One More Night with the Frogs | Rev Michael Maupin
by Michael Maupin
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Exodus 8:8-10, Exodus 8:1-6, Jonah 1:17, Jonah 2:1, Mark 10:17-22, Luke 15:11-20, 2 Corinthians 6:2, James 4:13-14, Proverbs 27:1

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/michael-maupin--one-more-night-with-the-frogs
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
thank you pastor carpenter for that introduction uh humbled by it thank you for having me today give tremendous honor to bishop and first ladies carpenter love and appreciate them very much give honor to the erickson family the hammond family the carpenter family i was thinking how much this church means to this community this city but it goes outside of that this is a far-reaching church and i think only eternity can tell the story of what this church means not just here in maryville but all across the globe and i'm thankful for that impact but i'm also thankful as he already spoke about the impact that this church and ministry has had on the maupin family i believe we are where we are today because of fac knoxville and fac maryville and i'm thankful for what they invested in into our family and i appreciate them i don't know where i'd be today if it wasn't for the carpenter family and for them investing in my mother and i'm thankful for that today thank you all for being here missing all those that are at marriage retreat i'm thankful that the empty pews aren't because i'm preaching today i'm thankful for that but thank you for being here and brother tommy already told me i had 10 minutes so i better hurry and if you have your bibles turn with me to the book of exodus exodus the eighth chapter we'll read verses eight through ten i tried to talk god into letting me preach something different but i kept coming back to this so i feel like it must be for somebody that is here today exodus 8 and 8 then pharaoh called for moses and aaron and said and treat the lord that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people and i will let the people go that they may do sacrifices unto the lord and moses said unto pharaoh glory over me when shall i entreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and from thy house and that they may remain in the river only and he said tomorrow and he said be it according to thy word that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the lord our god pharaoh said i'm tired of all these frogs ask your god to get rid of the frogs moses said okay when do you want me to do that and pharaoh said tomorrow i want to preach to you this thought simple thought today one more night with the frogs would you set your bibles down lift your hands and hearts to heaven let's talk to god in this place lord we love you and we thank you for your power we thank you for your majesty we thank you for your glory we thank you for what you've already done in this place but god i know you're not through that god there's somebody you're wanting to touch there's somebody you're reaching for today god let us realize that right now is the time this very moment is our moment god let us not put off till tomorrow what we can do today anoint me to preach your word anoint your people to hear your word receive your word but most importantly god let them respond to your word and we give you praise for what you're going to do in the mighty matchless name of jesus we pray amen why don't you clap your hands one more time and shout to god with the voice of triumph hallelujah hallelujah thank you jesus thank you you may be seated backing up in that same chapter the lord spoke unto moses go to pharaoh and say unto him thus saith the lord let my people go that they may serve me and if thou refuse to let them go behold i will smite all the borders with frogs and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly which shall go up and come into thine house and into thy bed chamber and upon thy bed and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people and into thine ovens and into thy kneading trolls and the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants and the lord spake unto moses say unto aaron stretch forth on hand with thy rod over the streams over the rivers and over the ponds and caused frogs to come up upon the land of egypt and aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of egypt and the frogs came up and they covered the land of egypt there were frogs everywhere in every place in every home the bible says that they covered the land there was no place where they could go that there weren't frogs there was no escaping them it didn't matter if you were the pharaoh or a peasant you had frogs in your house didn't matter if you were high class or low class you had frogs in your house can you imagine if you would have woke up this morning and down by your feet you felt something moving around you pulled the covers back and there was a frog in the bed with you imagine as you go to the restroom the bathroom of your house and you look down in the toilet and there's frogs swimming in your toilet you go to wash your face and brush your teeth and there's a frog in your sink you go to open the cabinet in the kitchen to get your favorite box of cereal out and frogs jump out instead you open the refrigerator to get milk and there's fro everywhere you look there was frogs can you imagine the scene and pharaoh had had enough with the frogs so he calls for moses and says moses i am sick and tired of frogs and he says i need you to talk to your god the one who sent