Review / Introduction:
How to Miss Your Opportunity to Receive Christ:
- Don't Apply what you learn. (Acts 24:24-25a)
Hebrews 10:26-27 - For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
- Keep Putting if off. (Acts 24:25b)
- Care more about Lesser things. (Acts 24:26-27)
Hebrews 3:7-8 - Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts..."
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:35-00:38
…to the book of Acts chapter 24.
00:40-00:42
Book of Acts chapter 24.
00:43-00:53
While you're turning there, following false accusations of bringing Greeks into the temple in Jerusalem.
00:54-00:59
The apostle Paul was taken into Roman custody and he was sent to Caesarea.
00:59-01:02
And last week we saw trial.
01:03-01:09
Paul was on trial before the Roman governor of Judea, Felix.
01:11-01:16
He was accused of breaking Roman law, he caused his riots.
01:16-01:21
He was accused of breaking Jewish law, and he was accused of breaking God's law.
01:22-01:27
Paul made his defense and proved his innocence.
01:28-01:43
While you're turning there, several years ago in our prison ministry there was a young man, his name was Klaus, and he looked extremely out of place being in prison, quite honestly.
01:45-01:46
Way too young.
01:47-01:53
And I remember in our weekly Bible study, there were weeks that he would be the only person that showed up.
01:53-01:55
It would just be him and I.
01:55-02:05
And he had a Bible that he was constantly reading and studying, and he came hanging on every single word.
02:06-02:12
You know, if you've ever done a Bible study or a small group, you've ever given a sermon, you can tell who's tuned in and who's not.
02:13-02:13
That's just reality.
02:14-02:17
Klaus was tuned in to every single word.
02:18-02:20
On the edge of his seat, Bible open.
02:21-02:27
And one particular week he asked me a question, I'll never forget this.
02:29-02:32
He said, "There's a question I've really been struggling with.
02:33-02:47
Is it possible to reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the point that you've gone too far and you can't get saved?" And I said, "Yes.
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Biblically there is.
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I don't know when that is, only God does, but Hebrews 6 talks about this and I walked him through that.
02:55-03:15
I said, "The problem is not that God has rejected you, the problem is you've hardened your heart so much from constantly saying no to God that you've put yourself in a position where you're so hard-hearted you don't care anymore." And we spent a long time talking about that.
03:16-03:27
And again, hanging on every word, and he, tears in his eyes, he said, "I worry about that, Pastor Jeff, I worry about that." And I said, "Well, I got good news for you, because if you're worried about it, it hasn't happened to you.
03:27-03:30
If you're worried about it, that means your heart isn't so hard.
03:31-03:36
The hard-hearted person doesn't care." So that's good news.
03:36-03:39
Well, a couple weeks later, I'm going back into Bible study.
03:40-03:54
We were rounding up the inmates to come and I said, "Hey, where's our friend Klaus?" And they said, "Well, he got out two Fridays ago." I'm like, "Oh, like the punk?
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He was supposed to call me when he got out because I told him I was going to try to help him get on his feet and get things going." And it got real awkward for a second.
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They said, "Oh, you didn't hear?" I said, "No, I didn't hear." They said he died the day he got out.
04:10-04:12
And I think about him often.
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What happened to him?
04:15-04:18
Did he ever come to the point that he received Christ?
04:20-04:25
Or by his own admission did he keep putting Christ off?
04:25-04:34
Did he harden his heart because he refused to turn over to Jesus Christ?
04:34-04:46
You see, we're going through this theme this year of "I will not fear." We've seen a lot of messages here in Acts about things that we should not fear because of our confidence being in the Lord.
04:46-04:55
But today, we're going to do something a little different because today in our passage, I'm going to show you one thing that you absolutely should fear.
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So the title of today's message is "I should fear." I should fear lack of urgency.
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Because today in this passage, we're going to see a man who missed salvation because he had no gospel urgency.
05:13-05:17
Look at Acts 24, picking up in verse 22.
05:17-05:19
Again, this is right after the trial.
