Maybe Later

Intro

What do you procrastinate about? Is it a chore or task you have been meaning to do around the house? A project at work? Making that call to a family member or friend that can be awkward or difficult to deal with?

Everyone procrastinates sometimes. Some more than others, but all of us have been guilty of it.

The word procrastinate itself is derived from the latin word “procrastinare”. It means to put off until tomorrow.

And how fitting we talk about this because we are literally in the middle of a series this morning called “I’ll Do It Tomorrow”.

We have been talking about change. All of us experience it. The question we are looking to answer is what kind of changes are we allowing to happen or choosing to make in our lives?

Do these changes bring us and our families closer to God or are they drawing us further away from him?

Last week we talked specifically about the importance of being set apart. By allowing God to sanctify us and change us to be more like him. This is the way God desires to be worshiped.

And hopefully all of us walked away last week with this real sense of purpose. That our lives were meant for more than simply gratifying our own desires and living for ourselves.

That God has created us and tasked us with this great responsibility and privilege to reflect Jesus in every area of our lives.

In our words and actions

In our thinking and motivation

In our priorities and desires

In our marriages

In our parenting

In our workplaces

In our communities

In our Churches

But how many here know that you can know what it is you need to do, without ever actually doing it.

The way our house is set up, our laundry is in our downstairs in the back corner of our basement.

And in the back corner there is a fluorescent light ballast that had gone bad several months ago. I originally thought it was just a bad light tube. So I bought a new set of light tubes/bulbs for it.

I changed them and thought all was well only to find that the very next time Katelyn went back to do laundry the light was real low and flickering.

So at this point I realized we either needed a new ballast or we convert to an LED light. Real simple fix right?

Well, a week went by, then two, then a month and I still had yet to replace it. Katelyn would mention it to me and I would tell her I just need to stop at the hardware store and pick one up.

I had already replaced another light with LED’s and knew exactly what I wanted. The problem, I kept forgetting to stop and get one on my way home from work.

Katelyn didn’t say much. She would just occasionally ask if I remembered to grab a new light and I would get frustrated because if was usually around 9:30 at night when she would ask me. I would commit to stopping the next day after work only to get sidetracked or delayed leaving and forget again.

So finally, after several months of her not having a light in the back room and having to do laundry in a dimly lit setting she stopped to get a light.

And she got an LED shop light to replace the one we had. It wasn’t exactly what I would have bought, but at that point I wasn’t going to complain because I valued my life.

And in 5 minutes time I had it swapped out. What should have taken a day turned into months because I kept putting it off. Until finally because of my procrastination someone else made the decision for me.

And regardless of whether or not it was the decision I would have made, or the light I would have bought, it didn’t matter anymore because I gave up the right to make the decision due to my own procrastination.

I knew what needed to be done, but that doesn’t meant it got done.

You may know what changes you need to make in your life, you may know you need to eliminate some things and embrace others in order to be sanctified. But that doesn’t mean you will ever actually do it.

Power in the Text

The story of King Saul in the Bible is one that so often mirrors our own struggles with passivity and procrastination.

If you remember from our Sunday School lessons when were were studying in the book of Judges we talked about the fact that early in Israel’s history they initially were not led by a king.

Unlike the pagan nations around them, they were led by God directly and by his appointed judges.

Well, this wasn’t what the people wanted. Instead of being set apart like they were supposed to be, the wan’t to be like the other nations and have a king.

Well, God warned them that what they were asking for would ultimately backfire, but never the less he gave them what they wanted and appointed a king.

As you may recall, the last of the these judges was Samuel. And it would be Samuel that God would use to anoint and install this new king of Israel.

1 Samuel 9:1-2 NLT There was a wealthy, influential man named Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 His son Saul was the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land.

The Bible goes on to tell us that Saul was looking for some missing donkeys and thought that maybe Samuel could help so they he was actively searching for him.

1 Samuel 9:15-16 NLT 15 Now the Lord had told Samuel the previous day, 16 “About this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Anoint him to be the leader of my people, Israel. He will rescue them from the Philistines, for I have looked down on my people in mercy and have heard their cry.”