these frogs and ask him to remove them from my land ask them to remove them from my people and moses says okay i can do that when would you like for me to ask god to remove them and for some strange reason i can't understand it pharaoh says tomorrow why on earth wouldn't pharaoh say right now why wouldn't he say before i go to bed tonight i'm tired of sleeping with frogs why don't you ask him to do it right now but for whatever reason pharaoh said tomorrow was he getting used to the frogs did he like frog legs and he had the opportunity to have an all-you-can-eat buffet did his kids have them as pets maybe he pharaoh jr had a pet named kermit or something i don't know maybe he really didn't believe that god was the one who had done this miracle maybe he thought they would disappear on their own overnight and he could prove moses wrong that it really wasn't the god of the israelites that did it maybe he thought they were only there because of the first plague when god turned all the water to blood and it drove the frogs into the land whatever the reason we don't know for sure but he chose tomorrow instead of today he chose tomorrow instead of right now and a lot of us are shaking our head thinking what what a pharaoh must have been but you know what many of us we may not have frogs in our life but we have hurts we have sin we have addictions we have problems we have sicknesses we have pain we have suffering and we will be content to come to the house of god on a sunday morning with a god of all heaven looking down saying i'm ready to heal you i'm ready to deliver you i'm ready to lose the change in your life i'm ready when do you want to do this and we'll say well i'll wait until strong tower i waited till the next conference wait until tonight why not do it right now why not say i'm going out of this place healed i'm leaving this place delivered i'm leaving this place different than what i walked in this morning i've seen it happen time and time again people content coming to the house so i'm guilty of it myself knowing that god is here to touch us and we are content to say well if i don't get my miracle today there's always tonight if i don't get my miracle today there's always wednesday night there's always next sunday but i don't want to spend one more night with the frogs today and jonah 1-17 you all know the story jonah god tells jonah to go to nineveh to preach to a wicked people and know jonah does the exact opposite of what god tells him to do he gets on a ship and goes in the exact opposite direction he said i don't want to go down the nine of god now i believe there's there's three reasons why he didn't want to go to nineveh first of all he lets us know in scripture why he said god if i go preach to those people they'll repent so he had a pride problem he said well i'm such a powerful preacher that they're going to repent they're going to they're going to give their life back to you god and then he said you'll i know who you are god i know how you are you'll extend mercy to them and it'll make me look like a liar so there again is a pride issue i don't want you to go back on what i said you're going to destroy them and if you give them mercy and don't destroy them it makes me look like a false prophet and then so so he it was a pride issue plus it was god i don't want you to show mercy to those people they're evil they're not they they deserve to die and shame on us if we ever get that i call it the older brother mentality and the prodigal son when the prodigal came home and uh the older brother said well you know dad it's not fair that you're giving him a party you didn't do anything for me we need to understand if god showed us mercy we ought to rejoice when he shows someone else mercy i don't care how wicked they are i don't care how many times they've backslid i don't care how many times they've been in and out of the church if he gave you mercy if he gave me mercy i want to rejoice in the mercy of god today and you know another reason i believe the third reason why jonah didn't want to go to nineveh i think he didn't want to go there because they weren't like him they weren't they weren't a jew they weren't jews like he was they were different than him they they looked different than him they had different customs they had a different culture they dressed different from him and he looked down his self-righteous nose at those people in nineveh and said i don't want anything to do with those people now if we're here today and we do a self-examination of our life and we do a self-examination of our circle of influence and if everybody around me everybody in my youth group everybody in my circle of influence looks just like me dresses just like me and has the same skin color as i do then you know what i'm not reaching out past me in the animal kingdom if they don't go outside their own genetics and they start inbreeding with their own genetics eventually because of that inbreeding what happens is there's deformities that start happening and they're young when they're born and then eventually after generations of that they actually become sterile and can't reproduce and if we're not careful we'll become spiritually inbred because we won't reach outside of our own circle of influence and we'll start becoming having deformities in our life and we'll also end up having things that we can't control in our life and eventually we'll stop reproducing we'll stop winning souls so you need to reach outside of who you are today you need to reach out you need to go down to samaria like jesus