05:20-05:21
Paul proved his innocence.
05:22-05:23
Here's the result.
05:24-05:56
It says, "But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge way, meaning he knew about Christianity, put them off, saying, "When Lysias the Tribune comes down, I will decide your case." Then he gave orders to the centurion that he, Paul, should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
05:58-06:04
So Felix stalled, your Bible says he put them off, that's actually a legal term.
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It means adjourning a hearing.
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Do you see what he says?
06:09-06:21
He's like, "When Lysaeus the Tribute comes down, I will decide your case." Like dude, he already sent a letter with Paul, which had no evidence that Paul did anything wrong.
06:21-06:23
That's in 23 verse 26.
06:24-06:26
So Felix, this is your plan really.
06:26-06:38
You're just going to keep an innocent man in custody, so you're going to stall and we'll keep him in custody and we'll just wait and maybe we'll...
06:38-06:39
Why did he do that?
06:41-06:57
Well, understand, Felix was in a tough spot politically, because here you have an innocent man, an obviously innocent man that we can't punish or condemn because he was a Roman citizen.
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The Romans certainly would have come down on him for that.
07:00-07:02
But if Felix would have said, "Well, this guy's innocent.
07:02-07:15
Just let him go." All these Jewish men were furious with Paul because of him preaching the gospel, and they would have certainly revolted against Felix.
07:16-07:21
So he was, you could say he was trapped between justice and popularity.
07:23-07:29
And this year as we've been talking about, "I will not fear, I will not fear, I will not fear." Well, Felix, he feared.
07:31-07:36
And his fear led him to miss his opportunity.
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Today we have a warning for you.
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I want you to look at Felix.
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If you haven't received Christ, if you haven't gotten serious about God in your own walk, you need to absorb every word that the Bible has for you today, okay?
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Yeah, God knows your heart.
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But if you're sitting here today, yeah, I'm gonna get serious about God, I'm gonna get serious, yeah, I've really been thinking about getting, I know I need to get right with God, I know it.
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Well, you need to listen very, very, very closely today.
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He gives the message, jot this down, you have an outline, jot this down.
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This is how to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.
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And boy, Felix, he just, he nails this stuff, unfortunately.
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But here's how to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.
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Number one, here's how you're going to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.
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Don't apply what you learn.
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Don't apply what you learn.
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Look at verses 24, first part of 25.
08:39-08:45
Okay, so we saw in verse 23, Paul was in custody, but he wasn't shackled in a dungeon.
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It was more of a house arrest type thing.
08:49-08:53
His friends could come and he could have everything that he needed, but he wasn't allowed to go anywhere.
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Verse 24 says, "After some days, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, And he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus." Actually in the Greek, the definite article is there, so it's literally, "He heard him speak about the faith in Christ Jesus." It says, "And he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment." Stop there for a second.
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Felix's wife, Drusilla.
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A little background, you can study this out.
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It's just an interesting story if you have the time.
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But Felix married her when she was only 16.
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Under some pretty shady and wicked circumstances.
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He actually threw this sorcerer and all these other, you know, this goofy magic man took her away from her current husband.
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And she was actually his third wife.
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So there was a lot of really wicked and shaky circumstances that he took this woman to be his wife.
10:11-10:16
And she's actually the daughter of Herod from Acts chapter 12.
10:16-10:17
You remember Herod from Acts 12?
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He was the guy that's like, "Look how awesome I am." And everybody's like, "Oh, he speaks like such a God." And he thought he was too sexy for his shiny, remember he had the shiny coat?
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And the Bible says that an angel of the Lord struck him and killed him.
10:33-10:37
He was eaten by worms and he died because he refused to give God glory.
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Instead thought he was something.
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Well, that guy was Drusilla's dad.
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All right?
10:45-10:49
So it says here in your Bible that Paul reasoned with Felix.
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I want you to see these three things he shared with him.
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He reasoned about, first of all, righteousness and self-control and coming judgment. What's righteousness?
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First of all, that's God's holy standard. Righteousness. That means there are some things that are morally right and morally wrong. That's righteousness.
