Wouldn't you say, "Right this second, make the frogs go away now."

But Pharaoh says, "Tomorrow." Is he a frog lover? Did he like the squishing sound as he walked through the palace? It is puzzling.

It's likely he hoped his magicians would be able to get rid of the frogs on their own so that he would take all the power from Moses and from the God of Israel, but they couldn't. Pharaoh made his people live with the frogs for another day. It's sad. It's also sad that Christian people choose tomorrow for things that should be done today.

People say things like, you know, I'll be a better spouse tomorrow. I'll be baptized tomorrow. I'm going to start reading my Bible tomorrow. I'll start back to church tomorrow.

I'll start to pray tomorrow. You get the point. If you want revival, if you want spiritual growth to come, you'd better think about the right now. In sermons past, we have looked at the seven deadly sins.

Number one at the top is on the list is sloth. Laziness waiting for tomorrow. I love this definition. Sloth is the demonic tendency to remain where we are when we ought to be moving on to do those things which we know will provide deliverance from the pain of our existence.

Let me repeat that definition. sloth is the demonic tendency to remain where we are when we ought to be moving on to do those things which we know will provide deliverance from the pain of our existence. Through the years, I have known people that were willing to live with a horrible situation because they waited for tomorrow and revival and relief never came. It's been a while since I've eaten at a Texas roadhouse.

If you have been, you know that when you walk in, they give you a bucket of roasted peanuts in the shell to enjoy while you wait. You eat peanuts while you wait for your table. And then they call you to your table and you eat peanuts while you wait for your server. And then your server comes and takes your order and you eat peanuts while you wait for your food.

And finally, when the food arrives, you may not be so hungry for the steak because, well, you're full of peanuts. Do not settle for peanuts. Do not settle for peanuts in your spiritual life. Go for the best.

Do it today. Maybe you should go get your Bible and dust it off and read it. Maybe you should pray. Maybe you should make that call that you've been putting off.

Maybe you should forgive someone or seek forgiveness for some from someone. Maybe there's something you should not just put away. Not tomorrow. today.

Pray with me. God, thank you for new days and the opportunity that this day brings for us to grow spiritually. Part of that steps watching this, listening to this, and I thank you for each one friends all over and some I don't know, but I thank you for each one. And I pray your rich blessings on them today.

Lord God, through your spirit, speak to us in Jesus name. Amen. God bless. Thanks for joining me.