did and say i'm going to go find somebody that don't look like me somebody that don't dress like me somebody that doesn't have the same skin color as me because that's what i'm supposed to do that's what i'm called to do today so jonah goes the opposite way and god in jonah 1-17 the lord prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah and jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights that ends jonah the first chapter and jonah the second chapter that literally the next verse says this then jonah prayed i don't know about you but if i was on a ship and a storm came i'd start praying if they decided that i was the reason for the storm and they lifted up a crane because that's what they'd need to get me out of the boat and pulled me up out of that boat and dropped me into the water i'd be praying as i sank in that deep dark water not knowing what's around me not what's what's going to happen to me i guarantee you i'd be praying if i looked in this big old fish this big old well opened his mouth and swallowed me i promise you i'd be praying if i found myself in the belly of a well seaweed half-eaten half-digested fish and sea creatures gastric juices and digestive enzymes all around me the smell can you only imagine promise you i'd be praying but the bible says jonah was three days and three nights in the well before he ever remembered god to pray jonah why didn't you pray a repentant prayer on the boat when it was tossed to and fro jonah why didn't you pray a repentant prayer when they threw you into the water why didn't you pray a repentant prayer when you saw the well getting ready to swallow you why didn't you pray a repentant prayer while you were laying there for three days and three nights in the belly of a well why did it take so long jonah and i've come to say to somebody here today if you've made mistakes don't wait three days and three nights to repent if the doctor gives you a bad doctor's report don't wait three days and three nights don't get a second opinion you go to the great physician and say i have need of a healing that no medicine can fit don't wait three days and three nights to get your deliverance don't wait another moment don't wait another second you need to give your life to god right now in mark the 10th chapter verse 17 when he was gone forth and away there came one running and kneeled to him and said good master what can i do to inherit eternal life jesus said you know the commandments he started listing them one by one and this man who came to jesus answered him and said master all of these have i observed from my youth and notice verse 21 and jesus beholding him loved him now we know jesus is love we know that he loves everyone but there's a few times in the bible where it specifically says that jesus loves somebody you know when i think jesus it wasn't just that he loved his soul he loved his resume he loved who this person was he loved the potential in this young man he saw something in him that he didn't see in peter and james and john and the rest of the 12. he saw something different about this guy this guy had a perfect reputation this guy had a resume that far outshined anybody he had ever come in contact with jesus loved him jesus looked at him and said this is the kind of person i've been looking for this is a future world changer this is somebody that i can use to do the miracle this is somebody that i'll in just a little while i'll have in an upper room and and when people when they get filled with the holy ghost and people here and and this maybe this will be the guy that i'll use to preach and and and when they're convicted maybe this will be the guy that'll stand up and quote acts 2 38 maybe this is what the guy that i've been looking for so jesus looks at him and beholding him loved him and he said one thing thou lack is go thy way sell whatever you have give it to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me jesus said you've done everything up to this point now i'm giving you a challenge sell everything you have give it to the poor take up your cross and follow after me it wasn't that jesus didn't want him to have things in life because i believe god wants his people to be blessed but jesus knew what was most important to him and so jesus was testing him to say are you willing to give up what is most important to you to follow after me and the bible says that he was sad at the saying and he went away grieved for he had great possessions i believe that that with all my heart this morning that this young man walked away from jesus saying you know what i'm going to come back one day with all my possessions sold i'm going to come back one day just as he said i'll be back one day to join his party i'll be back one day to join his group i'll be a disciple of jesus one day but right now is not the time i've got other things i want to do i got other things i want to experience and i believe some of us came here this morning with that same mentality jesus i love what i feel today i love when the choir sings and the praise scene praise singer sing i love when they pray i love what i feel i love that tingling sensation of the holy ghost but jesus i just don't want to sell out just yet i still got some things i want to do let me finish high school first god let me finish college first jesus let me go and do something let me let me climb that academic career god let me go and get that job that i'm wanting god let me pay some bills off then i'll follow you completely but you don't understand that never in my bible do i