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That's the first thing that Paul shared with Felix. And you can understand now, I gave you that little bit of background so you understand, Felix wasn't exactly He's basically choir boy.
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So Paul's like, listen man, there's a God who determines right and wrong.
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There's a God who says there are some things that are sin, and there are some things that are righteousness, and there's a standard, and he preached that.
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And the second thing is he preached self-control.
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Literally, that's restraining your passions and your appetites.
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In other words, it's saying - this is going to sound so foreign, so I want you to try to track with me here - it's saying no to sin.
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That's what self-control is.
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It's saying no to sin.
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This is wrong.
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I shouldn't do it, so I'm not going to do it.
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And we live in a culture today - that's such a crazy concept, isn't it?
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Say no to sin?
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But I want it!
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I'm going to have it!
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That's self-control.
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Felix obviously did not have.
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By nature we're like animals.
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We're driven by our desires, you know, like my dog.
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When my dog wants something, he'll just take it.
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He'll do what he wants, what he feels like.
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He doesn't weigh the, is this right, is this wrong?
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He's just governed by his belly.
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Complete lack of self-control.
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And then he gives him the bad news.
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It says he reasoned with them about the coming judgment.
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In other words, it's the result of failing, failing to get on board with God's righteousness and the call to self-control.
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So the bottom line of Paul's message to Felix, you can sum it up in three words, right?
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That you need Jesus.
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That's what he would say, you need Jesus.
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God demands righteousness.
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You're a sinner and you have a problem.
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But here's the good news.
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When you turn from your sin and you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says God gives you the gift of his Holy Spirit.
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That is the presence of God living inside you.
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And he changes you.
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He gives you new appetites.
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He gives you self-control.
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That's a fruit of the Spirit.
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He gives you the ability to say no to sin.
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And he cancels judgment when you receive Jesus Christ.
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God in His courtroom says, "Not guilty." Forever eternally not guilty.
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And nothing can overturn that verdict.
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And that was the message that Paul was preaching to Felix.
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So you would think, let's just stop here for a second, like you would think, okay, if you, like some of you probably read this, and like, even if you read ahead, what a cheater, and you might know what's coming, but at this point you would think, here's the greatest preacher since Jesus Christ himself.
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Like in the entire history of the church, as Felix's personal preacher, and he's like laying it all out for him, this is the gospel, you would think it's like, okay, sackcloth and ashes, repentance, here we go, Felix says, "I'm going to get saved." Right?
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Look at the next statement in your Bible.
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It says, "Felix was alarmed." Felix was alarmed.
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It alarmed him, but it didn't convict him.
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In other words, Felix knew he was guilty.
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But he went no further.
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That's a common problem, by the way.
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That happens every week in this church.
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It happens every week in the church across the street, or whatever church you listen to, where the preacher's broadcast on the radio or online.
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It happens everywhere.
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The people are sitting in church, people are sitting here right now, like, you know what, I need to get serious about my walk with Jesus.
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Yes, I need to get serious about, you're right, I gotta stop playing around, I gotta get serious about my walk with Jesus.
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And yeah, I'm guilty, and I realize I'm guilty, and I need to stop doing this, and I need to cut off this relationship, and I need to stop sneaking around with this hiding this and I need to do that." And you realize you're guilty, but you don't do anything about it.
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And you have to understand that knowing isn't enough.
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It has to be joined with faith.
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That's what faith is.
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Some people think faith is just, "I understand some Bible facts." And that's not faith.
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Faith is really, there's three levels.
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And the first one is, yeah, you do have to know the facts.
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But secondly, you have to agree with the facts.
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But biblically it's not real faith until you get to the third step, which is you rest your life on the facts that you know.
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Some of you, if you've been at this church any amount of time, you've heard me share this before.
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To illustrate, it's like a chair.
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If I said to you, "This chair here will hold a person that sits down on it." Now that's the first level of faith.
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Now you have information, right?
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You're like, "Ok, he told me something.
