What Have You Decided?

Acts 2:37-40

Hey everyone, we’re glad you are here today. Today is a special day, in the fact, that we have several who are being baptized today!! How awesome is that!!

Do you know what the top roadkill animal is in the United States? The squirrel. It is estimated that 41 million squirrels are killed each year.

Any of you had a run in with a squirrel??

This past, I was traveling down a road near my house and a squirrel was on the opposite side shoulder. As I was getting closer to it, the squirrel began to make its way out into the road, and then turned back like it was going to get off the road, and then it jumped back into my path.

Sadly, the squirrel died because it could not make a decision on which way that it should go.

You know people are like the squirrel as well. They can’t make a decision on which way to go spiritually.

They are dancing there on the highway of life, and they can’t decide if they should follow Jesus, or go another way. And what is happening, is they are becoming roadkill on the spiritual highway by the devil.

It is sad, that there are so many people who are perishing and ending up in the pits of hell, because they didn’t know which way to go.

Now this brings us to the passage that we look at today, here in Acts. Listen to what the scripture is saying.

(Read Scripture)

You know Peter was once one of those people who was undecided about Christ. He went to church in a manner of speaking for three years.

But when the Lord was crucified, he denied the Lord and started going the wrong way. It wasn’t until the Lord was resurrected that Peter truly gave his heart to Christ.

And roughly two months later he is preaching to a congregation of thousands about his decision to follow Jesus and leading those people to the Lord.

What a radical change. But Peter isn’t the primary focus, but I want you to take notice of the people that are there.

Just regular everyday people, who have come and listened to the message that Peter shares and they become convicted.

The scripture says that they were pricked in their heart.

And this brings us to the first main thing I want you to see. That making the right decision involves Conviction.

Decision Comes by Conviction (vs 37)

· The Lord had used the message of Peter to speak to the hearts of the people. And they had become convicted in their heart.

· Now really what was happening the Lord had used that message and the Holy Spirit was knocking on the hearts of those people.

· They knew in their heart that they were not right with God.

· And just like that congregation there are those who sit here today, and the Lord has been moving on your heart.

· He is pricking your heart with things that you are facing, people you are dealing with, and even in this message.

· It reminds me of a story of a man name Steve, who stood at the end of a sermon and could feel within his heart the need to go down to altar and give his heart to Christ.

· Listen the pricking of your heart, that is the Spirit of God, urging and pleading with you to make the decision to come to the Lord.

Decision Comes by Confession (vs 38a)

· Now the people are there, the Spirit is moving on them. And they don’t know what to do.

· So, they ask the question. And Peter tells them exactly what they need to do next. They need to repent and be baptized.

· And that shows us that the decision comes by confession.

· Now they weren’t to come and repent to Peter, but to come and repent to Jesus Christ.

· Also understand, they were to repent before they were to be baptized.

· Years ago, I had a lady come to me, she was burden by life. It was problem after problem, health problems, family problems, and she had heard the message proclaimed and she got pricked.

· So, she came to me and asked me if I would baptize her. Now before I would baptize her, I wanted to know why she wanted to be baptized.

· She told me what she had been facing, and she thought if she was baptized she would be closer to God.

· Now to most that would seem like a reasonable answer, but here is the problem, she was leaving off the repentance.

· Praise the Lord, after conversation she confessed her sins to the Lord and repented from them and praise the Lord I was able to baptize that sister.

· You may be here today, and that is you. Maybe you have been baptized and joined a church, but you have never really decided to repent from your sins.

· Friend what you must do is get that right. And what you must do is come to Christ and repent. Turn from that sin. And decide right now that Jesus is your Lord.

· Romans 10:9 says if you shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

· Listen if you would come today to the Lord, he will forgive every sin you have ever committed and every sin you have yet to commit.

· And he goes even further by giving you the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in your life.

Decision Time is Fleeting (vs 40)

· Now Peter preaches to the people, and he says to the people to save yourselves from this untoward generation.

· That word there “untoward” that is not a common word we use. It has a real simple meaning to it – inconvenient.

· You know many people don’t accept Christ because they find it inconvenient. That this isn’t the right time.

· And a person will put all of these other things before making a decision for Jesus.

· But here is the thing, that opportunity to make a decision for Jesus isn’t going to last.

· There will come a day, where your heart is no longer pricked. There will come a day when you will be unable to pray.

· And what you will find is that you are that untoward generation. All because you couldn’t make the decision.

· Just like that squirrel, back and forth in the road, there is going to come that day when your life will be over.

Conclusion

There was a farmer who hired a man to work for him. For his first assignment. He said he needed him to paint the barn. He said, "You know, it's a good-size barn. Probably going to take you three days." Well, he hired the man, and the man did it in a day and a half. He was greatly impressed. "Wow, you're a hard worker, a fast worker." Then he gave him an assignment to chop all this wood into firewood. He said, "This is a lot of wood. It's probably going to take you four days." Well, the guy did it two days. The farmer was impressed and shocked. He said, "Wow, you're amazing." Then he gave him a third assignment. He said, 'Okay, now this is the job I want you to do." He said, "I have all these potatoes. I need you to figure out which potatoes need to go to the hogs, and which potatoes need to go for planting, and which potatoes we can sell. You separate them out." He said, "It's not that big a job. It should just take you a few hours." Well, he came at the end of the day, and he looked to see what the guy had done. He hadn't done anything. And he said to him, "I don't understand it. You're such a hard worker, and you've barely even begun this job." And the man said to him, "Boss, I can work hard, but I just can't make decisions."

· Don’t leave here today, because you couldn’t make the decision to come to Christ.

· Going out there without Jesus is dangerous, but you can have peace within your heart, by coming to the Lord today.

· Three people here today have made the decision for Jesus, why not you as well?