ever read where this man came back to jesus and you've got to understand today jesus is calling you he's calling you young people he's calling the not so young people he's saying today is your day to make a decision right now and i want you to give up what's most valuable to you to follow after me today in luke the 15th chapter once again we know this story certain man had two sons younger said his father father give me the portion of goods that followed to me and he divided unto him as living and not many days after the other son gathered all together he took his journey into a far country he went a long ways and there he wasted his substance with riotous living what is riotous living riotous living is the opposite of righteous living he wasted everything he had worked so hard for young people please listen to me today because you outnumber everyone else in this house because of the marriage retreat listen to this preacher listen to someone who's 43 years old and has seen it all just about i know people who work so hard to get a ministry work so hard to make it in life and then they throw it away in just one moment i could tell you preacher after preacher that i know right now that is backslid because they worked so hard and in one moment they threw it all away don't throw away what you have worked your entire life for don't waste your substance with riotous living live for god your entire life today and when it spin all he lost everything there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into the fields to feed swine you can't imagine how low down of a job that was for a jewish person a pig was the most unclean animal in jewish tradition and customs and for him to go and have to feed pigs was the lowest of the load because that's what this world will do to you it'll drag you down to the depths that you never thought you would go to and he's feeding pigs something that he's not even allowed to eat he's feeding something that he can't even eat that's what happens when you feed your flesh you're feeding something that's not going to give you any sort of spiritual nurturing today and he would have feigned he would have starved to death if he had not filled his belly with the husk of the swine did he and no man gave unto him now there is no there's no timeline on how long the prodigal was in the pig pen but i i promised you it was a while but once again why didn't he go back to daddy's house after he ran out of money why didn't he go back to daddy's house after he had to take his family his family ring to the pawn shop why didn't he go back to daddy's house when he lost his shoes and lost his robe why didn't he go back to daddy's house before he had to go join a pig farmer and become a pig feeder why didn't he go back to his father's house maybe he was happy not one more night with the frogs but one more night with the hogs maybe i don't know why or how long it took him but finally the prodigal came to himself his clothes are tattered and torn his flip-flops are lost in the mud his family ring is in the pawn shop his right guard has already went left he's a muddy mess living with pigs and eating with pigs and finally he comes to himself and says i need to get back to daddy's house i've come to challenge a prodigal i've come to challenge a backslider i've come to challenge somebody today that's in a pigpen don't wait another moment right now is your time right now is your moment to get out of the pigpen and get back to daddy's house right now is your moment to get into an altar and fall on your face and say i'm sorry i'm ready to come home paul said in ii corinthians behold now is the accepted time now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation james talks about in james the fourth chapter go to now ye that say today or tomorrow we will go to such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gained someone who says tomorrow it's going to happen tomorrow whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow for what is your life it is even a vapor that appeared for a little time and then vanisheth away see i want you to hear me today i'm almost done the biggest lie the enemy tells us is not that we don't have enough time the biggest lie that the enemy tells us is that we have plenty of time he's whispering in some of your ears while i've been preaching don't listen to that preacher wait until tonight whenever everybody else is back wait until your mom and dad's back wait until the rest of the church staff is back wait until strong tower won't that be a great place to get the holy ghost won't wait until the next conference you don't have to do it right now you've got plenty of time it's the biggest lie of the enemy he loves when we procrastinate from our promises of god but i've come to expose him today you may not have tomorrow you may not have tonight you may not have a sunday evening altar call this may be the last altar call we ever have and right now is the appointed time right now is the day of salvation as we stand all across this house proverbs 27 1 says boasts not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth you don't know about tomorrow but don't boast about so don't say what tomorrow's going to be the day i'm a procrastinator it drives my wife crazy i tell her all the time honey you don't have to remind me every six months of what you need me to do i'll get it done when i was in college i'd have a paper due monday morning at 8am i may have known about it for two months guess where i was at monday morning super early topping away on that paper