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He told me this chair would hold a person." Ok, the second level is agreeing with the facts.
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you're sitting here looking at it, and you're like, well, it looks a lot like the one I'm sitting in right now.
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And yeah, you know what, I agree with you.
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I do agree with you.
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That looks like that would hold a person that sat down on it.
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Those are the first two levels, but understand that we're still not biblically at faith yet.
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What is biblical faith?
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Biblical faith is when you sit down in a chair and say, because I know something, and because I agree with it, I'm going to rest my life in the truth of it.
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That's biblical faith.
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You acted on what you know and agree with.
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But too many Christians, or not Christians yet, I should say, too many church goers - that's the word I was looking for, thank you - too many church goers are sitting in church, and they think they're fine with levels 1 and 2.
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I know and agree.
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Yep, I'm guilty, I'm guilty, I do need Jesus.
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And you're no different than Felix.
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Your sin has alarmed you, that hasn't convicted you to the point that you're willing to rest in Christ and act on what you know.
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Knowing isn't enough.
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Do you know what the Gospel calls you to do?
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Turn from your sin.
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Turn from your demand to be the ruler of your life and turn to Jesus Christ.
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Bow to His lordship and allow Him to change you.
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It can happen today, you know.
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You can pray today, "Lord, I am done playing games.
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I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
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Please God, save me and change me." That can happen today.
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I have to warn you, what the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 10.26-27, look at these words.
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He says, "For if we go on sinning deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." You know what that's saying?
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Here's the short version.
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The short version is this.
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God doesn't have plan B.
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If you continue to sin, it's not like God says, "Well, she hasn't received Jesus, so let's go with this other plan that I have." There is no plan B. So, the first way you can miss your opportunity to receive Christ is to not apply what you learn.
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Just be like Felix.
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"Yeah, you're right.
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This is alarming to me.
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Yes, I am a sinner.
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Very concerned about that.
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Not mixed with faith.
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act on what he knew. Secondly, how can you miss your opportunity? I think this is a pretty obvious one from the text. And boy, is it obvious in the church. Keep putting it off.
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Keep putting it off. Look what Felix says, the rest of verse 25. "Felix was alarmed and "Go away for the present.
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When I get an opportunity, I will summon you." When I get around to it, I'd like to hear some more about this.
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And somebody right now is like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, I get it.
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I'm a sinner.
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I get it.
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Listen, I'm going to get around to following Jesus.
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I'm going to get around to it." My question is, "When?
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When?
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your plan? Because for some people they think it's just next stage of life, right?
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"Well I'm in high school now and you know maybe when I get to college and when you're in college I'm way too busy with work and studies and then when you know when I get when I get married and then when you're married you're like well I you know I'm gonna focus on my career and I don't have time but when we have kids and, or insert your excuse here. But listen, as we talk about opportunity, I need to tell you something about opportunity. Two things actually. You have it right now, but You may never have it again.
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It's like the guy I shared the gospel with, he's just starting to understand, he was like at level one.
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He said, "So wait a minute, what you're telling me is, if I prayed and received Jesus Christ on my deathbed, I would go to heaven." I said, "Well, yeah, technically that is true.
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If you were on your deathbed and you prayed to receive Jesus, yes, you would go to heaven.
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And he said, "Well, I'll just do that then." And I said, "No, you won't." He's like, "What do you mean, no, I won't?" I said, "Well, there's two problems with that plan.
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There's two problems.
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The first problem is you don't have the guarantee of a deathbed." You know, I think we like to idealize that in our own minds.
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Do you know how I'm going to die?
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I'm gonna be 120 years old, I'm gonna be at my house, and my family's gonna be around the bed, and they're all gonna be holding hands, and they're gonna be singing Amazing Grace, and I'm just gonna take my last breath, just very peacefully, with the angels, go to heaven.
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And they're gonna light a candle or something, and it's gonna be like right out of a Hallmark movie.
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Do you know how often that happens?
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Look, being in pastoral ministry over 20 years, part of the job is funerals and being with people in moments of death and such, and I can tell you on great authority, that is extremely rare.