So the next day Saul finds Samuel and Samuel invites him to have a dinner with him as his guest of honor and offers him a place to stay for the night. The next morning Samuel tells Saul that he had received a special message for him from God.

1 Samuel 10:1 NLT Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head. He kissed Saul and said, “I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the ruler over Israel, his special possession.

Saul was made king. He was tall, handsome, and strong. He was what people thought of when they thought of a mighty king. Not too mention it was prophesied that he would be the one to defeat the Philistines who for a while now were making the Israelites’ lives very difficult.

Well the time had come for Saul to defeat the Philistines once and for wall.

1 Samuel 17:1-11 NLT The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah at Ephes-dammim. 2 Saul countered by gathering his Israelite troops near the valley of Elah. 3 So the Philistines and Israelites faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.

4 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! 5 He wore a bronze helmet, and his bronze coat of mail weighed 125 pounds. 6 He also wore bronze leg armor, and he carried a bronze javelin on his shoulder. 7 The shaft of his spear was as heavy and thick as a weaver’s beam, tipped with an iron spearhead that weighed 15 pounds. His armor bearer walked ahead of him carrying a shield.

8 Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! 9 If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! 10 I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!” 11 When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.

Here Saul had his opportunity to do what God had appointed him to do. It was his responsibility as king to defeat this enemy. Saul may not have been as big as Goliath, but he was no shrimp either.

Instead of doing what he knew God wanted him to do the Bible tells us that he stayed back, was terrified, and chose to do nothing.

That is until a young shepherd boy named David comes onto the scene and because of his faith in God’s ability to be his strength and protection, offers to go and fight this giant.

Not only does Saul shirk off his responsibility and his calling, the Bible tells us that he actually put his armor and weapons on David.

David however Chooses not to wear them and takes on this giant with just a sling and a few stone from a nearby stream.

1 Samuel 17:41-51 NLT 41 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, 42 sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. 43 “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. 44 “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled.

45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! 47 And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

48 As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. 49 Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.

50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. 51 Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.

For 40 days Saul refused to go and fight the battle that had his name on it. He was passive and as much as he looked the part, he refused to do what he knew he was supposed to and he paid for it.

Ultimately Saul would lose his place as Israel’s king and this mighty looking man would be replaced by this young shepherd boy named David who chose to be the change that Israel needed.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Procrastination doesn’t just mean to put off until tomorrow. That is what the latin meant. But this word is older than latin.

It actually came from an ancient Greek word that means to do something against our better judgment.

Like Saul, when we refuse to fight the battles that have our name on them. When we refuse to make the changes that we know God wants us to make we will always pay a price for that.

There is a price to be paid for passivity and procrastination.

We know what we need to do. We even know that it is the best thing for us to do. Yet we go against our better judgement put it off.

The changes that we know we need to make in our lives can be hindered when we put off responsibilities for another time.

Allow me to go back to the light situation in my basement. You see, the light did work sometimes, but usually it did not. I had gotten so used to not having that light on that I didn’t even notice the problem anymore.

That is a lot like the sin and rebellion in our own lives isn’t it? We get so used to living in disobedience to God that eventually the darkness isn’t even noticeable anymore.

The thing you said you would change and take care of gets forgotten over time and you don’t even recognize it as a problem any longer.

Application/Closing

Right now, if you are like most people, you are being confronted with the reality that there are things in your life that need to change in order to bring you and your family closer to God.

That makes sense because we have been talking about it for the last 3 weeks. Hopefully you and if you are married, your spouse have been reflecting on your lives the last couple of weeks and really listening to the Holy Spirit’s leading and direction.

If you have, that is great. If you haven’t, why not? Start now, don’t procrastinate.

But if you have and you know what God wants you to do or at the very least know he wants you to do something then don’t be like Saul and put it off.

Don’t think you can do it later. Because eventually if you keep being passive, there will be a price to pay. That price may not even be one that you have to pay but one your kids have to pay because of your procrastination.

Commit this morning to not allow procrastination to hinder your growth as a follower of Jesus.

If you are willing to do that, then next week we will wrap up this series as we look at some applicable spiritual habits that if adopted, will make all the difference in your life.