because i'm a procrastinator in the natural but in the spiritual i realized that it's not about a term paper it's not about painting a wall it's not about getting something fixed around the house it's about eternity it's about where my soul is going to spend eternity and i can't be a spiritual procrastinator i can't listen to the lies of the enemy that tells me i have plenty of time no right now i've got to make a move for god and in closing if you've not heard anything i've heard or said today would you listen to what i'm going to tell you in closing i've told this story here many years ago pretty much right after it happened but several years ago now i had a dear friend of mine i got the report that he had tragically passed away so i called the pastor of that church where this man used to attend that i used to be a part of that church as a youth pastor i called this pastor and i said so sorry to hear about our friend and the words of the pastor struck me because he said what a waste and i said what do you mean what a waste he said well bro you don't you don't understand because because this this friend i remember as as the phone was ringing i was thinking about my friend i was thinking about how amazing of a person he was and how he was a door greeter always had a smile on his face you know he was the kind of guy that service could be kind of tight and dull and dry and he'd take off running and shouting and rejoicing and the whole place would explode explode with prayer he was one of those guys that would do anything in the world for you amazing person so i'm thinking of this as the phone ring and the pastor answers the phone he says what a waste i said what do you mean what a ways he said and i started reminding him of all these things that this guy had done and all these all the ways he was and how amazing he was and the pastor said bro what you don't realize is it had been over a year since that man had been to church and then come to find out that how he died he was intoxicated on his way to the liquor store to get more alcohol and he drove his truck off the road off a bridge into a river killed himself i remember hanging the phone up i was in my living room in pocahontas arkansas i hung the phone up i threw my phone on the couch and i literally just laid on the floor broken weeping crying shattered and please don't misunderstand what i'm getting ready to say next i'm not god i'm not a judge he's the final judge but i have to share with you the vision that god gave me that day because what i saw while i was laying there praying on and crying and weeping on that living room floor i saw a vision of my friend and he was an eternal torment flames were engulfing his body the the the the face that he had the the look on his face i'll never get i'll never be able to get it out of my mind and i saw him as he was looking at something in the distance he he wasn't looking to the right or to the left he had this horrible pain failed face and he was looking at something in the distance and it was like the vision it was like a camera flipped and showed me what he was looking at and i saw a big wall with flames up and down the wall and on the wall was a big projector screen just like that one and my friend was watching the last church service that he was ever a part of and i thought to myself what a horrible way to spend eternity watching the last church service that he had a chance to get his life right and ever since god gave me that vision i don't take it lightly anymore this isn't just a sunday morning service this isn't just to come and let's go through the motion altar i understand that this moment could be our last moment individually or collectively to get our hearts right with god one more night with the frogs why on earth would you want to have to deal with that one more night why would you want to stay in the shape that you're in why would you want to battle the demons that you've been battling for one more moment when in this altar there is power in this altar there is deliverance in this altar there is healing every head is bowed every eyes closed if you're here today and you've never repented of your sins i'd be running to this altar if you're here today and you've never been baptized in the name of jesus i'd be finding me somebody telling them i've got to get baptized today i can't i can't go another day i've got to be baptized if you've never been filled with the holy ghost i'd come to this halter and say god i can't go one more moment i can't spend one more night with the frogs i've got to be filled with your spirit right now if you're battling addiction you're battling hurt and pain you're holding on to your past you're holding on to things that god intended for you to be free of this altar is open but don't listen to the enemy don't spend one more night with the frogs don't spend one more moment with your problems don't spend one more month if you need healing for your body don't say well tomorrow i've got a doctor's appointment he'll tell me what's wrong who cares what the doctor says tomorrow when the great physician is in the house right now this halter's open right now for somebody i know you got plans for lunch i know some of us are going to severe for 2 o'clock but i don't want to let this moment pass me by this may be my last altar call this may be my last moment to call on the name of jesus come on somebody step out come on prodigals come home somebody step out right now today is the day of salvation right now is your moment right now is your time don't wait another day