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Extremely rare!
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So that's your first problem.
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You have no guarantee of a deathbed, but here's the other problem.
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It gets back to what we talked about earlier.
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So I said to this man, "Okay, let me give you this." I told the man, "I'll give you that you're gonna live "to be 120 and you're gonna be in your deathbed "and your family's gonna be around you." I'm like, "How old are you now?" And he's like, "I can't remember." He was like mid-30s or whatever.
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I'm like, "Okay, so that means you have decades "of saying no to Jesus Christ.
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"Think about that.
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"Decades of saying no to God, "decades of shutting God out of your life, and decades of rejecting God, and you mean to tell me when you're 120 years old and you're laying in your deathbed, "All of a sudden, my heart is so open and tender to the things of the Lord." Like, no, that's not going to happen.
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You're going to be so hard-hearted and so callous, you're not going to give a rip about God on that day.
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So that's a bad plan.
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We could go around the room today, and I'm sure every single person in this room could tell stories of death coming too soon and too suddenly.
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Car accidents and motorcycle accidents and weight lifting accidents and accidents at work, sudden health issues like a heart attack or a stroke, or we could go on and on and on.
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You have opportunity right now that you might not ever have again.
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We're going to see here in just a second, Felix had two years.
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Two years!
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You have no idea how much time you have.
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You have no idea.
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This could be your last day on the earth.
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That's why Hebrews 3, verses 7-8, actually if you read Hebrews 3 and 4, he says it like what, like four times in the same little passage.
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Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.
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I don't know how much time you have, but you have today.
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Do you want to gamble your eternity?
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But then just be like Felix then.
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That's a great way to miss your opportunity.
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Just keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off.
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Then finally, here's how to miss your opportunity to receive Jesus Christ, to receive salvation, to receive the promise of heaven.
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Here's a surefire way.
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Number three, care more about lesser things.
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Care more about lesser things.
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Okay, so back in the text, Felix is like, "Okay, Paul, go away.
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"And when I get some time or whatever, I'll get you and we'll talk some more about this.
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Verse 26, look at this, "At the same time, he, Felix, hoped that money would be given him by Paul.
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So he sent for him often and conversed with him.
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When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus.
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And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
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Here's another surefire way to miss your opportunity to receive Christ.
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Be distracted with lesser things.
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Just consider the temporary, ultimately useless things of the earth to be more of a priority than being right with God and having the promise of heaven.
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That's what Felix did.
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Did you see the two lesser things that he was more concerned?
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In reverse order, look at verse 27 again.
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Says "Desiring to do the Jews a favor, he left Paul in prison." He wanted to please people.
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He was more concerned about popularity.
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More concerned about what people think than what God thinks.
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If you don't want to be serious about following Jesus Christ because of what your friends might think.
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Listen, it is never going to be popular to follow Jesus Christ.
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It's not gonna happen.
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It's not gonna be popular.
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You will be swimming against the current.
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It's not going to make you popular.
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So given the choice, Felix says, I think I'd rather be popular.
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But you see, here's another problem.
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Look at verse 26.
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It says, "At the same time, he, Felix, hoped that money would be given him by Paul." Why in the world would he think that?
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Do you remember back in verse 17, Paul had already revealed why he was in Jerusalem in the first place, do you remember?
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He said, "I came to Jerusalem bringing an offering for the poor." So Felix is like, "Paul has access to money." But for two years, let's be honest, how annoyed do you think Paul was after two years of this?
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Felix sends for him and Paul comes to him and Felix is like, "Hey, Paul, how are we doing today?"
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(Paul coughs)
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Paul's like, "Do you have a cough?" "No, no, no, I'm, no."
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(Paul coughs)
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"No, I'm fine." "Well, what's wrong with your hand?
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Why is it twitching?" "Uh..." was happening. For two years Felix was like, "So Paul, let's talk. You want to talk about Jesus?" "No, no, I was kind of thinking, I'm really interested in the kind of work that you... tell me about that money that you brought and how I can get some of that." And he's like, "Well, wasn't taking a bribe illegal?" "Yeah, obviously. But don't miss the point. Some people want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus. I'm going to say that again. There might be some people sitting here like that today. Some people want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus. All the stories Aaron and I could tell. You would miss the Steeler game tonight if we started talking about all the stories, the things that we have seen. Not just in this church, any church where I've served. Any church. It's just amazing to me that people who have never seen me and have never even seen the inside of the church and couldn't even point on a map to where the church is located, call the church, call me. They're like, "Hi, yes, I saw your church website and I was looking through your church website and I'm like how can I help you yeah I need you to pay my rent like is that on our website click here to get your rent paid I just don't understand that hello pastor I don't know of a church that I never ever ever ever will go to can you mail me a check and pay my electric bill like that doesn't really happen does that happen constantly It happens.
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Oh, we could tell you stories.
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You know, hello, pastor of a church I've never been to.
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I need toys for my grandkids for Christmas.
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A common one is food.
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That's a real common one.
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Not, I should take that back, not food, food vouchers.
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We used to keep bags of food at the office.
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I remember one time these two young girls came in, they're like, we're starving, and we got babies that are starving, and we just need some food vouchers.
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And I'm like, this is great.
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I said, stay right here, I'm gonna help you out.
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Ran up to my office, had two giant bags of groceries, and I'm like, here you go.
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The look on their face was like I was handing them a dead kitten.
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They were just like, what's that?
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I'm like, it's bags of groceries.
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And they're like, don't you have any food vouchers?
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Like, you can't eat a food voucher, here's real food.
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They were back the next day.
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They're like, "Yeah, we're starving and stuff, "and our babies are starving, I guess, and stuff, "and we need food vouchers." Like, "What happened to all those groceries "I gave you yesterday?" "Oh, no, we need vouchers." We don't eat like that giant eagle food or whatever.
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This has happened a few times.
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It happened here just a month or two ago.
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I had somebody call and say, "Yeah, I found your website, got your number, "and I wanted to call you, "and I wonder, could you buy me some meat?" And I'm like, "Golly, that's a specific request." True story.
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"Can you buy me some meat?" I said, "I'll tell you what we'll do." I said, "You come to church on Sunday, "we'll go over to Giant Eagle afterwards, "and I will buy you some meat." "No, I can't do that." "Why can't you?" "But can't you just like, you know, send me money now?" Like, "No, I don't really have any way of sending you money now, but if you come to church, I will personally take you over afterwards and we'll go grocery shopping.
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I'll get you whatever you want." "No, no, I can't do that.
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Every time I've offered that, I get turned down every single time." You're like, "Pastor Jeff, you are so calloused." Listen, I'm trying not to be cynical and I'm trying not to be jaded.
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And our leadership will tell you, my wife will tell you, we try to help as many people as we can.
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We really do.
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I just find it so interesting with the people that we help when we share the gospel with them.
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The only way I can describe it is, do you remember that like in the cartoons, when the cartoon character runs through the wall, there's like a perfect shape of him on the wall, even like his hair outline?
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That's what happens when I try to share the gospel with a lot of people.
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Like, here's the groceries, can I tell you about the eternal difference Jesus Christ can make in your life?
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Gone.
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And it's just a modern day feelings, right?
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I want something from the church as long as it's not Jesus.
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And how many people, all the stories we could tell you.
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We give and we give and we give, And as soon as we say, "You know, we don't have any more to give you right now." They're gone.
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"Stick around as long as I can get what I want from the church as long as it's not Jesus." So the message to Felix is the message for any modern day Felix that's listening here or listening to this online or whatever.
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God is not going to settle for second or third priority in your life.
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He's everything or he's nothing to you.
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Those are really the only two choices you have concerning Jesus Christ.
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He's everything to you or he's nothing to you.
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Verse 27 tells us that after he was succeeded by Porteous Festus, it's awfully nice the way Luke phrased that.
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Actually Nero grabbed Felix by the scruff of his neck and the seat of his pants and showed him the door the hard way.
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that after he was succeeded, Felix vanished from history, and there was zero evidence that he ever came to Jesus Christ.
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I was thinking about that this week.
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Zero evidence he came to Christ, and let's assume that based on the Bible, based on secular history, because you know if he came to Christ, Luke would be all over reporting that, right?
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But I was thinking this week, what excuse do you think Felix had before God?
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When he stood before God, What do you think he said?
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Do you think Felix said, "I didn't know"?
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Do you think he said that?
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"Well, I didn't know about Jesus." Do you think Felix said, "Oh, you know what, Lord?
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I was gonna, I was gonna." And I can just hear the Lord saying, "I had my missionary sitting on the porch with you for two years and you didn't.
35:59-36:00
You wasted your opportunity.
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Listen, I'm telling you all of this because I love you, okay?
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And I don't want you to think I'm a mean person just because I ask people requesting meat to come to church.
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But I'm telling you this because I love you.
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You don't have an excuse either.
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So I'm begging you, if you would bow your heads with me.
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I'm begging you, if you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, maybe you have known about Jesus.
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Maybe you're sitting here even agreeing with the message about Jesus, but you haven't personally turned from your sin and turned to Jesus.
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Today is the day.
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Everybody else, maybe you have, maybe you know somebody that's like a modern day Felix.
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Today can be a new day.
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I wanna encourage you to pray.
37:07-37:14
Maybe you're sitting here today and you're saying, you know what, Lord, I have known for a long time who you are, but I haven't acted on faith.
37:16-37:27
Maybe you're sitting here today saying, You know God, I've been feeling for a long time like I need to get right with you, but I've just been putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, and I don't know why I keep putting it off.
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I don't know why I think tomorrow is gonna be a better day than today to get right with you.
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I'm sure there are some people here right now say, you know what God, I know.
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I have put some things, some lesser things ahead of you.
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Maybe you're saying, you know, God, maybe I've been like Felix and I've cared more about what people think than what you think.
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Maybe there's some people here that are saying, you know, I've cared more about money and stuff and my job than I've cared about you.
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I've cared more about my secret sin than I've cared about you.
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I've cared more about getting my own way than I've cared about allowing you to be the Lord of my life.
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Today can be the day for you.
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Cry out to God.
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In just a moment, we're going to close the service and worship, and as always, there's going to be a prayer, people from the prayer team, rather, backed by the giant sign that says, "Pray." You can come for prayer for any reason, but especially today, like, you know, I need to receive Christ.
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I need to get serious.
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I need somebody to talk to and I need somebody to pray with me about this.
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We will be so happy to do that.
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And if today is the day that you've received Christ, your next step is to boldly declare your faith baptism and you need to see me about that as soon as possible because our Baptism service is next week and you will have opportunity like in the book of Acts you will have opportunity Immediately to publicly declare your faith in Jesus Christ Father I lift up my brothers and sisters here. I Lift up everyone the father who knows you and follows you But especially today, Father, I lift up maybe some Felix's that are sitting here.
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People that haven't yet come to Christ for whatever reason.
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Father, I pray that today is the day of salvation.
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I pray, Father, that today is the day that lights come on because you, by your Holy Spirit, have renewed in them a sense of urgency.
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Father, we thank You for Your grace.
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You would be so gracious if You just offered salvation to us one time in our lives.
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But the fact that You give an open invitation, that even for the person that may be sitting here today who has said no to You 10,000 times before, they can say yes to You today.
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You don't hold it against them.
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You don't condemn.
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You welcome.
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Like a loving Father, thank You for Your grace, Father.
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Thank You for Your grace, Father.
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Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 24:22-27
Felix was alarmed when Paul shared with him (Acts 24:25). What's the difference between being alarmed and being convicted?
Why did Felix keep stalling in dealing with Paul (and the Gospel) (Acts 24:22, 25-27)? What is the danger of stalling? Read Hebrews 3:7-8.
What was your big "take-away" from this passage / sermon?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.